I've realized in my short time as a pipe smoker that I have a weird body that is highly sensitive to many tobaccos that other people find to be fine or even delicious.
This particular query is about an extreme problem with several Virginias. When I first started with a pipe, a couple of the first tobaccos I tried were Luxury Navy Flake and Luxury Twist Flake. For whatever reason, the smoke from these tobaccos was so starkly irritating to my body that I could not even get through a single charring light. The second the smoke touched my mouth was massive full on tongue bite, an irritation of my inner ears, and a big spike in my tinnitus. Basically full body rejection. I tried them fresh, well dried, microwaved, rubbed out, folded and stuffed, same result with every preparation method. I almost quit smoking right there, but thankfully tried an English blend later and really enjoyed it.
At first I thought I had a problem with Virginia dominant blends in general, yet later still decided to buy and try Old Gowrie. For whatever reason I found it to be totally fine. Smooth and utterly delicious down to the end of the bowl. I got to thinking that maybe my previous bad experiences were because of poor technique, so I tried them again... Same instantaneous bad reaction with LNF and LTF, the second the very first wisp of smoke touched my mouth it gave me severe tongue bite, irritation of the inner ears, and a headache. I tried Orlik Golden Slices and got maybe the worst reaction of all within the first second of smoking. Then went back to Old Gowrie and it was again lovely down to the end of the bowl. It appears to be the only Virginia I've tried that I can smoke, and it's one of my top 5 favorite smokes. I REALLY wish I could enjoy more Virginias that are out there, but I'm afraid to branch out from Old Gowrie now.
My question is, what is different about Old Gowrie than LNF, LTF, OGS and/or others? Is it more likely to be the type of Virginia leaf used that I'm reacting badly to, or something in the casing?
Worth mentioning, I can't smoke ANY C&D blend without a similarly bad reaction.
I have also experienced similar but less pronounced discomfort from all the Peterson Dunhill blends.
But.. I've had wonderful irritation-free experiences with several of the Peter Stokkebye English blends, the Hearth and Home English blends, MacBaren HH series burleys, and codger burley blends (I got a bad case of sour tongue from smoking too much burley too hot, but that was a different symptom entirely and has nearly resolved itself now). Some of these of course contain Virginia tobaccos.
I seem to be in the running for an award for weirdest body chemistry problems of any pipe smoker, so I almost hesitate to ask, but has anybody else had extremely bad reactions to tobaccos that are otherwise mainstream and generally well liked?
This particular query is about an extreme problem with several Virginias. When I first started with a pipe, a couple of the first tobaccos I tried were Luxury Navy Flake and Luxury Twist Flake. For whatever reason, the smoke from these tobaccos was so starkly irritating to my body that I could not even get through a single charring light. The second the smoke touched my mouth was massive full on tongue bite, an irritation of my inner ears, and a big spike in my tinnitus. Basically full body rejection. I tried them fresh, well dried, microwaved, rubbed out, folded and stuffed, same result with every preparation method. I almost quit smoking right there, but thankfully tried an English blend later and really enjoyed it.
At first I thought I had a problem with Virginia dominant blends in general, yet later still decided to buy and try Old Gowrie. For whatever reason I found it to be totally fine. Smooth and utterly delicious down to the end of the bowl. I got to thinking that maybe my previous bad experiences were because of poor technique, so I tried them again... Same instantaneous bad reaction with LNF and LTF, the second the very first wisp of smoke touched my mouth it gave me severe tongue bite, irritation of the inner ears, and a headache. I tried Orlik Golden Slices and got maybe the worst reaction of all within the first second of smoking. Then went back to Old Gowrie and it was again lovely down to the end of the bowl. It appears to be the only Virginia I've tried that I can smoke, and it's one of my top 5 favorite smokes. I REALLY wish I could enjoy more Virginias that are out there, but I'm afraid to branch out from Old Gowrie now.
My question is, what is different about Old Gowrie than LNF, LTF, OGS and/or others? Is it more likely to be the type of Virginia leaf used that I'm reacting badly to, or something in the casing?
Worth mentioning, I can't smoke ANY C&D blend without a similarly bad reaction.
I have also experienced similar but less pronounced discomfort from all the Peterson Dunhill blends.
But.. I've had wonderful irritation-free experiences with several of the Peter Stokkebye English blends, the Hearth and Home English blends, MacBaren HH series burleys, and codger burley blends (I got a bad case of sour tongue from smoking too much burley too hot, but that was a different symptom entirely and has nearly resolved itself now). Some of these of course contain Virginia tobaccos.
I seem to be in the running for an award for weirdest body chemistry problems of any pipe smoker, so I almost hesitate to ask, but has anybody else had extremely bad reactions to tobaccos that are otherwise mainstream and generally well liked?
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