Tasting Pipe Tobaccos: Should we Become more Disciplined about this?: Difference between revisions

Let us now embark upon a preliminary analysis of what factors influence this deeply pleasurable experience. It would seem that there are three groups of factors or variables that directly affect pipe tobacco tasting. These should be taken into account if pipe-tobacco tasting is ever to achieve any degree of validity and reliability. The three sets of variables are (1) the tobacco itself, (2) the pipe, and (3) the pipe smoker. Please bear in mind that there may be several variables that I have overlooked or have insufficiently considered. Also note that few of these variables are new, but they have seldom, if ever, been cataloged into a comprehensive list.

One of the most influential factors that affects the taste of pipe tobacco is the temperature of the burning tobacco. This is beyond whether the tobacco burns hot or cool. If the tobacco is burning at a higher temperature, it will often taste differently, even in the same pipe. I have noticed that when the temperature is low, a Virginia or English tobacco may display subtleties of taste and flavor that are not apparent when the puffing is more intense and the temperature is high. I have closely observed that those subtleties disappear at precisely the point where the temperature achieves a certain level. The net effect is that the same tobacco may seem boring and dull to one smoker and interesting and fascinating to another, depending on the temperature of the burning tobacco.

The "nose" or fragrance of pipe tobaccos is different from wines in that there is a "dual bouquet" with these tobaccos. They will have a characteristic fragrance in the tin and quite another when transformed into smoke. A few reviewers do mention this, but perhaps more time on this topic is needed. The fragrance of the tobacco in the tin is not always indicative of the taste of the tobacco. For example, I am quite fond of the taste of Hermit's Ten Russians but do not care for its bouquet in the tin. The fruit topping on Dunhill's Three Year Matured Virginia gives me a headache when I smoke it, even though that raspberry fragrance is fine in the tin.

In this section, dedicated to examining the pipe's influence on tobacco taste, I should mention that the focus is the briar pipe. We know that meerschaum affects the flavor of a smoke in a different manner than briar. I look upon the difference in terms of wine once again. The very finest dry wines, red and white, are aged in oak barrels. The oak imparts structure and "backbone" to the taste of the wine and enhances the flavor of the wine by providing toasty or vanillin overtones. I believe that briar affects burning pipe tobacco in much the same way as oak affects wine, making the flavors deeper, more structured, and sweeter or nuttier. Conversely, when wine is stored in more neutral containers such as glass vats, a more fruity character develops that does not have the depth or complexity imparted by oak. Meerschaum, a more neutral substance, does not seem to have an influence on tobacco comparable to that of briar.

It can be a mistake to say that a tobacco smokes wet when the problem comes from an improperly bored mortise. When there is too much open space between the tip of the tenon and the bottom of the mortise, a considerable amount of moisture can accumulate. The pipe starts to gurgle, and one is compelled to run a pipe cleaner through the stem and shank. All too often, the moisture build up is not due to wet tobacco so much as this flaw in the workmanship of the pipe. This can lead to the mistaken conclusion that the tobacco leads to a wet smoke.

As if all the preceding variables were not complex enough, here is where things really get involved. Variables produced by the pipe smoker are of several types. They can be due to smoking habits, the expectations and mindset of the pipe smoker, and environmental factors. The most important point here is that the pipe-tobacco taster, in order to be as accurate as possible, needs to be aware of his or her own smoking habits and mindset relative to that of other pipe smokers and pipe smoking itself.