Greetings Pipers! It’s time for an update on my pipe-smoking journey. I composed most of this in my head over many contemplative briar-enhanced sessions in the cooler evenings under my orange tree. And if you’re wondering, yes, I still love smoking a pipe.
I am in my mid-50’s now and like many started my tobacco explorations in my late-teens/early-twenties. I grew up with various adults around me who smoked cigarettes, chewed tobacco, and even one who smoked a pipe. When I was old enough to talk my way past the convenience store clerks, I started purchasing tobacco and seeing what the fuss was all about.
I smoked cigarettes for about five years in my early twenties. I had moved out when I was just eighteen with my then-girlfriend and I think we just wanted to seem ‘grown up’. During this time I also tried chewing tobacco and snuff — neither of which appealed. And at one point I purchased a $20 briar pipe from my local Tinder Box and an ounce of some aromatic that smelled great in the jar. I gave it a heroic try with no instruction or mentor. And as you can imagine, ultimately gave it up. Tongue-bite, the impossibility of keeping it lit, and trying to smoke it like a freight train kept me from reaching nirvana.
I stopped smoking cigarettes when we (now married) were thinking about having kids. And thus began a decade-long hiatus from tobacco. In my thirties I had a friend who rolled his own cigarettes. I liked the idea of this — it seemed more ‘advanced’ in some way. But it didn’t hold my attention for more than a few months. I also smoked cigars occasionally with my Dad or occasional friend. I enjoyed this a lot — the tobacco tasted a lot better and had more variety than cigarettes — and it was always around a more social setting. I am grateful for those moments sharing a cigar on the patio with my Dad solving all the world's problems. Or those times with a couple buddies out on the golf course. I still enjoy a social cigar today.
Skip ahead to my 50’s (though I wish the years hadn’t flown by so fast!) and as I related in my “I Love Smoking a Pipe” post, I (re)discovered pipe smoking. This time I was armed with the collective wisdom of YT and these forums. And I think for the first time in my life, I am actually enjoying the tobacco itself and not just the setting, feeling (nicotine), or the habit.
The Lede. Now that I understand what pipe smoking is all about, this idea keeps surfacing that smoking a pipe is the fly-fishing of the tobacco world. Please allow me this oversimplification. Cigars are a bit like bait-fishing: you cast your lure into the water, crack open a beer, and sit with a fishing buddy. Maybe you listen to the ball game on the radio. But smoking a pipe is like fly fishing: it is a more solitary act (even if fishing with someone, you are usually not right in the same spot), it requires more skill to do properly, is more active with the tending, and it involves quite a few more bits-and-bobs, doo-dads, and gizmos. I am not saying there’s no skill in bait-fishing. But I am saying that there’s a reason eight-year-old me went down to the lake and bait-fished.
And that’s the thing — smoking a pipe tickles many of the same fancies that I enjoy about fly fishing. I love the slow and methodical nature of the activity. The contemplation. The meditative quality. The pipes, tampers, lighters, cleaners, leather pouches, and other miscellany. Selecting a tobacco to smoke and a pipe to smoke it in is like pairing the right fly with the right situation. I’ll stop the analogy there before I start comparing home-blending with tying my own flies.
My Pipes. I am now up to seven pipes in my quiver and have an eighth on the way, including examples from Savinelli, Peterson, Stanwell, Boswell, Tinsky, and Missouri Meerschaum. I really like having many different pipes to choose from with varying shapes, sizes, and quirks. Each one of them smokes differently requiring slight adjustments to packing, lighting, tamping, and smoking cadence. I will say that frequently switching between different pipes while also learning to smoke a pipe has added complexity and time to the learning curve. At this stage in my journey I prefer bent over straight, and while I like variety in shapes and sizes, I lean toward a bulldog/rhodesian-style aesthetic. I have one clay and one cob that I look forward to trying, so my experience to-date is entirely briar.
My Cellar. I have now sampled sixteen different blends including some English, Balkan, Virginia/Perique, Virginia, and Aromatic, and have acquired a further nineteen blends that are on deck to be tried. It is so exciting to crack open a tin and experience a brand new blend! Six of the blends have risen to ‘rotation’ status for me — I end up smoking one of these about 3/4 of the time and trying something newer the remainder. This is a good balance for me depending on my mood. I like having a couple solid go-to’s, and I also like experimenting.
My Rotation Blends. These six are my current go-to’s: Peterson Nightcap, Boswell Northwoods, Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Bourbon Barrel Aged, Peterson Elizabethan Mixture, Boswell’s Best, and Cult Blood Red Moon.
Evolution of Flavor. I have gotten better at tasting and figuring out many of the flavors that are described in the reviews. I find that most bowls go through an evolution that can be best described in thirds. The first third is usually too hot to taste anything but the main note or two (having been subjected to the charring and true lights to form the ember). Smokiness and/or spiciness tend to be the most prominent flavors to me depending on the blend. The second third of the bowl, when the ember is now more gently burning the undertobacco, is when the more subtle flavors emerge. Occasionally individual flavors will briefly make an appearance only to fall back into the mix. It is like spotting a shooting star. It helps to slow my cadence, retro-hale once or twice, and be in the moment with the pipe. The final third tends to change in some blend-dependent way — sometimes a bit bolder — until the bottom is reached.
