What 'baccy did you start with?

[monbla256]

Thought it might be interesting to see what tobacco blend everyone started their pipe smoking journey with and when. For me it started full time in 'nam back in '68/'69 with a big blue tin of Granger I picked up at the PX in Siagon on the recomendation of my CO. Stayed with it for about the first year and a half then began to try some others like Bond Street that my father had smoked. after that I was introduced to English/Balkans and moved on. Sadly my TV didn't pick up the web and I had to go to a real STORE to buy my 'baccy  :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Stick]

Great story Monbla Sir, I can't top that! Mine was a far more humble experience...

I ordered my first pipe, a 'seconds' rusticated straight Parker Billiard from a pipe shop in Edinburgh UK. I discovered a slight variation in the depth of rustication was the reason for it being a 'second'. I phoned the shop and having only ever smoked the occasional cigar asked the attendant what he'd recommend for a newbie chap like me. He went through the aro thing with me and Cube or an in shop blend 'Kentucky Nougat' was the answer. I went with latter, my reasoning being that it sounded far more authentic and interesting than Cube. A few days latter, briar packed with said baccy, I sat in my garden and fired her up. The neighbours seemed to like it well enough!

 

[RDPipes]

It's been quite a while since my very first pipe incounter, we'll call it but, I believe it was either Middleton's Cherry Blend or Mixture 79, having tried both I don't remember which was my first mistake. Took a few years off and on of pipe smoking and trying OTC, B&M blends and then the gift of Escudo before I realized that your tongue doesn't suppose to feel like a platoon with golf cleats have been tromping across your tongue all day. :fpalm:

 

[Puff Daddy]

My pipe smoking journey began rather roughly and succeeded only through persistence. I bought a drug store Grabow and a pouch of something, probably Amphora. Horrible hot bitey flavorless wet gurgly mess. How could this smell so good and be so horrible? All those old dudes seem to enjoy this, I must be doing something wrong. A trip to the local Tinderbox to be sold a poorly drilled gurgly wet Bjarne Viking bent and some flavorless bitey house brand tobacco. I almost quit right there. Found the old Knox forum, learned a few things (that the people at Tinderbox should have taught me right then and there to keep me coming back rather than trying to make a quick sale) and finally started to figure it out.

I bought two or three estate pipes and finally began to enjoy a few tobaccos. I think it was a few years before I settled down to having a few favorites. There was never an introductory single pipe tobacco that was settled down with for a while. For that to happen I think you'd have to have someone who knows what he's doing help you with a first pipe and tobacco. Sounds like what Monbla got, good guidance.

FWIW, those old American blends were different tobaccos back then. I have since smoked old Edgeworth, Granger, Half and Half, Prince Albert. I have smoked the present incarnations of them as well. Different animals. The older tobaccos were of better quality, less humectant, much better tasting. Today I'd steer a young chap away from them, but back in the day a simple pipe with a decent airway and a tin of Edgeworth was probably a truly excellent choice. Today I'd say that same pipe with a basic bulk McClelland virginia or a nicely done bulk burley (Stokkebye, Peretti, Uhle's) would give a fellow a solid foundation to begin with. But then it's a different world now and there are a myriad of tobacco choices. Back then you walked into a little store and had but a few choices. I remember my grandfather and his Kaywoodies and his roll up pouch with Half and Half. Probably about all he had to choose from, probably a helluva good thing too.

 

[Brewdude]

In '96 or '97 I started out with Uhle's 255 since that's all my late Pap ever smoked. I figured if it was good enough for Pap it was good enough for me. Still enjoy it to this day.


Cheers,

RR

 

[fsu92john]

I bought my first pipe and tobacco at the Smoke 'n' Snuff in the Governor's Square Mall in Tallahassee in 1993. The tobacco was one of their jarred blends, probably 1Q with their own name applied.

 

[Hiram-2011]

Mine started with a Peterson system pipe and some Lane 1q. Not much on aromatics anymore but do like Boswell blends from time to time.

