Nicotine Sensitivity Differing By Blend

[frozenchurchwarden]

I'd like to hear how many people experience more or less Nicotine depending on the variety of Tobacco being smoked.
My example is Pipe Tobacco vs. Cigar Tobacco, but it's all tobacco so the format shouldn't be so important.

On Thursday I smoked two bowls of Tobacco back to back, starting with a 2.5" stack of Captain Earl's Ten Russians, which is not a lightweight Tobacco in itself, and followed by a medium size bowl of GH Kendal Kentucky.
I ate a chocolate bar for fun between bowls, but had no perception of Nicotine through the entire evening.
The following day I smoked a Cigar (which is only listed as 2/5 for strength), and within 15 minutes of lighting I could feel the Nicotine kick, and needed to ration twice as much sugar though the duration of the cigar to keep the spins away.
To my mind there is no way that 15 minutes with a cigar could contain significantly more Nicotine than two hours of Pipesmoking, there must be something in Cigar Tobacco that specifically enhances either absorption or perception in my body.

What blends do you find deliver Nicotine significantly faster than ordinary blends?
Oppositely, what blends are commonly marked as "Strong" but for whatever reason you feel very little effect?

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

I add Five Brothers to certain blends at times (mainly aromatics) to add a nicotine punch. The shag cut with light nicotine aromatics tends to make a stout but flavorful mix.

I (ab)use cigarettes for nicotine and stress relief. Five Brothers is a strong cut that I can see working with RYO cigarettes.

Cigars can be tasty, but I rarely get the same effects as with cigarettes, which are convenient and short term spirts of what may help calm the mind at times ... although I am slowly working on quitting without much success.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Five Brothers is a strong cut that I can see working with RYO cigarettes

It does.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'd like to hear how many people experience more or less Nicotine depending on the variety of Tobacco being smoked.

I get next to no nic hit from pipe tobacco unless I massively over do it like four flakes of Rustica at once, or chew it like Gawith ropes. I only smoke Oliva Maduros when I do cigars but nothing notable there except the wonderful Maduro flavor.

 

[Humblepipe]

I blend my own tobacco blends. Five Brothers is often 25% of my blend recipe. I also bathe my blends in whiskey (usually Four Roses), sun dried. Five Brothers gives the Kick I enjoy.

 

[ray47]

I usually inhale every now and then to get a nic hit from pipe tobacco. My favorite blends to inhale are
Old Joe Krantz Original
Old Joe Krantz Blue Label
Haunted Bookshop
I've only found one blend that will give me a bad nic hit, even if I don't inhale it and that blend is C&D's Big & Burley. Even 5 Brothers doesn't give me as big a nic hit as Big & Burley.

 

[justscience]

I find stomach contents or lack thereof strongly affect my nicotine sensitivity. I am a wuss but handle ropes, at least in small bowls, just fine after a big meal. Same with cigars.

 

[justscience]

Afterthought: mouth pH has a big affect on nicotine absorption. Nicotine is a base. I can't recall if an acidic mouth increases or decreases affects. I suspect cigar smoke is more alkaline due to its ammoniacal smell.

 

[bullet08]

Only inhale with cigarettes. Never had nic hitting me hard with pipe or cigar. But passed out few times with cigarettes after 3 days of not eating. When I'm sick or engaged in some stupid crap I forget to eat.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I seem to be more sensitive to pH levels of the tobacco than the nicotine. (i'm just guessing). I "take" the nicotine in strong burley well, but with virginia, it's the opposite. Virginia can make me feel ill, even if it is supposedly much weaker than the burley, nicotine wise.

I tried for a long time using Five Brothers to strengthen weaker blends, but it didn't work for me, and I don't think it's because the other blends "diluted" the nicotine in Five Bro's but because they altered the chemistry in other ways that did not suit me. Actually Five Brothers straight is a bit too alkaline for me, but it was closer to what suits me than most blends.

I now smoke mainly C&D's dark burley and I always add a pinch--20% or so--of their white burley. While I admit I add the white because I like the flavor of the combo, I also prefer the "hit" this blend gives compared to straight dark burley. The white is supposed to be lower in nicotine, but when I add a touch the hit is clean and fast and pleasant.

 

[ofafeather]

Partly the delivery method can make a difference. You may be consuming tobacco more quickly in a cigar depending on size. A 2.5” stack pipe would take me two hours to smoke depending on the blend but 2” of cigar goes much faster. Just a thought.

 

[ofafeather]

Also, heavy Latakia blends are not by themselves high in nicotine. Latakia is fairly low in vitamin N.

 

[seanv]

Even mild cigars rock my world these days. Not sure why, it just started last summer out of nowhere and now I am sitting on a humidor of 70 plus sticks. This effect hasn't carried over to pipe tobacco at all. I still smoke the same old blends issue free.

