Smoking Different Tobaccos in the Same Pipe?

[jaxon]

Although I'm not in fear of the Pipe Police kicking in my door anytime soon, I'm looking for advice on smoking different tobaccos out of the same pipe. I hear some people saying buy a new cob (or cheap) pipe to try new tobaccos with. I can understand doing this for new tobacco so you can get a clean (or open) taste of the tobacco but should the practice of using only one pipe for each tobacco brand or thoroughly cleaning the pipe and removing the cake before smoking a different brand something I should be considering? ...or just use this as an excuse to buy more pipes? :D
So far I've been smoking two different tobaccos in one pipe and haven't noticed any aftertastes. I do clean my pipe after every smoke. This practice now has me thinking about trying mixing those two tobaccos together in different percentages to see what happens.
As always thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

 

[winton]

There are various opinions on this issue. Some, like Kevin, smoke any blend they want in any pipe. Others will dedicate a pipe to a particular blend. I tend to dedicate a pipe to a certain style of tobacco, aromatic, vaper, English etc. Tobacco is known to ghost a pipe, so you might taste that blend regardless of what is in it at the moment. Lakeland and deer tongue are particularly bad.
As I have always said, as long as you don't set your beard on fire, you are smoking OK. But some techniques work better than others.

Winton

 

[dhizzy]

I smoke whatever blend I want in any pipe that I want. I don't dedicate pipes to certain types of tobaccos. Some guys do and will swear they can taste the last blend they had in a pipe. I can't.

 

[latbomber]

I basically only smoke englishes so most of my pipes are used for that. During the summer I have one pipe that is just dedicated to Virginia flakes however, the taste comes though cleaner than with a pipe thats had latakia in it.

 

[lestrout]

Most of my pipes are agnostic, though I don't do aros or Lakelands much. I do dedicate pipes to VA and VAPers though, and that is mainly when I am puffing very light, almost bland VAs like Dunhill Flake. I do like the Latakia ghost from say, Old Ironsides or Pirate Kake, when puffing a light VA. When I get a brand new pipe, I break it in with VAs and then decide whether to dedicate it to VAs, VAs and VAPers or commit it to general use. Rarely, I demote a VA dedicated pipe to general use. Interestingly, I have pipes that VAs sing in, and others that enliven an English blend.
From my winetasting, I believe I'm one of the 25% that is a 'supertaster', and I pay a lot of attention to nuances. Another 25% are at the other end of the curve, and taste perception is relatively low there, so that group would probably not notice ghosting, at least with Lats. Then some folks are sensitive to specific tastes, notably Lakelands, Latakia and Perique, and sometimes even red Virginias.
hp

les

 

[mso489]

I don't dedicate pipes to tobacco types, but I tend to smoke English blends in billiards because

it seems to work, taste-wise and aesthetically. I just don't find ghosting a problem. If there is

a slight residual of flavor, I find it a pleasant memory that doesn't last into a bowl. I keep cake

down by scouring out the bowl after every smoke with a tissue or paper towel, and that may keep

residual flavors down somewhat. Virginias seem to go really well in bulldogs and Rhodesians.

Blends with mixed size flakes do well in broad bowls like pots and authors. But I don't dedicate

pipes -- too restrictive and habit-bound, to me.

 

[wilson]

I'm 100% against segregation. I believe in freedom and allow any tobacco in any pipe.

 

[murf]

I have aromatic pipes, english (latakia) pipes, and VA pipes. And even in my VA pipes, I swear I can taste the tobacco I'm smoking, plus the last 1 or 2 that were smoked in it. Not all the time, but sometimes.
And I smoked a latakia blend in one of my basket pipes when I was first starting out. Didn't care much for the blend (love it now). The pipe didn't ever smoke an aro as good as the rest of my rotation after that. So it didn't get smoked much. But I decided to dedicate it to latakia blends, and it smokes them pretty well.
If you want to get into dedicating pipes to certain BLENDS rather than GENRES, I would pick a blend that you are absolutely ecstatic about. That's not to say that you will only smoke blend X in pipe Y, but blend X is the only tobacco allowed in pipe Y. you could smoke blend X in pipes A, B, C, etc. you might find a better pairing.
I just went back to read your question again. Sounds like the thread got off track. So, here goes:
Feel free to mix 2 different blends together and smoke it as a new blend. Guys on here talk about that all the time. I myself have done it and "made" my own blend. I've even tried layering tobaccos before (think "parfait"). I even posted about one particular combo here: http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-winning-combination
In that particular instance, it may have been better to pack the Escudo (a VAPer) on the bottom and the DF (a VA) on top. The Escudo influenced the flavor of the DF.

