Pipe Smoking Female Melanie

We have just published our first photo gallery of pipe smoking females. If you enjoy girls smoking pipes and female pipe smokers, then check out our first Pipe Babe, Melanie.

Pipe Babes & Galleries of Girls Smoking Pipes

Butera Pipe Company’s entire line of pipe tobacco blends, plus rights to the Butera Pipe Tobacco names has been sold to national distributor Arango Cigar Co. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Michael A. Butera, founder and principal of Butera Pipe Company, created and perfected the blends, which will continue to be manufactured by McClelland Tobacco Company (Kansas City, Missouri) and J.F. Germain & Son (Great Britain).

Michael Gold, Arango’s president, said of the sale, “Over the past 25 years, Michael Butera’s award-winning pipes have earned him the reputation of America’s premier pipe craftsman. The pipe community refers to him as ‘the first American pipe maker to produce collectible-quality pipes.’ We are proud to distribute products with the quality and market acceptance of Butera pipe tobaccos.”

Butera turned his hobby into a business in the early 1980s, after experiencing the art firsthand from the famous pipe masters, when in Italy. At his first Pipe Collectors International Show in Nashville, Tennessee (1985), he won first place overall for Best Standard Shape.

Butera was selected top pipe maker in international competitions for the next twelve years, which elevated his pipes to collectible status.

Butera’s associations with McClelland and J.F. Germain date back to the early 1990s, when he began blending premium pipe tobaccos to augment his pipe making. McClelland produces the blends for Butera’s Royal Vintage line of tobaccos, while J.F. Germain blends the Esoterica and Specialty families of tobaccos, which include the Kingfisher blend. Peter Stokkebye, Ltd., of Denmark makes the Pelican blend, also in the Specialty product group. When asked about his choices for manufacturers, Butera states, “I believe Mike McNeil, McClelland’s master blender, is the finest blender America has ever seen. I also consider master blender Robert Germain the finest in all of Europe … he is also the last of many to prepare pipe tobaccos in the old English tradition.”

Over the years, Butera has introduced 38 premium tobaccos, sure to please any connoisseur … Virginia, Burley, Oriental, Turkish, Latakia, and Perique tobacco blends; presented in ribbon, flake, and the original Krumble Kake forms.

All Butera pipe tobaccos are sealed in traditional tins, bulk packaging, or both, depending on blend. MSRPs are $10 for 2-ounce tins, and $28 for 8-ounce bulks. All Butera pipe tobaccos are currently available at tobacconists nationwide.

The Peterson Luxury Blend has been one of my favorite pipe tobaccos for over five years. It’s a great mild-to-medium aromatic of high quality. With some aromatics I have found that the aromatic aroma doesn’t translate to the taste, and ironically only others within nose-shot end up enjoying the aroma. The Peterson Luxury Blend’s taste is just as sweet and smooth as the aroma.

I was surfing around the Internet … picture a 45 year-old with mustache and goatee on a virtual surfboard with pipe in mouth … when I came upon a post by Ryan Oakley on his “Grumpy Owl” blog.

As many of you know, last Friday was International Pipe Smoking Day, and that is what prompted Ryan’s post.

I like how he compares and contrasts the differences between pipe smoking and cigarette smoking. He mentions cigars too, which I smoke as well.

Ryan says:

Two pipe smokers can sit down and discuss the art for hours.  Speaking in jargon, we’ll recommend blends, the appropriate vessel to smoke them in and talk about flavours.  The conversation may occasionally veer into cigars or hookahs but cigarettes will only be mentioned with absolute contempt.

Most of us started by smoking those.  Then we grew up.  Cigarettes are for children.   Once you reach college age, you need to decide whether you’re going to be a cigar smoker or a pipe smoker; a money man or an idea man.   But what you cannot continue to be is a cigarette man.  Those people are just suckers.

Read the rest of his great post here:
International Pipe Smoking Day

Brian Hatcher smokes his pipe only when at The Squire as he loves the company, the conversation and the characters.

It’s a place to hang and talk. It’s a place to josh and network.

And, in a world full of establishments where it is verboten to smoke, it’s a place to issue plumes, streams and rolling clouds of smoke out of your mouth.

For all these reasons, that’s why there’s a steady flow of visitors all day long into The Squire Tobacco Unlimited shop at 108 Capitol St. in Charleston WV. Cigars are the predominant reason for the air’s spicy tang inside, but pipe smokers contribute their fair share of flavors.

Owner Charlie Morgan couldn’t be happier. Cigar or pipe in hand, ensconced on one of three comfortable sofas angled for conversation, he often reigns over the camaraderie.

Not for long, though. The next moment, he’ll dash off to the register or into the store’s big humidor to hunt down a customer’s favorite cigar from among the 600 or so boxes of handmade custom brands he stocks.

“Usually, I’ll have eight to 10 people in here on a lunch day. I just get a wide variety of people,” Morgan says. “The neat part about it is they sit down to socialize. They’ve become friends and they would not know each other otherwise.”

