Opportunities In Pipe Smoking

[WVOldFart]

I was thinking back today of when I bought my first pipe and tobacco in 1980. The pipe was a Dr. Grabow, which I still have somewhere and the tobacco was Borkum Riff which I did not enjoy and haven't smoked since. The thing I remember the most was the limited selection, at the time, to choose from. You were at the mercy of the Department store or gas Station etc for the OTC blends. The closest Pipe Shop was a far piece away. I'm not complaining because I smoke many of those OTC blends today, but the selection for the new pipe smoker today is limitless. With the onset of the Internet, the selection of pipe tobaccos run into the thousands. I have read that pipe smoking is on the upswing. The new pipe smoker can basically find any pipe, any taste, any selection that they want to develop to enjoy their hobby. I guess there are still a few benefits to living in today's world.

 

[mso489]

Yes, this is the Golden Age for pipe tobacco blends, and in the U.S. most of these are moderately priced. All this may change with FDA "deeming" regulations, which make new blends and all those introduced after 2007 (is it?) extremely expensive to have approved to market. So far, these regulations have not swung into full effect, though they have certainly chastened small pipe shop owners and caused some to retire. But enjoy the current prevailing market, and perhaps stock up on blends you feel you would enjoy over time. The selection in the future may trend heavily toward older established blends that have been around decades or even a century or more. All recent blends seem hung in the balance. The big corporations may be able to shoulder the expense for some of the newer blends; the smaller blenders may not.

 

[cigrmaster]

I would not call these the golden years of pipe tobacco. Maybe back in 2012 -2013 it was but when you have limits like they do theses days then I say it is not a great time. When I wanted 25 tins of say Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake, it was rarely an issue getting that many or even more. When I was loading my cellar buying 5-10 pounds at a time of Samuel Gawith Flakes was not a big deal. I think the best times ended back around 2013-2014.

Yes today there are tons of blends available but not of your favorites. I would be having all kinds of problems with all the limits today. I always bought in 15-50 lots of tins as I knew some blends would get discontinued and I was not going to miss out. Luckily I did buy in large quantities as I was right about favorites getting discontinued. Rotary Navy Cut was a favorite that is now gone. I didn't predict this one like I did the Rotary but Brigham Klondike Gold also got discontinued. I was buying in 25 tin lots of the Gold and ended up with at least 150 tins. When Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky came back on the market I bought a test tin, loved it and then bought another 100 tins in one shot. Now it is gone from the US market. When you find blends you love buy all you can and don't think twice about it.

I was lucky that most all of my favorites came in tins. I have no more room for jars of any kind. I had to use some larger jars to be able store most of my bulks. I have one jar that holds around 5 pounds if I needed it to. Most of my jars hold 2 pounds each and it works for me.

 

[pepesdad1]

Harris...I have watched your posts for several years and know you to be a man of distinction and quality...what the hell are you gonna do with all that tobacco? You planning on living til you are 250 yrs. old?

 

[Servant King]

Harris...I have watched your posts for several years and know you to be a man of distinction and quality...what the hell are you gonna do with all that tobacco? You planning on living til you are 250 yrs. old?

I'm unfamiliar with the tenets of Hinduism, so I can't say whether or not one can reincarnate with their cellar or not. It looks like there are many guys on here who are banking on "yes!"

 

[OzPiper]

I was thinking back today of when I bought my first pipe and tobacco in 1980.. The thing I remember the most was the limited selection, at the time, to choose from.

With the onset of the Internet, the selection of pipe tobaccos run into the thousands. I have read that pipe smoking is on the upswing. The new pipe smoker can basically find any pipe, any taste, any selection that they want to develop to enjoy their hobby. I guess there are still a few benefits to living in today's world.

So true !

I started smoking a pipe in the early '70s. The selection of pipes and tobaccos was entirely dependent on how interested the tobacconist was. I was lucky to discover a tobacconist near my office who had a very good selection of tobacco and was happy to school me in the finer points of latakia and perique blends. He was also happy to clean and buff my pipes for a nominal price.

Fast forward to the past 3 years when I took up smoking the pipe again - a cornucopia of information on pipes and tobaccos on forums such as this, and sites of retailers like SmokingPipes and The Danish Pipe Shop, and TobaccoReviews. I've learnt far, far more in these 3 years than during my first 15 years of pipe-smoking.

 

[Chasing Embers]

With the onset of the Internet, the selection of pipe tobaccos run into the thousands.

Prior to the internet, I was just a call away from B&M orders and deliveries from C&D. Craig Tarler would custom tailor any of C&D's blends, and even press any of them into a cake.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I would not call these the golden years of pipe tobacco.

Yeah, with all of the importing bans and closings of major houses, B&Ms, and even a few pipe producers, the golden age is far behind us.

