Smoking a cigar after a week of only pipes
xmacro
Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,402
WOW, what a difference!!
Last week, I got Peterson Meerschaum from Ccom (call the Beard - great prices as always), and was eager to get to coloring it (side note: Tons of info out there about meerschaums; never knew the kind of care you can give them to really look beautiful; already got my beeswax on the way). So for the past week, I've been smoking a ton of Virginia stuff; Dunhill Flake, Luxury Twist, Luxury Navy Cut, and some Jack Knife Plug - totally different experience from what I remember when I last smoked a pipe years ago.
Aside from learning proper packing and tamping, sipping instead of puffing, etc - the smoke itself is totally different; almost from the first bowl, I realized that pipe smoke coats your entire mouth; tongue, gums, teeth, cheeks - I could literally feel the smoke clinging to my mouth after every bowl; I realize cigars do this as well, but pipe smoke is just "heavier" I guess; the feeling was much more noticeable than it is with cigars. Not only that, but the flavor itself is much less powerful than cigars - with a cigar, I can pick out one, maybe two dominant flavors just by taste, more with retrohaling; with pipes, I can't pick out anything with my tongue, but when I retrohale, the most wonderful flavors come thru (even if I can't ID them). Coming back to cigars, I'm currently smoking a My Father 1922 No. 5 that's ROTT; the first puff hit me like a freight train - I never realized what a punch of flavors cigars pack in comparison to pipes!! The retrohale is still as painful/stinging as it has always been for me; a far cry from pipes which I can retrohale all day and never get stung.
Now as for which is better, I can totally understand what j0zer told me, which is that they're not really comparable; night and day. The pipe needs to be tended constantly and sipped every few seconds vs a cigar which you can go minutes without puffing, the pipe smoke coats your mouth more, but is much more subtle (in a good way), more of the flavor is hidden inside the nose than with a cigar, which gives you some dominant flavors on the tongue more easily. As for the nicotine, honestly, I'd have to give that one to the pipes - much more in them than cigars, most likely because you're constantly sipping the pipe vs puffing once every few min on the cigar.
At any rate, just wanted to post this to let my fellow BORKs know about this great hobby - this has been a great experience; I love my new pipe (can't wait for the first waxing; expecting some nice coloration afterwards) and can't wait to move into some burleys (open to recommendations, if anyone has any) and maybe a few english as well. Not giving up cigars (though these My Father's, from what I've heard, become incredible with a year on them), but definitely gonna keep expanding my pipe smoking![Big Smile [:D]](/cs/emoticons/emotion-2.gif)
EDIT - and the cost, oh my - higher upfront cost, especially for a really nice pipe like Peterson, Savinelli, or Stanwell, plus the break-in period to form a cake; the cost of the nicer ones can easily run $100 (or $5 for a nice corn cob which does the job just fine), but MUCH lower for the tobacco; 4 oz of Luxury Navy Cut for $10 will probably give me about 40 bowls, with each bowl lasting 1-2 hrs easily; can't tell you how nice it is to load up my cart with a bunch of different tobacco's, click Checkout, and see the cost of over a hundred bowls amounts to less than a box of some cigars.
PS - I've heard that some blends taste better if you put the pipe down and relight it the next day, but I've yet to experience this (I've always smoked the whole thing)
Last week, I got Peterson Meerschaum from Ccom (call the Beard - great prices as always), and was eager to get to coloring it (side note: Tons of info out there about meerschaums; never knew the kind of care you can give them to really look beautiful; already got my beeswax on the way). So for the past week, I've been smoking a ton of Virginia stuff; Dunhill Flake, Luxury Twist, Luxury Navy Cut, and some Jack Knife Plug - totally different experience from what I remember when I last smoked a pipe years ago.
