Good beginner tobacco?

[Lumbridge]

+1 vote for avoiding the goopy, sugary stuff. It almost never tastes as good as it smells and is likely to leave you with a scorched tongue and a discouraging first experience. Captain Black regular (white and black pouch) isn't bad in that regard, however. It was what I started with and I had a good experience with it.
I always recommend starting with what they call an "OTC" or "Codger" blend like Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Sir Walter Raleigh, etc and a corn cob. These tobaccos have light aromatic flavorings added which do not detract much from the tobacco flavor, yet work to slightly sweeten the experience. They are known to be bite-free, cool-burning, and easy to light/keep lit - a real gift to the new pipe smoker.

 

[hyperstar]

I don't recommand aromatics or mild tobaccos to beginners, you would likely puff too frequently attempt to get something out of it that resembles flavor, but the more you puff, the less flavor you will experience. Moreover, smoking a goopy aromatic tobacco, you will have difficulty drawing on the pipe and keeping it lit. It's a dead end.

I would recommand a full flavored, but not strong tobacco to the beginner. Let it dry before packing, you will much more likely to get some flavor. And it will be much easier for you to apprehend the idea of slowing down. Helping you master some of the mechanics of pipe smoking.

 

[Benanajammin]

I started with a pouch of Captain Black Royal and fell in love with pipe smoking immediately. I also found that smoking it can be a pleasant or painful experience based off of how frequent and deep I pulled on my pipe. When my tongue started tingling I knew it was time to back off a bit because tongue bite was going to set in if I didn't. That was a little over a year ago.

 

[Benanajammin]

I also forgot to mention that I was in the exact same spot as you. Never smoked anything before I got into pipes. I hope it grabs you the way it did me

 

[PaulDM]

I will go out on a small limb here and suggest a mild English blend or a crossover. Squadron Leader comes to mind, maybe Early Morning Pipe or Presbyterian. The flavor will come through even if you puff too hard or smoke to fast and you won’t get tongue bite. The OTCs that were mentioned are just fine and I like them, but they can have some rough edges and be a bit cigaretty at times.

 

[Templekeeper]

I do feel "aromatics" have their place, and I've come back to them. But starting out on them very nearly ruined me and I cannot imagine what it would take to truly be successful if starting on that path - I only managed because somehow I was convinced the pipe was for me and after months of attempts from my local B&M jars, I found my way via codger blends - most particularly for me: Carter Hall.

That was the beginning of a more pleasurable path, which led to English blends and beyond!

Now I've an open tin of Ennerdale, We 3 Kings, a sample of Bob's Chocolate Flake, etc. in my repertoire. I still don't advise starting there.

I'm gonna cast my vote on the opposite end of the spectrum and say that it wasn't until trying 1-Q and Autumn evening that I was convinced about pipe smoking. The first ones I tried were not that close to ruining it for me (although the tongue bite caught me off guard)

My best advice is that several places sell many brands in bulk starting at 1 ounce for a couple of bucks. You can get yourself a small sampler of very different ones and see what works for you best. And like others said. If you don't like something in the beginning, hold on to it because you might lake it later.

 

[mortonbriar]

Your local tobacconist should be able to answer this question at the point of purchase I think. Bring back what they say and each of us can tell you what was wrong with the advice, with all the collected 2 cents's you can buy a tin of your choice.

 

[bullet08]

Cotton ball. What you do is, get a proper pipe and stuff the chamber with a cotton ball. Then drop food grade mint oil on it and suck on it. No need for tobacco and all the guys at the pipe shop will think you are amazing since they don't see the smoke. Win, win.

 

[Zamora]

I started with Sir Walter Raleigh. It's a classic straight burley and much cheaper than most other options. I picked SWR because one of the big pipe YouTubers said that was his first blend. Then I tried Lane 1Q and RLP=6, they're identical to Captain Black White and Gold but cheaper and lack the preservatives.

