Taking in the Flavor Without Lighting?

[Living Luggage]

I'm wondering how many of you do what I do? I really like the taste of my tobaccos, but I can taste them better before I light them, so I like to draw through my pipes for a while before lighting up. I find that it preps my pallet better to get the true flavor of the blend once I light up.

 

[AirOne]

I’m doing it as well. Probabl ecause I was a digar smoker at first, and that’s a usual thing to do. As with cigars, some blends are mute while some others are already talking before lightning up

 

[The Benedictine]

You'll get more aroma if you retrohale.

 

[Living Luggage]

You'll get more aroma if you retrohale.

True that, but I'm talking about just tasting before lighting.

 

[SSGT.]

I do it for the same reasons on every bowl. I loaded a bowl the today in a friend's hospital room and enjoyed a "Dry Smoke" on the way to the parking lot.

 

[dozicusmaximus]

I guess I do when I check my draw while loading a bowl.

 

[anotherbob]

I'm wondering how many of you do what I do? I really like the taste of my tobaccos, but I can taste them better before I light them, so I like to draw through my pipes for a while before lighting up. I find that it preps my pallet better to get the true flavor of the blend once I light up.

I do that sometimes. And you do get some of the flavor. If you notice you're losing flavor when smoking it means you're smoking too hot. The human tongue senses flavors best at temperatures closer to body temp. I find a few things help lower the temp. Softer smoking as in sip the pipe don't draw hard and puff go a bit slower. Proper packing which is tricky not because it's hard but it is hard to accurately describe the range that gets the goldilocks point. Not too loose not too tight.
But yeah puffing an unlit pipe gets a lot more flavor then one would expect. Usually do that if I am waiting to be able to smoke but have the pipe packed.

 

[OzPiper]

Wasn’t that what Bill Clinton claimed

 

[Yambo]

Margarita Landi was the first Spanish crime reporter and a famous pipesmoker. She said she sometimes liked to carry her pipe in "modo-chupo", which would translate as "pacifier mode", which was exactly what you're describing. I do it from time to time, also between relights.

 

[Sig]

I do that sometimes. And you do get some of the flavor. If you notice you're losing flavor when smoking it means you're smoking too hot. The human tongue senses flavors best at temperatures closer to body temp. I find a few things help lower the temp. Softer smoking as in sip the pipe don't draw hard and puff go a bit slower. Proper packing which is tricky not because it's hard but it is hard to accurately describe the range that gets the goldilocks point. Not too loose not too tight.
But yeah puffing an unlit pipe gets a lot more flavor then one would expect. Usually do that if I am waiting to be able to smoke but have the pipe packed.

Ive tried explaining this to a lot of new pipers. There is tons of information out there about packing a pipe. And most of it is confusing and WAY over complicated.
The ONLY thing that matters is the firmness.....period.
I pack, dump, cram, stuff, push and twist tobacco into my pipes. As long as the firmness is right, they smoke perfectly. People get upset that all these "methods" they see on youtube don't work for them. Some even say they are giving up the pipe.
When I tell them to clear their minds of all the nonsense, and just concentrate on firmness, erroring on the side of a less firm pack...they finally get it. This seems silly, but true.

 

[BingBong]

I only do this as a side to testing the draw and that's an unconscious half second nowadays. More likely to seek a flavour with a new blend, first time smoke, as part of getting its measure. Can't remember a bad pack, must be some time ago, so it's pretty cursory usually.

 

[Living Luggage]

I tend to be a little more deliberate about it. It's always been part of my piping routine.

 

[Snook]

I'll try this on my next smoke and see how it makes a difference!

 

[dunnyboy]

@LivingLuggage, I wondered the same thing a couple of years ago. These are some responses I got to the same question you have: Do You Cold Draw? :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/do-you-cold-draw.89839/

I first got the idea to "cold draw" a loaded, unlit pipe from Shane Ireland who referenced it in one of the smokingpipes mystery tobacco videos. He thought it would help to identify what tobacco he was smoking. I think you do get a preview of the flavors in the tobacco, and it's pleasant in its own right, but the smoked tobacco does taste at least somewhat different. Most of the time, however, in my hurry to get the pipe lit, I forget to cold draw. So thanks for the reminder.

 

[Living Luggage]

@LivingLuggage, I wondered the same thing a couple of years ago. These are some responses I got to the same question you have: Do You Cold Draw? :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/do-you-cold-draw.89839/

I first got the idea to "cold draw" a loaded, unlit pipe from Shane Ireland who referenced it in one of the smokingpipes mystery tobacco videos. He thought it would help to identify what tobacco he was smoking. I think you do get a preview of the flavors in the tobacco, and it's pleasant in its own right, but the smoked tobacco does taste at least somewhat different. Most of the time, however, in my hurry to get the pipe lit, I forget to cold draw. So thanks for the reminder.

Thanks! I wasn't around back then, but I have to think that this is not a novel thing. I used to see my Gramps with his unlit pipe working away on the farm for hours . Maybe it's just a comfort thing.

 

[pdxpipe]

This is exclusively all I do, for years now. This developed over time, and here's how.

I smoked cigars once upon a time, but when my kids came along I stopped. Soon my pipe smoking was just for outside, didn't smoke in the house with my children. When I was in the office (a writer's room) I couldn't smoke, so I wound up with it in my teeth most of the time unlit, and would light it on breaks. But soon the breaks were fewer and fewer. To relax I'm a fine art painter--I don't light a flame there because of very combustible solvents, turps, etc.

So, slowly but surely I got to just enjoy the aroma and flavor of just an unlit pipe. I still try different tobaccos for the taste and aroma I get "dry" smoking, I still buy pipes, but now I am enjoying them as beautiful works of art--it matters little to me how they smoke. If I buy a Dunhill, I'm buying for the beauty. A Costello--same way, etc etc.

So, I guess that makes me not a pipe smoker at all--except I do everything a pipe smoker does --buy tobacco, fill my bowl, collect beautiful pipes--without lighting them. I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy it.

So to answer the OPs question--you bet I do! All the time! It's kind of nice to know there are others who do the same, and it's not just me alone in my non smoking pipe smoking. Cheers!