Nicotine Strength

[cosmicfolklore]

Ultimately, my point is that in my subjective experience, I've always found the purported "high nicotine content" in some pipe tobacco blends a bit of an exaggeration.

You just smoke Virginias, right? Can you please tell us which high nicotine blends you believe are exaggerations?

 

[saltedplug]

I was affected more strongly by cigars than pipes, to the extent that I had to very energetically seek the the porcelain god.

Be careful with these blends. Just because you had one experience one day doesn't mean you will have it on the next. Or if you regularly have an experience doesn't mean that you always will.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

I see that a couple of you guys have replied to my OP with Haha.
Initially baffled by this, I think I now realise the cause.
When I said I did some free squats, I meant the leg exercise without using a barbell, not.... you know.... the other kind of free squats where, as saltedplug put it, I visit the porcelain god ?

 

[anotherbob]

first we don't absorb a lot of the nicotine in tobacco our bodies just aren't efficient at it. Then our bodies also metabolize it really pretty quickly. Which is why if you smoke fast you can get sick despite the fact that burning it hotter destroys more of the nicotine. So when you get sick from smoking fast you're getting more nicotine quicker but lower over all. That should give you an idea of how quickly it's metabolized out of your system. The other factors in how much of it you absorb and how quickly are a decent number of things. One weird thing about nicotine tolerance is it's lower in the morning before you've had any nicotine. If your first smoke is a strong blend you're more likely to get sick.
The one way we absorb nicotine readily and not small amounts is through the intestine. Basically you could kill yourself by making tobacco tea. Where if you eat the leaf it will be destroyed by hanging out in your stomach longer.
I guess I am saying two things we get a tiny amount of nicotine the ways we take it and the difference between a weak and strong blend is a really small amount. How much we absorb varies wildly and how it effects us varies wildly.
Oh yeah little experiment have your first smoke of the day be a weak blend and see how other blends hit you, then another day start with a strong blend and then see how other blends effect you through out the day.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Can you please tell us which high nicotine blends you believe are exaggerations?

Five Brothers, Cotton Boll (unless chewed), Gawith ropes (again, unless chewed), and Picayune. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they're all easily all day smokes.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Five Brothers, Cotton Boll (unless chewed), Gawith ropes (again, unless chewed), and Picayune. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they're all easily all day smokes.

All due respect Chasingembers, I am familiar with your posts about your nicotine tolerance and tastes. But, thank you.

I was really asking just @lawdawg , not to antagonize him, but to get an incite into what blends a strict Virginia smoker believes is exaggerated.

 

[lawdawg]

You just smoke Virginias, right? Can you please tell us which high nicotine blends you believe are exaggerations?

Uh oh, it's the nicotine police!

I mostly smoked Virginia these days, but also smoke burley blends, English/Balkans, Va/pers, and sometimes aromatics. I don't smoke all that many different blends regularly, but the ones I do smoke run the spectrum.

For example, I recall reading that GLP Jackknife Plug was supposed to be a stronger tobacco in the nicotine department, but it didn't strike me as being any different nicotine-wise than any other burley blend. Same with Peterson's Irish Flake.

I've never gotten the kind of nicotine kick from a pipe that I often experience with cigars.

 

[Chasing Embers]

but to get an incite into what blends a strict Virginia smoker believes is exaggerated.

That is true. Virginias are bark and little bite. And this is an open forum.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I've never gotten the kind of nicotine kick from a pipe that I often experience with cigars

What diameter chambers do you typically smoke? If you're cigars are wider, you're burning more tobacco per draw than with a pipe and releasing more nicotine.

 

[lawdawg]

What diameter chambers do you typically smoke? If you're cigars are wider, you're burning more tobacco per draw than with a pipe and releasing more nicotine.

Most of my pipes do have smaller bowls, probably averaging around .75 inches in diameter. I've got a couple large billiards, but I smoke Latakia blends in those, which I understand for all the in-your-face flavor they have tend to be lower in nicotine.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Uh oh, it's the nicotine police!

