Hand rolling and 'straight' cigarettes are the defacto choice for most smokers nowadays. However in the past, pipe smoking used to be the only choice, in fact, it wasn't until the early part of the 20th Century that roll your own and prepacked cigarettes became increasingly available, cost-effective and popular. With any product or consumable, some people are happy choosing a pre-made option and rolling with that. However, some like the ability to customise and input their own preferences. This explains why pipe smoking continued to be popular right into the latter half of the 20th Century, even now, pipes are still a way for smoking enthusiasts to enjoy the flavours and smells created by different tobacco.
With smoking tobacco through a pipe less prevalent than it used to be, we've compiled a guide on how to pack a pipe as well as how to smoke it, it's really quite different to smoking cigarettes.
In order to smoke a pipe, you need to bring the component parts together. You will need:
- Pipe
- Pipe tobacco
- Matches but a lighter will do
- Tamper however you can use a thumb/ finger (not really recommended). This item is designed to help pack down the tobacco. You can buy specialist tools or some people use the head of a screw.
Firstly, you need to ensure you select a pipe tobacco, it's rougher cut (shag cut) when compared to rolling tobacco as well as having a higher moisture content. It also has less tax applied to it, so pipe tobacco is easier on your wallet. There are lots of types of pipe tobacco, so the best thing is to try a few to get a feel for what you like and don't like - you will find pipe tobacco is 'stronger' than rolling tobacco.
You will now need to actually fill your pipe with tobacco. Grab some pipe tobacco and put it into the pipe, fill it until the bowl is full. Taking your tamper or a finger, tap down the tobacco. Once you've created a bit more room, add more tobacco and tamper down again. Finally, fill up the remaining space of the bowl and tamper down again. Have a test inhale on the pipe to ensure the pipe isn't blocked. If you can't 'draw' air through the pipe, you've packed it too tight, pull out the tobacco and start again being a little more gentle with the packing.
Assuming air can be sufficiently drawn, you're ready to light up. Strike a match, and hold it over the centre of the tobacco and circle it around while puffing but releasing the smoke. At this point, the tobacco might swell up a bit so you can tamper it down, lightly. Again relight the tobacco and puff on the pipe until you get a good glow.
When you start smoking the pipe, as you puff, don't inhale all the smoke. Puff, release then inhale the cooler smoke left in your mouth. If you inhale immediately the smoke will be too hot so you need to let it cool.
Smoking a pipe is a completely different process to smoking a straight or a roll your own. It will take time to work out what pipe tobacco you like, how to pack the pipe in order for the best burn with a specific tobacco as well as the act of smoking the pipe. With bit of practice, you'll get there as well as standing out from other smokers!
Here at Bull Brand, we have a full range of great tasting and amazing value pipe tobaccos that we've hand-selected for our customers, we even have a pipe for £1. Delivered to your door you'll be smoking like a 1930's gent in no time!
