Hello All! Least Desirable Smoking Experience?

[IllegitimationStation]

Hello to all of you from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. My name is Ian. I have learned so much here, and I am incredibly grateful for this community.

If you would, could you tell me a "less than satisfactory" pipe smoking experience you may have had in the past? Would you be willing to note the blend and pipe used? I have plenty of recommendations and praises for various pipes/blends, and yet nothing subpar to compare them to!

Thanks so much everyone!

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

So this is the what NOT to smoke opinion thread. Please keep in mind that this is my taste. I absolutely couldn’t finish bowls of Sleepy Hollow or Velvet.

The Hollow was syrupy sweetened burnt marshmallow which I thought I was gonna love and the time. I ended up being ? by it with horrible ? bite. I smoked it out of a cob at the time.

Now, Velvet I thought I was gonna love cause I’d transitioned onto burley blends and began loving them. So, why not try an American icon of historical OTC tobaccos right? ?‍ Wrong! I got the play-doh flavor from the jump. No nutty sweet goodness, just Play-doh! And, I likely smoked that in a MM too.

Someone should always benefit from another’s distaste for something. So as always, I packaged up what was left, and gifted it down the road to folks who truly enjoyed those blends. ️

 

[captainsousie]

A terrible pipe smoking experience was lighting up a fairly expensive (to me) briar at my cabin and then going to the beach while in Belize. When I got to the beach, the wind was so strong that my pipe got incredibly hot almost immediately, to the point I was pretty sure I was headed for burnout city. With no shirt on and only a pair of board shorts, there was no place to put it and let it cool down so I had to roast my palm over the bowl until it went out. Saved the pipe but burned my hand. I stuck with cigars after that.

I'll think about pipe/tobacco combos that may have been terrible and post if I remember any.

 

[warren]

I'd be hard pressed to select just one or two. There have been many over the years. Various blends, half smoked bowls and never again stuffed into one of my pipes. I now, at an advanced age, have a trusted selection of blends which never disappoint. Undoubtedly your palate differs from mine so, specifics would be of no value to you and unfair to the blend manufacturers.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Taste is too subjective. There's going to be blends that you hear many crowing hymns of adoration that you will have an immediate aversion to while the exact opposite is also possible.

 

[Servant King]

Welcome to the forum, Ian. My mom is from the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, in fact.

My worst experience was with Sutliff 515 RC-1 in my Savinelli Miele 611 KS Bent Dublin. One sixteenth of a bowl was about all I could manage. I pondered quitting entirely...that's how bad it was. I'm still fairly traumatized to this day.

 

[Ag®o]

Hello and Welcome from Italy
... A flavored with berries, I don't remember the name, better off, erased from memory

 

[OzPiper]

Taste is too subjective. There's going to be blends that you hear many crowing hymns of adoration that you will have an immediate aversion to while the exact opposite is also possible.

^^^^^ Exactly that.

When I got back to smoking pipes a few years ago, I bought a rum-topped blend (I love rums) and a chocolate blend (chocoholic) having looked for highly rated blends on TobaccoReviews and SmokingPipes. I had 2 bowls of each, neither of which I finished as I hated the flavours.

I gifted both tins to a pipe buddy, who really likes both of them. Interestingly that apart from these 2 blends, we have pretty similar tastes with other blends !

 

[Jaylotw]

Borkum Riff Whiskey.

 

[mortonbriar]

Autumn evening, or as I call it 'awful heaving'...but it is a best selling aromatic so the only real conclusion is everyone else must be wrong.

 

[RobNYC]

Welcome from New York City!

My worst smoking experience came out of a pouch of Middleton Apple, smoked in pipes I use and love to this day. We just didn't get along, but, YMMV.

 

[sablebrush52]

Outside of an aversion to Germain's version of Balkan Sobranie, a blend that tastes and smells like gasoline infused puppy farts to me, one that I have accepted as unsmokeable, the only really bad experience I've had goes back to my initial days of pipe smoking.

Where now there is a broad pink swath of bald head there once was a super thick head of luxuriant long black hair. I was in my dorm room at UCLA with a new meerschaum, one of my first pipes, and I was trying to light up a bowl of "whatsis" that I had packed way too tightly.

As I sat hunched over the pipe puffing mightily, lighter in hand, a lock of said luxuriant black hair flipped forward into the path of the roaring flame and ignited. In a flash, the flame ran up, thoroughly singing and charring the defenseless lock, filling the room with the stench of burning hair. Instant buzz cut. No serious damage done, except to my hair and my ego.

 

[Chris81]

Welcome to the forum and greetings from Spain!
I've never had terrible experiences with pipe tobacco, just tobaccos I didn't enjoy, like Amsterdamer and Skandinavik regular.
Now the worst smoking experience for me have been some small cigars, Pedroni Mix 01 Puerto Rico, their smell of Piña Colada is definitely too overwhelming. Horrible stuff to smoke.

 

[Bowlsmoker67]

Welcome from upstate ny

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

The last time I said on here, what was the crappiest pipe and tobacco I've ever had, I got a defensive PM from one of our sponsors, so I'll keep quiet about it.
Welcome to the forum.

 

[Latakia Dave]

Hello to all of you from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. My name is Ian. I have learned so much here, and I am incredibly grateful for this community.

If you would, could you tell me a "less than satisfactory" pipe smoking experience you may have had in the past? Would you be willing to note the blend and pipe used? I have plenty of recommendations and praises for various pipes/blends, and yet nothing subpar to compare them to!

Thanks so much everyone!

Welcome from Virginia.
The only unpleasant pipe smoking experiences I have ever had in all the years that I have smoked a pipe were with Cherry blends and with C&D The Beast. Won't ever re-visit Cherry blends, but I jarred the Beast and will try it again in a year or two.

 

[Grangerous]

After a period of on and off interest I decided to grab a bowl. The pipe I chose was so off putting that I wondered how I ever enjoyed smoking a pipe and stuck to cigars. — Which is why today I insist on cleaning my pipes thoroughly. Foul tasting pipe.

As for tobacco, Warren is spot on. I have a couple of enjoyed blends that offer up no surprises. Keeps it simple.

I won’t tobacco bash because it’s pointless. I have a strong dislike of aromatic blends and do not enjoy Latakia nor Perique. So many others love them.

 

[reloader]

The only really bad smoke I've had is when I got my first new briar pipe. It had the black bowl coating. When I fired it up that first time it tasted rank. After another couple bowls it came into its own and now is a wonderful smoker.

 

[JOHN72]

Welcome from Spain.....

 

[condorlover1]

Spanish made Condor RR that had the consistency of RYO tobacco