Chicken or Egg?

[Tim_Haggerty]

Here's a query I haven't seen:

Do you pick your pipe or your tobacco first? Obviously, this is a question for those of us who have some choices to make, but I tend to visualize the pipe i want to smoke and then determine what I will fill it with (Right now, at the end of the workday, I have a Ser Jac billiard in my mind, with some Engine 99).

Obviously not a scientific survey, but it'll be fun to see responses.

 

[Doc Manhattan]

Almost always tobacco first, unless I'm breaking in a new-to-me pipe. Or if I get sentimental for an old one. But on the whole, a solid 90% tobacco, then pipe.

 

[MisterE]

Tobacco first as it´s the desired product, then the proper pipe as it is the means to deliver that product.

If I take out my Vaper flake pipe but am hankering some Balkan Sasieni I´d be in a quandry and my CPU (brain) would shut down...

:lol!: :lol!: :lol!:

 

[velveteagle]

I always start with Blue Note in the morning. So I six Canadian styles to rotate the Aro with So tobacco first in the morning. Then the rest of the day I choose one pipe for daily rotation and pick the tobacco for that. Certain pipes I like while my daily is cooling down I choose a tobacco to go with it.. Kind of messed up but that is what I do..

 

[Jazzman]

I always choose the tobacco first. I have a rotation of what most guys call "beaters"(lower end pipes that have been smoked hard,teeth marks ,etc.) for my ride home smoke.

For my after dinner smoke, my nicest pipes get the call. Castellos,Ardors, Dunhill,etc. In the end though, the smoking of the tobacco is of highest priority. Peace-Mike :tongue:

 

[Anonymous]

With all dedicated pipes, the choice of a pipe IS the choice of its tobacco. And the choice of a tobacco pretty much calls forth the next pipe in the rotation that smokes it.

That said, the tobacco pretty usually.

:face:

 

[Harlock999]

OCD means I have to smoke the pipes in a specific order, so that's always "decided" for me, and since they are all dedicated to specific blends, that too is a given.

 

[Muddler]

I'm the same as Yak. Pipes & tobacco are matched. I generally choose the combo but tobacco wins.

 

[LIPIPE]

Hi Tim: I'm with you buddy. I generally pick the pipe depending upon my available smoke time. The more time, the better and the better the time the larger the bowl. Then I just sort of gravitate to the the blend. All of my pipes smoke all of my blends so I'm a man who picks the pipe first. My pipe and tobacco bar contain about 30 pipes and about 15 blends. Never a problem and always a pleasurable decision. I usually rotate two or three pipes and smoke three bowls in each before rotating to the next three pipes. I always have a straight billiard and a bent or an oom paul on deck ready for fire.

 

[MisterE]

OCD means I have to smoke the pipes in a specific order, so that's always "decided" for me, and since they are all dedicated to specific blends, that too is a given.

:lol!:

Don´t forget that the rotation of pipes must be a prime number!!

 

[RealtorFrank]

I'm tobacco first, then choose my pipe accordingly. However, on occasion, I have said hey I want to smoke that pipe today, and then chose the tobacco that goes with it.

 

[tiltjlp]

Since 95% of my pipes are cobs, and 95% of them are bent Diplomats, and since 85% of what I smoke are OTCs or my own blends, it's always tobacco, unless I'm smoking my Gig Driftwood, then I have to decide which Virginia to smoke.

 

[DAL]

I'm very similar to LIPIPE...

... The more time, the better and the better the time the larger the bowl. Then I just sort of gravitate to the the blend. All of my pipes smoke all of my blends so I'm a man who picks the pipe first.

Out of my approximately 45 pipes I keep about a dozen or so in my "usual" rotation. I have a cellar of approximately 30 blends of which I try to limit to only about 4 to 6 or so of tins/small-jars open at a time. Once I've grabbed a pipe, usually without much thinking except to bowl size (or I'll grab a beater if it's a drive-time smoke) the baccy is usually obvious based on time-of-day or mood from the smaller rotation.

Really interesting question, if, for no other reason, to make me realize how much of an automaton I've become! Clearly in keeping with the prime number issue I'll need to keep my pipe rotation to 11 and my weed rotation to 5.

 

[WaydeG]

If I'm working around the house or farm, I rely on my inexpensive kaywoodies then choose my tobacco. If I'm relaxing and reading or just watching the world pass by, it's always tobacco first.

 

[Vito]

"What Yak said", is the short answer. With a few exceptions, all of my pipes are dedicated to specific weedages, so picking the pipe is the same as picking the tobacco.

The long answer reveals the devil in the details. It often starts with a hankering for a certain kind of weedage—Ginnyweed flake, some kind of darkweed (a long-matured or stoved Virginia), something primordial (like ropeweed), Syrian Latakia (or its Cyprian counterpart), a Burleyweed, an aromatic, a Lakeland flake—so I guess that's a "tobacco first" type thang.

But then I start rummaging around on my pipe racks and spot a pipe or three I haven't smoked in a while: "Hey...I haven't smoked that since the last earthquake...!", and it's a pipe dedicated to something completely different from the kind of tobacco whose pipes I went looking for in the first place. That happens frequently.

Because the pipe and the tobacco are inseparable, it's really not either one that determines the selection. I'm choosing an experience.

I suppose it's a consequence of having spent an unreasonable amount of time obsessing over pipes and tobacco, and reaching the conclusion that certain pipes just give infinitely more glorious smokes when paired with the right tobacco.

 

[Anonymous]

What Veet said. They do indeed :cheers:

Only I simplify matters by passing along those that don't shine with FVF or Embarcaero.

Except for four or so for the every couple of years hankering for an English blend.

:face:

 

[Harlock999]

OCD means I have to smoke the pipes in a specific order, so that's always "decided" for me, and since they are all dedicated to specific blends, that too is a given.

:lol!:

Don´t forget that the rotation of pipes must be a prime number!!

Well that goes without saying!

 

[Brewdude]

I'm tobacco first, then choose my pipe accordingly. However, on occasion, I have said hey I want to smoke that pipe today, and then chose the tobacco that goes with it.

This.

 

[thesmoker]

I usually decide on a tobacco first and then I choose the right pipe that I think will work with the tobacco.

 

[Vito]

...Except for four or so for the every couple of years hankering for an English blend.

:shock: WTF? I knew about your occasional dalliances with Robusto, but the 'garweed therein kinda bumps it outa the "English" category...a least in the Vitonian view. Robusto is worthy of being in a class by itself, methinks. It certainly kicks mah whaht ayuss harder than just about any "Imperial" English...meaning, the Latweedic blends.

I exclude "traditional" English 'baccy (of the Lakeland provenance) from the "English" category for the sake of non-confusatory rantification. I mean, it seems that few pipers nowadays have much awareness of "the other English weedages"...and the long history associated therewith. Sweep those tobaccos into the "English" category, and I can give myself a Kendal ass-kickin' any one of dozens of ways. :twisted:

Anyhow, what are these "English blends" that tempt the Yakkish mind? You can tell me. It'll be our secret. :mrgreen: