New Pipes and New Tobaccos

I have tried this experiment before. I enjoyed it thoroughly and have decided to repeat it. The experiment? I'm glad you asked. The goal is to go deep wth a new tobacco. I found this fun shaped cob at a local tobacconist and I have been sitting on this tin of Dunhill Durbar for more than a year. The tin description reads as follows: "BLENDED FOR THE MORE EXPERIENCED AND MATURE PIPE TOBACCO SMOKER". I am unsure precisely what this means but I am excited. 

Yet that still is not an experiment, is it?  The experiment goes as follows. For the coming weeks I will smoke mostly this tobacco and I will only smoke it in this brand new cob. What is the point? Tobaccos are complex, they have personality and style. 

This is, for me, the equivalent of meeting a friend of a friend that you are fairly sure to like and then going on a long fishing trip with him. There can be bumps and bruises. You may find put quickly that this fellow has some strange character oddities, but commitment to delve deep brings results. I am excited to really dig in with this tobacco. I may even write about it. 

To Mix or Not to Mix

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about what pairings may be good or bad.  This tobacco with that tea, and this beverage with that type of leaf.  I suppose that is all well and good, not meaning to criticize the great pairings of the past, but I have been in an interesting funk lately.  Firstly,  I have been enjoying more than a few bowls of Hartenstein Trail.  This is a great full flavored latakia blend from the Edwards Tobacco in Denver.  Excellent smoke in a multitude of different bowl sizes.  Cool smoking and a great low nicotine level that makes it particularly perfect for before bedtime smoking.  Worth every moment.

The second thing that I have noticed is that I don't find myself wanting to pair my smoking with my tea/coffee drinking lately.  I have stumbled across some great flavor combinations in the past for sure, but I have been more interested in the tobacco by itself.  Coincidentally, I have also been interested in the tea and the coffee by themselves as well.  It seems that adding anything to the equation means that I will (of necessity) pay less attention to either of the things I am tasting individually.  I imagine, as things warm up again I will ease back into pairing my puffs with my beverages, but for the moment I am enjoying the simplicity.  What say you?  Do you enjoy things more in pairs, or one experience at a time?

Famous Pipe Smokers and their Tobacco

I received a beautiful birthday present of a church warden pipe (thanks Ma!) which I will feature in a future notice, but this post is inspired by my mother in a different way. She is apart of a series of postings dedicated to Kenneth Graham's master work The Wind in the Willows (http://fraiselachrymose.blogspot.com/) this is a wonderful book that weighs very heavily into what I view the perfect life to be like. She asked me if anyone smoked a pipe in that book. If memory serves, the Rat does. Even if he doesn't ever do it in the book (which I believe he does); he ever will in my mind. This got my mind rolling around the other famous pipe smokers who never told us. So I thought I would expose them, as well as the tobaccos that they smoke:

The Rat from wind in the willows smokes stoved red virginias, and some Frog Morton for a treat. Usually from his clay pipe (living near the river is a bit humid for briar) and when he is in the mood for a good sit from a larger calabash.

Pooh smokes mostly from a corn cob pipe, but occasionally pulls out an old rusticated pipe with an 1/8th bend in the stem. He smokes honey cavendish, of course.

Brave old Captain Nemo is fond of smoking Burley based blends in a straight billiard shaped pipe.

Chuck Norris, never to be outdone, holds the tobacco in his bare hand. Lights it with his burning rage, enjoys it in such a way as to not influence children to smoke, while deriving more pleasure from it than most mortals are capable of experiencing. He then delivers the only truly objective tobacco review that is available to humanity and posts it on tobaccoreviews.com using a different handle each time (so there is still some challenge for the rest of us).

Who else smokes a pipe and we don't know it? What do they smoke?

On Pipes

O what can match the true delight

Of pipe and fire, both burning bright

The knees and cheeks and hands kept warm

while good tobacco does no harm

The fire roaring, the pipe well packed

Bids weary travelers to relax

The pouch is fat, the day is done

Loss deep bound thoughts to oblivion

Whilst fire and air combine to free

The flavor of the mind's reprieve

So many friends this moment share

As a modest collection of pipes to bare

To briar, sweet briar, the start and end

The great gift of the Mediterranean

As time is passed your colors change

Hard evidence of a friend well made

And clay, dear clay, my earthy friend,

our sweet simplicity to lend

Meerschaum, so dear, so elegant,

The sea's great gift to thinking gents

My corn cob, thoughtful, from the land

Pensive, impermanent, in my hand

Oh my friends, me to outlast

when from this body, free I'm cast

Who shall you next accompany

Through thoughtful tempest and reverie?

Could all my thoughts run out my nose

into your bowl, then up in smoke

Would my time spent less worthy be

If not to learn, I'm much like thee?

Consumed and burning, funeral pyre

Some pleasure bring as leaf in briar

As burn I in this bowl of clay

I'll hope to hear The Tobacconist say:

"Ah, what a sweet, unbiting bowl."

Then scraped, tapped out, and be made whole.

~me

A New Pipe for My Birthday

And a big thanks to my Grandpa and Grandma B. Their generous gift was funneled towards the purchase of this beautiful pipe. It is officially the most costly (and nicest smoking) pipe I own. My two favorites remain the two that April bought for me, as she picked them out with things in mind. While one of them is packed away in the "moving confusion" this is the first one she picked out for me around an anniversary, with the directive, "pick a pipe that reminds you of me":

It is a great pipe with a nice big bowl. The rustication makes it look extra big. And the bowl size is larger than any of my other pipes. It smokes nice and I have dedicated it to latakia blends. When asked why this pipe made her think of me April replied that it was the pipe that most made her think of a cuddly bear. So there you go. Love that pipe, and yes, I love cuddling as well.

