|
|
Enhanced Pipe-Smoking Flavor and Comfort with Breath Smoking
Many of the challenges encountered by pipe smokers can be minimized or terminated through the practice of breath smoking. Breath smoking, when mastered, dispenses with excessive moisture and gurgle, tongue bite, frequent relights, and flavor compromised by the inordinate generation of heat.
Anyone who smokes a pipe has experienced all of those unfortunate derivatives. During my first year of pipe smoking, I was plagued by all of them. I couldn't keep a pipe lit, was spending more time running pipe cleaners through the stem than smoking, and the tongue bite kept me from revisiting more than one bowl across an entire day.
I quit, of course. No one wants to go through that. But I somehow kept coming back because it seemed absurd that others could so clearly enjoy this hobby while I suffered from it. It became a personal challenge. Maybe it was from a perspective of mammalian superiority: no plant — not briar and not tobacco — was going to vanquish me. I had thumbs, after all, unlike these botanical bullies.
Like marriage, pipe smoking thrives on compromise, patience, and communication. Just as we learn through marital experience not to leave our socks on the floor or lawnmower carburetor in the dishwasher, a good relationship with our pipes teaches us not to pack too tightly, puff too quickly, or apply too much heat. We learn from negative and positive reinforcement until we get things right. Though through different means, our spouses and our pipes communicate their dissatisfaction regarding our behavior quite effectively.
For pipes, that dissatisfaction manifests through tongue bite, gurgle, and heat, sometimes causing divorce. But if we listen to our pipes and observe the conditions under which they perform at their happiest, exceptional relationships are achievable.
What Is Breath Smoking?
Breath smoking is a technique accentuating slower, shallower, and more meditative puffing, thus enhancing a broader spectrum of tobacco flavor and promoting a more comfortable experience. Many of us occasionally enjoy smoking at a faster pace, with billows of satisfyingly thick smoke churning from the bowl. Sometimes we simply prefer lots of smoke, and pipe smokers who are early in their careers often puff quickly because it's the most intuitive way to keep the tobacco lit.
We learn from negative and positive reinforcement until we get things right
While breath smoking delivers more and better flavor and cooler smoke, it's difficult to perform while physically active. It's a technique best employed while sitting peacefully and comfortably. Breath smoking while driving fence posts with a sledgehammer, for example, would be impressive. Even with effortless tasks like typing or dog walking, it's hard to slow one's smoking cadence consistently.
Breath smoking can be excellent while highway driving, but is not recommended for city traffic where one's occasional outbursts of profanity — commensurate with prevailing motorway congestion — may contravene optimum puffing rhythm. Some manage through practice to make breath smoking automatic for any circumstance. Many of us have heard tales of these specimens but few have seen one in the wild.
How To Implement Breath Smoking
1. The pipe remains in the mouth through the entire smoke, whether clenched or hand-held. This positioning is best for maintaining the consistency necessary for keeping the tobacco burning at its slowest and coolest pace.
2. Breathe through the nose only, and do so somewhat mindfully, maintaining a steady and slow rhythm. Most find that breath smoking is akin to meditation.
3. While continuing to breathe nasally, draw smoke slowly and lightly from the pipe, approximately once every three-to-four breaths.
4. The draw is accomplished through low air pressure in the mouth without breathing air from around the stem of the pipe. Again, all breathing is through the nose only.
5. Direct some of the smoke from the mouth back into the pipe after a few puffs, determining the correct cadence according to how the tobacco is performing. If the ember seems ready to expire, increase the cadence slightly until the pipe recovers or hold a couple of fingers over the top of the bowl to create some acceleration of air during the draw. It should take only a couple of puffs to reestablish its consistent smolder.
Let's pause this list for a moment. That last item deserves some investigation — blowing into a lit pipe seems like an invitation for disaster. But for this application, blowing is the wrong word. Instead, it's the slightest whisper of a push of air, just enough to cause a subtle puff of smoke to emerge from the top of the bowl. Then softly draw in again and after a couple more breaths, repeat.
Breath smoking is a technique best employed while sitting peacefully and comfortably
The process generates a low-velocity bellows effect, with oxygen feeding the ember as it moves first one way, then the other, keeping the tobacco alight even though we're smoking so slowly that the tobacco would extinguish under less mindful circumstances.
6. Enjoy the flavor. This technique is a great companion to retrohaling, which will maximize the flavor and scent attributes achieved by breath smoking.
