How to Sharpen Your Sense of Smell and Taste
- Thread starter Mis Pipas
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One practical way to identify different tastes is to take notes, as though you were preparing to write a review of a blend. What I have found is that developing your vocabulary is at least as important as developing your palate.
Check out Greg Pease's article:
Check out Greg Pease's article:
I’ve been paying more attention to the tastes and/or scents of things that are common in tobacco, such as dark fruit, logs burning in a fireplace, etc. I believe if I can better identify their nuances separately from smoking, it will carry over into smoking.
I kind of pay attention to physical locations, if you will, in my mouth and nose. Tip of tongue, sides of tongue, back of throat, retrohale, breathing in through nose (i.e. smelling).
I like mixing a little of one blend into another from time to time to try and see if I can pick it out while I'm smoking. This seems to have helped me.
things that have helped me very much:
SLOW DOWN .. I still smoke too fast but slowing down helps to get better flavor.
DRY THE TOBACCO MORE... I now dry my tobacco to almost "crispy" but not so dry it crumbles. I get a lot better flavor and rarely any bite at all by doing it this way.
PACK LOOSELY ... I feel the tighter you pack the bowl, the less likely you are going to experience all the flavors in the tobacco. (obviously not always true but overall)
DON'T SMOKE HOT... goes with slowing down, but when you feel the pipe getting really warm to the touch.. stop until it's cooler on the outside of the bowl.
SLOW DOWN .. I still smoke too fast but slowing down helps to get better flavor.
DRY THE TOBACCO MORE... I now dry my tobacco to almost "crispy" but not so dry it crumbles. I get a lot better flavor and rarely any bite at all by doing it this way.
PACK LOOSELY ... I feel the tighter you pack the bowl, the less likely you are going to experience all the flavors in the tobacco. (obviously not always true but overall)
DON'T SMOKE HOT... goes with slowing down, but when you feel the pipe getting really warm to the touch.. stop until it's cooler on the outside of the bowl.
I would think if you really want to isolate taste and smell, you would purchase some different blending tobacco first and smoke some straight. I have never done it but many people have posted clay pipes provide the purest taste so I suppose you would purchase a few clay pipes as well. You should definitely learn to snork or whatever it is called when you throat inhale and let the smoke out through your nose. I would then start with some simple blends and smoke one for awhile to learn it. Look to isolate and identify specific flavors and nuances. Expand from there.
I don't do any of that because I don't care. I'm digital in my pipe smoking, I either like it or I don't. I respect folks like Jim Inks who are very skilled at being "analog" and can identify the specific flavors down to the part where they can even identify the type of leaf being used.
I don't do any of that because I don't care. I'm digital in my pipe smoking, I either like it or I don't. I respect folks like Jim Inks who are very skilled at being "analog" and can identify the specific flavors down to the part where they can even identify the type of leaf being used.
I get flavors but I'm not experienced enough to pick everything out. I'm more like @hoosierpipeguy in that I try something and I either like it or don't.. and can pick out some flavors/ingredients but not everything.
One other time honored way to educate your palate is to smoke blending tobaccos. This gives you a familiarity with the characteristics of a particular varietal, and a bit of home blending offers you some insight into the sort of alchemy that goes on when components are combined.
The biggest leap forward for me was, as others suggested, to try single varieties in order to understand what each brings to the table, then smoke something in addition to the previous leaf. So a straight Virginia, then a VaPer, a straight Oriental, then an English - OK Latakia is unmistakable in any blend.
Candles??
I enjoy scented candles... Don't judge me!
The candles add a bit of mood and also can both compliment and mask the pipe smoke a bit (the last point is more for the benefit of others rather than myself).
But more in response to the question I found that I am now more able to identify plum flavour. I use plum scented candles and was easily able to pick out the plum flavouring in Royal Yacht. I also burn vanilla candles at times but have not yet tried any vanilla flavoured blends yet. I also like gingerbread candles though don't know of any blends containing gingerbread. I haven't got any burley or latakia flavoured candles sadly.
I enjoy scented candles... Don't judge me!
The candles add a bit of mood and also can both compliment and mask the pipe smoke a bit (the last point is more for the benefit of others rather than myself).
