In the previous issue of The Murfreesboro Pulse we began exploring the benefits of smoking cigars and pipes rather than cigarettes. That discussion continues here.

The Nicotine Factor

The superior quality and the absence of machine-processing and chemical additives means that the tobacco in your pipe or cigar is as natural a tobacco product as can be had. The benefit for the smoker is that the tobacco taste and nicotine content are fuller, purer and more robust. The straight “nic fix” from a pipe or a cigar stays for several hours. There’s just no way you can chain-smoke these things.

Don’t Inhale!

This is the primary difference between pipes, cigars and cigarettes. The straighter, stronger smoke afforded by the higher quality tobacco products means you don’t need to inhale smoke into your lungs in order to enjoy the experience. Pipe and cigar smokers don’t inhale; the enjoyment lies in the taste and the aroma of the tobacco, and the nicotine effect comes via olfactory osmosis, meaning it is absorbed through the smoker’s scent and taste receptors.

The Aura, the Image, and the Aroma.

The impression conveyed by a man smoking a pipe or a cigar is much different than one smoking a cigarette, as is the general reaction of others to the smoker and the smoke itself. Pipe smokers are almost universally perceived as intellectual, thoughtful, wise, literate, well-read, masculine and fatherly. Cigars convey an air of opulence and confidence. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anonymous passerby linger and breathe deeply the second-hand smoke from a cigarette. But it happens to me almost anywhere I smoke my pipe.

I’d say 80 percent of people I encounter love the scent of my pipe smoke and tell me it reminds them of someone special.

Recommendations

PIPE: Whatever you do, do not go to a drugstore and pick up a Dr. Grabow. Visit a local tobacconist and they’ll guide to you a quality pipe at a sensible price. There are many great pipe brands available for $50 or less, even new. If you’re tight on cash and don’t want to commit to even that amount yet, you can’t go wrong with the time-honored corncob pipe?just make sure it’s a Missouri Meerschaum. I personally recommend Peterson System Standard pipes, which feature a unique design that traps moisture inside the pipe, preventing it from reaching the smoker’s mouth, and also a special stem (the part you put in your mouth) with an opening on top, so the smoke is directed away from the tongue and towards the roof of the mouth.

A Used Pipe?!?! Ugh!

Used (or “estate”) pipes are another popular option for pipe smoker. Before you recoil from the idea of a putting someone else’s pipe stem in your mouth, ask yourself why people don’t mind eating with a restaurant’s silverware. It’s because the silverware has (hopefully) been thoroughly washed. Same thing goes for a used pipe?if it’s been properly cleaned and sterilized, there’s no cause for concern. The cleaning simply involves a buffing wheel, some cotton balls soaked in Everclear and pipe cleaners.

PIPE TOBACCO: Newbies should avoid those heavy glass jars of tobaccos that have been treated (“cased” in tobacconist lingo) with non-tobacco flavorings such as caramel, liquor, vanilla, maple, butterscotch, etc.

What you want is the taste of tobacco.

None of those fabulous smelling aromatics ever taste anything like they smell, at least not to the smoker. The additives used to impart non-tobacco aromas produce quite a different experience when they are set on fire, and very little of that scrumptious aroma from the tobacconist’s jar makes it way into your palate. Besides, the flavorings and humectants also produce steam when they are burned which usually results in something almost every newbie pipe smoker deals with, and that’s tongue burn.

I’ve been smoking 3 – 5 pipes a day for almost 5 years now and have yet to find an aromatic I can recommend to a newbie. I repeat: you want tobacco that smells and tastes like tobacco. Any reputable smoke shop should have an unflavored burley-based tobacco called Lane’s Burley Light. If you have to go the drugstore route, go with Carter Hall or Walgreen’s Burley Light or Burley and Black?all mild, inexpensive and easy to find. Avoid Captain Black, Sir Walter Raleigh and their friends at all costs.

CIGAR: Now, I’m not talking about Swisher Sweets, Black & Milds or any of those other machine-produced drugstore brands. I’m talking about a premium, hand-rolled luxury-quality tobacco product. A newbie, in my view, cannot go wrong with the Baccarat brand of cigar. Handmade in Honduras, premium quality but not expensive, mild-mannered and not potent, plus the added sweet gum flavored-cap is a real treat. They, like every premium cigar, are available in a variety of sizes, and for the beginner I recommend a robusto.