Planning return to piping with a change in direction.

[BogOakPiper]

By my humble opinion, think about starting with a filter. When you feel, you're sloww enough, try without filter. Yes the filter reduce some flavour, but reduces the thongue bite. And when you're thongue burns, you'll not feel any flavour at all anyway.

 

[elvishrunes]

I’d like to weigh in as a newer smoker. I often find that the lighter colored virginias are what gives me tough bite. Especially when they haven’t been pressed in any way. From my experience in trying out new blends and from what I can gather online in my quest to educate myself about all things pipes and tobacco I’ve come to believe that anything pressed into a cake, flake, or plug is going to have less rough edges, will have more flavor, and will most likely cause less tongue bite. If I’m wrong in any way then maybe one of the more experienced Piping wizards here will chime in and tell me I’m wrong and why. This type of thread is exactly why I love being a member here. Great people on a quest to learn their own lessons asking great questions that warrant great responses. These get me thinking about my own experiences and inspire me to respond and hopefully get some feedback myself.

BigDragonfly I hope you find what it is your pallet prefers. It’s always interesting to me to hear what others experiences are. And I hope you don’t mind that I’ve sort of asked a question of my own in your thread. Happy piping sir!

You’re probably correct, the worst bite I ever had was after ribbon cut Virginias, now I primarily smoke flakes, plugs, ect except for English and old blends in my cellar…

I only buy flakes and cakes for other reasons; depth of flavour is unmatched and richer, thicker mouth smoke feel, longer burn time, longer storage, i also enjoy breaking up the tobacco…. I used to scoff at flakes and think they were a waste of time for “professionals”, I was wrong. Now add less bite to the list.

 

[Steddy]

Interesting discovery. I stopped at the local shop again and was allowed to sample some other blends. I tried a straight red Virginia, a cube cut Burley, and another blend that I think had Virginia, Burley, Cavendish, and maybe a bit of Oriental. I left with 2 ounces of Burley and realized that I'm not crazy about Virginia it at least blends that have a lot of Virginia in them. I was told that my cube cut might have a bit of Virginia in it and perhaps a bit of casing but I couldn't taste any casing at all. I think I'm going to stick with Burley dominant blends for now. I might have to check into SWR while I'm at it. View attachment 353996

Cornell and Diehl - Pegasus.