Beginner’s Guide to Pipe Smoking by Ted
Before we get into the types of tobacco available I need to get into the issue of tongue bite. Tongue bite is cause by the heat from inside the chamber heating the moisture from the tobacco until it turns to steam and burns your tongue when you smoke. That is the basic physics of the cause of tongue bite. So the major causes of tongue bite are:
- Smoking Tobacco that is too wet.
- Smoking too fast.
- Packing the pipe too tight.
For the first couple weeks your tongue will be adapting to the heat from the pipe so tongue bite will happen in the first few weeks however there are choices that can help you get through it and enjoy pipe smoking from the start and not have to learn the hard way like I did.
The smoking too fast or pack you will adapt to in time however if the tobacco that you have selected can greatly effect how much tongue bite you get, even seasoned smoking have problems with tongue bite with Super wet tobacco like Borkum Rift which is sold in every single tobacco shop in Thailand and the shop attendant who isn’t a smoker will say it is the best because it is what he sells most of.
The first tobacco I bought was Borkum Rift Cherry A :because I had next to zero information about the types and properties of tobacco and B :because the shop attendant says its the most popular. Before I went in I didn’t have people to guide me and most of the blogs I read are complicated that the me back then didn’t understand half of what is said. So for the first few weeks I had blinding tongue that persisted even after about a month has past and pipe smoking wasn’t so enjoyable for me. I didn’t use filters (i will further explain about filters in another section) you see so I received the full blow of steam from the wet tobacco. It got so bad I quit smoking for 2 months. Now take note that this is my personal experience and that pipe smoking varies from person to person. Some can smoke wet aromatics from the beginning and get minimal tongue bite but those are the lucky few. Most beginners quit because tongue bite persist for months because they chose the wrong tobacco to smoke combined with bad smoking technique.
In conclusion Heavy smell/flavoured aromatics are super wet and will cause more tongue bite especially for beginners. I say again Borkum Rift don’t buy that brand until after a month or so, try MacBarren Vanilla or Caption Black Vanilla if you can’t get your hands on Frog Morton Cellar a friend of mine says they are good. Now continue to the next section where i explain about types of tobaccos including tobacco recommendations.
A Guide to Choosing your Tobacco:
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