7. The combination of breathing through the nose while lightly puffing can contribute to an unconscious, natural draw. Breathing through the nose creates a slight vacuum in the mouth that, with practice, will create all the draw necessary. 8. After practicing for a while, notice that breath smoking becomes natural and requires little concentration. We innately make small alterations in our cadence and air-exchange velocity, gravitating to the most successful personal rhythms we implement. At first, it requires careful attention, but it quickly becomes an automatic pattern.Why Breath Smoking Works
The primary advantage of breath smoking is the reduction of the temperature of the tobacco as it burns. When our tobacco is barely smoldering, it delivers the most flavor, as described by Fred Hanna in the first chapter of his book, The Perfect Smoke (now out of print but available on Amazon for Kindle):
... it is impossible to accurately taste tobacco when it is burning excessively hot. Why smoke tobacco at all if all you can taste is hot, searing, smoky air? A low flame gently releases the taste of the tobacco into the smoke stream, rich and tasty. The smoke, when delivered through a good pipe, should arrive on the tongue at a pleasant room temperature. At this temperature, the tobacco can be clearly and accurately tasted and enjoyed. The skill of slow smoking consists of knowing how to keep the tobacco lit and at a cool temperature low enough to release the true flavor of the tobacco.
A consistent, low-velocity rhythm keeps the tobacco smoldering, and we truly need to keep it to no more than a smolder. Imagine sucking down a thick milkshake through a fat straw — now forget about it; we don't want to replicate that, that's crazy. It's more like gently sipping champagne over the rim of a fluted crystal glass: elegant, slow, and sophisticated with an aura of ritual and observance.
The Advantages of Breath Smoking
With breath smoking, we create low-temperature, high-flavor experiences. Most pipe smokers eventually gravitate to at least some breath smoking without even thinking about it because we subconsciously alter our technique toward better flavor. For newer smokers, though, it's worth studying and practicing. It will accelerate the learning curve and provide excellent smoking without the unpleasantness derived from poor technique. It's a way to quickly experience what many smokers take years to develop on their own.
Breath smoking reduces the moisture generated by tobacco combustion. That means no gurgling in the pipe. Gurgle should be avoided. If a drop of the tobacco condensate reaches the lips, it's worse than unsavory — it's positively repulsive. It will interrupt our smoke and our meditative state in a manner best described as a catastrophic failure requiring a return to the launchpad. By gently directing the smoke out of and back into the pipe, we keep any potential moisture away from the lip button. However, it's always best to use pipe cleaners liberally to sidestep any potential for experiencing the life-altering cataclysm of tobacco condensate on the tongue. Most of us would rather kiss a rabid fruit bat than endure even a second of that misery.
Tongue bite is a consistent complaint, particularly from journeyman pipe smokers. Breath smoking reduces the tongue bite that can accompany poorly prepared, overly moist, overly cased tobacco, and alleviates it entirely for appropriately humidified blends. The reduction in temperature makes for a comfortable smoke that we can concentrate on and appreciate.
By gently directing the smoke out of and back into the pipe, we keep any potential moisture away from the lip button
Breath smoking additionally keeps the pipe lit. While there's nothing wrong with relighting a pipe several times, this technique, once mastered, maintains such a perfect smolder that relighting is unnecessary. Furthermore, while the pipe stays lit, it also stays cooler. It's the best of both worlds.
You may also enjoy:
Comments
An excellent essay! I love English blends most and BREATH SMOKING undeniably delivers the best flavours and taste. I need a little more practice though, to master the technique. Thank you Chuck for the detailed description of the technique. I believe every pipe smoker should practice BREATH SMOKING which will definitely take away some of the notoriety some unfortunate tobacco blends have been plagued with in the name of tongue bite,bad flavours etc. for ages.
"Most pipe smokers eventually gravitate to at least some breath smoking without even thinking about it because we subconsciously alter our technique toward better flavor."Yes, that about sums it up. Never knew the word for this type of pipe smoking until today. Came unconsciously to me as I experiment a bit, and maybe too much at times. Enjoy yourselves.
Great advice in articles.
Great articles.
This is possibly the most important article and most beneficial consideration I've read on Daily Reader for anyone new to pipe smoking or still struggling to get the flavors others report getting from pipe tobaccos. Sadly, this is rarely discussed, but in my opinion should be Pipe Smoking 101. Thanks again Chuck for the outstanding article. I'll be pointing people to this article for years to come.
The Peterson P-Lip is a point of contention for many people. The P-Lip really teaches you how to smoke with the breath method, as described above. It becomes intuitive. I have personally found its benefits to be tremendous in combatting tongue bite and achieving smooth flavors and total smoking enjoyment.
Too each his own. I find it just another nonsensical way of smoking. Don’t know any old Codgers back when I was mentored in pipe smoking in the late 1970’s about this weird way of pipeing!
In breath smoking, is the exhalation through the nose or the mouth (I'm not talking about the puff back through the pipe).
This article should have included a tribute to late Alan Kerslake.
This should have included a tribute to Alan Kerslake.
If you look at the breathe method from your tastebuds point of view, this might explain why the breathe method provides a deeper tasting of the tobacco flavors. Normally, we draw smoke into our mouth, maybe hold for a few seconds and exhale. Our taste buds are exposed to the smoke for 5-15 seconds. With the breathe method our tastebuds are exposed to the smoke almost continuously, thus deeper more thorough tasting of the tobacco. Imo