 

[BarrelProof]

Cotton ball. What you do is, get a proper pipe and stuff the chamber with a cotton ball. Then drop food grade mint oil on it and suck on it. No need for tobacco and all the guys at the pipe shop will think you are amazing since they don't see the smoke. Win, win.

That’s literally Sutliff’s Frosty Mint.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Depending on where you are located, I'd suggest Domestric OTC's such as CH , Prince Albert and mixture 79 also SWR Aromatic is pretty enjoyable smooth tobacco but fast burning, if in Eu I'd choose Mc Barens Golden Extra or or Amphora regular

 

[Zamora]

Yeah where you live really does determine what options you have for beginner blends

 

[anotherbob]

I wouldworry more about just smoking slowly and softly. Sip what ever you try.

 

[JR McDuff]

When I first started I made the decision to try one of each basic category. English blend, Burley blend, Virginia/Perique, Oriental blend, and an Aromatic. Have fun exploring, that's what it's about for me anyway.

 

[BriarBrook]

VELVET

 

[captpat]

Lot's of suggestions here, recommend using Google (or site search functionality) to expand your horizons. Googling "beginner tobacco" quickly yielded several pages of threads to peruse.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It doesn't matter much what you start with. There is a learning curve that you have to get right before you taste the tobacco anyway, no matter what blend you start with. You have to experiment with packing till you get that right. Then, everyone puffs too hard too fast. So, there is getting that slowed way down, to gentle wisps, smoking like you're trying to hide the smoke. Then, you will go through a phase where you have to learn to focus on tastes to be able to pull out different flavors. This last one is the hardest for most.

So, you have some practicing to do. Rarely is it ever as easy as just getting great flavors right off the bat. I'm not sure whether this has ever happened.

But, once you get past the elementary, I think you'll find Englishes the easiest to taste. The problem is whether you will like the taste, ha ha. Codger blends are good. But, really, it doesn't matter which one you start with. We all have to experiment to get to the tasting part, remembering that when you do get a hint of flavor, DO NOT puff harder. This is a counter intuitive hobby. You get the flavor from the tobacco surrounding the cherry heating up. Puffing harder will just give you more smoke, and we can't taste the direct burning smoke from tobacco. You have to slow down when you get hints of flavor, and resist the urge to puff to get more, because you won't.

It just takes practice. So, what the tobacco is that you start with doesn't really matter.

 

[JR McDuff]

It doesn't matter much what you start with. There is a learning curve that you have to get right before you taste the tobacco anyway, no matter what blend you start with. You have to experiment with packing till you get that right. Then, everyone puffs too hard too fast. So, there is getting that slowed way down, to gentle wisps, smoking like you're trying to hide the smoke. Then, you will go through a phase where you have to learn to focus on tastes to be able to pull out different flavors. This last one is the hardest for most.

So, you have some practicing to do. Rarely is it ever as easy as just getting great flavors right off the bat. I'm not sure whether this has ever happened.

But, once you get past the elementary, I think you'll find Englishes the easiest to taste. The problem is whether you will like the taste, ha ha. Codger blends are good. But, really, it doesn't matter which one you start with. We all have to experiment to get to the tasting part, remembering that when you do get a hint of flavor, DO NOT puff harder. This is a counter intuitive hobby. You get the flavor from the tobacco surrounding the cherry heating up. Puffing harder will just give you more smoke, and we can't taste the direct burning smoke from tobacco. You have to slow down when you get hints of flavor, and resist the urge to puff to get more, because you won't.

It just takes practice. So, what the tobacco is that you start with doesn't really matter.

Very well stated here and I agree with it all.

 

[bobpnm]

The one you have. Jam it in whatever pipe you have. Set it on fire. Try to figure out what is going wrong. No substitute for failing early and often.

 

[JR McDuff]

Yep, it took me a while to realize my fast smoking was causing the ashy taste in some of the tobaccos. Frequent relights are okay but I didn't know that in the beginning.