Aside from learning proper packing and tamping, sipping instead of puffing, etc - the smoke itself is totally different; almost from the first bowl, I realized that pipe smoke coats your entire mouth; tongue, gums, teeth, cheeks - I could literally feel the smoke clinging to my mouth after every bowl; I realize cigars do this as well, but pipe smoke is just "heavier" I guess; the feeling was much more noticeable than it is with cigars. Not only that, but the flavor itself is much less powerful than cigars - with a cigar, I can pick out one, maybe two dominant flavors just by taste, more with retrohaling; with pipes, I can't pick out anything with my tongue, but when I retrohale, the most wonderful flavors come thru (even if I can't ID them). Coming back to cigars, I'm currently smoking a My Father 1922 No. 5 that's ROTT; the first puff hit me like a freight train - I never realized what a punch of flavors cigars pack in comparison to pipes!! The retrohale is still as painful/stinging as it has always been for me; a far cry from pipes which I can retrohale all day and never get stung.
Now as for which is better, I can totally understand what j0zer told me, which is that they're not really comparable; night and day. The pipe needs to be tended constantly and sipped every few seconds vs a cigar which you can go minutes without puffing, the pipe smoke coats your mouth more, but is much more subtle (in a good way), more of the flavor is hidden inside the nose than with a cigar, which gives you some dominant flavors on the tongue more easily. As for the nicotine, honestly, I'd have to give that one to the pipes - much more in them than cigars, most likely because you're constantly sipping the pipe vs puffing once every few min on the cigar.
At any rate, just wanted to post this to let my fellow BORKs know about this great hobby - this has been a great experience; I love my new pipe (can't wait for the first waxing; expecting some nice coloration afterwards) and can't wait to move into some burleys (open to recommendations, if anyone has any) and maybe a few english as well. Not giving up cigars (though these My Father's, from what I've heard, become incredible with a year on them), but definitely gonna keep expanding my pipe smoking
EDIT - and the cost, oh my - higher upfront cost, especially for a really nice pipe like Peterson, Savinelli, or Stanwell, plus the break-in period to form a cake; the cost of the nicer ones can easily run $100 (or $5 for a nice corn cob which does the job just fine), but MUCH lower for the tobacco; 4 oz of Luxury Navy Cut for $10 will probably give me about 40 bowls, with each bowl lasting 1-2 hrs easily; can't tell you how nice it is to load up my cart with a bunch of different tobacco's, click Checkout, and see the cost of over a hundred bowls amounts to less than a box of some cigars.
PS - I've heard that some blends taste better if you put the pipe down and relight it the next day, but I've yet to experience this (I've always smoked the whole thing)
Comments
I too have been looking at some of the higher end pipes and have yet to pull the trigger. I guess I'm just testing the waters before dropping a good chunk of coin down for a nice pipe.
As for what type of pipe tobaccos to test, I'm still pretty new at it. I have been enjoying some Peterson's Luxury Blend. Great flavors and nice aroma too. Not too expensive, if I recall I paid $12.00 from my local shop and have yet to make a dent in the tin. I would say I've had 5-6 bowls.
I don't see myself giving up the cigar hobby but its a nice change to bounce back and forth between the two. I have to say its nice to set the pipe down and come back to it if something comes up unlike a cigar where one would just toss it out. As for trying a bowl and coming back to it a day later is something I might have to try.
Thanks for keeping us up to date with the new goodies/hobby Xmacro.
I had a number of meerschaums over the years. Some of the prettiest came from thrift shops for just a couple bucks. The corn cob is not much of an option IMHO. Tastes weird and burns out. Burl is pretty. But the best pipe with the least maintenance is one you used to be able to get for like twenty bucks. It was called The Pipe, IIRC. It was actually plastic with a graphite liner. Cleanest burning lowest maintenance least spoil the taste pipe of all. Dunno if you can still get them. I had a green dublin, a white bulldog, and a black apple, back in the day. Great pipes.
I used to favor a mild Latakia, and a yellow tin called Edgewood. Man there's some great pipe tobaccos out there.
I was told that you should use different pipes for Aromatics and Non-Aromatics. Yes? No?