It’s certainly a manly hangout, but not wholly so. Morgan’s customers include scores of women each month who come in to buy cigars. “My wife also comes in here and she smokes her cigars as well as I do,” says one regular, Matthew Robertson, of Charleston.

Bob Lucas of Cross Lanes says he stops by often as he likes to take his cigars with a little company and a lot of talk.

“There’s a bunch of people that share what I like, there’s always good conversation - and there’s always Charlie,” says Lucas. “Once I found it, it became home.”

Mike "Doc" Garr

Mike “Doc” Garr’s pipe smoking talents have earned him a trophy as the Northeast Regional slow pipe-smoking champion of 2008.

With two matches, 5 grams of tobacco and a pipe, the Wilkes University sociology professor can light a pipe in about two minutes and smoke it for more than an hour and a half.

Though an hour and half might not sound long, Garr cannot relight the pipe and usually eggs it on with a drawl every few minutes. Many of the competitors’ pipes extinguish after five minutes.

A pipe-smoking enthusiast for about 10 years, Garr is president of the Pocono Intermountain Pipe Smoking Enclave (or PIPE), a local club of pipe smokers started in 2002 that meets every Tuesday at El Humidor in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The club is a charter member of the United Pipe Clubs of America, a national organization that promotes the old-fashioned hobby.

Today gives Garr and his fellow pipe smokers an extra reason to light up and tell others about their hobby. It is International Pipe Smoking Day, a day started by pipe-smoking clubs to recognize and promote pipe smoking.

Garr only recently learned about International Pipe Smoking Day, and hopes to have activities centered around pipe smoking next year - maybe a smoking competition in Wilkes-Barre.

Smoking a pipe requires Garr to take a rest during his day, break down the tobacco, fill the pipe and then spend time to smoke it. These steps make it a lot more involved than popping a cigarette or cigar in his mouth.

“It is really the ritual that makes pipe smoking, pipe smoking,” said Garr, 57, of Wilkes-Barre. “It is a lot more elaborate. Because of these rituals, it leads to more relaxation.”

Other club members are looking forward to marking the International Pipe Smoking Day the only way that fits. Adam Zwolinski, a club member and manager of El Humidor, is pretty sure he’ll celebrate by smoking a pipe the entire day.

Zwolinski, 22, of Nanticoke, joined PIPE about four years ago. Since, he’s collected nearly 100 pipes in all different sizes, shapes and finishes. Garr has around 80 pipes, including relics used during the World War II-era. Pipe smokers rotate which pipe they use every day, because too much moisture can cause a pipe to crack.

Zwolinski and Garr say through the club they’ve made valuable friendships that they wouldn’t have made elsewhere. The club’s 15 members come from all sectors of the community. It boasts occupations ranging from college professor to beef jerky salesman to a retired teacher to local university students. Whenever the group meets, the guys - yes, the club is all men, but women are welcome - sit and smoke pipes for about two hours, the usual amount of time a pipe filled with tobacco lasts.

Some in the group plan to attend the Chicagoland Pipe Show, the biggest gathering of pipe smokers and tobacco enthusiasts in the United States. The event, held outside Chicago, will be the first weekend of May.

Others, like Zwolinski, don’t take the habit seriously enough to travel, but still find it a valuable part of their lives.

“When I go back in our lounge to smoke a pipe, everything is left at the door,” Zwolinski said.

For the university professors, blue-collar workers and college students who assemble on Tuesday evenings for conversation, camaraderie and food, the crucial question is their eatery choice’s position on smoking. It’d better allow it.

Members of the Pocono Intermountain Pipe Enclave make a point of patronizing tobacco-friendly places after their two-hour get-togethers at El Humidor on Scott Street.

The members are aficionados in the strictest sense: The pipe construction, the mix, quality and pack of the tobacco, even the smoking technique all are matters of vital consideration and diligent practice.

El Humidor

At around 5:30 p.m., about a dozen members gather in El Humidor’s well-furnished lounge. The room has the feel of a hunting lodge, with animal trophies mounted on the walls and a provocative painting over the fireplace mantle. It also boasts refined perks such as a cappuccino machine and reading material.

There, the group’s members unwind in the circle of leather-upholstered furniture, discuss the events of the day or topics of no particular interest altogether, and, of course, light up.

The members find a camaraderie they can’t find elsewhere. About half of the founding members still attend regularly after nearly a decade.

“We could be doing other things,” says “Beef Jerky” Bob Williams, “but me, I plan my week around this.”

On February 20, 2009 Pipe Smokers around the globe will “raise their pipes together to foster friendship, benevolence, and tranquility across all borders,” according to the United Pipe Clubs of America.

This February, International Pipe Smoking Day will be celebrated for the second time. The Comite International des Pipe Clubs or CIPC, which is the umbrella club for many of the national pipe smoking clubs such as the United Pipe Clubs of America, is very excited to celebrate the day.

According to CIPC’s official website pipeclubs.com, “We envision a worldwide communion of pipe-smokers that is bound together by a shared love for pipe-smoking, mutual respect, and goodwill” on February 20, 2009.