 

[sfsteves]

My opinion is pretty well reflected in one way or another in the opinions already expressed ... I don't smoke aromatics and I don't smoke any blend containing Latakia, so my pipes are. as lestrout so aptly said, agnostic.
BUT, aromatics and Lats do have a way of ghosting a pipe ... and those ghosts would diminish my smoking enjoyment if they were present in my pipe so, for that reason, if I were a more equal opportunity smoker, I WOULD be following Winton's example and segregating them by type.

 

[petes03]

The biggest part of my pipes are dedicated to Latakia blends (English/Balkan/Hybrids), but I also have pipes that are dedicated to Aros, as well as some for Va's. That being said, I do smoke Burleys in all of my pipes.

 

[kashmir]

I tend to separate my Latakia pipes from my Virginia pipes. But no hard and fast rules.

 

[sallow]

I believe in freedom and allow any tobacco in any pipe.

I'm not afraid of ghosts either, but I don't smoke aros. I do smoke lakelands and the occasional bleed over doesn't bother me. In fact I kind of enjoy it sometimes.
I've had a Digby for a few months and I thought I cleaned it well but I swear I can still taste the Captain Black from the previous owner.

 

[allan]

I tend to separate my Latakia pipes from my Virginia pipes

I also separate Vas and English, but doing it mostly out of some sort of 'pipe responsibility ' more than actual taste difference
I am so far keeping the Dunhills and upshalls for English as well as any other larger bowl pipe for the same; smaller bowls for va's because I think they smoke better in each
There is a good article about this subject on the left column http://pipesmagazine.com/python/pipe-smoking/dedicating-tobacco-pipes-to-pipe-tobacco-blends/

 

[johnnyiii]

I only have 4 pipes with two on the way, so no dedicating for me. You will though have the taste blend together. When I started trying an English blend it had a hint of chocolate. I thought it was a part of the blend until my captains delight (Chocolate) started tasting link english. that accent direction did not go as well. I smoke one pipe all day and swab through out, with what I would call a medium level alcohol clean every night. Flavor change (Ghosting) sometimes lasted until a thorough alcohol clean just short of salt and alcohol treatment. At least so I think.

 

[smokertruck]

- sallow - what are your favourite lakelands - thanks

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in line with the topic - i do have a meerschaum in which 4noggins trout stream tastes the best so i smoke the stream in that pipe only getting the best flavor.
a savinelli long john seemed to like aromatics best but getting away from them now i tried burleys in my pipes & the savinelli likes burleys best.
a cheapy meerschaum likes my mild latakias best.
an old pipe from 1960's i smoked only erinmore & now not having smoked it after 50 years i still taste the erinmore when i draw on the pipe with an empty bowl
to me it seems to work dedicating pipes to tobaccos so now i do dedicate.
anyways ...

 

[Perique]

I seem to be extremely sensitive to ghosts. As such, I'm a big fan of dedicating pipes to specific styles. In many cases, I even dedicate specific pipes to specific blends.
I first stumbled upon this when smoking a popular VA flake in a pipe typically used with VaPer flakes. My experience was completely divergent from others whose opinion I trust. I then smoked this same VA flake in a VA-dedicated pipe and had an entirely different, more positive experience.
And that's just VA variants. As it regards aromatics, I'm a firm believer in having dedicated pipes and not cross-pollinating.

 

[cortezattic]

Question: When dedicating a pipe to a blend, do you do this arbitrarily, or do you wait for the right pipe/blend combination?

 

[grrrrr609]

Right pipe/Blend combination. My problem is always that I forget which pipe i wanna save for what blend. I will find a pipe that really hits it with one blend but then I forget what pipe it was. I usually carry a couple sav 320s with me everywhere. I havent run across a blend yet that I dont like out of one of them.
Now tonight for instance. I grabbed a brand new pipe i got for Christmas, a handmade pipe from a pipe maker in Ligoneer PA, packed it with HH Dark Fired. Nothing went right. the burn, the taste, plugged up etc etc. So I dumped it. And packed Old Dark Fired in a Sav 320 and the flavor was much better, the whole experience was better. So my assumption now is that the hand made pipe isnt gonna like my flakes so Im gonna try it with ribbon cut next.
Just me .02 cents

 

[spartan]

I will only smoke aros in pipes that I have designated as "free game" pipes.
Anything goes in those bowls. Almost anything.

 

[pipeherman]

I 100% believe in what Wilson said. Though if someone wants to be a purist and dedicate pipes I say "Good on em", I personally couldn't afford to buy the pipes.