Back to the pipe in question. I have learned some things about myself. Having tried some more pipes I am finding that I like shapes that are a little funky, and I really like the 3/4 bent stem. It just seems to sit so comfortably in the mouth and not demand the amount of work (especially helpful when smoking while doing another task). I was so thankful to go into Edwards to pick out my first "next level up" pipe. It was a fun adventure. The friendly fellow who works there took the time to answer questions and guide me to the right pipe for me and helped me to find the best pipe in my price range. Then he sat with me around the counter for the next hour and change while I broke it in, and he warmly congratulated me on getting a new job. Good times.

So there it is, celebrating the joy of much change it is really nice to be able to enjoy a nice sweet smoke from a pipe that is a cut above what I have had before. Quite thankful.

Totally into that!

I think I just got it. There are many who get into pipe smoking for the beautiful variety and fun of collecting and restoring pipes. I can understand this, but it really isn't me. I had always thought that I was cared more about the tobacco and the practice of smoking than the pipes themselves. This is probably still true.

Then I ran into this article online (http://www.rusticgirls.com/make-your-own-tobacco-pipe.html) and I gotta say it scratched me right where I itched. This has always been it! I don't think anything I would make would last very long, but I imagine I wouldn't mind making another one. Finding a cherry tree I'm not so convinced I can do though I will probably obsess about this until it happens. Burn it out, make another one. Then eventually go back to my standard pipes. I just have to admit. This is the kind of pipe collecting I could really come to enjoy. I will have to find out how they smoke before coming to any final decisions but the idea is pretty firm and since I don't usually smoke a bowl to hot I imagine that I could make a bowl like this last a while. Hmm...food for thought.

This reveals something to me. The creative person that I am would rather have something ugly that I made, eat something disgusting that I cooked, smoke something wretched that I drilled out myself than enjoy the work of a better artist. I have no excuse for this. I imagine hat this is strange? Perhaps. I don't think it's megalomania, because I don't imagine my creations to be in anyway as good as those who have acquired a level of skill and artistry that surpasses any I will every reach. I would just rather be involved in the process. I am available to discuss the many reasons why I may feel this way, but I don't really feel like I want to address this issue with a view to changing it. Go figure.

Unlocking the Mystery of the Savannah

The people at Tobacco Trader are giving away free samples of this tobacco (very generously sized) with the designs of drawing a wider consumer base from the interwebs. They even pay for shipping in these free samples, which is yet more amazing. I have smoked about three bowls of this tobacco at this point and have to say it leaves me mystified. It is like passing through a beautiful dream. The mix of cavendishes and "condimental tobaccos" has a delicate taste and flavor that is smooth and mild. It really is as easy on the palate as advertised. It smokes pretty cool but the nature of it's delicate beauty seems to require some discipline to really draw out. Each puff brings the hint of a flavor just beyond perception.

It is clearly a rich, tasty tobacco, and it cries out for more investigation. It whets the appetite for the flavor that it keeps hinting at. The danger is to try to dive in after it. If you are in a hurry this is probably not the aromatic for you. It doesn't hit you over the head with it's beauty, but continues to lead you around by the nose. Smoking this tobacco seems to beg you to force the flavor out, but just as you cannot force the petals of an early spring flower, so you cannot force this tobacco to reveal it's secrets to you. Smoke it slow and cool and the intrigue of the relationship can last for the whole bowl. Now here, and now gone. This tobacco is a titillating sensual experience that I will be forced to repeat once the sample they sent me is exhausted. It is the kind of tobacco that is difficult to smoke in good company because the tobacco itself offers so much that you feel like any draw that you weren't paying attention to was the draw that would unfold a bit more of the mystery.

A tobacco to break a man's heart, smoke with care.

You can find this tobacco (and the free sample offer) at http://www.tobaccotraderusa.com.

An Outlet

Greetings! I have been smoking a pipe for ten years now (from the day I turned 18) it has been on again and off again for the most part, but I have never been able to leave it. I enjoy the contemplative aspect. I love the fact that it takes an hour to smoke a bowl of good tobacco. The flavors and the dreams, and the conversations that flow out of time spent over a pipe. I love warm days in the sun smoking a pipe and tasting the mellow Virginias and burleys. I love the cool after after dinner nights when I have to walk to stay warm while I enjoy a nice bowl of a Latakia blend. Aromatics, English, Naturals, anything goes. I have even been known to go after a number of drug store blends and not complain.

Recently my life has turned towards the pipe in a deeper and more meaningful way. After viewing a number of videos on the YouTube machine I have found that there is a whole new world pipe smoking that I had missed. I had always known it was there, but have felt it was inaccessible to the uninitiated. Some of the channels I have benefited most from have been:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Laughter1099

http://www.youtube.com/user/SmokeRingsPipeDreams

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaterfordSmoker

There are a number of other great channels. Then I stumbled upon a great pipe blog called The Briar Files and have really appreciated Alan's style as well as his informed view on Pipes and smoking. Alan has a deep and abiding love of Perique which I have little experience with. I'm looking forward to catching up and trying some Perique blends but this will have to be a bit further up the road.

The real revelation coming from this great dearth of information that the internets have provided me has been on the issue of technique. The videos I took in taught me a great deal about tasting the smoke and some keener insights on how to enjoy pipes and pipe tobaccos. Having delved a little deeper I find there is no one in my immediate circle who isn't incredibly sick of hearing me drone on and on about what I am learning regarding these subjects. So an outlet it must be, and that outlet is a little blog hidden in cyber-space where I can post my semi-informed reviews and experiences. Vive la pipe!