Does smoking in a damp environment adversely affect taste?

[CLFman]

Hi guys, I am relatively new and this morning I had my first bad tasting smoke from my EMP. It was raining hard outside and I decided to go to my porch and enjoy a nice pipe while watching the rain fall.

Quarter way through the smoke it started to taste awful and I smelled the smoke and was rebuked by this strong smell of what seemed like ammonia. At first I couldn't figure it out since I clean my pipes and my hands were clean when I packed it. At first I thought it might have been the matches. It was a first time using free matches from a reputable cigar shop in Manhattan. I was going to throw the baccy out but then I noticed that the ash was a bit less fine than usual.

Could the damp environment possibly have been the culprit?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Ammonia? Gross!

I'm a pretty solid EMP fan, and being in Nevada, don't get particularly humid conditions very much (except for seasonal thunderstorms, which can get pretty swampy...) and more humid EMP smoking never gave me ammonia. I will say over-saturated atmosphere, cold, and damp/hotly-smoked tobacco never does the flavor any good, though--EMP included. Moister EMP tends to be pretty harsh on the tongue and it kills the subtle Latakia and slight earthiness I've come to love.

8)

 

[monbla256]

Ambient weather conditions CAN have an effect on HOW a pipe and it's tobacco both smoke and taste and smell. My Amphora that I smoked over in 'Nam smoked WAY different in all aspects when I got back to Texas and was the reason I started to smoke English/Balkan style of 'bac . And you may have gotten a "taste" of what non-smokers smell when you light up an English blend As two of my ex's said, "... that smells like burning garbage !" :roll:

 

[CLFman]

Well I'll be damn, you were right about the english blend. I smoke blue mountain regularly but I never detected the amnonia smell to me until I took a hard sniff and detected it too. Strange thing is that I never had a problem with EMP except for that one instance, guess I hit a rough patch when I smoked.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

As two of my ex's said, "... that smells like burning garbage !" :roll:

...so, are they exes because they couldn't take your "burning garbage," or you knew better than to tolerate them insulting your beloved "burning garbage?" :lol:

 

[monbla256]

As two of my ex's said, "... that smells like burning garbage !" :roll:

...so, are they exes because they couldn't take your "burning garbage," or you knew better than to tolerate them insulting your beloved "burning garbage?" :lol:

That also :lol:

 

[MisterE]

Sometimes during the rainy season here or the monsoons in Tucson I'll have more instances of sour smokes. This probably has less to do with moist tobacco than with pipes not being dried out enough between smokes. Perhaps the wood just soaks up a little of the ambient moisture in the air. I'm not positive about what exactly causes it. I've just noticed a correlation.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

It's raining pretty good here in Northern Nevada. Due to this, I took out the EMP before I run off into the wastelands yet again, and noticed there's a bit more pronounced "pith" taste, but it wasn't unpleasant. I actually like EMP because it doesn't seem to soak up moisture, nor does it burn differently to a great degree (by my reckon) when moisture is present atmospherically. *shrug*

I definitely like smoking in drier conditions (I'm probably used to them)...but it was a good smoke this morning. 8)

 

[laherb]

When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail, I tried carrying a pipe with me in a few sections and found that having a pipe constantly in humid weather made for some rather sour smokes. So, sadly I gave up on carrying a pipe, not worth carrying that weight just to get sour smokes. I think a meerschaum would probably do well in damp environments, but they can't take a beating like briar.


Abe