Those of you that can discern differences in the taste of different briars (I certainly can't), have you also found differences in cobs?
The Pipe Doesn't Matter ...
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Definitely had some briars which just for whatever reason taste better or worse than others. Never had that issue with a cob. I've probably got 20 MM cobs right now and they are all pretty consistent.
Except for the tobacco, cadence, drying time, lighting method, tamping technique, temperature, relative humidity, season of the year, time of day and quite possibly the alignment of the planets (according to some).......
Some of my pipes make Virginia tobacco sing and others are just meh. My Latakia pipes have bigger bowls because I find that it allows the other flavors to show more. All this could be in my head of course, the same as when I finish a tin and I find that the last two-three smokes are amazing.
I believe GLP is correct. But honest truth is, I wouldn't know a bad pipe if I had one. One of the reason I stick to Peterson, and silver band is to try to limit the quality of the pipes I get. I'm sure that's not the right way of going about getting a good pipe, but I've been lucky. Yes, my pipes smoke different from each other, but they smoke close enough not to distract from enjoying the tobacco.
Great article and some beautiful pipes on display. I was happy to see some rim darkening on those Heeschen’s. That means I can stop beating myself over the head because of some rim darkening / patina developing on my two artisan pipes.
It's primarily on the back of the chamber. More likely buildup than darkening.
Fair enough. I wondering though, why would buildup only develop on the back of the chamber?
As a pipe hangs when clenching, the smoke rises from the tobacco and across the back of the chamber and rim.
You don't see mention of "green" pipes much anywhere, in my experience. They definitely exist, and I still retain one. I want to ebay it, but so far cannot summon the will to inflict such a piece on some poor trusting soul. I haven't tossed it, because it's an LB clone, my favorite shape, from a respectable house of yore. It defies any sweetening method known to mankind, and I'm convinced the briar was cured with or grown in something vile. Bitter? Oh yeah, and beyond....In my experience, I have had a pipe that tasted like the briar was very green, so the pipe added a bitter taste to everything I smoked in it. When I have brought this up in threads in the past, everyone just accuses me of being a Peterson hater. But, obviously, I'm not crazy... well... not on this one issue anyways.
I smoke cobs exclusively and the bowl size is really the only thing affecting a blend's taste that I notice with those.
Briar matters, chamber geometry matters, slot matters, tobacco matters, tobacco prep matters, cadence matters, moisture matters, maintanence matters, acuteness of one's senses matters. Other than that, it's pretty cut and dried.
I wish I had the patience and the pallet to experiment like Mr Peace. I can say that I have experienced some subtleties in different pipes I have smoked, but could not tell you if it was because of what I ate, my mood that day or which way the wind was blowing or because of the quality of the briar. When I first got into pipe smoking 23 years ago, I use to read about how nothing could match the smoking qualities of an aged briar straight grain and that by the 21 first century all the good briar was going to be gone. This doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore and in some circles is argued that older briar doesn’t smoke any different than younger briar. Great article and lots of good replies!