kurtdesign1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 6:15 pm
Kip wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:32 pm
?
Sent via Caribbean smoke signal
First time in my life I've ever heard that pipe makes the tobacco taste better. I can somewhat understand density. It's akin to a bad or good draw in a cigar but the pipe itself... weird. Care to explain?
I can explain, but pretty much only anecdotally. Of course, the pack density can alter how a tobacco behaves (which impacts flavor). Also, the cut of the blend (whether it's an intact flake, shag-cut, ribbon, broken flake, or cube-cut...they all matter, as this impacts at the very least burn rate.
As for the pipe, I have no idea why, except some pipes simply represent a blend differently. I suspect it could be to past blends in the pipe, in some way (although I believe this is minimal, unless you're varying greatly from its past, or the past is focused around a peculiar blend). I also suspect bowl structure/geometry makes for a huge difference (for example, a tall, sharply tapered conical bowl will produce a very different flavor than a short, squatty, broadly-bored bowl with the same tobacco). I'm sure there are more factors at play as well, but these are a good starting place. Bowl geometry intrigues me, as I don't have any hard, fast rules. There are as many ideas an opinions are there are bowl shapes and sizes....
Of course, things we've discussed before also have an impact. Boring, for example....as we've talked about ad nauseum, improper drilling causes extra moisture and all sorts of smoking ailments.
* - as a side note, I'm speaking of established pipes. New pipes without a bowl coat, during their break in period, have a *very* distinct flavor that is imparted to the smoke. This dissipates once cake is established, so I'm not at all commenting on them....