 

[mso489]

Yup, C&D Big'n'Burley has some nic. Old Joe Krantz and Night Bayou too.

 

[gubbyduffer]

I tried cigars, but deep down they were not for me. I found them all to be too much of a nicotine hit. Funny you mention Kendal Kentucky because I find that to be a blend with quite a strong nic hit. I like blends with a strong English or Balkan style but are not punchy in the nicotine department. Big fan of SG Skiff Mix, Robert Lewis Tree Mixture or Solani White and Black.

 

[CallMeSangy]

it depends on the blend and actual tobacco used, on a product by product basis likely. i don't feel nicotine too often, but when i first started i would get stomach aches. now i get a slightly increased pulse rate at the worst of times.

And on to the tobacco side sure the different tobaccos will have different effects. maybe you were smoking a stogie which had a large nic strength level to it. i hear oliva cain's are supposed to knock you on your feet. same can be said for pipe tobacco. saw a review on Smokingpipes for macbaren ready rubbed fire cured where a guy said he smoked (of what i can remember) everyday but got the sweats with that one. i tried a few bowls and i was alright. my nic tolerance was probably better than his, as i fast 20 hours a day and smoke frequently on an empty stomach. also, it's probably the curing and fermenting process that makes cigars more potent potentially. i've read too many stories online of what happens when you get too much nicotine to try and smoke something that'll knock my lights out.

 

[FLDRD]

I'd like to hear how many people experience more or less Nicotine depending on the variety of Tobacco being smoked.
My example is Pipe Tobacco vs. Cigar Tobacco, but it's all tobacco so the format shouldn't be so important.

On Thursday I smoked two bowls of Tobacco back to back, starting with a 2.5" stack of Captain Earl's Ten Russians, which is not a lightweight Tobacco in itself, and followed by a medium size bowl of GH Kendal Kentucky.
I ate a chocolate bar for fun between bowls, but had no perception of Nicotine through the entire evening.
The following day I smoked a Cigar (which is only listed as 2/5 for strength), and within 15 minutes of lighting I could feel the Nicotine kick, and needed to ration twice as much sugar though the duration of the cigar to keep the spins away.
To my mind there is no way that 15 minutes with a cigar could contain significantly more Nicotine than two hours of Pipesmoking, there must be something in Cigar Tobacco that specifically enhances either absorption or perception in my body.

What blends do you find deliver Nicotine significantly faster than ordinary blends?
Oppositely, what blends are commonly marked as "Strong" but for whatever reason you feel very little effect?

I've recently been enjoying Kendal Kentucky and am here researching references to it, and found this.

My answer to your old question is that I'm loving the "satisfaction" I get from it, but not feeling a big nic buzz despite the strong labeling.

There are others that definitely get me more.
But dang, the KK is so GRATIFYING.
I don't think I chase the nic so not sure if that's what's pleasing me or not...

 

[kcghost]

The only tobacco I have ever had a nicotine high that made quit smoking me it was HH Rustica. I have to eat something before I take it on. The only cigar that almost brought me to this point was a Habana Ramon Allones. A magnificent cigar if there ever was one. Rather one dimensional but what a dimension it is.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

For me just about all Gawith Hoggarth blends seem to just knock me on my butt for some odd reason. The only times I've ever gotten nicotine sickness from pipe smoking were from G.H.'s Ennerdale Flake and Rum Flake, which are advertised to be a 3/5 on the strength scale and most folks seem to concur, but they hit me like a 5/5 every time and I can never smoke them for more than 15 minutes before I have to set the pipe down and stop if I don't want to get a case the sweaty queasies.

The reason it's weird is that I'm a 25 year cigarette smoker and can put back tall bowls of Haunted Bookshop or Elizabethan Mixture that take an hour to smoke and barely feel anything nicotine wise, but those G.H. blends just put me on the floor. The only G.H. blends I've found I can smoke a full bowl of without getting nicotine sickness are Kendal Black Cherry and Bob's Chocolate Flake, which are supposed to be a 2/5 and 3/5 in terms of strength respectively, and even those hit me harder than Haunted Bookshop. There's some weird Lakeland voodoo magic going on there.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I find nic hits very often depend on how much food I have in my system; if my stomach is empty it hits me harder. Awhile back, I smoked three back to back bowls of Pipe Force V while talking to a friend late at night. This blend has stoved Rustica as a main component—that hit me relatively hard after the three hours of smoking, necessitating my eating some chocolate to counteract the spins. Once or twice a CAO Flathead V660 Carb cigar (6.0" x 60) has given me spins, but that was probably towards the end of a day of smoking multiple cigars successively on the porch. Most weekends I will have a five hour smoke of Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding or Cornell & Diehl Folklore while watching UFC with no ill effects.