Hello everyone! I've been smoking pipes for about 15 years now. I originally picked up the hobby because a bunch of my literary favorites—Chesterson, Tolkien, Hemingway, Lewis, etc—smoked pipes (or cigars), and young-me thought joining the club would make me cool. 
As far as blends go, I was fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) to discover Syrian latakia right at the end of its availability, and I quickly fell in love with it. I still have a large-but-dwindling supply of GLP / McClelland Syrian blends and am not looking forward to the day when I run out! All-time favorites are McC Three Oaks Syrian, McC Syrian Full Balkan, and GLP Renaissance. Non-latakia favorites would be Esoterica Stonehaven, GLP Haddo's Delight, GLP Cairo, and SG FVF.
I'm also a devotee of acrylic stems on pipes and refuse to smoke out of ebonite. This means my collection has historically been mostly Petersons from certain lines, Savinellis, and a handful of artisan carvers who work with acrylic. However, I've recently realized that I can send off ebonite-stemmed pipes to have custom acrylic replicas cut for them, so my options have opened up a bit. I realize this is probably excessive, but I hate the constant stem maintenance almost as much as the oxidized sulphur taste.
Anyway, not sure why I never joined up here before, but I'm looking forward to getting to know you all!
As far as blends go, I was fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) to discover Syrian latakia right at the end of its availability, and I quickly fell in love with it. I still have a large-but-dwindling supply of GLP / McClelland Syrian blends and am not looking forward to the day when I run out! All-time favorites are McC Three Oaks Syrian, McC Syrian Full Balkan, and GLP Renaissance. Non-latakia favorites would be Esoterica Stonehaven, GLP Haddo's Delight, GLP Cairo, and SG FVF.
I'm also a devotee of acrylic stems on pipes and refuse to smoke out of ebonite. This means my collection has historically been mostly Petersons from certain lines, Savinellis, and a handful of artisan carvers who work with acrylic. However, I've recently realized that I can send off ebonite-stemmed pipes to have custom acrylic replicas cut for them, so my options have opened up a bit. I realize this is probably excessive, but I hate the constant stem maintenance almost as much as the oxidized sulphur taste.
Anyway, not sure why I never joined up here before, but I'm looking forward to getting to know you all!
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