Hi there
Intermediate/novice pipe smoker from UK. 30 years old.
I first tried a pipe after watching Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr plays Holmes and smokes a straight, sandblasted saddlebit in the film). I bought a similar looking pipe from eBay, which I still have in my rotation today. I made the horrendous error of asking my friend who smoked to buy be some rolling tobacco (‘amber leaf’ I think) and obviously the taste was seriously lacking…
That was at the age of about 20 and from then on my friend and I (he bought a pipe shortly after) smoked every now and then for several years. I ended up sampling various cherry aromatics over those years and he pushed the boat out and bought Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader! Looking back it was a bit too much of a step change and we decided pipe smoking just didn’t do much in the way of taste. He went back to cigarettes and I tried the pipe every year or so, always feeling that it was lacking. I did more research and bought some Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, but it still just wasn’t giving me much in the way of taste… all until the day I inadvertently discovered retrohaling!
Life then got in the way and I didn’t revisit the pipe much (maybe once or twice a year) until recently, spurred on by the wonderful Instagram pipe smoking community (if interested, my Instagram is viking_vader) and now I’m happily making my way through different blends, doing more and more research on tobacco blends, breath technique etc and just enjoying my time with the pipe. I’m currently off work on holiday time so I’m keeping it to just one or two bowls in the evening. So far have tried and loving several Peterson’s blends: Sherlock Holmes, Nightcap and going to try De Luxe Mixture tonight. Looking forward to learning from this wonderful online community.
Nathan
Intermediate/novice pipe smoker from UK. 30 years old.
I first tried a pipe after watching Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr plays Holmes and smokes a straight, sandblasted saddlebit in the film). I bought a similar looking pipe from eBay, which I still have in my rotation today. I made the horrendous error of asking my friend who smoked to buy be some rolling tobacco (‘amber leaf’ I think) and obviously the taste was seriously lacking…
That was at the age of about 20 and from then on my friend and I (he bought a pipe shortly after) smoked every now and then for several years. I ended up sampling various cherry aromatics over those years and he pushed the boat out and bought Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader! Looking back it was a bit too much of a step change and we decided pipe smoking just didn’t do much in the way of taste. He went back to cigarettes and I tried the pipe every year or so, always feeling that it was lacking. I did more research and bought some Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, but it still just wasn’t giving me much in the way of taste… all until the day I inadvertently discovered retrohaling!
Life then got in the way and I didn’t revisit the pipe much (maybe once or twice a year) until recently, spurred on by the wonderful Instagram pipe smoking community (if interested, my Instagram is viking_vader) and now I’m happily making my way through different blends, doing more and more research on tobacco blends, breath technique etc and just enjoying my time with the pipe. I’m currently off work on holiday time so I’m keeping it to just one or two bowls in the evening. So far have tried and loving several Peterson’s blends: Sherlock Holmes, Nightcap and going to try De Luxe Mixture tonight. Looking forward to learning from this wonderful online community.
Nathan
