Retrohaling

[spectrrr]

Originally Posted by fencefixer

It's quite possible that it has something to do with cooling the smoke down.

Sitting here herfing with Francis I just told him about this and even he was surprised.

My sinuses are pretty sensitive and I typically cannot retrohale hardly any of the last 1/3, maybe even 1/2 of a cigar. Cooling the smoke is part of the equation, but I found that there was something else at work as well.

I found that even on the last 1/4 of the cigar, if I created a pocket of pressure in my mouth while swirling the smoke slightly (only for ~1 second) and then exhaled through my nose, I could send it all through my nose with no irritation.

BUT at the same time, I found that my MOUTH was left with a slightly biting, almost bitter flavor. It seemed that most of the harsh or biting characteristics of the smoke were deposited on the inside gums of my mouth when compressed and forced against the gum walls.

All in all, I'll be experimenting with it more to hunt for flavors - I wouldn't do it with every puff, but occasionally I think might prove useful in searching for flavors I otherwise could not have picked up due to my sensitive sinuses.

Originally Posted by JJG

The nose exhale never worked for me. Instead, I let the smoke sort of drift into my nostrils as I exhale slowly through my mouth. I get all the nuanced flavored and what not, without any harshness. I recommend trying it.

I've been known to do this inside, thrusting my head forward just a little to pull back in some of the exhaled smoke, I get excellent flavors this way.... but it doesn't work well for me outside, or even inside with a good fan pulling it up and out too fast.