Hi, everyone. Although I can't post any pictures of it at this time (the ones on the net are HUGE file size), I just wanted to give a quick review of the new mini bubbler I bought this last week. I was looking around at a lot of different bubblers...trying to collect as many good reviews as I could. I wanted to get a Mobius (duh)...but I couldn't find one in time for my brother's birthday celebration. However, just by chance, someone posted a thread around here somewhere about their K-Nine Pug bubbler and I liked the way it looked and I thought the percolator was kinda ingenious, too. So, I checked the reviews....which looked good....I tracked one down fairly easily and went for it. I bought the very smallest version of the Pug -known as the "Pug Macro" It's a little over 7" tall! I really like the shape of it and, as far as I can tell, the glass is thick and all the welds are really clean. It seems solid. Functionally, it hits like a champ! I got the smaller size mainly because I wanted something to match my homemade water bottle bong that I confess to using ....but this thing seriously hits really well. The best part is that it really seems to bring out the flavor of the buds much better than any of my other pieces. And that's what I go for now with my marijuana use -flavor. I already know the THC levels are going to be plenty high enough to get the job done, but sticky marijuana with really rich, spicy flavors is what attracts me to the smoke. What is it about bubblers that bring up the flavor? Is it the smaller size? I know that glass helps, but why can one glass piece bring up the flavor better than another glass piece? Is it the percolation? Is it the shorter distance the smoke travels? What's the science behind it all? Anyone know? Anyway...I'm psyched...high ...and loving my new bubbler! Peace!
Without getting into the science of the matter, the general rule is that increased flavor results from two things: 1. Less volume of space the smoke has occupy between where the weed burns to where it is inhaled 2. Less percolation of the smoke That's not to say that cooling down the smoke is going to cause less flavor- hot smoke (ie. a piece without water filtration) will be hard to taste at all. But with excessively cool smoke the same applies. The same thing happens with food- for example, icecream is excessively over-sweetened because your tastebuds do not work as effectively at decreased temperature. Have you ever tasted ice cream when it has melted? Sweet as fuck. Likewise, food that's too hot is going to be hard to taste (think of drinking very hot coffee, you can barely taste what you're drinking until your tongue cools down a little). As far as less volume goes, I would have to assume that its simply because a smaller volume piece keeps the smoke concentrated instead of mixing it with air. If this is the case (I could be wrong here) I would use the analogy of drinking watered down soda being equivalent to tasting "aired-down" smoke. This is why you see oil rigs (where flavor is very important) with smaller dimensions than their counterparts used for smoking flowers. The smaller volume of the piece keeps the smoke concentrated and prevents flavor loss.
The less the smoke mixes with any other substance the more flavor it will retain. This includes mixing with air aswell, as that will (as stated by totem) "water down" the taste. Smaller tube=less air to be mixed with between point of combustion (or vaping) to the lungs I see the question towards flavor not to be what in a piece causes the bud to taste better, but to be what it is that keeps the flavor from being stripped out the smoke
haha i met one of the guys who makes Skillet Tools at a LHS last week when i was buying a SALT dome. They rock right?