Corn Cobs and Harsh Smoke When New?

[Brewdude]

It's been a while since I've broken in a new cob, but if memory serves I don't recall anything like harsh or hot. In fact I believe remembering that the initial smokes had a faint sweet corn taste. And the 'baccy I would have been burning would've been on the milder side of things like a straight 'ginny. So no forthright flavors from something like a Lat blend or the like.

I always trim off the protruding stem into the bowl after the first several smokes, as when the level gets down that far and the stem protrusion starts to burn it provides an off-taste. Could this be what you are referring to Eric?

I'm still smoking mostly on a cob I've had since about '01. OK, so I don't light it up all that often, but it's developed a nice cake and it smokes cool and dry. What more could one ask?

8)


Cheers,

RR

 

[ZeroContent]

It's been a while since I've broken in a new cob, but if memory serves I don't recall anything like harsh or hot. In fact I believe remembering that the initial smokes had a faint sweet corn taste. And the 'baccy I would have been burning would've been on the milder side of things like a straight 'ginny. So no forthright flavors from something like a Lat blend or the like.

I always trim off the protruding stem into the bowl after the first several smokes, as when the level gets down that far and the stem protrusion starts to burn it provides an off-taste. Could this be what you are referring to Eric?

I'm still smoking mostly on a cob I've had since about '01. OK, so I don't light it up all that often, but it's developed a nice cake and it smokes cool and dry. What more could one ask?

8)


Cheers,

RR

I pretty much get the flavor starting at the beginning of the bowl. Ive smoked 3 bowls of VA in one. Each time getting near the bottom i stopped smoking and just gently blow into the bowl to burn off the end and the excess wood. I loaded some Penzance and it was close to normal but it was still burning too hot and biting my tongue where as if i smoke in a briar PZ is about as smooth and velvety as you'll find.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

I smoke cobs quite a bit. There's no perfect formula for breaking them in. Like briar, they are all a bit different. I tend to keep all my latakia blends in briar, period. For some reason, English mixtures in cobs don't float my boat. I break my cobs in with a stronger burley mixture. Something that stands up to the cob flavor. Burely builds a cake quick and doesn't impart too much of a flavor influence, if any at all on the internals of the pipe.

With new cobs, I too get what Rick described, that sweet cardboard kind of flavor. Usually it's gone after a handful of smokes.

I have a bent diplomat in my rotation that smokes the most delicate Virginia, (flakes like Hamborger Veermaster), with amazing clarity. This cob is supremely broken in and it has a nice cake in it and truly smokes nuetral. But I have smoked the beejeezuz out of it.

I think cobs are great, but just like meerschaum pipes, there are a lot of misnomers put out there about them. No break in, neutral tasting, no resting them, etc...All B.S. Just like any other pipe, some break in time is required with a cob.