Thoughts and questions after my first two bowls...

[danimalia]

So a couple of days after getting my order in, I've finally jumped right in and smoked the darn thing... I had a couple of observations and questions.
I enjoyed them! So far, I've only smoked two bowls. The first was Sutliff Medium English, and the second was a C&D Bayou Night. The flavor is completely different from what I was expecting based on my experience with cigars. I have to admit that I haven't much been able to deeply taste much in the way of flavors yet, but I imagine that will come with time and experience. I know from smoking cigars that the initial broad flavors dominate the senses for a while. Nuance and subtlety come later. At least they did for me. So I feel a bit satisfied in that my first couple of tobacco purchases were bulk, and not tinned. In both bowls, I think I noticed the Latakia more than anything, but I could be wrong.
I do have a question. I know that there are a lot of different variables, but how often should I puff or sip on the pipe. With most cigars, my general rule is to space my puffs about a minute apart, but I will probably need to puff or sip more frequently with pipes? How frequently do you all draw?

 

[damianmonk]

I started about a week ago if I recall correctly, and just like you I didn't feel the flavours at first. However after smoking for a few days and retrohaling (look it up!) I started understanding what all this 'taste' talk was about.
On how often I puff... every 15-20 seconds, so I would say I'm a very fast smoker.

 

[robwoodall]

Danimalia,
"Cadence," they call that, and it's been my biggest problem. Having only minimal experience with cigars, but a history of cigarette smoking, I've tended to puff too fast. I'm guessing you are going to need to speed up.
To make matters worse, each tobacco type is going to respond to a different pace. I'm smoking Frog Morton as I type, and I can puff the heck out of that before I ever get close to tongue bite. Early this morning I was smoking Dunhill London Mixture and it will bite me bad if I don't keep it slow.
I'm still new myself, with about 9 moths of smoking the pipe exclusively, so take my advise with a grain of salt, but I say just experiment with different cadences, and see what works best for each blend.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I agree that different blends lead to a different cadence, but there's more than one way to skin a cat. Theoretically any tobacco can be prepared to burn well, it's really tempting to get a blender to dedicate to tobacco. Surely those wet flakes would burn better after being pulverized by a machine.

 

[mso489]

You're correct in realizing that you won't have full nuanced experiences with various blends until you have been smoking for a while and you can attend fully to the scent and flavor and not so much to the act of smoking a pipe. Relax and don't push it. You have some good blends, and you will learn from them and move on to others, and come back to these, learning along the way. Buy in small quantities, even if you really like a blend, since your tastes will change, probably fairly quickly. But take your time. Don't try too hard and don't feel competitive or particularly ambitious. Go with the flow, as they said in the sixties.

 

[shroedingerscat]

Don't worry about it. If the bowl gets hot enough to be uncomfortable to handle, you're smoking too fast...slow it down a bit. Other than that, just relax and smoke it how you want.