International Pipe Smoking Day was celebrated for the first time last year when it was originated by Smokers Forums, a European Internet group. This year, it is being supported by the Comite International des Pipe Clubs and its members in 25 countries around the world. UPCA is the United States member of CIPC.

The UPCA website explains that, “On this day we will … celebrate the noble art of pipe-smoking and the … spirit which pervades the brotherhood and sisterhood of the briar. We will put into practice the time-honored and ancestral traditions of raising our pipes in unison to toast each other and share a bowl together.”

To celebrate the occasion, many pipe clubs and tobacconists across the United States, Europe and elsewhere are staging pipe smoking events at 9:00 p.m. locally to bring together their members and others interested in pipe smoking.

In addition, the event is being supported by the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. The IPCPR represents more than 2,000 retail tobacconists - mostly mom-and-pop small business owners - as well as manufacturers and distributors of premium cigars, pipes, accessories and gifts.

“With ever-changing values, International Pipe Smoking Day provides an opportunity for briar lovers to speak up with pride and tell the world that pipe smoking has a rich history as part of an enjoyable and relaxing lifestyle. For pipe smokers everywhere, the day will be emblematic of our shared values, traditions and aspirations,” said Vernon Vig, president of the UPCA.

About UPCA

The United Pipe Clubs of America was organized in 2002 as a national federation of pipe clubs in the United States. Its purpose is to promote and protect the interests of the American pipe smoking community by encouraging and assisting in the formation of local pipe clubs and actively supporting their activities, including pipe shows and pipe smoking competitions. UPCA’s broader goals are to bring American pipe smokers together by facilitating the sharing of information and ideas between its member clubs and to maintain smokers’ enthusiasm for the hobby by presenting a positive public image of the culture and traditions of pipe smoking and collecting.

For more information, please go to www.unitedpipeclubs.org , www.ipsd.eu , www.pipeclubs.com , www.smokersforums.co.uk , and www.ipcpr.org

Rogers AR - Frank Romeo, 48, can tell his customers, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it." He can also sell them the pipe and other products for tobacco smokers. He opened Romeo’s Downtown Pipe & Tobacco Co. in November with wife Pamela, 51.

Frank Romeo opened the business after feeling the need for a bulk-blend tobacco store closer to his Bella Vista home. The location in Rogers’ downtown appealed to him because the couple loved the cobblestone streets and historic decor that meshes with the relaxing and traditional image they wanted for their business.

Smokers tend to be loyal to brick-and-mortar stores, customer Zach Hoyt of Pea Ridge said.

Romeo said the camaraderie of other smokers and the opportunity to handle the selection of pipes appeal to smokers. He also sees the advantage for his customers of walking out with a new pipe or cigar to try immediately rather than waiting for a package to arrive after an Internet order.

Romeo calls the current era the golden age for pipe smokers. Many pipes now are handcrafted, and the design of the wood is one of the factors to check for quality. He jokes that once someone becomes a smoker, he may get PAD, pipe acquisition disorder, or TAD, tobacco acquisition disorder. As with many hobbies, frequency of use leads to the wish to taste a new pipe or another blend of tobacco.

The aroma of a pipe or cigar can bring back memories from childhood, Romeo said. Many customers recall enjoying time with their grandfathers, who smoked a certain blend.

One of his favorite activities at the store is teaching new smokers the proper process for smoking. How to prepare the pipe, to properly draw on it and how to clean it are all important to the experience.

"It’s definitely a learning process to smoke a pipe properly," he said.

Pipes can be bought by customers of any age, but minors can’t buy tobacco products. Pipes in the store range in price from $25 to $95, and Romeo can order pipes not in stock, some of which can cost $250.

While there are comfortable chairs inside for enjoying a pipe or cigar, some customers also like to sit outside and enjoy watching the active downtown. Usually jazz music is playing softly in the background as a smoker slowly enjoys a pipe or cigar with company.

Romeo’s pipe club will meet from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 12 for its second monthly gathering. The club will affiliate with the International Association of Pipe Smoking Clubs.

Romeo’s Downtown Pipe and Tobacco Co.
111 S. 2nd Street
Rogers, AR 72756
(479) 636-7473

Hours:
Monday - Friday: 11am - 7pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Closed Sundays

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When someone says ‘there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke’ they are simply unaware of the facts or refuse to accept the truth, cautions the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association. The IPCPR represents more than 2,000 retailers and manufacturers of premium cigars - mostly mom-and-pop small business owners - and is fighting South Dakota’s efforts to tighten its current statewide smoking ban.

Legislation Takes Effect April 1, 2009

February 4, 2009 - Following a long, drawn-out political fight started in 2007, President Obama signed into law the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal and expansion bill. In order to avoid further delay, the House of Representatives voted to accept the Senate’s amendment to the SCHIP bill.

There will be no floor tax on “large cigars” (weighing three pounds or more per 1,000 cigars (this includes most premium cigars). Despite strong lobbying efforts, the floor tax remains in effect for all other tobacco products. The new federal excise tax rates to take affect April 1, 2009 are as follows:

International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR)

Chris McCalla
Legislative Director