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Old 04-01-2013, 02:44 AM   #830
Nick
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Default Re: New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart

Alot of guys buy drug store tobacco when they are first starting out in pipes. My opinion is that this is in general a mistake, nothing against the drug store tobaccos as a whole because there are some good ones but usually the quality is a little lacking. You have an assortment of aromatic tobaccos there that have a flavor casing/topping. I believe all of those tobaccos you have listed are made almost entirely cavendish or black cavendish based with whatever topping the maker has employed. Cavendish is a very soft and subtle leaf which means the topping should stand out more. The flavored tobaccos usually smell very nice to the people around you but are not quite as enjoyable for the smoker

The problem with this is that alot of times the topping is either not very noticeable or isn't near what you thought it might (at least in my experience). This may be due to the heat burning the topping off the tobacco before it is actually noticed by the smoker. Another variable is that if you are smoking pipes that have been used before you will get some residual flavors from whatever the person before you, but there are ways to help remedy that.

I always recommend starting out with tobacco that has no topping from a more reputable source (GL Pease, Cornell and Diehl, Mcconnel, mclelland, Macbaren, etc.). Especially if you are a cigar smoker as you will smoke blends that have assortments of tobacco leaf that are carefully formulated and blended by the company. A big mistake new pipe smokers make is that they assume pipe smoking and tobacco is closely related to hookah, its not.

I will post a couple of websites you can check out. Pick up some tins from any of the companies I mentioned above and I think you will find a much more enjoyable experience. Some guys like GL Pease even use a little cigar leaf in there blends, one in particular is GL Pease Key Largo.

The main pipe tobacco leaves are: Virginias, Latakia (syrian and cyprian), Burley, Orientals, Turkish, Cavendish, and Perique. Pipe smoking can get fairly complex but try to not get caught up in all the hooplah and terminology just enjoy it in your own way.

http://smokingpipes.com/ has a very good selection of tinned and bulk tobacco at good prices.

Also check out these sites

http://tobaccoreviews.com/
http://pipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Tobaccos Great page explaining many different things related to pipe tobacco and the different varieties of pipe tobacco leaves. This site has other interesting pages regarding all things pipes.

Also youtube is another great resource. Have fun and welcome to another slope.
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