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Tobacco Types

RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
in Pipes
Quick question. I'm reading in here, trying to get my learn on. It seems that you don't want to only have one pipe, because the tobacco will "ghost", or impart a flavor on the pipe after a while. So, with that...what are the different types? The only two I seem to be able to find are regular and aromatic (sp?). How do you tell the difference? Is this like the difference between Habano and Maduro, or infused and regular? Right now, it seems easier to say "This pipe is only for CAO blends".

Comments

  • AugustWestAugustWest Posts: 62
    I'm by no means an expert, but I've been putting the cigars to rest and smoking pipe in the winters for the last couple years. You want to have different pipes if you smoke different kind of aromatics for sure. For example, the toppings on fruit-flavored tobacco will ghost the same way the toppings on a honey, caramel, or chocolate flavored tobacco will taste. Some toppings can get goopy and make a hell of a mess in your bowl too. In the non-aromatic world (where I smoke - just preference, nothing wrong with aro's), I have different pipes for my latakia blends (aka English), my straight Virginia's, and my VaPer's. If you're a lakeland guy, you'll definitely want a different pipe for these because they ghost like latakia but with a soapy/floral taste. Examples of what I smoke: Latakia/English blends: Seattle Pipe Club Mississippi River, McClelland Frogmorton, Northwoods (made by my local B&M - JM Boswell's). Taste is smoky, room note is "campfire" so say the guys at my club. I don't smoke straight latakia because it's far too strong for my taste. Straight Virginia: Cornell & Diehl Opening Night, Sam Gawith Full Virginia Flake. Taste is smooth, rich tobacco. Room note is mild. Can bite your tongue if you don't sip it slow. VaPer: Escudo, Esoterica Dunbar, McConnell's Scottish Cake. Taste like Virginia but peppery from the perique tobacco. Room note also mild. Best advice I can give you about starting out, get about 3-4 Missouri Meerschaum corncob pipes, pick out 3-4 different kinds of tobacco's, and let 'er rip. Better yet, call up CCOM and ask for help building a sampler. Cobs are very forgiving, don't have to build up a cake to enjoy a cool, smooth smoke, and are inexpensive (not cheap! they are good quality just inexpensive).
  • AugustWestAugustWest Posts: 62
    PS if this is inappropriate to post, I apologize and mean no disrespect, but I bought all my pipe tobacco from a website called PipesandCigars.com and they are now part of the Cigars International family. You can learn A LOT from their website. Also a great site is tobaccoreviews.com. It's just a review site but it's packed with good information. Again, if this is inappropriate to post, I apologize and mean no disrespect. In the spirit of helping out with knowledge acquisition (getting your learn on) I wanted to share it.
  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    I don't come to the Pipe section enough to know about your rules ;)Thank you for the info!
  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    I guess they're the same as the other areas.
    Gentlemen:
    I smoke a pipe all day long. I have going on 30 pipes. I smoke about 10 or so MANY times a day. I don't worry about the aromatic versus this or that. I choose a pipe by mood and how one of my blends fair in the pipe I want to smoke at the time and which blend I want. To save a pipe for a particular type or blend in my mind is a waste of a good pipe. I started with a few and now have many. I enjoy the pipe I ALWAYS have one in my mouth. Sit back relax say " I would like to smoke this pipe and I feel like smokin this blend" Put them together and enjoy.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    pilgrimtex:
    I guess they're the same as the other areas.
    Gentlemen:
    I smoke a pipe all day long. I have going on 30 pipes. I smoke about 10 or so MANY times a day. I don't worry about the aromatic versus this or that. I choose a pipe by mood and how one of my blends fair in the pipe I want to smoke at the time and which blend I want. To save a pipe for a particular type or blend in my mind is a waste of a good pipe. I started with a few and now have many. I enjoy the pipe I ALWAYS have one in my mouth. Sit back relax say " I would like to smoke this pipe and I feel like smokin this blend" Put them together and enjoy.
    I'm going to agree, somewhat, and disagree, somewhat.

