Back in November, Gilbertsville Cigar Factory celebrated their 1 Year Anniversary. As a thank you to the customers for supporting them throughout the year, they hosted an event featuring 20% off all items in the store. In addition to the deal, they also had Dan O’Brien come in and play live music.
The event looked like it was going to be a lot of fun, unfortunately it didn’t look like I was going to be able to make it. Th e event just happened to fall on my wedding anniversary and my wife and I had made other plans.
On the day of the event, my wife surprised me by telling me that she wanted to go to the event with me. The Live Music sounded like fun and she wanted to see where I hang out when I’m not at home.
The event wound up being a lot of fun and it was the first time in quite a while where my wife and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk without children wedging themselves between us.
After a couple of hours at the event, it was time to call it a night and go home to our kids. Before leaving, my wife suggested that I take advantage of the deal and get myself a pipe.
We made our way over to the pipe display and I started the difficult process of picking out a pipe. I was going back and forth between the one you see above (which I wound up buying) and an unfinished pipe that looked very similar with a slightly larger bowl.
Since buying the pipe, I’ve been smoking it here and there. I’m struggling with packing it properly and I spend a surprising amount of time tending to the ember to keep the tobacco burning.
Every time I smoke the pipe, it leaves me feeling like a complete noob. Despite the awkwardness, I’m enjoying the process. I can’t see it ever replacing cigars but it really is a nice change of pace.
When it comes to tobacco, I find that I prefer aromatics – my favorite so far has been the Nat Sherman Metropolitan 509. I’ve been picking up a tin per week, trying to find something new and interesting (I’ve smoked one bowl of the Presbyterian and so far it is my least favorite of the tobaccos shown above).
At some point I’d like to get myself a second pipe – one with less of a bend. While I love the way it looks, sometimes it feels strange in the hand due to the hard curve.
Since I’m extremely new to pipes, I’d love some input from our seasoned pipe smokers. What types of tobaccos would you recommend for someone who likes the Nat Sherman 509?
Beautiful looking pipe. I have never tried one but my neighbor does and the aroma is fantastic. Maybe one day soon.
Good looking pipe. I can sympathize with you on the process. I’m an occasional pipe smoker and every time I light a bowl it feels like I’m starting all over. It is enjoyable, though, and the variety of tobacco blends is mind boggling. I’d highly recommend two excellent podcasts, Country Squire Radio and The Pipes Magazine Radio Show.
I have been collecting pipe tobacco and a few pipes since 2012. The purchases stopped due to my inexperience. I am picking the pipe backup and have watched Bob the Cigar Guy videos, the ones where he is just starting out with a pipe and that was helpful. The Pipes and Cigars web page and forum have me interested so much that I have started stocking up on pipe tobacco again. Best comment I heard somewhere was to not worry about the relights. It is better to go slow and relight than have a hot bowl and burn through the tobacco.