What cigar (or pipe) did you smoke today?

[ShortAndCashed]

La perla habana white pearl. Anything like this that I should try? My Connecticut and mellow sections in my humidor are getting bare.

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[ShortAndCashed]

Nub Cafe Cappuccino with an unsweetened cappuccino. An experience made in Havana. Ooos, I mean heaven.

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[Bushman]

I've decided to start pipe tobacco. Starting off with a simple briar wood pipe:

But I'm unsure on the better kinds of tobacco I should smoke. I'm looking for something more fruity, but I can't seem to find anything like that in local tobacco shops. Any suggestions?

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I've decided to start pipe tobacco. Starting off with a simple briar wood pipe:

But I'm unsure on the better kinds of tobacco I should smoke. I'm looking for something more fruity, but I can't seem to find anything like that in local tobacco shops. Any suggestions?

Be aware that pipe tobacco along with all tobacco products except cigarettes are now under the control of the FDA & not the ATF. This includes pipe tobacco, cigars, smokeless tobaccos & electronic cigarettes (vaping juice). The purpose is to eliminate artificially flavored tobacco products in an effort to keep kids from starting their use. The new rules by the FDA are still in limbo & the date of implementation has been pushed out. But in a nutshell as it stands now, to be grandfathered in under the new rules pipe tobaccos must have been on the market for 20 yrs or undergo a certification. As I understand it certification is difficult to obtain & expensive so one by one premium pipe tobaccos are being dropped from the market. The FDA obviously want to eliminate availability, variety & choice of tobacco products. Syrian Latakia tobacco for blending has been hard to get for yrs now. McClelland Tobacco has announced they are just going to go out of business. Their popular blends are flying off the shelves including those that have been on the market for more than 20 yrs.

Having said all of that if you like fruity & sweet you should probably want to start sampling aeromatic tobaccos. Unfortunately they will be among the first to disappear from the market. There are some chocolate & coffee cased aero tobaccos that will survive if the blenders decide to keep them. But please, stay away from anything "Cherry"!

English blends, Scottish blends & Latakia blends will taste & smell more like a woodsy campfire. They are very popular & among my favorites. Most of the popular ones will survive this round with the FDA.

Oriental blends with Perique tobacco will be peppery & spicy.

Red Virginia blends & VaPer blends (Virginia & Perique tobacco blended together) will typically taste & smell most like cigarettes.

You will have a lot to experiment with & learn from. Maybe just start with an over the counter pipe tobacco like Borkum Riff or Captain Black. Check online retailers like Pipes & Cigars website.

Pipe smoking is very low risk as far as I'm concerned. Like cigars, you don't inhale into your lungs & nicotine absorption is low. No nicotine adiction from just pipe smoking. In this day & age just make sure it is what you want to do before you invest money to start.

 

[Bushman]

Thanks for the advice. It appears I've already made the rookie mistake and bought a small bag of Red Virginia. I know I don't care for cherry flavors, so that will be an easy one to stay away from.

 

[Harp]

I've decided to start pipe tobacco. Starting off with a simple briar wood pipe:

But I'm unsure on the better kinds of tobacco I should smoke. I'm looking for something more fruity, but I can't seem to find anything like that in local tobacco shops. Any suggestions?

I advise a stop at Iwan Reis & Co. at 19 S Wabash.
The best tobacconist in town, outstanding staff, pipe, tobacco selection, smoking room.
Frog Morton -any blend-with an English briar is a good start.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Frog Morton -any blend-with an English briar is a good start.

All the Frog Morton blends will be going away, sooner than later. McClelland has already stopped production & stock is flying off the shelf.

 

[Bushman]

I advise a stop at Iwan Reis & Co. at 19 S Wabash.
The best tobacconist in town, outstanding staff, pipe, tobacco selection, smoking room.
Frog Morton -any blend-with an English briar is a good start.

Great advice, thank you much!

 

[Bushman]

I think I figured it out.

 

[RedPop4]

It's been a while since I last visited. My most recent, and decent, cigars have been the CAO Zócalo, really nice; and, a Brick House Connecticut, there's more flavor than a Connecticut might lead you to believe.

 

[AvavanBlythe]

It wasn't last night, but the last cigar I had. My brother has developed enough connections with local cigar shops, to where he has VIP access to some of the best, including Cubans brought over by one particular owner. I think he's gotten me into yet another expensive hobby... I'm even looking at coolidor options.

 

[St.Ignatz]

Frog Morton On the bayou in a sav. church warden.

 

[rotate]

Erinmore Flake, sadly now without the 'Belfast Bite' of the original Murray Sons production but still a good smoke none the less.
The pipe, a London Made 9438 New Era GBD Rhodesian, a fat old pipe for a fat old bloke.

My first post here, kindly be gentle.

 

[Michael R.]

Erinmore Flake, sadly now without the 'Belfast Bite' of the original Murray Sons production but still a good smoke none the less.
The pipe, a London Made 9438 New Era GBD Rhodesian, a fat old pipe for a fat old bloke.

My first post here, kindly be gentle.

Good one , I have a tin of Erinmore Flake from 2008 (probably much older) in the Cellar . How old was your's ?

 

[rotate]

Good one , I have a tin of Erinmore Flake from 2008 (probably much older) in the Cellar . How old was your's ?

Hello Michael,
That which I'm smoking now is all new stuff manufactured by the Scandanavian Tobacco Company, so of no age and without the Belfast Bite which made the tobacco a winner for Murray Son. It's OK and still better than some and I guess I've just gotten used to it now. I originally cellared eleven tins of the old stuff which I know to be from between the late 1990's and the early 2000's as there's no European Union mandatory health warnings on the tins, I've got five tins left, having opened and started smoking a tin on each Christmas Day for the last six years.

The tins all came from small village shops here on the island of Cyprus where I live for part of the year and had to be purchased 'under the counter' as the shop keepers were afraid of being prosecuted for still selling tobacco without the EU warnings, my pipe smoking grandfather must spinning in his, well wherever he is!
It's actually far easier here to buy illegal drugs than it is pipe tobacco with dealers to be found everywhere and tobacconists or shops selling legal pipe tobacco few and far between. The worlds gone completely mad.

Happy Puffing
Paul

 

[St.Ignatz]

Arturo Fuente #77 shark from 2017 release. Always time well spent.

 

[belfastboy]

Arturo Fuente #77 shark from 2017 release. Always time well spent.

I cannot recall ever smoking a bad Fuente. Right now I have a short cigar attention span and have the Fuente Hemingway Best Sellers in the humidor. A great little cigar.

 

[belfastboy]

I befriended a taxi driver in Havana 10 years ago now. Have yet to return but if I find someone heading down I give them his cel # and a gift to give him....money, computer parts, clothing etc. He returns the favour by sending me Cohiba fakes. Not a bad smoke. I have split two open to inspect and they use the shorter perhaps discarded tobacco leaves. Often they are rolled too tight and fiddly to get a decent draw, probably because they use the shorter leaves. But for "free" not a bad smoke and the fact they sidestep the Cuban dictatorships filthy hands makes the taste better. I think the Cohiba bands are real or at least incredibly good forgeries. So much about Cuba that is hard for an outsider to discern.

 

[Giftmacher]

Probably BPK, unknown age and model.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Probably BPK, unknown age and model.
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I have one of the Flying Disc UFO pipes.