The Pipe Tobacco Subreddit Is A Mess

[cigrmaster]

I have been opening 2012 and 2013 tins for years now and never see any type of plume or bloom or whatever you want to call it. My 2007 Stonehaven or 2006 Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake or my 2002 Solani 633 have ever shone any signs of plume or what ever.

I have opened some 1997,1998, 2005,2006 tins of Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky and never see anything on my flakes. I rarely ever saw any bloom on my aged cigars either.

 

[Worknman]

Its about like the facebook group where people make "what is a good blend?" type posts everyday.

 

[Smithy]

Two questions. How does one pipe, and what is Reddit?



That one's been around for decades whether it had a name or not. Wait until you come across another one called ember chasing.

Reddit is reminiscent of the old internet bulletin boards. You can find discussions/photos on almost ANY topic, good or bad. Your life will be richer by avoiding it altogether.

Never heard of ember chasing but found some good descriptions in this thread from 2012:

Ember chasing :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

I recently took part in my first Pipe smoking contest. I didn't finish last but would like to improve my time. While looking a different pipe smoking sites I came across the a technique called "ember chasing" bit with no details. Has anyone heard of this and if so where and what information can...

pipesmagazine.com

It sounds like it involves heavy use of the tamper and is great for longer smoke sessions. According to a few people if you're doing it correctly, the ember should stay on top most of the time and will actually circle the bowl as it's smoked down...very cool.
It's always fun to learn something new so I'll be giving this a shot some time soon.

 

[lraisch]

I believe Greg Pease addressed this subject and pointed out that if these were sugar crystals, they would be water soluble, which they are not. My understanding (and I am not an organic chemist) is that "plume" is actually a crystallization of oils from the tobacco and can develop over time.

As for fungi and bacteria being present, what else would you expect?

 

[craig61a]

I believe Greg Pease addressed this subject and pointed out that if these were sugar crystals, they would be water soluble, which they are not. My understanding (and I am not an organic chemist) is that "plume" is actually a crystallization of oils from the tobacco and can develop over time.

As for fungi and bacteria being present, what else would you expect?

That's the understanding I have had for the past 30 years... I first read about it in Cigar Aficionado. But people still hotly debate the subject on one end of the spectrum or the other.

If it's obviously not fuzzy white mold, I just smoke it and enjoy it.

 

[olkofri]

So is Reddit where S'witter and Fakebook hire all their "fact"-checkers from? ?

 

[Mtlpiper]

I ignore much of what is posted on the few subs I check. Reddit can be pretty dire...

 

[Chasing Embers]

Your life will be richer by avoiding it altogether.

That's what I was thinking. Thanks for the info.?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Never heard of ember chasing

Dottle Diggers by Lawrence :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

While discussing ember chasing with our lovely forum member chasingembers, we realized that some nice articles written by our forum member Lawrence were lost, I managed to find them using Wayback Machine:

pipesmagazine.com