Is Pipe Smoking Something That Grows on You?

[pantsBoots]

I came at pipe smoking as a 15 year cigar veteran, so I already knew I liked tobacco and had a reasonably developed palate as well as a list of what I liked and what I didn't. Pipe tobacco is a whole different animal and trying all of the various tobaccos out there has been like a new chapter of life, at least with respect to tobacco.

It does follow similar pathways I've discovered with beer and spirits. For example, when I began experimenting with absinthes and really taking a hard plunge with Bourbons, a whole world of seasonal cocktails opened up like the gates of heaven.

 

[redrooster1977]

Hi,

I'm new to pipesmoking. Did it a couple of years ago and gave it a second chance today. I'm facing the same problem I had years ago: I only get 1 taste and it's just a harsh unpleasant taste...

I remember my first beer being kind of the same, just a glass of bitter water. Now I love beer and search for new ones al the time. I was wondering if pipe smoking is just like that?

Thanks,
Mosh

If your expectation is for the taste from pipe smoking to match to sweet goodness of the aroma from unsmoked tobacco...... I'm sorry, it won't. It can't. Also you shouldn't expect to even notice the room note like others do. But I don't smoke for the taste (though I have my favorite tobaccos per my taste preferences). To me, pipe smoking is meditative. A time to reflect and relax. If you continue you'll find this too I think. There's something I find special about being outside on a cool fall evening enveloped in a cloud of my own making....

 

[The Clay King]

You may be smoking too hard/fast. To me all tobacco tastes almost the same (bitter and burnt) if smoked too hard.

I've found that as well!

 

[anotherbob]

I've found that as well!

again so do I. Smoking too fast kills flavor. It's something you have to savor. It's not really a special cadence or anything as much as it's just take time to savor don't hurry and it seems to work out fine.

 

[solideogloria86]

It sounds like you've only tried aromatic tobacco to this point. If you smoke an aromatic expecting to taste in the smoke, what you smell in the tin/pouch you will be disappointed every time. I second the recommendation to try an OTC blend. A tobacco that is meant to taste like tobacco is far less likely to disappoint, than a tobacco that's supposed to taste like sitting outside a Paris patisserie in late spring, but ends up tasting like ashes and burnt sugar.
I usually recommend a Missouri meerschaum corn cob pipe and an ounce each of Peter Stokkebye luxury navy flake and Cornell and Diehl Super Balkan. That will get you started with an honest pipe smoking experience with little fuss and a basic idea of where your preferences currently lie.

 

[--dante--]

All good advice here. I'll add this: As soon as your tobacco seems to be turning unpleasant, sit the pipe down and forget about for a while (a half hour, say). When you go back to it, light it quickly, just enough to get it going (it will start up easily), and SIP. You should notice the tobacco tasting like it's supposed to on those first few sips. Smoke it slowly from there. If it's starting to go out, try a couple light exhales through pipe as you puff to help get it going again, rather than try puffing harder.

 

[The Clay King]

All good advice here. I'll add this: As soon as your tobacco seems to be turning unpleasant, sit the pipe down and forget about for a while (a half hour, say). When you go back to it, light it quickly, just enough to get it going (it will start up easily), and SIP. You should notice the tobacco tasting like it's supposed to on those first few sips. Smoke it slowly from there. If it's starting to go out, try a couple light exhales through pipe as you puff to help get it going again, rather than try puffing harder.

The Lace Wars re-enactor I met at Cromford Mill taught me to blow out through the pipe every few puffs to help keep the fire going!

 

[smokiespipesmoker123]

Like many others here, if I had it to do over again, I would have started on non aromatics and graduated to the flavored ones later on. Oh well you live and learn

 

[--dante--]

The Lace Wars re-enactor I met at Cromford Mill taught me to blow out through the pipe every few puffs to help keep the fire going!

I forget where I learned it, but it seems to help with avoiding moisture build-up as well. Without thinking, I often exhale thru the pipe a tad just before a draw, which at least seems to keep relights down for me. You'd think it makes the pipe hotter, but done subtly and gently, it seems to keep it lit yet cooler, at least for me.

 

[hairvise]

I piece of wise advice I received here on the forum was to try for a while to draw just through your nose with your mouth closed around your pipe (exhale through mouth).
There's only so fast and deep you can draw through your nose, so it forces you to change your cadence.
Once you get that dialed in, try inhaling again with your mouth at the same cadence. The taste of the tobacco should be your guide on this--if you are getting it right (assuming you didn't burn the living daylights out of it while lighting), then the flavors should reveal themselves to you.

Of course, YMMV.

 

[--dante--]

I piece of wise advice I received here on the forum was to try for a while to draw just through your nose with your mouth closed around your pipe (exhale through mouth).
There's only so fast and deep you can draw through your nose, so it forces you to change your cadence.
Once you get that dialed in, try inhaling again with your mouth at the same cadence. The taste of the tobacco should be your guide on this--if you are getting it right (assuming you didn't burn the living daylights out of it while lighting), then the flavors should reveal themselves to you.

Of course, YMMV.

That makes sense -- as I posted in my advice, the light sip is what reveals the tobacco's taste. I suppose drawing through your nose, you still draw lightly from your mouth as well. The hard thing about the light sip (or the nose draw you describe) is actually keeping the darn thing lit and smoking, lol

 

[--dante--]

Like many others here, if I had it to do over again, I would have started on non aromatics and graduated to the flavored ones later on. Oh well you live and learn

Indeed.

 

[STP]

Typically cigars in the spring and summer, and pipes in the fall and winter, but yes... it grows on you in my experience. My pipe seasons have been evolving and expanding...

 

[jpmcwjr]

It looks like the OP left the building after his first day of posting.