    First, the agreement part.
    I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke, oh, say, Cavendish blends in a particular pipe stop me from trying something else in it. Say, for instance, we're out for a ride and I've brought a pouch of some Cavendish blend and the pipe I usually smoke it with, and you say

    "Hey, I just got some of this English Blend, want to try it?"

    My answer is "yes", and I'll smoke it in a heartbeat, and offer you some of whatever I've brought. I'll discern the flavors, bearing in mind that the cake in my bowl is affecting it, at least somewhat, and I'll enjoy it for what it is.

    On the other hand

    Pipe tobaccos are more like wines than beers. You can mix any two beers together, you still have beer, and it's still drinkable. Many wines do not mix well with others, and trying to do so produces an un-drinkable liquid.

    Case in point, I've been smoking some Latakia blends out of a pipe for about a year now, and that pipe had nothing but Lane 1-Q smoked out of it for at least 10 years. I've also been smoking those same blends out of a pipe that JDH sent me that wasn't really quite broke in yet. The JDH pipe has taken to the Latakias quite well, and the older pipe develops an unpleasant bitterness that I thought would fade with time, but isn't.

    Well, Walt sent me some Lane blends recently, very nice tobaccos, and I decided to smoke them in that old 1-Q pipe, and they're great! The bitterness is gone! Similarly, I dedicated another pipe to Orliks Flake, a VaPer, for awhile, and after 5 - 6 pipefuls, I'm able to appreciate the subtleties of the Perique far better than the first couple bowls.

    With all that said, I'm back to agreeing with Pilgrimtex in that I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke a particular blend stop me from smoking a particular pipe, if I just felt like using that pipe at the moment.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    Steve: Thanks for agreeing I guess. LOL Glad you like my blends.
    I only drink wine out of crystal wine glasses. The flavor comes through in crystal. I also rinse a wine glass thoroughly before going to a different wine. Again its something I learned by visiting some of the best wineries and having friends that owned wineries in Italy.
    As for cake in the pipe; I scrape mine out quite regularly. If you don't you get too much buildup and the smoke will begin to taste bad on the palate. 1/16 is plenty. Anything more can add to unenjoyment. When I scrape the bowls I also washout the stems under warm running water with a scraping pipe cleaner. Gets them back to new condition. You can really taste the difference after a good cleaning.
    The blends I sent Steve are not 100% Lane. The Black Kathy I blend with Lane's BLWB is from Altadis. Its a 50/50 blend by volume not weight.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That Black Kathy is something, and the 50/50 mix is awesome. I can see how that is your everyday smoke. It also gave me a chance to do something I've never done, smoke a pipeful of pure Cavendish. That was interesting! And not as strong as I'd thought (feared) it might be.

    In the 5 years I spent in Germany, I never made it to Italy. Right up to the border on a bike trip through Switzerland and Austria, but never over into Italia. I sure do miss a lot of things about Germany in particular, and Europe in general, though. For those who've never been, make it a point to spend at least a month sometime in your life. As Pilgrimtex demonstrates, there are some things you just have to experience for yourself.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • J.S.J.S. Posts: 754 ✭
    I guess we are all a little different. I have only a few pipes right now and have been smoking for just a little more than 3yrs now. I have 2 pipes for VA blends and only straight VA's or VA/Burley go in them. Even so, I love Peterson's Sherlock Holmes and have found that after smoking a couple of years worth of other tins of stuff it does not taste quite right. A salt and alcohol treatment does the trick and I am back tasting what I love.

    That said, I would and do smoke VA in pipes I have dedicated to Lat. and VA/Per blends. I would never cross in the other direction as the Lat. and the Per. both ghost so heavily that I can taste them in straight VA blend just from the pipe itself.
  • J.S.J.S. Posts: 754 ✭
    Amos Umwhat:
    pilgrimtex:
    I guess they're the same as the other areas.

