I thought maybe I should post this in the "newbie" forum first, since I'm going to reveal my ignorance again. But it's really, really old ignorance. Newbies have enough to think about over there.
Know how we talk so much about finding "The One," the tobacco that is *our* tobacco, made just right for our DNA and environmental acculturation? We try one, and because it doesn't unseat our favorite, mention all the ways it let us down.
What happens to our pipe tobacco experience if we flip that end for end? What if we learned to smoke this or that tobacco, and they were *all* ours?
If I ever smoke something I don't like, I think I'm going to take that as a challenge, find out how to like it. (Okay. There is this *one* I'm having trouble with. But I'm smoking it *anyway*).
I was thinking of this because of what I just learned comparing two whiskey-flavored blends. I was made conscious of how I "learned" to smoke Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, and was proud of my achievement. I could get from it what it was meant to be, find those things about it that other people liked, and enjoy them for myself, too.
Then I sampled Erin Go Bragh Irish Whiskey. I think I appreciated it so much because I had had the experience with Borkum Riff.
Now, I favor EGB over BR, but I can go *back* to BR. I can still "milk" it for what I want out of it. I know what's there, and I know the combination to its safe.
I *know* there are more sophisticated tobaccos, just as there are sophisticated wines. (Company I work for also is a major vineyard -- they talk about wines and sample wines here like you wouldn't believe.)
I know how different one single malt scotch is from another. But you know what? I don't drink $175 single malts every day. Have to keep it under $80, and then that one's for special occasions.
My daily drink is common old Jack Daniels No. 7. Oftentimes (god forbid!) it's in Diet Coke. Or (no screams, please), I drink BV in my Diet Coke.
I like the taste just fine. I really like the effect just fine. And the experience of the drink is whatever I make it out to be. I can be in my backyard having a social moment with the squirrels with any of the above drinks.
-- Or any of the above tobaccos.
And if I see Captain Black, he's an old friend. I will smoke him. My Argosy, oh that's a lifelong buddy, my low-maintenance childhood bud who catches up with me after 25 years as if we just stole apples and broke the neighbor's garage window with a carelessly thrown baseball yesterday.
I used to have a grudge against Borkum Riff. But hell. We're old now! We made up. I give him his space, and he entertains me with his grouchy old man routine. He makes me grin a little, mostly because I "get him" when so many others wave their hands at him in disgust and walk away.
Crown Achievement only visits me on Sundays after Mass these days. Holy smokes, both of us, finely dressed and in a stained glass mood.
Comoy Cask No. 1 speaks with a slight accent, giving me just a hint of latakia, speaking in so soft a voice that he never fails to calm me down, remind me not to sweat the small stuff.
And so on and so on... So many more to meet yet. I want to like them all. If you like them, I want to know why. If you can get along with them, let me try. I want to know how.
Of the ones I myself am already familiar with, I know which ones to be careful with and which ones are happy-go-lucky. I have learned one wants to be packed tight, the other loosely filled. One needs just a spark to get started, the other needs constant attention and reassurance (annoying, but I like him anyway).
I have learned one doesn't like the wide, fat bowl of my house pot. Another likes it best.
One I can just be rough with and fool around, in a mood for horseplay. Forgiving and easy. Another will slap my mouth unless I keep my nonsense in check.
Favorite?
How can you have just one? Maybe you don't want a visit every night from this one or that one, but you don't want to lose any of them, right?
And if only one person in the whole world could meet your requirements for a friendship, then is that a comment on people in general, or on you?
I'll be judged by the friends I keep, probably. But I'll have friends. The more the merrier. Each one relating to me in his own way, and me responding in that way unique to the two us and not really to any other.
I'll match myself to the tobacco rather than demanding it match me.
(For now. I might outgrow this, too, by next week. Who knows. I'm old and fickle. It's my right).
Know how we talk so much about finding "The One," the tobacco that is *our* tobacco, made just right for our DNA and environmental acculturation? We try one, and because it doesn't unseat our favorite, mention all the ways it let us down.
What happens to our pipe tobacco experience if we flip that end for end? What if we learned to smoke this or that tobacco, and they were *all* ours?
If I ever smoke something I don't like, I think I'm going to take that as a challenge, find out how to like it. (Okay. There is this *one* I'm having trouble with. But I'm smoking it *anyway*).
I was thinking of this because of what I just learned comparing two whiskey-flavored blends. I was made conscious of how I "learned" to smoke Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, and was proud of my achievement. I could get from it what it was meant to be, find those things about it that other people liked, and enjoy them for myself, too.
Then I sampled Erin Go Bragh Irish Whiskey. I think I appreciated it so much because I had had the experience with Borkum Riff.
Now, I favor EGB over BR, but I can go *back* to BR. I can still "milk" it for what I want out of it. I know what's there, and I know the combination to its safe.
I *know* there are more sophisticated tobaccos, just as there are sophisticated wines. (Company I work for also is a major vineyard -- they talk about wines and sample wines here like you wouldn't believe.)
I know how different one single malt scotch is from another. But you know what? I don't drink $175 single malts every day. Have to keep it under $80, and then that one's for special occasions.
My daily drink is common old Jack Daniels No. 7. Oftentimes (god forbid!) it's in Diet Coke. Or (no screams, please), I drink BV in my Diet Coke.
I like the taste just fine. I really like the effect just fine. And the experience of the drink is whatever I make it out to be. I can be in my backyard having a social moment with the squirrels with any of the above drinks.
-- Or any of the above tobaccos.
And if I see Captain Black, he's an old friend. I will smoke him. My Argosy, oh that's a lifelong buddy, my low-maintenance childhood bud who catches up with me after 25 years as if we just stole apples and broke the neighbor's garage window with a carelessly thrown baseball yesterday.
I used to have a grudge against Borkum Riff. But hell. We're old now! We made up. I give him his space, and he entertains me with his grouchy old man routine. He makes me grin a little, mostly because I "get him" when so many others wave their hands at him in disgust and walk away.
Crown Achievement only visits me on Sundays after Mass these days. Holy smokes, both of us, finely dressed and in a stained glass mood.
Comoy Cask No. 1 speaks with a slight accent, giving me just a hint of latakia, speaking in so soft a voice that he never fails to calm me down, remind me not to sweat the small stuff.
And so on and so on... So many more to meet yet. I want to like them all. If you like them, I want to know why. If you can get along with them, let me try. I want to know how.
Of the ones I myself am already familiar with, I know which ones to be careful with and which ones are happy-go-lucky. I have learned one wants to be packed tight, the other loosely filled. One needs just a spark to get started, the other needs constant attention and reassurance (annoying, but I like him anyway).
I have learned one doesn't like the wide, fat bowl of my house pot. Another likes it best.
One I can just be rough with and fool around, in a mood for horseplay. Forgiving and easy. Another will slap my mouth unless I keep my nonsense in check.
Favorite?
How can you have just one? Maybe you don't want a visit every night from this one or that one, but you don't want to lose any of them, right?
And if only one person in the whole world could meet your requirements for a friendship, then is that a comment on people in general, or on you?
I'll be judged by the friends I keep, probably. But I'll have friends. The more the merrier. Each one relating to me in his own way, and me responding in that way unique to the two us and not really to any other.
I'll match myself to the tobacco rather than demanding it match me.
(For now. I might outgrow this, too, by next week. Who knows. I'm old and fickle. It's my right).
