By way of Hertfordshire county but once a Londoner, and all that.
My journey to the promised land of pipe smoking is probably quite an unusual one in that I haven't been a cigarette smoker since I was 18, some 16 years ago now, and my first exposure came when I discovered nasal snuff. I suppose someone else may have found it first but you know how we Europeans are; I believe I can say that, possibly not though.
I first I found out about nasal snuff through seeing videos about chewing tobacco, which many Americans confusingly call "snuff". I loved the tobacco flavour, realising then that it didn't have to be like those foul smelling cheap (yet outrageously expensive) cigarettes, and from browsing through online vendors and watching more videos, I was introduced to pipe tobacco.
That being far too simple a route, I then forgot about tobacco entirely for another four years until my friend told me about snus in 2017, which I'd heard of in my snuff days but never tried. From there I became a regular snus user and foolishly addicted to the sweet nicotine within. I was having to import it from Israel by way of Sweden because it's illegal to sell to EU countries (except Sweden..?) yet somehow kosher when exported from Israel (as in it literally avoids customs charges by being marked as "kosher goods"). I soon tired of waiting anywhere between 4 and 20 days for shipments. My solution? Why not buy a pipe?
But I didn't. Not until my friends and I arranged to buy some cigars for a long weekend away last month did I feel the time was right to smoke a pipe instead—and now here I am sipping my new Ascorti Business briar with you fine people.
I'd love to talk about my first few smokes and how only two days ago with that new Ascorti did I truly discover the flavour of tobacco, but I seem to have wasted four paragraphs explaining how I got here. All things in time, I'm sure, and I've thoroughly enjoyed my short stay here so far - there's not too much snobbery, but not too little either. Thank you all for reading and as always, I hope you weren't in any hurry.
-LD (don't ask...The Man is listening)
My journey to the promised land of pipe smoking is probably quite an unusual one in that I haven't been a cigarette smoker since I was 18, some 16 years ago now, and my first exposure came when I discovered nasal snuff. I suppose someone else may have found it first but you know how we Europeans are; I believe I can say that, possibly not though.
I first I found out about nasal snuff through seeing videos about chewing tobacco, which many Americans confusingly call "snuff". I loved the tobacco flavour, realising then that it didn't have to be like those foul smelling cheap (yet outrageously expensive) cigarettes, and from browsing through online vendors and watching more videos, I was introduced to pipe tobacco.
That being far too simple a route, I then forgot about tobacco entirely for another four years until my friend told me about snus in 2017, which I'd heard of in my snuff days but never tried. From there I became a regular snus user and foolishly addicted to the sweet nicotine within. I was having to import it from Israel by way of Sweden because it's illegal to sell to EU countries (except Sweden..?) yet somehow kosher when exported from Israel (as in it literally avoids customs charges by being marked as "kosher goods"). I soon tired of waiting anywhere between 4 and 20 days for shipments. My solution? Why not buy a pipe?
But I didn't. Not until my friends and I arranged to buy some cigars for a long weekend away last month did I feel the time was right to smoke a pipe instead—and now here I am sipping my new Ascorti Business briar with you fine people.
I'd love to talk about my first few smokes and how only two days ago with that new Ascorti did I truly discover the flavour of tobacco, but I seem to have wasted four paragraphs explaining how I got here. All things in time, I'm sure, and I've thoroughly enjoyed my short stay here so far - there's not too much snobbery, but not too little either. Thank you all for reading and as always, I hope you weren't in any hurry.
-LD (don't ask...The Man is listening)
