Tasting Tobacco Is Mostly For Me Over Retrohale

[wernerat]

Is it the same for you guys? On my tongue maybe I taste bitter or sweet and maybe sour. (Very decent taste though) but if I blow out the smoke through my nose.... this is where the different tastes come out. I can taste nuances and get what people review and write my own review. But with my tongue... not a lot going on.
What's your experience?

 

[warren]

My palate includes nose and tongue. One without the other simply doesn't work for me.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way. If i sip it in and blow it out with no retro, I can't tell if I even have smoke in my mouth. Only the retro allows me to realize it and pick up any sense of the tobacco I'm smoking.

You could give me 3 pipes and I could not tell the difference between Pirate Kake, Escudo or BCA...unless I retro-ed.

 

[warren99]

What we believe we taste comes mostly from smell. The tongue only detects sweet, sour, salt, bitter and by some accounts, umami, or savoriness. The rest comes from our sense of smell.

 

[PipeIT]

I must be the odd ball, retrohale doesn’t do spit for me.

I also have a few extremely mild allergies, rarely even notice them, and I had a deviated septum, had surgery for that.

SO, I’m not a fan at all of blowing smoke up through my nose.

I know, I know, we all get it, smoking a pipe isn’t healthy, but seriously smoke back up and out the nose, I think this could add more health risks, so I try to avoid this.

I enjoy the smoke in my mouth, and I taste many of the nuances just fine.

Hey, let’s ask Jim, @JimInks now that I think about this, which I never did before, do you retrohale at all Jim, especially doing the taste reviews? hmm

 

[mortonbriar]

I like the contrast of tongue and nostril.

Anything with latakia gets smoked mostly through nostril. Everything else in the blend becomes more apparent this way.

 

[warren99]

I must be the odd ball, retrohale doesn’t do spit for me.

I also have a few extremely mild allergies, rarely even notice them, and I had a deviated septum, had surgery for that.

SO, I’m not a fan at all of blowing smoke up through my nose.

I know, I know, we all get it, smoking a pipe isn’t healthy, but seriously smoke back up and out the nose, I think this could add more health risks, so I try to avoid this.

I enjoy the smoke in my mouth, and I taste many of the nuances just fine.

Hey, let’s ask Jim, @JimInks now that I think about this, which I never did before, do you retrohale at all Jim, especially doing the taste reviews? hmm

I don't believe you need to blow smoke through your nose to appreciate the flavor, anymore than you need to snort a steak to get all the flavor. Somehow, the sense of smell comes through even if the smoke remains in the mouth.

 

[bullet08]

You might need a tongue replacement surgery. But I'm not a doctor. When I first started smoking pipe, my nose couldn't pick up anything. Probably from decades of cig smoking did something to my olfactory sensors. So all the taste was from my tongue. My tongue actually works better than my nose. I can pick out most ingredients in a dish. Then suddenly I was able to pick thing out through retrohale. It did make thing better, more interesting. But didn't really change much.

 

[Clouser]

All connoisseurs of food, wine or liquor always smell before they taste so the nose definitely inhances the sense of taste

 

[blackpowderpiper]

The retrohale is an essential part of every puff for me.

 

[kcghost]

Never got anything out of retrohaling.

 

[yanoJL]

I don't believe you need to blow smoke through your nose to appreciate the flavor, anymore than you need to snort a steak to get all the flavor. Somehow, the sense of smell comes through even if the smoke remains in the mouth.

I do not believe this to be accurate, sir.

Have you ever held your nose closed to swallow something and avoid tasting it?

Hold your nose shut the next time you eat that steak. Or anything for that matter. I'm certain that delicious steak will become noticeably less flavorful as a result.

+1 for the retrohale. For the flavor, yes. But also for the "nose hit/tingle" sensation as well. For me, some blend components (i.e. Perique, DFK) seem to invoke it more than others. And when I retrohale I handle (control?) the smoke in such a way so as to include it in the experience. With practice, you learn to throttle the nose tingle. Surely I'm not alone in this.
(Am I?)

