Made A Mistake While Smoking An Aromatic

[shanez]

I enjoyed some of Russ' Sugar Plum last night and made a mistake while smoking and thought I'd tell the tale so others might avoid the mistake.

First:

How I normally pack my aromatics is to loosen the blend up as much as possible and gravity fill the bowl while tapping the side to settle it in until full to the top. Then I take a pinch about the size of a grape, say 3/4"-ish in diameter, and slowly stuff it in on top as evenly as possible. Then I pack down with my tamper focusing on getting it under the rim, which I do so to help avoid charring the rim more than anything. Depending on the dryness of the tobacco, I'll either just light it and smoke away, or if it doesn't want to stay lit I'll let it go out and sit for a minute before repeating. I guess I could call this a charring light but I'm really just trying not to force the light. Sometimes I have to repeat a couple of times if it's a really wet tobacco. Once lit, small (tiny really) steady puffs or very slow long drawn out (I usually breathe in and out through my nose once or twice during the duration) sips really work for me.

This seems to work very well for every aromatic I've tried in both my Savinelli 305 & 602 as well as a few other pipes. Not sure if the chamber dimensions are suited to the blends or it's my imagination but it's been working so why mess with it.

Now the mistake:

So last night, following procedure, I was 1/2 to 3/4 way through a bowl of the aforementioned Sugar Plum. I decided I was enjoying it so much I wanted it to last longer so I added a pinch (like above) to my already lit bowl. This turned out to be a mistake. Not only did I have trouble getting the new tobacco lit and going, I seem to have received a small amount of bite from it as well. I must've tried too hard to get it going as this is a blend that really has no bite.

Oh well. Lesson learned. Just finish, or chuck the last nickel's worth of tobacco, and pack a fresh bowl.

 

[haparnold]

Glad to hear a field report; I've been pondering this technique myself. Perversely, your bad experience makes me want to try it as well, just to see if I get the same result.

 

[aro222]

Sounds like your technique is perfect
Adding tobacco to a bowl which is already burning great ? Not too sure sounds strange but I’ve never tried it. I say why mess with a good thing burn that bowl to the bottom and than enjoy another. Cheers

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

I'm probably the last person who should be chiming in on this, but why let that stop me, right?

It seems as though that would be a bad idea to add tobacco like that. If the bottom of the bowl is unburned/yet-to-be-burned tobacco, with an ember of some sort above it and then topped with the ash of the already burned tobacco - adding fresh tobacco to the bed of ash and lighting it would mean that you're drawing that through the ash layer to smoke it. It's hard to imagine that tasting good. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've done it with no adverse effects, but in general it's not a good plan. Best finish the bowl, knock out, reload and go!

 

[mso489]

You're asking the ember to reverse its process and burn upward. In terms of ignition, this works, as you see, but in terms of getting good flavor and a pleasing experience, not so much. I can't explain the physics of this, but I can appreciate that it is not the way to go. Thank you for running the experiment so I won't.

 

[milehighpiper]

I've done it with no adverse effects, but in general it's not a good plan. Best finish the bowl, knock out, reload and go!

I did this and wound up with a mouth full of dottle. Ever since I follow the advice above with a small twist: finish the bowl, knock it out, grab a new pipe and go!