 

[saltedplug]

I'm unfamiliar with the tenets of Hinduism, so I can't say whether or not one can reincarnate with their cellar or not. It looks like there are many guys on here who are banking on "yes!"

Yes, Hinduism but also Buddhism hold to reincarnation. But only the mental body, not the physical (gross) or the energetic (subtle). Mmmm. . .a reincarnated cellar--probably not. But not to worry. . .it only takes 6 million incarnations to reach enlightenment.

 

[hauntedmyst]

We need to have an emergency cellar safer network in the event of a casualty.

 

[karam]

As a relativelly new pipe smoker (12 years give or take, but only about 3 smoking anything other than Nighcap), I feel the time is now, it may not be what it was in terms of cost/availability but it's not bound to get easier or cheaper, and none can reverse time so get at it.

 

[kcghost]

Pipe tobacco will never be cheaper and more available than it is today.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I think it's a golden age in some ways. There are so many blends to choose from, and you can get most of them easily on line. To judge from the recent Pease article, it may also be a golden age for pipes.

That said, it's not a golden age for everyone--me, for example. I like straight burley--generally unadorned and untamed. I don't like even a smidgen of Virginia or perique, and I'm not that crazy about most orientals and latakias I have tried either. I know of only a handful of truly straight and strong burleys available. Most burley blends contain other tobaccos, or the nicotine is toasted out of them. Or they are overly cased or topped. Right now I am smoking C&Ds dark burley, in part because it is one of the very few tobaccos of this kind I know of. I've come to prefer it to Five Brothers.

When I'm traveling across rural Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and I see what remains of the little tobacco barns (so many covered with Kudzu now) and I think of all the simple tobaccos there must have once been, how each tobacco must have reflected a very particular place and way of being, I wonder if that era, for all its hardships in so many other ways, might have suited me better, tobacco-wise.

 

[daberman]

Pipe tobacco will never be cheaper and more available than it is today.

I hope you are wrong, but you must be right.

 

[bullet08]

Golden age is always in the past. After forgetting all the blood, sweat, and tears, only happy memories remain. Kodak moment do sell.

 

[sablebrush52]

Golden age. What does that even mean? At one point we had something like 7,000 blends on the market. We're down quite a bit from that, but it's still a broader range than what was available when I started smoking a pipe in the early '70's and we didn't feel deprived then. Most of us don't smoke more than a couple of hundred blends in our smoking lifetimes.

There are a lot of good blends still being made. Why dwell on what's gone? Enjoy what's available now. Forget about unicorns. Workhorses do just fine.

L. A. had a lot of pipe smoking options in the '70's right up through the early teens, and now we have almost none, because cigars are the thing here. But I don't care. I've got plenty of blends to from which to choose and I have a choice of excellent pipes in which to smoke them. What more do I need when it comes to enjoying a pipe?

 

[Grangerous]

I was enjoying two bowls yesterday evening with a friend who was smoking an Ashton Cabinet cigar. He said, “no one smokes pipes anymore” but was intrigued and asked many questions. — It got around to what I was smoking and I told him Pegasus and when the conversation got to cost I told him a pound costs $50. His cigar cost $12.

Pipe tobacco, smoke for smoke — is a bargain in comparison to cigar smokers spending a hundred or more per box of cigars.

 

[WVOldFart]

Golden age. What does that even mean? At one point we had something like 7,000 blends on the market. We're down quite a bit from that, but it's still a broader range than what was available when I started smoking a pipe in the early '70's and we didn't feel deprived then. Most of us don't smoke more than a couple of hundred blends in our smoking lifetimes.

There are a lot of good blends still being made. Why dwell on what's gone? Enjoy what's available now. Forget about unicorns. Workhorses do just fine.

L. A. had a lot of pipe smoking options in the '70's right up through the early teens, and now we have almost none, because cigars are the thing here. But I don't care. I've got plenty of blends to from which to choose and I have a choice of excellent pipes in which to smoke them. What more do I need when it comes to enjoying a pipe?

You are so correct. I always tell my wife that be satisfied in the moment. It may be a zen thing. I am a second degree black belt in Kung Fu and taught Tai Chi for many years at the local college so it must be some of my Taoist philosophy coming through.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm glad that more people don't smoke pipes. If the streets were littered with men walking around smoking pipes, I would never have even inquired about pipes to begin with. I wouldn't want to be normal or following a trend.

I am certain that these are the best times to ever exist. I couldn't be happier. Now, get off my lawn.

 

[AroEnglish]

I’d agree with others that the early-2010s were the golden age of pipe tobaccos. I wasn’t a the biggest McClelland fan but definitely enjoyed their blends. Hopefully there won’t be others that have to close their doors.

As for pipes, now might be the golden age for availability and variety. Pipe carving isn’t limited to the big factories or the big named artisans. Forums, Instagram, and Etsy have all provided a means for pipe makers to get their pipes out there.