 

[Auxsender]

I perceive taste on my tongue. When I retrohale, which is maybe every 5 or so puffs, what I perceive helps me understand what’s happening on my tongue; it helps to fill in missing pieces. They work together for me. Additionally, I like to smell the smoke as it wafts up my face. Not sure what you’d call that. A regular inhale maybe? I do it carefully so I don’t feel as though I’m inhaling though I suppose I technically am.

 

[warren99]

I do not believe this to be accurate, sir.

Have you ever held your nose closed to swallow something and avoid tasting it?

Hold your nose shut the next time you eat that steak. Or anything for that matter. I'm certain that delicious steak will become noticeably less flavorful as a result.

+1 for the retrohale. For the flavor, yes. But also for the "nose hit/tingle" sensation as well. For me, some blend components (i.e. Perique, DFK) seem to invoke it more than others. And when I retrohale I handle (control?) the smoke in such a way so as to include it in the experience. With practice, you learn to throttle the nose tingle. Surely I'm not alone in this.
(Am I?)

Reasonable minds differ. Certainly, a stuffed nose will affect the flavor of tobacco as it will with food, however, with the nasal passages unclogged, I've never found an appreciable difference in flavor between retrohaling and not.

 

[PipeIT]

I would assume, we’ve all seen the image of the little kids having a fit about eating, and then holding their nose while they eat their food.

Funny, been a long time since I considered this, and I pinched my nose several times while eating something and drinking, and I couldn’t taste a thing... LOL

At first, I thought this must be in my mind, and I did it over several times, every time I pinched my nose, no flavors.

I’ll try this next time to see when I take a puff.

 

[tobakenist]

After many years smoking a pipe, I learnt to vary my tobaccos, if you stick to one you won't taste it after a few days, I smoke mainly English or Balkans, it doesn't matter what type of tobacco, just change to another blend, I do it by blending and just tweak it a bit, I know other pipe smokers that have smoked the same tobacco for many years and they just stick to it, ask them to describe what they are smoking, they will just say "the best tobacco in the world", what a good description.

 

[anotherbob]

I must be the odd ball, retrohale doesn’t do spit for me.

Me too. All I get is tar and ash from a retrohale. When I smoked cigs I needed the retrohale for those. I occasionally get some that just trickles out the nose and don't get any more from that though then just smoking the pipe.

I also have a few extremely mild allergies, rarely even notice them, and I had a deviated septum, had surgery for that.

SO, I’m not a fan at all of blowing smoke up through my nose.

I know, I know, we all get it, smoking a pipe isn’t healthy, but seriously smoke back up and out the nose, I think this could add more health risks, so I try to avoid this.

The fact it can irritate my nose when regular pipe smoking doesn't irritate my mouth at all. Says it might be more of a risk.

I enjoy the smoke in my mouth, and I taste many of the nuances just fine.

Yeah me too.

Hey, let’s ask Jim, @JimInks now that I think about this, which I never did before, do you retrohale at all Jim, especially doing the taste reviews? hmm

 

[anotherbob]

oh if I want to get more nuance and taste I swish the smoke or let it slowly wisp out of my mouth.

 

[warren]

Most people well readily admit to losing flavor when they lose the sense of smell through surgery, COVID, accident, etc. Even most people with a strong sinus head cold readily admit to losing appetite, food tastes bland. We learned about sense of taste and smell in the seventh or eighth grade back in the day. I'm guessing the last few generations didn't have the benefit of a great health class or, writing for that matter. You gotta have the nose and tongue working together for full flavor. This is simply true whether you believe it or not. As some above stated, pinching the nose will reduce flavor, significantly.

Smokers, unless they keep the tongue clean, never really get full flavor.

 

[hawky454]

I couldn’t imagine smoking a pipe without snorking, it’s just natural to me. I was amazed to find out other smokers didn’t do this. But in the end, what does it matter? Smoke the way you like to and I’ll smoke the way I like to. As long as you’re enjoying it, you’re doing it right.

I still kind of look down on those who don’t retrohale. I kid, I kid.