    Gentlemen:

    I smoke a pipe all day long. I have going on 30 pipes. I smoke about 10 or so MANY times a day. I don't worry about the aromatic versus this or that. I choose a pipe by mood and how one of my blends fair in the pipe I want to smoke at the time and which blend I want. To save a pipe for a particular type or blend in my mind is a waste of a good pipe. I started with a few and now have many. I enjoy the pipe I ALWAYS have one in my mouth. Sit back relax say " I would like to smoke this pipe and I feel like smokin this blend" Put them together and enjoy.

    I'm going to agree, somewhat, and disagree, somewhat.


    First, the agreement part.

    I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke, oh, say, Cavendish blends in a particular pipe stop me from trying something else in it. Say, for instance, we're out for a ride and I've brought a pouch of some Cavendish blend and the pipe I usually smoke it with, and you say

    "Hey, I just got some of this English Blend, want to try it?"

    My answer is "yes", and I'll smoke it in a heartbeat, and offer you some of whatever I've brought. I'll discern the flavors, bearing in mind that the cake in my bowl is affecting it, at least somewhat, and I'll enjoy it for what it is.


    On the other hand


    Pipe tobaccos are more like wines than beers. You can mix any two beers together, you still have beer, and it's still drinkable. Many wines do not mix well with others, and trying to do so produces an un-drinkable liquid.


    Case in point, I've been smoking some Latakia blends out of a pipe for about a year now, and that pipe had nothing but Lane 1-Q smoked out of it for at least 10 years. I've also been smoking those same blends out of a pipe that JDH sent me that wasn't really quite broke in yet. The JDH pipe has taken to the Latakias quite well, and the older pipe develops an unpleasant bitterness that I thought would fade with time, but isn't.

    Well, Walt sent me some Lane blends recently, very nice tobaccos, and I decided to smoke them in that old 1-Q pipe, and they're great! The bitterness is gone! Similarly, I dedicated another pipe to Orliks Flake, a VaPer, for awhile, and after 5 - 6 pipefuls, I'm able to appreciate the subtleties of the Perique far better than the first couple bowls.


    With all that said, I'm back to agreeing with Pilgrimtex in that I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke a particular blend stop me from smoking a particular pipe, if I just felt like using that pipe at the moment.


    Amos, if you still want to use that pipe that had 1-Q in it for other things I would try the salt and alcohol treatment. It will take the ghosts out of most pipes. If it doesn't there are other things to try. Greg Pease has a good method for extreme situations but I doubt that 1-Q even at 10 yrs would be extreme.

    On that note, 1-Q was the first blend I tried and I almost stopped. It looked like tobacco and had a great smell but I could not taste tobacco just a wisp of vanilla here and there. I think I will want to revisit it after a few more yrs as so many seem to love it.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    J.S.:
    Amos Umwhat:
    pilgrimtex:
    I guess they're the same as the other areas.
    Gentlemen:
    I smoke a pipe all day long. I have going on 30 pipes. I smoke about 10 or so MANY times a day. I don't worry about the aromatic versus this or that. I choose a pipe by mood and how one of my blends fair in the pipe I want to smoke at the time and which blend I want. To save a pipe for a particular type or blend in my mind is a waste of a good pipe. I started with a few and now have many. I enjoy the pipe I ALWAYS have one in my mouth. Sit back relax say " I would like to smoke this pipe and I feel like smokin this blend" Put them together and enjoy.
    I'm going to agree, somewhat, and disagree, somewhat.

    First, the agreement part.
    I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke, oh, say, Cavendish blends in a particular pipe stop me from trying something else in it. Say, for instance, we're out for a ride and I've brought a pouch of some Cavendish blend and the pipe I usually smoke it with, and you say

    "Hey, I just got some of this English Blend, want to try it?"

    My answer is "yes", and I'll smoke it in a heartbeat, and offer you some of whatever I've brought. I'll discern the flavors, bearing in mind that the cake in my bowl is affecting it, at least somewhat, and I'll enjoy it for what it is.

