Pipe Tobacco Tasting

[acconc]

Hello people. What an enjoyable and informative forum. Heres my dilemma. I dont sense nearly the variety of tastes that everyone else seems to. Certainly none of the nuances people describe. Otherwise i believe my palette is normal regarding food and drink. I dont smoke often. Truth be told, straight latakia provides the most taste that i can experience. I have everything from kentucky dark, to various aromatis, ohm and lanes. Anyway, could it be i dont smoke enough. Rarely more than a bowl or 2 a week. I cant do high nic which the dark kentucky has. Thanks.

Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization (please check Rule #9)

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[renfield]

Smoke slow, smoke cool, retrohale, be patient.

With most people it takes time for their palate to develop.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Hello from London
Latakia has a very high nicotine content.
Also with some people it can spoil the sense of taste for other tobaccos.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Latakia has a very high nicotine content.

"Oriental tobacco, including Latakia, typically contains the least nicotine. "It's not uncommon to see nicotine levels below one percent, which is really low." Nicotine is measured as a percentage of weight."

Nicotine And Pipe Tobacco Blending | Smokingpipes.com

Which types of tobacco have the most nicotine? How does nicotine affect a blend? Learn all about vitamin-N in this in-depth guide.

www.smokingpipes.com

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

"Oriental tobacco, including Latakia, typically contains the least nicotine. "It's not uncommon to see nicotine levels below one percent, which is really low." Nicotine is measured as a percentage of weight."

Nicotine And Pipe Tobacco Blending | Smokingpipes.com

Which types of tobacco have the most nicotine? How does nicotine affect a blend? Learn all about vitamin-N in this in-depth guide.

www.smokingpipes.com

Ok I was wrong.
But I'm talking about the disorientated way it makes me feel, and was confusing that with thinking it had a high nicotine content.
Never thought to investigate it. Thanks for the info

 

[warren]

One's palate needs to be trained. It takes time and effort. I simply enjoy the overall/overrding taste of a blend as my palate isn't particularly discerning. And, I'm not really interested breaking down a blend. Some are very good at doing so, very good indeed!

 

[Chasing Embers]

But I'm talking about the disorientated way it makes me feel

That's unusual, an allergy maybe? Latakia is made from the extremely mild almost tea flavored samsun. Couldn't imagine it leaving anything more than a pleasant aftertaste.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

That's unusual, an allergy maybe? Latakia is made from the extremely mild almost tea flavored samsun. Couldn't imagine it leaving anything more than a pleasant aftertaste.

I used to smoke quite a lot of EMP and liked it, though it would leave me feeling a bit euphoric and strange. Not enough to put me off though.
And then about 6 months ago when I first tried HH latakia flake, I smoked it in the afternoon and the rest of the day I was completely out of it, and had to lay on on the bed for a few hours, and didn't want to smoke that evening or the day afterwards.
That completely put me off latakia.
Yeah, I think it was an allergic reaction.
The only time before that I felt like that was when I ate a bar of Aero mint chocolate.

 

[Mr.Mike]

View attachment 102219

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[OzPiper]

Some people (take a bow @jiminks ) are super tasters. The rest of us (99.99% of the population) are not.

Tobaccos with bolder flavours eg latakia, orientals, strongly smoked Kentucky, are much more readily identified than Virginias. It makes sense to familiarise yourself with those first.

When I first got back to pipes, I was immediately drawn to latakia and oriental blends. I'm now exploring (to me) the subtler flavours of Virginias and VaPers.

But what matters in the end, as @warren puts it, is whether you enjoy the tobacco overall ? Rather than whether you can taste the figs as opposed to the grapes or strawberries, or whether it is a lemon, orange or lime as opposed to generic citrus note that you are getting.

These days when I have a glass of wine in front of me, the big question for me is "do I like the taste of this wine ?" Rather than worrying about that elusive 25th flavour/olfactory note or which side of the hill the grapes came from.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yes, you need to smoke more, more often.
Actually, you might try smoking two pipes packed with different blends at the same time. This way you can build taste olfactory memories better.