I hope someone with more knowledge can clarify this a bit; never smoked any of these, just heard that they ghost almost any pipe, even meerschaum for a few bowls afterwards
http://www.thepipe.info/
In regards to a pipe, one of the things I love the most is that when it goes out, it's a simple matter to tamp and relight it without sacrificing flavor. So maybe you're smoking your pipe, and need to go into a store somewhere - stick the pipe in your pocket, do your business, and relight it when you come out. (Comparing with cigars, relighting incrementally detracts from the quality of the cigar). Also, in reference to the the particular point here: I've never left a half-smoked pipe overnight, but one of my regular habits is to pack a large pipe in the morning, smoke a bit on my way to work, smoke a bit during the day, and then again on my way home (all the same pipe). I often find that the tobacco smokes sweeter and cooler at the end of the day... YMMV
I smoke a bowl in one sitting. I have never tried making it last or smoking later but I have heard of guys smoking half and saving the next half for the next day. I have also heard of guys getting their pipes packed and letting them just sit for a day.
Pipe smoking is much more work compared to smoking cigars but once you learn it is a very relaxing and great way to explore tobacco.
my dad always said, "Cigars promote conversation. Pipes promote quite contemplation."
pretty smart for a guy i thought knew nothing when i was 16.
im a talker. me and cigars get along very well.
Anyway, I wanted to update this thread again - I've just lit up a cigar after about 2 more weeks of only pipes, and so far, there are two things that immediately jump out at me:
1) I've unconsciously gotten into the habit of retrohaling VERY frequently with my pipes, especially with my McClelland Grand Orientals that I love so much. This isn't a problem since they're quite subtle; with a My Father that only has a week of rest on it, it burns like hell and I'm learning the hard way not to retrohale everything (it's amazing how much of a habit it became without me even realizing). Still, even when I stopped retrohaling the cigar, I'm able to pick up on more flavors than I previously could, which brings me to #2.
2) it seems I'm getting better at picking out flavors; just lit up a My Father Le Bejou toro, and on the first puff/rerohale, I coulda swore I tasted something close to the smoked meat I get from the Latakia in GL Pease Quiet Nights and McClellands Legends - two weeks ago, I would've never picked up on that kind of thing. It seems that after smoking subtle flavors for 2 weeks, the wallop of flavors that a cigar packs are easier to pick up on.
Currently I've gone from some fine Virginia's like Luxury Navy Cut/Luxury Twist/Dunhill Flake to the McClellands Grand Orientals (7 in all; 6 are more or less pure oriental, 1 has some heavier stuff like Latakia which I've yet to try), and I'm finding I'm really drawn to the orientals mostly because they're very subdued; I can retrohale all day, and the nicotine is weak enough that it takes a full bowl and 2.5 hrs for me to really get light headed when I've got nothing on my stomach (even then, I'm not sure it's the nicotine; may just be the B&B I keep pouring/drinking)
So in conclusion - love my pipe; I've also put down the meerschaum for the time being and picked up a nice Castello briar; the smoke isn't as pure/undiluted as it is with the meerschaum, but I definitely understand the allure of the briar adding it's own sweetness to the concoction; it really adds to the tobacco in a way I'm digging. Only drawback is I needed to adjust my lighting technique - since meerschaum doesn't burn, I could drag my lighter across the bowl edges to light the tobacco; first bowl of my briar doing that and I burned the wood around my rim - won't make that mistake again.
Anyway, I'll end this with another fine pipe quote: A pipe gives a wiseman time to think, and a fool something to stick in his mouth
EDIT - Kuzi: f*ck you. There, I said it. It's your damn fault I broke down and ordered a Xikar EX - loving this thing so much I haven't touched any of my other lighters in weeks
EDIT 2 - and for those of you, who like me, the roof of the mouth gets irritated/feels like its raw, from cigar smoke, the orientals don't irritate my mouth nearly as much
In addition to jsnakes great suggestion, you can also pack the bowl like your cigar is rolled - firmly, so that the draw is firm but loose; I find that a lot of my nicest bowls have the same draw on them (unlit) as my cigars do. Best way I've found to do this (and there are tons of techniques if you google it) is gravity fill the bowl and tamp it down; use enough tobacco so that by the third time you tamp it down, the bowl is full - three pinches of tobacco in all. Seems that like a cigar, any air pockets in the bowl will cause the fire to go out. if the smoke starts getting wispy (assuming it's not the tobacco), you can also blow (gently) back into the bowl through the stem - like stoking the fire with a bellows