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Cigar Aficionado and Pipe Smoking?

What is it about pipes? Even for the most convinced cigar lover, there's a certain draw--no pun intended--in the idea of occasionally loading up an old-fashioned, wide-bowl tobacco pipe and settling down for a long winter's (or summer's, spring's, or fall's) smoke.

Why does the pipe persist? After all, it's one of the earliest means ever developed for smoking. According to some construals, the first "pipes" were the hookahs developed in India and other parts of the Middle and Ancient Near East hundreds of years ago for the smoking of hashish.

Historians also trace the pipe to the Native American tribes who were the first people known to smoke tobacco. Treaties between tribes were often formalized by the smoking of the calumet or "peace pipe."

From ancient North America, tobacco smoking arrived on European shores--and then it became an unavoidable part of Colonial American life, both because of the sixteenth-century English craze for tobacco smoking (itself fueled partly by inspector-courtier-colonial leader Sir Walter Raleigh's love of the substance) and because of the much-longer-established popularity of the stuff among Native Americans.

When tobacco begins to show up on the European cultural radar, it's in the form of the pipe. The earliest paintings and engravings that depict smoking tend to do so by depicting pipe smoking specfically.

It's only later--in the seventeenth and eighteenth century--that cigar smoking begins to overtake pipe smoking as the preferred tobacco-delivery method of smokers worldwide. Even into the nineteenth and early twentieth century the pipe remains popular, and many iconic figures continue to be pictured, as a rule, with a pipe clenched between their teeth--from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes to the unlikelily-named 1940s pop singer Bing Crosby.

And even now, as the cigar itself regains market share and popularity, the pipe remains an alluring prospect for many cigar smokers. Many cigar shops and online stores sell pipe-smoking equipment as well, and pipe tobacco.

If you're one of those cigar smokers who are drawn by the allure of the old-fashioned pipe smoke, the first thing to do is to pick the kind of pipe you prefer. There's a lot of possibilities out there: the "bulldog," the expensive but eye-catching calabash, the corncob (it's not just for anthropomorphic snow blobs anymore!), and many other possibilities. Pick one.

The next step is to buy the tobacco--and don't go for the kind used in roll-your-own cigarettes. Pipe tobacco is more moist and more coarse. In choosing a flavor, be guided by your usual preferences when smoking other kinds of tobacco--if you like sweet, then get sweet; if bitter, bitter.

When you fill the bowl, pack the tobacco in stages. Put some in, then pack it down lightly; do the same followed by a slightly harder pressing, and repeat, increasing the pressure. Don't overfill. When the packed tobacco is a bit springy to the touch, you're good to go.

To light, use a match--not a lighter. Let the match burn down slightly so that it won't be adding a sulfurous taste to the tobacco. As with cigars, try to make the surface of the tobacco light evenly--an uneven burn is never a pleasant experience. Move the match in a circle above the tobacco while puffing slightly so that the flame is pulled into the tobacco, imparting a smooth, even burn.

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