The main problem with smoking so infrequently is that you forget between smokes. So, remembering one flavor as compared to another gets forgo between smokes.

Many just never learn to taste deeply into the smokes. If you also don’t taste deeply into wines, coffees, teas, or cigars. If not, then just enjoy what your doing Of that keeps you going.

I can taste wines, cigars, and tea…. But coffee, I merely drink for caffeine. I have no interest in getting into coffees more deeply. So, YMMV

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Some people (take a bow @jiminks ) are super tasters. The rest of us (99.99% of the population) are not.

Actualy 25-30% of the population are supertasters. So, 70-76% are not. But…. I know what your saying.

Supertasters tend to have more triggers too, like I can’t eat carrots. The bitter is enhanced and it is impossible for me to swallow one as it triggers my gag reflex. Its a curse. If I could just any old swill, I’d probably have a better chance of surviving an apocalyptic event. But, if all that is left are carrots and Mixture 79, I’d just die.

 

[JimInks]

Actualy 25-30% of the population are supertasters. So, 70-76% are not. But…. I know what your saying.

Supertasters tend to have more triggers too, like I can’t eat carrots. The bitter is enhanced and it is impossible for me to swallow one as it triggers my gag reflex. Its a curse. If I could just any old swill, I’d probably have a better chance of surviving an apocalyptic event. But, if all that is left are carrots and Mixture 79, I’d just die.

I can't eat spicy foods because it tears up my mouth and tongue. I love the smell of spicy foods, but my palate is too sensitive to eat them.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I can't eat spicy foods because it tears up my mouth and tongue. I love the smell of spicy foods, but my palate is too sensitive to eat them.

I’m the same. You’d probably like some of the peppers I grow. Besides bells of every color, I have cultivated a non hot jalapeno and serrano pepper that has the taste without the heat. But, I still don’t ever overdo the peppers in my dishes.
also herbs, too much of anything will make me lay my fork down quickly.

 

[Michigan_Bill]

I can taste wines, cigars, and tea…. But coffee, I merely drink for caffeine. I have no interest in getting into coffees more deeply. So, YMMV

And here we thought you were a young man of culture and sophistication!!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

And here we thought you were a young man of culture and sophistication!!

Ha ha, young? Thank you! I wish. As a young man people thought I was older, but as I got older I was blessed by looking younger… which pisses off my younger wife who looks much older than me, ha ha!

 

[saltedplug]

Aside from being very confused about a blend's tastes, I was also bewildered by all the descriptions of how it tasted according to the tin notes, tobacco reviews and potentates on the forum. It cleared up in about a year's time. A question that I had and still have is to what extent reading these descriptions becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[anotherbob]

Hello people. What an enjoyable and informative forum. Heres my dilemma. I dont sense nearly the variety of tastes that everyone else seems to. Certainly none of the nuances people describe. Otherwise i believe my palette is normal regarding food and drink. I dont smoke often. Truth be told, straight latakia provides the most taste that i can experience. I have everything from kentucky dark, to various aromatis, ohm and lanes. Anyway, could it be i dont smoke enough. Rarely more than a bowl or 2 a week. I cant do high nic which the dark kentucky has. Thanks.

Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization (please check Rule #9)

Best answer I can muster to that is what ever. Not in a dismissive way. But tasting the nuances takes time. And the only thing I've found that helps expedite the process is writing reviews. The thing is your brain doesn't see any reason to use more energy to notice those finer details, giving it a solid reason to do so will actually help and maybe not turning you into the next Jim Inks but certainly you'll notice things that were one hundred percent not noticed by you before.

 

[bullet08]

My palete's dead. Love spicy stuff. But I sweat like a pig, so try to avoid spicy food among more civilized company. My friends aren't all that civilized.