How Do You Feel About Stems In Your Tobacco?

[cosmicfolklore]

I was just packing a bowl of McCrannies Red Cake and found several veins, and thought of this thread... where folks thought the veins were stems.
There just isn't any part of the process to remove the veins. The stem and center rib is removed before the two leaf haves are sent to be processed. The large veins are just a part of the smoke.

 

[mingc]

I don't pick them out.

 

[Tate]

Is this a vein?

 

[gamzultovah]

I smoke’m.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I always pick out and toss the stems when I find them. My couple decades of hookah smoking before I picked up the pipe taught me that the presence of a stem in your bowl will quickly make any tasty bowl of tobacco turn acrid and unpleasant when the ember gets to said stem and sets it burning.

 

[Kobold]

I usually pull them out and chew them. Is that weird?

 

[proteus]

When I roll cigars using criollo as the filler I try to pull the main stem vein middle rib or whatever it's called like a pro but that leaf sometimes is a bit thicker and harder to pull out all of it whole because of all the little veins coming off it. So I cut it out rather than pull it because I am not that good. Cutting it out takes time and seasoned tobacco rollers do it by hand deftly from what I have seen. There was a roller down in Norwalk at the main Oliva distributor for the area who was certified by Oliva but has since retired. He would roll 5 lightening fast and I would watch and learn. The guy even built his own rolling desk from cedar decking he bought at HD. I still have 50 he rolled many years back. Smoking a fresh cigar is an experience. His son rolls in PA somewhere I hear. Anyway...those little stems veins ribs are a PITA for sure.

 

[tracerbullet]

Out they go. So I can’t comment on if it changes flavor at all

 

[Lumbridge]

I only bother picking out large, woody pieces. Small pieces of vein or stem are just a fact of life when you smoke a leaf.

 

[OverMountain]

FWIW, I’m not a biologist, but I do see one naked every day.

 

[Ghosted Tamper]

Is this a vein?
View attachment 257888

Looks like part of a stem that was cut lengthwise.

 

[Tate]

Looks like part of a stem that was cut lengthwise.

That's kinda what I was thinking. In Five Brothers pouches these are kinda common as well as them cut horizontally and they look like a u. I pretty much pack everything except the real big pieces that are lengthwise.

 

[Ghosted Tamper]

That's kinda what I was thinking. In Five Brothers pouches these are kinda common as well as them cut horizontally and they look like a u. I pretty much pack everything except the real big pieces that are lengthwise.

I pack the shit out of 5 bros. Even the pouch catches a good flame once the baccy has perished to ash.

 

[Tate]

I pack the shit out of 5 bros. Even the pouch catches a good flame once the baccy has perished to ash.

Same, bro! Pack, light, and enjoy. Burns like a dream every time! I always keep a pouch with me!

 

[Ghosted Tamper]

I suppose I'll add my input since more have chimed in than I had expected. It has been interesting and insightful to read the responses. Thanks, all.

I've found no reason to chuck a stem if I run into one, unless it's as Tate posted above (thanks for that, I forgot to catch a pic for my OP!). Small veins and such always get packed and smoked. I find these littered in especially flake tobaccos, along with most C&D produced ribbon cuts.

I over-dried the bowl of GLP Spark Plug mentioned in the OP, and snapped up the stem(s) into pieces; then packing and smoking them in the bowl. I honestly have no idea if it added anything to the smoke (flavor or strength). I believe a more deliberate approach to catching any sort of data is to be cataloged before understanding just what it might add, though finding a stem is quite rare in-and-of-itself to be able to repeat with certainty of its affect.

Looks like if I find myself too impatient to dry a larger cut stem to be broken down and packed, I'll keep it at the forefront to chew it for a lil pre-nic kick, instead of binning it. Not sure I'd want to smoke a bowl full of stems, but I'd appreciate any sacrificial reports; of course, for science .

 

[FLDRD]

I usually pull them out and chew them. Is that weird?

I originally was put off when I began finding veins in my leaf, but quickly got over it. I too will put them in my lip for a bit if I wish, or simply snap them smaller so they're part of what goes in the chamber. I find them fine either way.

 

[Pipewizard420]

"Stems and seeds that you don't need. LBF is bad@$$ weed".

 

[samuelgawith01]

Don't like them.

 

[Mr_houston]

My practice is to pull them out, strip off any attached tobacco, and curse. I hate stems in my tobacco.