Hello! I've come across Pipes Magazine's Forum over the last year or two, finding good information here on pipe smoking. I've also been reading and writing on Reddit, and the Speak Easy forum that some of Reddit's /pipe tobacco users belong to.
When I bought cigarettes in my early college years in the 2000's, I tended to buy Winstons and American Spirits because they advertised themselves as additive-free. I had an uncle who was part Cherokee from Oklahoma, so I liked American Spirit's Native theme
, and it has interesting blends like Perique. It had a pouch blend called "Pow Wow" that looked neat, mixing their RYO tobacco with Native herbs: Sage, Red Willow, Bearberry, and Spearmint. I didn't have a RYO machine and just figured that it was pipe tobacco. It turns out based on reviews that it burns better in a pipe anyway because it has material that doesn't burn as evenly as shag tobacco. Thus began my journey into pipe smoking. Nowadays, unfortunately "Pow Wow" is a discontinued blend, but you can still get the ingredients online.
I also went to a Native Pow Wow in my rural area of the Appalachians. It was like a combination of RV vacationing and craft vendors, with tribal dancing at a fire pit area. People there told me some of the main herbs that Native people smoked, and I got Lobelia, Mullein, and Wild Lettuce from them.
Later at a local Discount tobacco store I wanted to get something more solid and quality than my American Spirit. Even though I liked it, it seemed kind of plain and I expected that there were better blends for pipe smoking. The Discount store had a corner section with OTC blends. Actually since it was in the early 2000's, I recall those blends being in open area of the store instead of across a clerk's counter.
I didn't know which ones were better than others. But Captain Black's ship theme and marginal pirate theme (as in Cpt. Blackbeard) were fun.
I also liked how Cpt. Black had a series of different varieties, and I went for "Gold" because I was a beginning piper. The Dark Cavendish part of Cpt Black Original felt more intimidating. I found that I liked mixing Captain Black with Pow Wow Blend than smoking either one by itself: Captain Black's tobacco felt somehow better than American Spirit RYO, partly because of C.B.'s sweetness. But the minty herbs also added something good to Captain Black.
Two years ago I got back into piping, and more than before. A nice thing is that you get more into the leaf blends than with cigarettes, where it seems that the focus is more on brand names. With piping you can also have fun mixing blends, and there is tradition involved in that the Natives and US colonists smoked pipes. When I started smoking a pipe in the early 2000's, I didn't have a mentor or someone to tell me how to take care of my pipe, what kinds of blends were good. Nowadays there is alot more information on the internet.
It is fun talking with other pipers online, sharing stories, information on blends, how to maintain pipes. One piper sent me a few bowls of Grandfather's Spirit's "Ceremonial Blend", which was curious. It looked like just tobacco because it was made of brown soft leaf particles. But it had the same kind of minty tobacco mix as what I found in Pow Wow Blend, so it makes me think that Grandfather's Spirit took similar Native herbs and coated or otherwise treated them to give them that brown tobacco-like look.
After all that though I don't know that I ever smoked Native-grown tobacco. There are only a couple Native growers that I know of: Cherokee, Ohserase Manufacturing, Seneca, and Six Nations, and they only sell RYO. I'd still like to try them, but the trouble is that they only sell big 6-16 oz bags, which is much more of them than I would readily smoke. Another challenge is figuring out which of their blends would be better for pipe smoking. Ohserase Manufacturing for instance lists 4 different blends like Signal and Ten Pointer, without many reviews as to which ones are better or what the differences are.
When I bought cigarettes in my early college years in the 2000's, I tended to buy Winstons and American Spirits because they advertised themselves as additive-free. I had an uncle who was part Cherokee from Oklahoma, so I liked American Spirit's Native theme
, and it has interesting blends like Perique. It had a pouch blend called "Pow Wow" that looked neat, mixing their RYO tobacco with Native herbs: Sage, Red Willow, Bearberry, and Spearmint. I didn't have a RYO machine and just figured that it was pipe tobacco. It turns out based on reviews that it burns better in a pipe anyway because it has material that doesn't burn as evenly as shag tobacco. Thus began my journey into pipe smoking. Nowadays, unfortunately "Pow Wow" is a discontinued blend, but you can still get the ingredients online.
I also went to a Native Pow Wow in my rural area of the Appalachians. It was like a combination of RV vacationing and craft vendors, with tribal dancing at a fire pit area. People there told me some of the main herbs that Native people smoked, and I got Lobelia, Mullein, and Wild Lettuce from them.
Later at a local Discount tobacco store I wanted to get something more solid and quality than my American Spirit. Even though I liked it, it seemed kind of plain and I expected that there were better blends for pipe smoking. The Discount store had a corner section with OTC blends. Actually since it was in the early 2000's, I recall those blends being in open area of the store instead of across a clerk's counter.
I didn't know which ones were better than others. But Captain Black's ship theme and marginal pirate theme (as in Cpt. Blackbeard) were fun.
I also liked how Cpt. Black had a series of different varieties, and I went for "Gold" because I was a beginning piper. The Dark Cavendish part of Cpt Black Original felt more intimidating. I found that I liked mixing Captain Black with Pow Wow Blend than smoking either one by itself: Captain Black's tobacco felt somehow better than American Spirit RYO, partly because of C.B.'s sweetness. But the minty herbs also added something good to Captain Black.Two years ago I got back into piping, and more than before. A nice thing is that you get more into the leaf blends than with cigarettes, where it seems that the focus is more on brand names. With piping you can also have fun mixing blends, and there is tradition involved in that the Natives and US colonists smoked pipes. When I started smoking a pipe in the early 2000's, I didn't have a mentor or someone to tell me how to take care of my pipe, what kinds of blends were good. Nowadays there is alot more information on the internet.
It is fun talking with other pipers online, sharing stories, information on blends, how to maintain pipes. One piper sent me a few bowls of Grandfather's Spirit's "Ceremonial Blend", which was curious. It looked like just tobacco because it was made of brown soft leaf particles. But it had the same kind of minty tobacco mix as what I found in Pow Wow Blend, so it makes me think that Grandfather's Spirit took similar Native herbs and coated or otherwise treated them to give them that brown tobacco-like look.
After all that though I don't know that I ever smoked Native-grown tobacco. There are only a couple Native growers that I know of: Cherokee, Ohserase Manufacturing, Seneca, and Six Nations, and they only sell RYO. I'd still like to try them, but the trouble is that they only sell big 6-16 oz bags, which is much more of them than I would readily smoke. Another challenge is figuring out which of their blends would be better for pipe smoking. Ohserase Manufacturing for instance lists 4 different blends like Signal and Ten Pointer, without many reviews as to which ones are better or what the differences are.