 

[SteelyJ]

Years ago I bought a basket pipe and a pouch of Captain Black. Smoked it once.
Now when I truly started again, my first smoke was Frog Morton's Cellar, and my second smoke was GL Pease Maltese Falcon.

 

[Richard Burley]

... I believe it was either Middleton's Cherry Blend or Mixture 79

Me, too. Can't remember which one exactly. I was biased toward Mixture 79 because there was a classy couple I knew at age 16 who liked it, she buying it for him and he smoking it. He was the PR man for a company and they both had a cabaret act together--piano and torch singer, if I have my terms right. Even back then I knew enough to cut the tobacco with something relatively innocuous. (Middleton's Cherry was sickeningly cherry back then.) Half and Half was what my idea of pipe tobacco should smell like. I always liked Bond Street, once you'd had a few bowls and got past the soapiness.

"Good" tobaccos back then were something picked up in so-called newsrooms in my area. Mac Baren was big, and you could occasionally pick up weirdo blends like Bengal Slices, Three Nuns, Escudo, etc. They weren't big movers, and the tins often had dust on them.  :lol:

 

[RDPipes]

... I believe it was either Middleton's Cherry Blend or Mixture 79

Me, too. Can't remember which one exactly. I was biased toward Mixture 79 because there was a classy couple I knew at age 16 who liked it, she buying it for him and he smoking it. He was the PR man for a company and they both had a cabaret act together--piano and torch singer, if I have my terms right. Even back then I knew enough to cut the tobacco with something relatively innocuous. (Middleton's Cherry was sickeningly cherry back then.) Half and Half was what my idea of pipe tobacco should smell like. I always liked Bond Street, once you'd had a few bowls and got past the soapiness.

"Good" tobaccos back then were something picked up in so-called newsrooms in my area. Mac Baren was big, and you could occasionally pick up weirdo blends like Bengal Slices, Three Nuns, Escudo, etc. They weren't big movers, and the tins often had dust on them.  :lol:

If I'd only have known then what I know now I might have a stash of those dusty tins now.
Not just 20/20 is hindsight but, being able to really enjoy a pipe then as I do now might have helped. I know it sure would have help my tongue a lot.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

I started with a pipe that was given to me by a friend, it belonged to his father. This was about 1991 or so. I still have it. It needs some work done on it, but it smokes nicely. The only markings on it are a stamp reading Algerian Briar Made in France. It has a number of fills including one in the mortice that looks as those it goes straight through the pipe.

The first tobacco I ever smoked was a Tinder Box blend called Sunset. I am thinking it was a rebranded Lane aromatic, but I could be wrong. It was mild, slightly sweet and okay tasting overall. At the time, I preferred cigars.

 

[monbla256]

I bought two or three estate pipes and finally began to enjoy a few tobaccos. I think it was a few years before I settled down to having a few favorites. There was never an introductory single pipe tobacco that was settled down with for a while. For that to happen I think you'd have to have someone who knows what he's doing help you with a first pipe and tobacco. Sounds like what Monbla got, good guidance.

FWIW, those old American blends were different tobaccos back then. I have since smoked old Edgeworth, Granger, Half and Half, Prince Albert. I have smoked the present incarnations of them as well. Different animals. The older tobaccos were of better quality, less humectant, much better tasting. Today I'd steer a young chap away from them, but back in the day a simple pipe with a decent airway and a tin of Edgeworth was probably a truly excellent choice. Today I'd say that same pipe with a basic bulk McClelland virginia or a nicely done bulk burley (Stokkebye, Peretti, Uhle's) would give a fellow a solid foundation to begin with. But then it's a different world now and there are a myriad of tobacco choices. Back then you walked into a little store and had but a few choices. I remember my grandfather and his Kaywoodies and his roll up pouch with Half and Half. Probably about all he had to choose from, probably a helluva good thing too.

