Wimps... Try Smoking It Dry...

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Slow Puffs

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Regor sent me a few copies of The Pipe Collector a while back. Many interesting articles. Among the articles is one by Rick Newcombe extolling the virtues of smoking EMP dry...

Okay let's hear the arguments.... there are some tobaccos that I have found great... dry as a bone... like Braken Flake...

...suggestion... when it'd dry, try it, you might like it... ;)
 
I have always preferred my tobacco dry. IMHO, most tobaccos are far too moist .
 
I think some aromatic components can be lost when tobacco dries out too much, but I frequently will open a tin and just let it sit for a few months with a bit of oxygen having gotten to it. Then when it's smoking time, I pull a pipeful out and usually warm it on a plate to get it dried out to almost crispy feeling (still a bit flexible though). This certainly help to alleviate biteyness of certain blends.

Mac Baren virginias, for instance, benefit greatly from being dried.
 
I normally smoke my tobacco quite dry (at least, dryer than I think the "average" pipster would smoke it (if there are any "average" pipsters on earth, that is!). Recently, I've been backing the other way, keeping my flakes a bit moister, just to the point where I can bend/roll them without them cracking.

Natch
 
I don't have the experience of smoking a tobacco more moist and having it be bitey and drying it down and having the bite go away.

But I do like to quote a local tobacconist's maxim: "too dry and you get heat, too moist and you get steam."
 
A few weeks ago I was looking through a drawer containing a lot of my tinned Dunhill blends and smelled tobacco. I started checking and found a tin of Early Morning Pipe marked with the purchase date of 09-22-06 that had a broken seal. I dont know what happened to break the seal. One of my daughters has a boyfriend who is interested in pipe smoking and has tried several of my blends; he may have gotten curious and opened the tin. Anyhow, I emptied the tin into a glass jar and it was bone dry, like grass in your yard during a blistering hot and dry summer. I smoked some and really liked it. It was really mellowed and flavorful and I had no trouble keeping it lit. I liked it so well dry that I smoked the whole tin in just a few days.

LtMac
 
I usually nuc a bowl worth of flakes and plugs for 11 seconds prior to smoking them. While still hot, I stir it a bit to help free the moisture. Works for me.

Buddy
 
I think there's a big difference between dry and dried out. "Dry" is when fresh (or recently opened) tobacco is allowed to dry-out to the point where the moisture content gets significantly lower but the volatile oils are still present, thus allowing a smoke that will be flavorful but not steamy and difficult to keep lit. A cool, dry, flavorful smoke. Dried out is the same that's been left dry or exposed to air too long and the oils (and life) have gone out of it.
 
alfredo_buscatti":z9fks6uk said:
I don't have the experience of smoking a tobacco more moist and having it be bitey and drying it down and having the bite go away.

But I do like to quote a local tobacconist's maxim: "too dry and you get heat, too moist and you get steam."
Alfredo, I think your tobacconist is exactly right.
 
Puff Daddy":74pfsgqg said:
I think there's a big difference between dry and dried out. "Dry" is when fresh (or recently opened) tobacco is allowed to dry-out to the point where the moisture content gets significantly lower but the volatile oils are still present, thus allowing a smoke that will be flavorful but not steamy and difficult to keep lit. A cool, dry, flavorful smoke. Dried out is the same that's been left dry or exposed to air too long and the oils (and life) have gone out of it.
I think you nailed it PD!
 
I like most of the blends just as they come out of the tin. Key Largo was the first exception in a long time (I had to dry that one). I used to think that I liked my blends dry, until I realized that the problem was mine: once I got in the groove with the proper puffing technique, it was that. Now, most tins left open for more than a couple of weeks need hydration.
 
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