I mostly smoked Virginia these days, but also smoke burley blends, English/Balkans, Va/pers, and sometimes aromatics. I don't smoke all that many different blends regularly, but the ones I do smoke run the spectrum.

For example, I recall reading that GLP Jackknife Plug was supposed to be a stronger tobacco in the nicotine department, but it didn't strike me as being any different nicotine-wise than any other burley blend. Same with Peterson's Irish Flake.

I've never gotten the kind of nicotine kick from a pipe that I often experience with cigars.

Ok, I can agree with you on those. I wasn't trying to police. I just wanted clarification, so that I could better understand what you were trying to communicate. Thank you.

 

[lawdawg]

Ok, I can agree with you on those. I wasn't trying to police. I just wanted clarification, so that I could better understand what you were trying to communicate. Thank you.

You're welcome, of course, and I was just joking around with the "police" thing.

I would like to try some higher strength pipe tobacco blends and of course am open to the possibility that I have just not smoked one with much in the way of nicotine content. I do enjoy the mellow nicotine feeling that I get maybe twenty minutes or so into a cigar and would like to experience that a bit more with a pipe as well.

For the record, I was a cigarette smoker for about 15 years, some of which overlapped with my pipe smoking, and I always just figured I've got a pretty decent nicotine tolerance compared to those who were wise enough to never get hooked on cigarettes. I don't know if that tolerance waxes and wanes, but I still don't get all that much in the way of discernable nicotine from my pipes, maybe a bit of mellow enjoyable relaxation that slowly creeps in, just not as much as with a cigar.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

You're welcome, of course, and I was just joking around with the "police" thing.

I would like to try some higher strength pipe tobacco blends and of course am open to the possibility that I have just not smoked one with much in the way of nicotine content. I do enjoy the mellow nicotine feeling that I get maybe twenty minutes or so into a cigar and would like to experience that a bit more with a pipe as well.

For the record, I was a cigarette smoker for about 15 years, some of which overlapped with my pipe smoking, and I always just figured I've got a pretty decent nicotine tolerance compared to those who were wise enough to never get hooked on cigarettes. I don't know if that tolerance waxes and wanes, but I still don't get all that much in the way of discernable nicotine from my pipes, maybe a bit of mellow enjoyable relaxation that slowly creeps in, just not as much as with a cigar.

I could see experimenting, but if you've felt the OD from a cigar, you are already familiar with the effect.

No worries, I am the living embodiment of ridiculousness, doomed to roam the halls of this forum, in retribution for being cursed with all of this beauty and charisma. I am the forum's whipping boy. Feel free to antagonize me at will, ha ha.

 

[chopper]

Since switching to a pipe from a chronic cigarette addiction, I've consciously avoided blends with anything more than mild nicotine [JimInks reviews have been a big help in choosing those blends]

Nonetheless since I smoke on average seven bowls a day, I'm still absorbing a certain level of nicotine, yet since I switched over 11 years ago I no longer crave a smoke.

Cigarettes have 300 to 600 added chemicals, some of which I believe are more addictive than the nicotine itself.
Many members here enjoy blends with a decent amount of nicotine yet none seem to suffer from regular cravings [When I smoked cigs, I'd start craving for a smoke 30 minutes after the last]

Not that I'm willing to risk my theory by smoking stronger blends or smoking cigars since I've remained free from the cig addiction for so long. [So glad to have that monkey off my back]
I enjoy my milder blends so I'm content with what I've got. [And I've got my green medicine if I feel like a buzz ]

 

[Bax Burley]

Nic hits are subjective. I've talked to people that got sick from smoking 1Q as new smokers. I've talked to people that swear Haunted Bookshop has a heavy nic hit for them. And then there are people that can smoke ropes and shrug it off.