i was a cig smoker back then and the Captain in my unit was a pipe smoker and was always trying to get the cig smokers to switch so I did and he was a Granger smoker and was partial to GBD's so that was the first pipe brand I got under his guidance a nice grp 3 Century st. bulldog and a Century taper bit Apple, both of which I still have !! :twisted: They cost me a whopping $12.00 and some change each as I recall ! :twisted: :twisted:
And PD you are right, those old standby's HAVE changed!! I bought some of today's Granger, couldn't find any Bond Street, and it was still just an all Burley "blend" but nowhere near what i recall it was! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[flytyer]

My first baccy was an aromatic from the local cigar shop smoked in a cob that I bought with it. I forget what kind of tobacco it was but it was good enough to get me into pipe smoking, and that first cob just seems to get better all the time. My first tinned tobacco was Golden Sliced smoked in a Brigham Bulldog.

 

[Ocelot55]

I started in 2006 with a $20 basket pipe that was more fill than briar and a pouch of the local B&M's "Sweet Dutch Cavendish." They marketed it as a blend created only by them, which it was, but I suspect it was just 50% Lane BCA and 50% Lane RLP-6.

Much like some of the others here I wondered why smoking a pipe tasted so poor compared to the smell and why my tongue was so raw afterward. Out of dogged determination I stuck with it. I don't remember exactly when things started to click, but boy did they. Now I've had hundreds on blends and a pipe collection of nearly 200. Some call me crazy. They're probably right.

 

[DrT999]

I started off in high school smoking my father's dried out little sampler tins (like London Dock), but quickly moved on to Captain Black, which was my main stay in my first incarnation as a pipe smoker (mid-70s--mid-90s), although I tried lots of the other OTCs. In grad school, when I couldn't afford the Captain, I bought the big ol' bags from the drug stores.

 

[tarheel7734]

I started with a Meerschaum claw pipe and cherry bulk tobacco.

 

[MichaelM]

For me it was Captain Black in the white pouch and a Grabow. That was all I smoked for a few years. I had a good friend that was a Borkum Riff smoker. We traded once and neither of us could understand how the other guy could smoke such awful stuff
Around 3 years in I discovered the pipe smokers listserv which opened my eyes ( and my wallet).
Mike.

 

[Fr_Tom]

I started in the 70's with a basket billiard from a pipe shop and a pouch of Amphora Red. I got a few Amphora coupon pipes to expand the "collection." In 1978, my girlfriend bought me an LL Bean billiard (I married her in 1982). I smoked mostly Amphora Red and Sail Yellow until you could not find them any more in the US. Every now and then I would smoke a tin of something like Balkan Sobranie or buy a pouch of Blue Boar. Somewhere I stumbled on a pouch of Coopvaert, and liked it enought that I was always looking for it. I remember finding a 12 oz (or so) tin in Washington DC once - probably at Garfinkel's.

 

[Fatman]

I started in 1979 with a Medico, and tried a few OTC blends, settling on Captain Black in the blue pouch. I wanted to like Paladin Black Cherry, because it smelled so good to me back then. I never liked the filter, so I didn't use them at all. Me and a good friend were the odd lot, being interested in pipes, when most high schoolers smoked cigarettes. I used to smoke Tinderbox blends while on active duty, and even smoked while manning the helm of a fast attack Submarine, back when smoking was allowed, long with beards.

I have smoked off and on over the years, most recently getting back into it full time a couple years ago. This forum has provided a wealth of information.

 

[ftrplt]

First pipe was a Dr. Grabow Rhodesian bought in a pipe shop in Raleigh, NC in October 1964. First 'baccy, I'm sure was Middleton's Cherry Blend as "all" the girls loved the aroma. Unfortunately, my tongue did not like being blistered during each bowl!!! :evil: I then tried all the "usual suspects," SWR, Granger, H&H, PA, Mixture #79 (awful), Paladin's Black Cherry (worst evil in the world!!), John Rolfe, Rum & Maple, etc., etc., etc.!!!!!! I then went to work in that same shop, slowly working my way thru dang near every blend we carried (at least 200+). Finally figured out that aro's were not for me; the hell with what the girls liked!! I still have my first and second pipes, looking at them now. Have no idea what #3 was :suspect: FTRPLT