There's no accounting for taste, but let's try

[KarlMaldensNose]

I'm actually referring to taste in its truest sense -- the sense of taste in our mouths. I always hear about what tobacco "tastes" like when smoked, and this really confuses me. To me, I don't really taste the smoke, or at least I don't think I do. It seems more like smelling than tasting to me. I maybe experience about 1% of the smoke's characteristics on my tongue (taste) and the other 99% is experienced in my sinuses and nose (smell), mostly when I exhale out my nose (or retrohale, as some call it). Is it possible that all those years of cigarette smoking obliterated my taste buds and is preventing me from "tasting" the smoke? Or is it more likey that I'm simply new to pipe smoking and just haven't developed my palate yet? Or, is everyone just using the term "taste" loosely to describe whatever way they experience the smoke... a combo of mouth feel, true tongue taste, and olfactory perception? I'll be honest, at this point, I think it is a loosely used term and doesn't refer specifically to mouth and/or tongue taste, as I don't believe the nature of smoke/vapour is as conducive to perceiving it via our taste buds as it is via our olfactory receptors since it is not solid or liquid matter.

EDIT: Just wanted add that I notice some YouTube reviewers of tobacco smacking their lips, tongue and mouth as they're attempting to assess and describe a tobacco's "taste." I don't get it. I mean, I've stated my opinion on the matter, but surely these guys aren't acting or aren't deluded when they're doing that, right? But then again, that's something wine and cheese connoisseurs do... however it's with solid and liquid food matter, not gases and fumes and vapours of a leaf. Anyway, just remembered that and think it's pretty funny watch.

 

[Commander Quan]

Since the tongue can only taste sweet, sour, bitter, salt and umami, most of what we are "tasting" is in fact olfactory perception.

 

[COHunter]

It's the same way you taste food. Most of the heavy lifting so to speak is in the nose, not the mouth. Hence the "tastes like nothing" when your sinuses are plugged. When you "snork" tobacco (sort of a combo of puffing with the mouth, exhaling the smoke through the nose) that's where the flavors come out in the blend. If you've got your pipe too hot, tastes like a bunch of hot air because you're burning the sugars from the tobacco off too quickly leaving just a burt taste. Those guys "smacking" their chops are actually forcing air through their nose laden with the flavors that were left over from the smoke. I will agree that it looks ridiculous though...

 

[Argonaut]

Can't taste smoke with your tongue? Don't tell any BBQ pitmasters that!

 

[Kentos]

If you think about it, all food "flavor" as we think of it comes from aromatic spice and herbs. Take all the flavor away from curry, and all you have is meat boiled in salty water. Just as food needs to me smelled, so does pipe smoke, IMO.

 

[joshua1970]

think the taste buds and olfactory neves are so intertwined inmost of us, it would be nearly impossible to separate the two (unless there is a sinus infection etc as previously mentioend


and one's "mouth Ph" also affects "taste", alot of pipe smokers (and chefs) swear by BIOTENE mouthwash for this reason.

 

[SALBONE]

and one's "mouth Ph" also affects "taste", alot of pipe smokers (and chefs) swear by BIOTENE mouthwash for this reason.

Good to know!

 

[KarlMaldensNose]

Interesting. Never heard of the Biotene thing and did some fast and dirty research. Seems as it's related to pipe smoking that it's used for dry mouth, sour mouth, tongue bite, etc. I know I'm veering off topic here, but I have never got anything even close to tongue bite yet in the two months I've been smoking pipe... either the bite related to heat or related to chemical/PH issues. Just wondering if I'm a minority in that respect, or if lots of guys never get it. I stay away from aromatics like they are the plague, so maybe that helps. But as far as other tobacco goes, I've tried them all -- straight Virginias, VaPers, Burleys, English, Balkan, etc. -- and so far so good. I can be a pretty hard and rapid puffer, too, if I don't watch myself, and again, so far so good. This will sound strange, but I'm curious about this tongue bite everyone talks about to the point that I'd like to experience it myself, just once, to see what the heck it's about.

 

[Uncle Jackie]

Taste, smell, meh. All I know is what appeals to me be it one or the other.

 

[KarlMaldensNose]

Taste, smell, meh. All I know is what appeals to me be it one or the other.

I hear ya... sometimes I just want to feel good or experience pleasure without dissecting and analyzing it. But in this case, I get a tremendous amount of pleasure from pipe tobacco smoke, and I want to find out if I'm missing a whole other dimension (i.e. tongue/mouth "taste") of it. Could be pretty intense, if I'm actually getting only a fraction of what the tobacco has to offer and can learn how to tap into the rest of it.