…and my family is going to suffer (with the smell of non-A’s) I guess. I’m just no good at this and I know it probably comes down to bad technique. I had smoked Virginia tobaccos for a few years and had few or no problems. At that time, I mostly enjoyed stuff like Full Virginia Flake, and University Flake. I quit pipe-smoking for a few years. Now I’ve come back to pipe smoking and I’ve started out with aromatics because of the family and my needing to smoke indoors. At first, I got a lot of flavor from aromatics but then the problems started. Of course I’ve been having tongue bite like I’ve never had it before. But I’ve also had a problem of flavor and getting the humidity just right. It seems like all these tobaccos I’ve tried (Solani Red, Blue Note, Mac Vanilla Cream) provided me great flavor at first but then have no flavor when they’re too dry or too wet. I feel very frustrated with not being able to tell the exact right state they are supposed to be in and I feel like plain old flakes were never this finicky. I’ve really been trying hard with all these aromatics I’ve bought. I’ve even been jarring them with Boveda at 62%. If they’re too wet, I steam my tongue; if they’re too dry, there’s just no flavor at all. Should I just come back to these aromatics later? My mouth is in pretty bad shape. They’ve got me really frustrated. They just seem so fussy to me. I know experienced smokers can get it just right by the feel of it. I can tell when it’s very wet or very dry but I’m not at the point where I can get it exactly right and the smoke is thus unenjoyable. I’m thinking of going back to those days I fondly remember with my plain flakes. Maybe I’ll try Best Brown Flake or Peterson’s (Dunhill?) Flake which seem to have less offensive room notes than stronger Virginias or those English varieties I never got around to trying (I guess those are out if I don’t want my family to kick me out of the house?).