    On the other hand

    Pipe tobaccos are more like wines than beers. You can mix any two beers together, you still have beer, and it's still drinkable. Many wines do not mix well with others, and trying to do so produces an un-drinkable liquid.

    Case in point, I've been smoking some Latakia blends out of a pipe for about a year now, and that pipe had nothing but Lane 1-Q smoked out of it for at least 10 years. I've also been smoking those same blends out of a pipe that JDH sent me that wasn't really quite broke in yet. The JDH pipe has taken to the Latakias quite well, and the older pipe develops an unpleasant bitterness that I thought would fade with time, but isn't.

    Well, Walt sent me some Lane blends recently, very nice tobaccos, and I decided to smoke them in that old 1-Q pipe, and they're great! The bitterness is gone! Similarly, I dedicated another pipe to Orliks Flake, a VaPer, for awhile, and after 5 - 6 pipefuls, I'm able to appreciate the subtleties of the Perique far better than the first couple bowls.

    With all that said, I'm back to agreeing with Pilgrimtex in that I'd never let the fact that I usually smoke a particular blend stop me from smoking a particular pipe, if I just felt like using that pipe at the moment.
    Amos, if you still want to use that pipe that had 1-Q in it for other things I would try the salt and alcohol treatment. It will take the ghosts out of most pipes. If it doesn't there are other things to try. Greg Pease has a good method for extreme situations but I doubt that 1-Q even at 10 yrs would be extreme. On that note, 1-Q was the first blend I tried and I almost stopped. It looked like tobacco and had a great smell but I could not taste tobacco just a wisp of vanilla here and there. I think I will want to revisit it after a few more yrs as so many seem to love it.
    I have not heard of the salt / acohol treatment, but will probably just continue to use that pipe for what it seems to "like". I get a lot of chocolate taste, some vanilla from 1-Q, it is indeed very mild, and for me that makes it a good "anytime" tobacco. I haven't had it in a couple years, though, when I buy it again I'll start small. Tastes develop, change. thanks for the heads up on clearing the pipe of residual flavors, I'll have to look into that.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    Have not heard of the salt and alcohol treatment. When my pipes need it I scrape them down almost to the wood and wash out my stems. This method has brought my pipes back to good smokers every time. I went back to pipes a few yrs ago starting with 1Q but graduated off of it rather quickly. I smoke a lot of tobacco (as much as 5lbs/month). I find smoking bulk tobaccos to be a real joy. It also saves me a bundle. Whats great about bulk tob is making your own custom blends. Thats basically all I'm smoking at this time. It can also be fun sharing our blends and working on some together. Thats the main reason I started this thread.
  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    Walt, don't steal my thread.I started this thread.;)
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    pilgrimtex:
    When my pipes need it I scrape them down almost to the wood and wash out my stems. This method has brought my pipes back to good smokers every time.
    This has been what I've always done, as well, and with good success. I had been reluctant to put the pipe in question through this again, though, it's been a few times before.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've been smoking Pilgrimtex's 50/50 BLWB/Black Kathy for a few days now, and really enjoying it, but thought I'd move on and try the TK6. Heavy on the cavendish with some burley this is another treat for me. Not enough burley to bite, but enough to keep the cavendish from overwhelming. On the first few puffs I thought I'd made a mistake, because there was a strong taste of cherry. Checked, nope, it's the right bag, the cherry started to fade. "maybe Walt dropped some in there" was my thought, but on looking at the description in the pipe tobacco section, I found that the cherry hint is indeed supposed to be there. Added a sort of mystery, as it comes and goes, waxes and wanes as you progress through the bowl.

