Saturday Night Experiment
I'm conducting an experiement. It may go against the grain of pipe smoking; I'm not sure. I'm too new to this great hobby to know at this stage.Nonetheless I had the experiment planned for the last week and have gone ahead with it.
I have lit up two pipes simultaneously. Both are Petersons. Neither are much older than the other. In one I have Amphora: Original Blend and in the other Borkum RIff: Original. The former a Burley and the latter an aromatic.
The point of the experiment was to compare the two tobaccos against each other to simply see whether or not I can taste the difference, and secondly, to decide which I prefer.
It's raised a fundamental issue. How to you taste the tobacco? Besides a somewhat lighter "texture" to the Borkum, I can't "taste" any differences. What could I be doing wrong?
This also leads me to a second question. What is responsible for the highly bitter after taste that a pipe can leave in your mouth. Is it a function of the tobacco, moisture, smoking speed or all of the above?
Regards,
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As far as taste goes, you
As far as taste goes, you should really pay attention to your nose - because that's where 90% of your perceived taste comes from. Lighting up two different blends at the same time, might end up tasting the same as your nose (brain) can't figure out which is which.
As far as the bitter stuff goes, I'll leave that to the trained professionals. They should be around shortly.
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My name: Lars Wiberg | My alias: slartie
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Interesting
I'm surprised you can't taste any difference. Perhaps if you smoked one after the other. I'm familiar with both tobaccos - they're quite different. Used to smoke Borkhum Riff a great deal. The bitter aftertaste: As the smoke progresses, so juice collects in the pipe & the smoke sours. This should be cleaned up several times during the smoke (depending on how moist the smoke is) with a pipe cleaner. Or, by shaking the stuff out & a pipe cleaner if you have a military stem Pete. Smoking speed is right is you can comfortably hold the bowl in your hand without it getting hot.
These are good experiments. Don't be put off by "shoulds & shouldn'ts" - keep trying new stuff & learning.
A word on tasting
How does one taste the tobacco? For wine I can say with confidence that you need a clean glass. You make sure you swirl the wine to release the volatiles, and you get a feeling for the nose of the wine by taking smooth long "sniffs". You then sip the wine, let it run to all areas of the mouth and then draw in a small bit of air through the lips to really expose the flavours and the tannins. This gives you a feeling for the true taste of the wine.
The above explanation of wine tasting was the way that I learnt and I am sure that there are better ways and refinements on the technique. Nonetheless, the point is that when deciding on a wine that I like I have a game plan for exposing the flavours and thereby a tool to make the decision. With pipe smoking I don't yet have this so called game plan to really expose the flavours. I need some help here.
Regards,
(and thanks for the comments above - slartie for the obvious oversight on my part of confusing the brain anf Muddler for the encouragement)
When it comes to tasting
When it comes to tasting pipe tobaccos, I have found that going through an entire tin of whatever you're sampling is what's needed in order to make a basic review of what you're messing around with. Smoking a bowl or two simply isn't enough to judge a blend. After 5, 10 and 15 bowls, most blends I have come across change a little bit and reveal more subtle nuances. It's those nuances I look for.
Sometimes it would be nice to be able to judge a pipe tobaccos from a few sips, but after having dedicated some time to getting to know these blends, a sip won't cut it :)
MPC administrator, moderator and overall member wrangler.
My name: Lars Wiberg | My alias: slartie
My blog: website | My photos: Flickr
LAMY Safari
Yeah, numerous bowls...
and at different times of the day. Using a different pipe may or may not be a good idea. I seem to have better taste buds first thing in the morning and right before bed.
"If you can't send money, send tobacco." -George Washington to the Continental Congress, 1776
In the case of Riverboat Gambler,
.. I actually liked it more after smoking four ounces of it. Then the last eight ounces I savored because I really got used to liking it. So, I agree, you need to smoke a tobacco numerous times over the course of days to weeks and then you will really know it well.
Appleton, Wisconsin USA
Captain Bob's Blend: www.cornellanddiehl....
hmmm...
I wonder...If you are having difficulty tasting the difference between tobaccos...I wonder...if you are perhaps doing something that I did when I first started smoking pipes. I used to smoke so fast I could have burnt off my hand with the bowl...the idea in my head was that the more smoke I had...then the more flavour I would get. In most cases the exact opposite is true. What I have found is that the most flavour comes from smoking just at the edge of your pipe going out. Some tobaccos will produce huge clouds of smoke...and that is fine...but others don't and that doesn't mean that you need to work to get more smoke out of it...
anyway...easy does it...seems to work the best.
also...if I were you...I might to try some other tobaccos as well as the ones you currently have...some of the tobaccos that have a lot of good favor around here are Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, Mac Baren Navy Flake, and Cornell and Diehl's Old Joe Krantz
these all (I can't vouch on the FVF because it is on my try-me list) have pronounced flavour and might give you some other things to taste...
anyway...happy puffing...and let us know how things are progressing!
Cheers,
Josh