Mystery of the Flavorless Pipe

[jazz]

I have a few pipes that have behaved like this and have seemingly sucked the life out of anything I have put in them. I have absolutely no idea what the cause was or is but I do know that it happens and I found they have come around eventually but for quite some time there was a frustratingly muted and insipid smoking experience. It's happened with new pipes, well-smoked estate pipes and I have had it happen after a thorough cleaning which including taking the cake right back.

My bet is that is you keep smoking it then eventually the flavour will show up. It may take a while though.

 

[lawdawg]

Keep giving the pipe a chance, but this pipe just might not deserve a place in your rotation. There is some "magic" in the smoking characteristics of a pipe, and sometimes a pipe just does not deliver a good smoke for some undefined reason. Really, I'm sure it's scientifically explainable, but I can't explain it... I can just tell you that on occasion, I've had a bum pipe that for whatever reason never tastes right or just straight out mutes the flavor.

I believe it was Fred Hanna who put out a book called "The Perfect Smoke" where he pontificates on this type of issue. Might be worthwhile to look it up and check out some of the concepts. Fred speculates that this issue might boil down to not-yet-understood characteristics of different pieces of briar, the conditions they are grown in, the aging process, etc. He calls an undefinably great pipe that just delivers great smokes for whatever reason a "Magic Pipe." I've got a couple that I would consider "Magic Pipes" and they are ones that will stay in my rotation. The rest will probably go at some point as new pipes come in.