Does it have its own unique flavor? What’s it taste like? Or is it just an “experience” of fullness?
How Can People Taste Anything Without Retrohaling?
- Thread starter TheWhale13
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Without retrohaling I couldn't taste smoke at all. Every draw ends in a retrohale.
I would describe it as a succulent fullness that just makes you go mmmmmm. It's not really a flavor. If you have a bit of nice aged cheese and you feel that sensation, that is umami.
From a purely physiological sense, you're correct. Our perception of flavor comes from a combination of sensors in our mouth and our nose. No mystery about that.
However, any number of other factors can affect how we perceive or fail to perceive flavors, environmental factors, for example.
If you're an indoor smoker you're inhaling and smelling the smoke by virtue of being in an enclosed space filled with it. Snorking may still offer some benefit, but likely you're already getting the other flavor nuances through breathing it in. If you're an outdoor only smoker you don't have that benefit so snorking is the next best thing for picking up nuances.
Age is another factor. As we age, our senses can become less acute, including out sense of taste and smell, which combine to give us our perception of flavor.
And there's the reality that not everyone is born with an equal capacity to sense flavors, or that our capacity has severely declined for one of several reasons. Our ability to benefit from a snork is limited because our ability to perceive olfactory imput is limited.
Since I'm an outdoors only smoker with still strong senses, snorking really adds dimension to the flavors to be found in the smoke. For others, for the reasons stated above, it may not.
I simultaneously allow smoke to gently escape my mouth and nose. French inhale, retrohale, sniff the bowl, smell the sidestream. Any manner to enhance the experience.
The oddest thing about tobacco is the inability to get the room note of a blend while smoking. I had a friend over and I shared some Winchester with him. Wow! The rich aroma I perceived from “his” smoking the blend was something of a mystery. — Try as we may, the smoker cannot experience what others around you will.
The oddest thing about tobacco is the inability to get the room note of a blend while smoking. I had a friend over and I shared some Winchester with him. Wow! The rich aroma I perceived from “his” smoking the blend was something of a mystery. — Try as we may, the smoker cannot experience what others around you will.
The sense of smell is an important part of taste, with pipe blends or food and beverages of all kinds. You can't really enjoy wine or liquors without taking into account the olfactory (smell) dimensions. Of course, we don't retrohale our ribeye steaks, swordfish, or pizza supreme, but we certainly taste them with our tongues and our noses. I don't retrohale my pipe tobacco smoke, having a sensitive and sometimes allergic nasal set-up, but I certainly enjoy the complex flavors through both tongue and nose all the same. My logic is, don't step up the dose of smoke on the nasal passages if you are enjoying the taste without doing that. Personal choice. If I wasn't experiencing the tastes, I might retrohale.
I believe this is due to the same reason food tastes better when others make it. The common phrase of getting used to certain smells or senses is escaping me... I'm sure someone will know.
Our senses become dull and accustom to what we've been doing, if we've been cooking, for example, we already know the food. With smoking, we have no expectations, preconceptions, or senses that have been accustom to that session yet when someone else lights up.
I also feel that the room smoke is cooler, and easier to "perceive". Just like room temperature food has more noticeable flavor than scolding hot food.
I smoked cigarettes many years ago and would routinely blow the smoke out of my nose after inhaling. After I quit cigarettes, I smoked cigars here and there, but never retrohaled. When I started smoking a pipe, I just started retrohaling without thinking about it. It brings a lot more enjoyment to the party for me.
For me retrohaling is the smoking equivalent of being waterboarded.
Absolutely horrible and kills any taste.
Absolutely horrible and kills any taste.
I don't retrohale and I don't inhale. I just smoke with my nose. I find more subtly from my va's that way.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s umami!???
I have two ways that work best for me.
1. small, small sips that I keep in my mouth to taste.
2. Breath method outside, especially if there is wind that gently brings smoke in without overheating the tobacco.
I don’t retrohale. It burns my nose and I feel like it reduces a minor additional health risk.
1. small, small sips that I keep in my mouth to taste.
2. Breath method outside, especially if there is wind that gently brings smoke in without overheating the tobacco.
I don’t retrohale. It burns my nose and I feel like it reduces a minor additional health risk.
I had a 4hr sinus surgery some years back as a result of 2 years of chronic sinusitis resulting from being in a smoke/smog-filled environment for 2 weeks. I lost my sense of smell almost entirely during those 2 years.
Now that I have my senses of smell and taste back, I'm careful not to trigger another bout of sinusitis.
I can taste what I smoke well enough without retrohaling, so I only retrohale occasionally.
Now that I have my senses of smell and taste back, I'm careful not to trigger another bout of sinusitis.
I can taste what I smoke well enough without retrohaling, so I only retrohale occasionally.
Feel like these guys would have the definitive answer here. IYKYK.