But more in response to the question I found that I am now more able to identify plum flavour. I use plum scented candles and was easily able to pick out the plum flavouring in Royal Yacht. I also burn vanilla candles at times but have not yet tried any vanilla flavoured blends yet. I also like gingerbread candles though don't know of any blends containing gingerbread. I haven't got any burley or latakia flavoured candles sadly.
I don't know about improving sense of smell. Maybe lay off doing so many lines of Peruvian Marching Powder, lay off the curries. I haven't been able to smell much since I took up smoking at an early age so I have no idea!
Put me in the "like it or don't like it" column. Someday I'll sit with a pen and paper and jot down what's going on, for fun
'm like you. But at the same time, now that I am an old man, I have time to learn new things.
Thanks for the tips. They are very useful to me
I have already started taking notes. I have time and motivation
I will follow your advice.
I haven't read the article yet. Thanks a lot
As for me, I cook a lot. The palettes of scent and taste are important and the vocabulary of spices and herbs and major flavours is essential.
The same logic goes for smoking tobacco. I can very much see the sense in trying out base or blending tobaccos. It helps inform your palette just like knowing ingredients in a good dish. I can sense many flavours in any dish due to my knowledge of spices, herbs and signature flavours and scents. So like others have mentioned, smoking base tobacco types would make sense to build that knowledge. If you do so, smoke it in a pipe that won't colour the taste (like clay or meerschaum - I find new cobs tend to add a bit of corniness to the profile)
With tobacco, there are so many different ways of treating the same leaf. It really helped to try blends that were very heavy toward red virginias or golden. Blends that contain Burley or fired Kentucky. Blends with more 'turkish' or oriental leaf, or Latakia. For blends that had a lot of cavendish ~ I've found this really varies a lot by producer, I'm guessing that's the variation on how they produce their cavendish and what topping or casing they apply to it.
Compressed tobacco's with the same leaf combination as loose leaf blends can be wildly different as the oils ferment and mix completely differently.
The technical side of how you smoke anything also changes its flavour (smoke slower is always good advice). So taking notes is very useful. If I smoke a straight Virginia flake of one brand (for example SG Virginia Flake) it does taste different if I rub it out and roll it into a very loose ball as opposed to folding/stuffing or cube-cutting. I find that I develop a favourite method with each blend after trying things out. Sometimes I get an overly mild or boring smoke from folding and stuffing, but rubbed out the flavour shines more.
Smell and taste are inextricably connected. I also tend to avoid reading reviews of something before I try it - I don't want it to influence my own views. I'll make notes and read them afterwards though.
The same logic goes for smoking tobacco. I can very much see the sense in trying out base or blending tobaccos. It helps inform your palette just like knowing ingredients in a good dish. I can sense many flavours in any dish due to my knowledge of spices, herbs and signature flavours and scents. So like others have mentioned, smoking base tobacco types would make sense to build that knowledge. If you do so, smoke it in a pipe that won't colour the taste (like clay or meerschaum - I find new cobs tend to add a bit of corniness to the profile)
With tobacco, there are so many different ways of treating the same leaf. It really helped to try blends that were very heavy toward red virginias or golden. Blends that contain Burley or fired Kentucky. Blends with more 'turkish' or oriental leaf, or Latakia. For blends that had a lot of cavendish ~ I've found this really varies a lot by producer, I'm guessing that's the variation on how they produce their cavendish and what topping or casing they apply to it.
Compressed tobacco's with the same leaf combination as loose leaf blends can be wildly different as the oils ferment and mix completely differently.
The technical side of how you smoke anything also changes its flavour (smoke slower is always good advice). So taking notes is very useful. If I smoke a straight Virginia flake of one brand (for example SG Virginia Flake) it does taste different if I rub it out and roll it into a very loose ball as opposed to folding/stuffing or cube-cutting. I find that I develop a favourite method with each blend after trying things out. Sometimes I get an overly mild or boring smoke from folding and stuffing, but rubbed out the flavour shines more.
Smell and taste are inextricably connected. I also tend to avoid reading reviews of something before I try it - I don't want it to influence my own views. I'll make notes and read them afterwards though.
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