Hello from Minnesota

[aspiring_sage]

Greetings all from Minnesota!
I started smoking pipes just a few months ago this year.

I haven't been exposed to many tobaccos yet. Attempting to support local shops before ordering online, I tried only a couple of tobacco types. I have since learned the "TOBACCO" stores close to home cater to a different market, they don't primarily cater to pipe tobacco smokers. I'm getting ready to place an order and experiment with more brands.
Currently enjoying Capt Black Regular and Cherry.
Tried some non-aromatics I didn't care for. The non-aromatics were both shag cut, I understand that isn't ideal. Put them in jars, I'll probably try again later.

I haven't figured out yet how I'll smoke in the winter... This may only be a seasonal hobby for now.

I've been lurking on this site a few months now. These forums have been a great source of information.

I was reading the other day and thought,
"These guys seem like guys I'd like to be friends with. Why don't I join the conversation?"
So here I am.

Nice to meet you. Thanks for all the help!


NOTE:
If there is someone that can get this message to the right people, the "New Members Please Read" page has some broken links. I'm getting "The requested page could not be found." at the following two addresses.
Buy/Sell/Trade Rules
Tobacco Sell/Swap/Buy Rules

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Hello and welcome from London
Yes this is a great forum, plenty of relevant information and some good laughs too. ?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I love the glasses and expression in your avatar. You look like you are about to dose all of your friends on a bachelor party trip in Las Vegas, haha! Watch out for the naked Asian man in the trunk. I'm just kiddin" ya, look at me... I look like the salesman everyone avoid on the used car lot, ha ha.

I am the opposite, I smoke a lot of cigars in teh summertime, because it's just too hot, and the winter I am a pipe fiend.

Try a middle of the road latakia blend, maybe some Mixture 965 or something alkong those lines to start tasting and buil;ding refernces for future tobacco experiences. Aros aren't the best... :::cough cough::: to start out with. IMO.

Welcome and happy October...

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

Welcome from NC!

I always tell new smokers to go to smokingpipes.com and go to the bulk tobacco section. Pick out quite a few 1oz samples and order those. Then you will not be out a lot of money (tobacco you wont smoke) and cab try a lot of different tobaccos.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Oooooo, I hate that I made you change your avatar. I'm sorry I said anything. Me and my damn... fingers typing on keyboard thing.
You did rock that Zach Galifianakis look, like a badass!!

 

[Inspired Idler]

Welcome from Denver, CO!

 

[MattRVA]

Welcome from Virginia

 

[aspiring_sage]

Oooooo, I hate that I made you change your avatar. I'm sorry I said anything. Me and my damn... fingers typing on keyboard thing.
You did rock that Zach Galifianakis look, like a badass!!

Thanks for the kind words. I was looking at the other avatars and thought, I don't need to look like I'm in disguise
If I had seen your message sooner, I probably would have left it in place.

As it is, it looks like it is a required that I take a picture with a pipe in my mouth.

 

[aspiring_sage]

Welcome from NC!

I always tell new smokers to go to smokingpipes.com and go to the bulk tobacco section. Pick out quite a few 1oz samples and order those. Then you will not be out a lot of money (tobacco you wont smoke) and cab try a lot of different tobaccos.

I hadn't thought of that.
Definitely will. Thanks!

 

[magicpiper]

Welcome from Florida. Glad you're here.

 

[kcghost]

Welcome from KC!!

 

[STP]

Welcome

 

[FurCoat]

Welcome from North Carolina

 

[Tar Wheel]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

[Jacob74]

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Hello and welcome from up north Finland-EU

 

[WVOldFart]

Welcome from West Virginia. I agree with CoffeeandBourbon to get a lot of 1 oz. bags to find what you like. Try all types, don't just get aros, or Latakia or whatever. Try them all. You might even like them all, but chances are you will like one type more than others. This is a fun time in your smoking experience, enjoy it.

 

[SBC]

Welcome from not so far away, in NE Wisconsin!

The friend who gave me my first tin of Penzance lives in Mnpls.

I'll add my support to what others have suggested:
1 oz. samples of many bulk tobaccos, representing all possible genres.

But let me add a few points:

[1] Don't do this until your technique is good enough. If you're still overheating bowls, keep practicing with what you have, till you're keeping it in the happy zone.

(You won't be giving other tobaccos a fair shot, otherwise.)

[2] This is (by far) most important with VAs and VaPers. These offer you their wonderful flavors only within a very narrow range of heat, just barely hot enough to keep from extinguishing, and no hotter. If you take them just a bit too hot, those flavors disappear in a cloud of acrid nastiness.

Relatedly, VA/VaPer flavors are tasted mainly on a delicate retrohale.

Point is: Make sure you have these things down, before trying them.

If you think you don't like VAs and VaPers... make sure you smoked them correctly, first.

[3] Avoid flakes at first. Even though certain genres (mainly VAs) often come in flakes, every general genre of tobacco can be found in ribbon cut, which is easiest to work with at first.

Flakes can be a tad frustrating to get and keep lit, when you're first learning, and there's no need to complicate the process of discovering which genres you like.

[4] Simplify your note taking to just two points, at first:
(a) contents of the mixture / genre
(b) how much you liked it.

The reason is that you need to know what not to waste your money on, in the future.

Let's say that you try 6 mixtures (I'm making this simplistic for illustration's sake), and three are VA/Burs, and three are straight VAs, and you notice that you really dislike the first three... then you've learned something -- don't waste your money on burley blends.

Likewise, if you try a bunch of English mixtures, and you notice that half of them are just fine, but half of them have something really special about them, and then you look at contents and realize that the special ones all have Oriental leaf and the other ones don't... well then, you've learned something -- you have a thing for Balkans.

Etc.

[5] Those little baggies you'll get samples in will allow that tobacco to dry out. It's frustrating to come back to it later and find it crispy. Anything you don't like, give to a friend ASAP. Anything you do like, stick in a mason jar.

Hope this helps you discover what's worth spending money on, in the future!

 

[elessar]

Welcome from SE MN!

 

[mso489]

Welcome aboard from central North Carolina. I've never been to Minnesota, but in the Chicago area, a kid from Minnesota didn't think we had any real snow in those parts. So, yes, pipe smoking might be seasonal outdoors in Minnesota. North Carolina snow is brief and fleeting, a few days, but our glaze ice is a killer, swift and terrible to vehicles and pedestrians both. When it does snow, the fleet of plows is limited, so there's that.