WOW

[LL]

Just a quickie. It still hurts to sit for long.

Anyone ever heard of "NPO?" It's a medical term/order that means "take nothing by mouth, not even water." It's required for most surgery patients in the 24 hrs before surgery, but is also a treatment for certain digestive disorders like pancreatitis, when inflamed organs need a rest. Can last a week or more. (In such cases the docs use drugs to completely shut down acid production & etc. to avoid damage.)

With me it was eleven days. Gak. Anyway, except for a few things like plain water, yogurt, canned nutri-goop, and so forth, I STILL haven't processed anything. Certainly nothing with any flavor.

So, being the inveterate smoker-experimentalist I am, I just decided to take advantage of the situation to see what tobacco really tastes like.

As PB would say... day-um!

There's an entire field to be explored regarding all this. The optimum amount to smoke to extract the maximum flavor, how often to stop to re-calibrate your tasting assembly, for how long each time, etc. Because I guarantee you it varies 10X according to some sort of "saturation effect." The difference between a bowl of Kendal Dark just now and the same tobacco from the same pipe two weeks ago is absolutely mind blowing.

I will never again think I "know" what a given tobacco tastes like. It all depends...

So many things about our hobby are so profoundly affected by this realization that I haven't even started to process it.

 

[bruins]

i don't know what to make of this LL. are you saying you found another way to smoke your pipe besides your mouth? (NPO) or are you saying, if i cleanse and purge and then fast for 11 days, we'll experience a flavor and nicotine high that is beyond comprehension?

just glad you're back with us, and didn't lose your sense of humor!

 

[LL]

i don't know what to make of this LL. are you saying you found another way to smoke your pipe besides your mouth? (NPO) or are you saying, if i cleanse and purge and then fast for 11 days, we'll experience a flavor and nicotine high that is beyond comprehension?

just glad you're back with us, and didn't lose your sense of humor!

It's the implications that are interesting. Pipe smokers are constantly giving a thumbs up or down to pipes and tobaccos in the manner of movie or music critics, but flavor isn't a constant like sight or sound. We carry on as if it is, but it isn't.

 

[bruins]

It's the implications that are interesting. Pipe smokers are constantly giving a thumbs up or down to pipes and tobaccos in the manner of movie or music critics, but flavor isn't a constant like sight or sound. We carry on as if it is, but it isn't.

ahh...you sir, are obviously someplace special. i hope i can share in your enlightenment...i'm wondering, however, if it will require a vicodin prescription!

 

[Puff Daddy]

No, he's right. Our taste receptors are delivering information and a big part of how they accept and translate taste is based on blood chemistry, and also will be affected by what's been on the palate recently. Don't believe me? Go eat a spicy burrito and then smoke your tobacco, even an hour later. Now wait a good 8 hours and smoke the same tobacco first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee. Big difference. Now imagine a palate cleansed by an 11 day fast.

Of course the prescription drugs will make the tobacco taste different too. When I had my surgery I was on Norco and my pipes tasted quite different, better once I got off it. Everyone's different and our sensitivity to it will be different too.

 

[Greenleaf]

Personally, I was thinking of Lortab. But, I have noticed a difference with or after having Tabasco sauce, which I often use. Burley alongside or after cigarettes, real sorry, those sticks defile my palate.

 

[Jack Straw]

I can't imagine how flavorful tobacco must be after that, or other things like a sip of coke classic. It must certainly put a fresh perspective on the simple things we oft take for granted!

 

[Anonymous]

LL this is too true brother, Certain foods etc, drinks during the day have had certain effects on certain smokes at certain times of the day.
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

 

[bruins]

i haven't found a tobacco yet that doesn't taste good before, after, or with bourbon.

 

[Hermit]

The most aggressive palate killer
I am aware of is Zinc lozenges.
Everything tastes like **** after them.
I'd rather get a cold than take these.

 

[bruins]

The most aggressive palate killer
I am aware of is Zinc lozenges.
Everything tastes like **** after them.
I'd rather get a cold than take these.

amen to that brother! i don't think they work anyway...

 

[Doc Manhattan]

The most aggressive palate killer
I am aware of is Zinc lozenges.
Everything tastes like **** after them.
I'd rather get a cold than take these.

Amen!

For similar reasons, I avoid the zinc nasal gel or spray--it's rumored to cause or aggravate anosmia (loss of sense of smell).

 

[Anonymous]

The most aggressive palate killer
I am aware of is Zinc lozenges.
Everything tastes like **** after them.
I'd rather get a cold than take these.

Amen!

For similar reasons, I avoid the zinc nasal gel or spray--it's rumored to cause or aggravate anosmia (loss of sense of smell).

Dudes, that stuff is Satanic when it comes to pies for me, I cant taste or smell so I end up puffing myself in to tongue bite in the process, everything becomes dull and bland!!!!
:cyclops: :|

 

[Natch]

I've had a minor version of this when I fast for three days with only water. By the evening of the third day, "reality" becomes different; the air smells different, even distilled water tastes different, my whole perception of "taste" is changed. I haven't smoked my pipe during these, though, so I can't address it, but I may try it next time I do.


Natch