I haven't had a cigarette in about 17 years, but my body must remember nicotine. I smoked 5 bowls of Haunted Bookshop in a row once with no ill effects. I've only smoked "The Beast" in a churchwarden, but no buzziness. The only stuff that ever knocked me on my ass was War Horse Green. I felt like I was 15 again and just smoked a pack of Camels.

That said, I tend to prefer mild blends. I don't generally seek out anything stronger than medium strength, and I'm a 6 bowl a day, every day smoker, on average. I don't do it for a nic buzz, I do it for the taste and relaxation. I do feel a little buzzy energy from 4th Generation 1882 from to time, but I love it. It's a GOOD nic hit. And that's only medium.

 

[anotherbob]

Nic hits are subjective. I've talked to people that got sick from smoking 1Q as new smokers. I've talked to people that swear Haunted Bookshop has a heavy nic hit for them. And then there are people that can smoke ropes and shrug it off.

I haven't had a cigarette in about 17 years, but my body must remember nicotine. I smoked 5 bowls of Haunted Bookshop in a row once with no ill effects. I've only smoked "The Beast" in a churchwarden, but no buzziness. The only stuff that ever knocked me on my ass was War Horse Green. I felt like I was 15 again and just smoked a pack of Camels.

That said, I tend to prefer mild blends. I don't generally seek out anything stronger than medium strength, and I'm a 6 bowl a day, every day smoker, on average. I don't do it for a nic buzz, I do it for the taste and relaxation.

I don't often think about nicotine in my pipes. I like it and probably wouldn't bother without it, but weak or strong only ever makes a noticable difference under certain circumstances. And those are extreme sized chambers. A small pipe I can tell the difference between a vanilla aro and semois. And a extra big chamber too. In the small weak blends still leave me craving and strong blends leave me sated. In big strong blends start to make me feel like I dipped my toe in the wozzies.

 

[Scottishgaucho]

I don't ever recall being affected by nicotine in any tobacco I've smoked....be it cigarettes,cigars or pipe tobacco. I'm not saying that to make out as being tough I'm not. I suspect it's because I've been smoking for 50 years since I was 15 and my body got used to it.
Alcohol is a different story....doesn't take much to get me giddy.

 

[Brendan]

What were you smoking again....

There's a good reason I don't smoke that stuff..

I see that a couple of you guys have replied to my OP with Haha.
Initially baffled by this, I think I now realise the cause.
When I said I did some free squats, I meant the leg exercise without using a barbell, not.... you know.... the other kind of free squats where, as saltedplug put it, I visit the porcelain god ?

Not at all, I knew what you meant as I do the same and can appreciate the experience of a good dose of nicotine that either relaxes me, or makes me want to head to my garage and do some clean and presses.
Wasn't so much as a laugh at your expense as it was a chuckle to myself in acknowledgement of that same feeling.
Free squats are great, currently putting a hold on barbell squats as my arse is getting to big and buying pants is getting in the way of my tobacco funds.
TMI? Possibly..

 

[makhorkasmoker]

For me, the nicotine hit in a strong and simple dark burley is straightforward, fast, and "clean." It comes as a near immediate, no-nonsense blast. If it's five bros, it comes even faster, maybe because of the shag cut.

When i smoke a strong-ish Virginia blend, it takes a while for me to feel anything, and then it creeps up on me, and sometimes sneaks up on me and takes me by surprise, especially near the end of a bowl. And the nicotine hit feels "dirty."

Often I smoke burley simply because it doesn't play tricks on me that way.

And when I mix a strong burley and a strong virginia, it often seems to tame them both. It may still be strong, for me, in nicotine, but it often seems more manageable. Gentler on the mouth too.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

When i smoke a strong-ish Virginia blend, it takes a while for me to feel anything, and then it creeps up on me, and sometimes sneaks up on me and takes me by surprise, especially near the end of a bowl. And the nicotine hit feels "dirty."

I get that creep up nic hit sometimes with Virginia, and I can't say I like it - so tiring.
But oddly enough when I smoke FVP I don't get that effect at all.