MIght Be Time to Quit?

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keith929

Lifer
Nov 23, 2010
2,476
13,441
Central New Jersey
Jeff I too contracted COVID and lost my sense of taste and smell for about 3 months.
For some reason(the nic hit) I smoked my pipe the entire time. It gave me a chance to weed out those tobacco blends in my cellar that I dislike.
Sorry to hear your case was so severe. Keep fighting.
 
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Reactions: Maynard58 and edger
Feb 12, 2022
3,591
50,689
32
North Georgia mountains.
I heard Russ Hicks talk about this. He had covid and lost all smell. He too couldn't tell the difference in his blends and is well invested in the hobby.
I think he started some kind of smell therapy to rehabilitate his senses. As far as I know, he's back to normal.
I'll have to dig up the name of the therapy he talked about.

Best of luck, I'll hope your enjoyment returns full force asap.
 

proteus

Lifer
May 20, 2023
1,581
2,632
54
Connecticut (shade leaf tobacco country)
My experience is this. For what its worth. I was vaccinated 6 times. Last was September 2022. Got the virus April 2023. 2 days of just a bad cold. Lost all taste and smell. But got it back quikcly within 10 days because of what I believe is my habit of taking a ton of antioxidants. PM for the list if your interested. I believe tobacco consumed in a pipe is not an issue. At least not as bad as inhaling the smoke from a meat smoker I would guess. Anyway don't give up the stress relieving benefits of a relaxing pipe smoke.
 
Last edited:
Jul 14, 2021
1,060
4,254
Macomb County, Michigan
In my case it started with Covid in October. At first every blend tasted horrible. Then after a couple of months I found two blends which I could tolerate. Over time these two blends have tasted better and better, which gives me hope.
So far only eight months have passed, so patience, patience is called for.
 
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jeff540

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 25, 2016
518
799
Southwest Virginia
I'm more curious how many PMs were sent to the OP asking what tobacco he had and if he wanted to sell it, extra credit would be number of established members to lurkers. lol
HA! Actually none, so that's a testiment to this community :D

Thanks for all the kind words and support. Fortuntely, it's just the pipe that is still off taste-wise. "Healthier" things, like fresh green beans from the garden, have never tasted so awesome as they do today.
 

PurePipes

Lurker
Jan 13, 2022
25
37
Well that sucks.
I got Covid three times, when I got it the first time all pipe tobacco tasted really bad.
Came back about three months later.
The second time I got it there were no changes once it was over.
Third time was the worst case of the three. That time it took easily 6 months to get the correct taste for tobacco back.

If you don't enjoy it you may as well stop. Or at lest take a break for a year or two. I mean we're doing this for the enjoyment of it. That's 100% of the reason right there.
 

sparker69

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 25, 2022
803
5,053
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I caught covid in June 2022 and my taste was out for a bit - tobacco tasted like cotton candy and other things, just weird. Fortunately, the taste came back to normal after a few weeks. I agree with the comments on keeping your stuff and trying back later - not getting rid of it all only for your taste to come back.
 
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Ben.R.C

Lifer
Nov 20, 2022
4,553
100,282
55
North Carolina
My sense of taste has gone downhill and recently realized if I was to continue smoking a pipe I had to be religious about oral health, will spare you the details but my taste is better since then. Also discovered my favorites were part of the problem, can’t do Va forward blends. I’ve been sticking to Burley/Kentucky lately and doing fine. Also, more then a few bowls a day regularly becomes an issue no matter what the blend.
 
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JSPiper71

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 3, 2022
675
10,010
Toronto Canada
I'm more curious how many PMs were sent to the OP asking what tobacco he had and if he wanted to sell it, extra credit would be number of established members to lurkers. lol
I was going to wait a week or two before sending him a DM so I didn’t look like a jackal. You’ve ruined my plan!!!
 
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renfield

Lifer
Oct 16, 2011
5,183
42,503
Kansas
That bites. Take a break from the pipe, give it a couple of months or however long feels right. Hopefully the enjoyment returns.
 

FLDRD

Lifer
Oct 13, 2021
2,329
9,508
Arkansas
I'm hoping to go this route for the (hopefully short) time I'm afflicted with the off-taste. At first the bowls all tasted the same - like shit. As in, I would have never taken to doing that more than once - kind of taste. Last night it was slightly less nasty. And yeah, I'm going to work through those "difficult" tins now. I'm stubborn like that.
11 days and after going back to my "baseline" and simple blends, the pipe no longer tastes nasty, and there are once again some differences in the tastes. But I still couldn't pick a VA from a Lat bomb yet. No worries, I'll keep working on it!
 
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OverMountain

Lifer
Dec 5, 2021
1,403
4,993
NOVA
I am not looking at a specific study, but from a psychology viewpoint your brain is constantly changing in response to your environment.

If you can stand it, I’d try and keep exposing my olfactory receptors to the tastes of many different things to try and reboot or jumpstart your ability to taste and smell. Keep on trucking, and good luck.

Here’s an older article about olfactory retraining where people have had a positive effect in their ability to smell and taste.