Smoking Flakes: Fold and Stuff or Rub Out?

I had a lot of trouble making a fold-and-stuff loading technique work the first few times. Try as I might, I was unable to maintain an appropriate burn. The tobacco stubbornly refused to burn evenly or at all. I was so frustrated that I nearly decided to forget folding and stuffing and just stick to rubbing the flake out.

That would have been a big mistake.

The difference in flavor between smoking a rubbed-out flake versus a folded-and- stuffed flake can be so stark as to seem metaphysical. That the same tobacco can transform in richness and intensity depending on the form in which it is loaded in the pipe has changed how I approach smoking flake tobaccos. I now try both techniques so that I have experienced both approaches.

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