    I liked it. I don't know if it would be an all-day for me, like the 50/50 was, but very enjoyable.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • J.S.J.S. Posts: 754 ✭
    If you have smoked several blends and you find a bitter/sour or harsh taste you can try what is called the salt and alcohol treatment. This is what needs to be done. First ream any extra cake but no need to take it all the way down to wood (usually). Second, make sure you can set the bowl in a way that it is straight up and will not fall. Next, take a pipe cleaner and fold it in half and place it the air way of the shank into the bottom of the bowl. I also take several more and fill the shank to help prevent any leaks and help aid the process of moving all that junk out of the shank too. Then I fill the bowl with Kosher Salt, any salt as long as it is not the iodized table salt will work. Once it is filled I take an eye dropper that you can pick up at any pharmacy and drop in high proof liquor. I use Everclear. Make sure not to get any on the pipe, if you do wipe it off right away. Make sure to get the salt fully saturated but not sloppy, if that makes sense. Leave it overnight and it will pull all the nastiness out leaving everything clean and sweet. Sometimes this has to be repeated but this should work.
  • J.S.J.S. Posts: 754 ✭
    I should say this works great with blends of the same type (i.e., my VA pipes). I have not tried to use it for the purpose of taking the Lat. out of one of my Lat. pipes to the point that I could smoke a VA in it and not taste the Lat.

    Back to the thread topic. I don't think VA's and Burley really ghost unless they are cased with something. Even then it will often smoke out of a pipe within a few bowls. Lat. and Per. both ghost and I would not smoke them in a pipe dedicated to VA's and Burley.

    Aromatics all ghost and I would never smoke them in a pipe dedicated to traditional tobacco. I am not a big fan of the aromatics but I have 1 pipe that I smoke them in. Rain, I hope this helps a little.

  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    Rain:
    Walt, don't steal my thread.I started this thread.;)

    LOL. Sorry andy. Thinkin I was in the other thread Tobacco reviews. My Bad. Hey everyone Randy started this thread!!!!!
    Blame it on my PTSD.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,898 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I tried something interesting yesterday afternoon. I checked my tin of Orlik Flake, down to the last couple flakes, and noticed that there was a half flake at the bottom. I know that it's pretty much one flake equals one pipeful, so, there's a half.
    hmm
    I rubbed that out, then added an equal amount of Walts 50/50 blend of Very Cherry and BLWB, mixed those together gently and sniffed it.
    hmm
    Still needs something, so, in goes a slightly smaller amount of the Black Kathy cavendish. I tossed my little tobacco salad, packed a pipe, and voila!

    It came out very well. I thought that the other flavors might mask the Perique in the Orlik, in fact, I think it enhanced it, or the Perique enhanced the cherry/cavendish mix.

    At any rate, I was very pleased with the result, and I'm afraid my last two Orlik flakes future have been decided.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    Amos Umwhat:
    I tried something interesting yesterday afternoon. I checked my tin of Orlik Flake, down to the last couple flakes, and noticed that there was a half flake at the bottom. I know that it's pretty much one flake equals one pipeful, so, there's a half.
    hmm
    I rubbed that out, then added an equal amount of Walts 50/50 blend of Very Cherry and BLWB, mixed those together gently and sniffed it.
    hmm
    Still needs something, so, in goes a slightly smaller amount of the Black Kathy cavendish. I tossed my little tobacco salad, packed a pipe, and voila!

    It came out very well. I thought that the other flavors might mask the Perique in the Orlik, in fact, I think it enhanced it, or the Perique enhanced the cherry/cavendish mix.

    At any rate, I was very pleased with the result, and I'm afraid my last two Orlik flakes future have been decided.

    LOL. Welcome to my world. There are so many pipe tobaccos out there to play with and no rules. The only down side is that you could wind up with an inventory of blends that rivals the largest tobacco shops. LOL Did I say Down side? NOT!!!!
  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    It's ok Walt.I even changed the subject! Now it's not a question, but a place to talk about types. Score!
  • pilgrimtexpilgrimtex Posts: 429 ✭
    Rain:
    It's ok Walt.I even changed the subject! Now it's not a question, but a place to talk about types. Score!

    Ok so you changed the name. Remember I put the 5 stars on it. I love the CC forum And I'm feelin no pain. LOL
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