Well that’s it for now. Thanks for continuing to share the journey with me.
I am in my mid-50’s now and like many started my tobacco explorations in my late-teens/early-twenties. I grew up with various adults around me who smoked cigarettes, chewed tobacco, and even one who smoked a pipe. When I was old enough to talk my way past the convenience store clerks, I started purchasing tobacco and seeing what the fuss was all about.
I smoked cigarettes for about five years in my early twenties. I had moved out when I was just eighteen with my then-girlfriend and I think we just wanted to seem ‘grown up’. During this time I also tried chewing tobacco and snuff — neither of which appealed. And at one point I purchased a $20 briar pipe from my local Tinder Box and an ounce of some aromatic that smelled great in the jar. I gave it a heroic try with no instruction or mentor. And as you can imagine, ultimately gave it up. Tongue-bite, the impossibility of keeping it lit, and trying to smoke it like a freight train kept me from reaching nirvana.
I stopped smoking cigarettes when we (now married) were thinking about having kids. And thus began a decade-long hiatus from tobacco. In my thirties I had a friend who rolled his own cigarettes. I liked the idea of this — it seemed more ‘advanced’ in some way. But it didn’t hold my attention for more than a few months. I also smoked cigars occasionally with my Dad or occasional friend. I enjoyed this a lot — the tobacco tasted a lot better and had more variety than cigarettes — and it was always around a more social setting. I am grateful for those moments sharing a cigar on the patio with my Dad solving all the world's problems. Or those times with a couple buddies out on the golf course. I still enjoy a social cigar today.
Skip ahead to my 50’s (though I wish the years hadn’t flown by so fast!) and as I related in my “I Love Smoking a Pipe” post, I (re)discovered pipe smoking. This time I was armed with the collective wisdom of YT and these forums. And I think for the first time in my life, I am actually enjoying the tobacco itself and not just the setting, feeling (nicotine), or the habit.
The Lede. Now that I understand what pipe smoking is all about, this idea keeps surfacing that smoking a pipe is the fly-fishing of the tobacco world. Please allow me this oversimplification. Cigars are a bit like bait-fishing: you cast your lure into the water, crack open a beer, and sit with a fishing buddy. Maybe you listen to the ball game on the radio. But smoking a pipe is like fly fishing: it is a more solitary act (even if fishing with someone, you are usually not right in the same spot), it requires more skill to do properly, is more active with the tending, and it involves quite a few more bits-and-bobs, doo-dads, and gizmos. I am not saying there’s no skill in bait-fishing. But I am saying that there’s a reason eight-year-old me went down to the lake and bait-fished.
And that’s the thing — smoking a pipe tickles many of the same fancies that I enjoy about fly fishing. I love the slow and methodical nature of the activity. The contemplation. The meditative quality. The pipes, tampers, lighters, cleaners, leather pouches, and other miscellany. Selecting a tobacco to smoke and a pipe to smoke it in is like pairing the right fly with the right situation. I’ll stop the analogy there before I start comparing home-blending with tying my own flies.
My Pipes. I am now up to seven pipes in my quiver and have an eighth on the way, including examples from Savinelli, Peterson, Stanwell, Boswell, Tinsky, and Missouri Meerschaum. I really like having many different pipes to choose from with varying shapes, sizes, and quirks. Each one of them smokes differently requiring slight adjustments to packing, lighting, tamping, and smoking cadence. I will say that frequently switching between different pipes while also learning to smoke a pipe has added complexity and time to the learning curve. At this stage in my journey I prefer bent over straight, and while I like variety in shapes and sizes, I lean toward a bulldog/rhodesian-style aesthetic. I have one clay and one cob that I look forward to trying, so my experience to-date is entirely briar.
My Cellar. I have now sampled sixteen different blends including some English, Balkan, Virginia/Perique, Virginia, and Aromatic, and have acquired a further nineteen blends that are on deck to be tried. It is so exciting to crack open a tin and experience a brand new blend! Six of the blends have risen to ‘rotation’ status for me — I end up smoking one of these about 3/4 of the time and trying something newer the remainder. This is a good balance for me depending on my mood. I like having a couple solid go-to’s, and I also like experimenting.
My Rotation Blends. These six are my current go-to’s: Peterson Nightcap, Boswell Northwoods, Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Bourbon Barrel Aged, Peterson Elizabethan Mixture, Boswell’s Best, and Cult Blood Red Moon.
Evolution of Flavor. I have gotten better at tasting and figuring out many of the flavors that are described in the reviews. I find that most bowls go through an evolution that can be best described in thirds. The first third is usually too hot to taste anything but the main note or two (having been subjected to the charring and true lights to form the ember). Smokiness and/or spiciness tend to be the most prominent flavors to me depending on the blend. The second third of the bowl, when the ember is now more gently burning the undertobacco, is when the more subtle flavors emerge. Occasionally individual flavors will briefly make an appearance only to fall back into the mix. It is like spotting a shooting star. It helps to slow my cadence, retro-hale once or twice, and be in the moment with the pipe. The final third tends to change in some blend-dependent way — sometimes a bit bolder — until the bottom is reached.
Well that’s it for now. Thanks for continuing to share the journey with me.
