The Pipe Doesn’t Matter

The Pipe Doesn’t Matter

I hear the rumblings already. “What a load of codswallop, Pease? Of course the pipe matters.” Sure it does, but I can’t count how many times I’ve read similar words to those in the title, and it always makes me a little crazy. Maybe you’re one of those who believes that the briar thing is …

Fireside

The Curse of Expectations

Years ago, a friend, I’ll call him Zeke, gave me two tobacco samples in baggies labeled simply “A” and “B,” asking me to give him my thoughts. I smoked both in a variety of pipes, and gave him a call. “Are you taking the mickey? They’re the same. One may have a bit more age …

Vintage Latakia Tins from Gregory L. Pease's Collection

Fireside

Latakia Doesn’t Age Well

“Latakia goes flat after a few years, loses its flavor.” “Don’t age English blends too long, or you’ll be disappointed.” It’s a fairly common sentiment amongst some die-hard Latophiles. Smoke it up, because over time, that mixture that you once loved will cast little more than a murky shadow in the corner where once its …

Fireside

Breathing Room

I love surprises. A couple months ago, I pulled the rings on freshly minted tins of three experimental blends. These had come out of the press just days earlier, and had no time to settle before being sliced and tinned. They were fresh and young and interesting, but not yet representative of what they would …

Fireside

The Top Half, Please

From a bunch of basket bargains to some very nice hand-made beauties, a great many pipes have passed through my hands over the years. I’ve always loved the hunt for the next member of the stable, and all the horse-trading along the way has done a lot to keep the fun alive. Many pipes, whether …

Ask G. L. Pease

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 34)

G. L. Pease As I sit down with this month’s questions, I’m enjoying a wonderful bowl in little sandblasted apple made by one of my favorite makers. While this normally shouldn’t be worthy of mention, really, in this case it is. When I got this pipe in trade from another collector, it hadn’t been smoked …

Ask G. L. Pease

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 33)

G. L. Pease Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that pipe smokers were around even before the interwebs, and our modern technology-driven ability to communicate with one another effortlessly. There was a time when we congregated in tobacconists’ shops, pubs, bars, and other public venues, but so much of that is gone, now, and our numbers …

Out of the Ashes

It’s Not That Simple

G. L. Pease After a few hundred years of people smoking pipes, you’d think we’d have figured it all out. It seems a simple thing: Choose a pipe, fill it with tobacco using whatever well practiced technique is currently in fashion, properly apply the preferred source of flame, and sit back to enjoy a lingering, …

Out of the Ashes

Indulge Your Pleasure

G. L. Pease I knew a guy whose pipes all had little grey, rectangular tags dangling from their shanks by thin white strings, each one showing the date of the last smoke, what was smoked, and a number and letter grade reflecting an overall rating of the experience. Once he’d hit upon the "right" mixture …

Ask G. L. Pease

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 26)

G. L. Pease Amongst pipe tobacco aficionados, there seems to be no end to tightly held beliefs, some of which may have at one time had a basis in reality, some of which seem to be just frivolous flights of fancy. We are participants in a pastime rich with both history and romance, and the …

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The Pipe Doesn’t Matter

The Curse of Expectations

Latakia Doesn’t Age Well

Breathing Room

The Top Half, Please

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 34)

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 33)

It’s Not That Simple

Indulge Your Pleasure

Ask G. L. Pease (Volume 26)