Yes me, both pipe and cigars.  The Casa del Habano shops are pretty good (assuming it's the same chain as in London).  The internet has also helped to keep pipe smoking on its feet.  There are all sorts of tobacco review websites (all US-based I think) where they go for rating and classification in a big way.  There's also a bit of a hipster element these days believe it or not, with "artisan" blends and so on. 

Pipe tobacco is much better value than cigars but cigars are easier if you're on the move as less paraphernalia (and they stay alight once lit).  On this board we are also of course concerned with the image projected by appearances and this includes what you have dangling out of your mouth.  It goes without saying that the image of the pipe smoker is a very different one these days to image of the cigar smoker.

Last edited by Moose Maclennan (2016-06-23 01:44:27)

FWIW I reckon the learning curve for a grown-up smoking a pipe is only about a couple of hours.

As long as they don't go for one of those daft Gandalf Macsherlock style contraptions.

Haven't smoked for 35 years, sadly (if you're trying to quit) I still occasionally fancy a cig even after all these years, especially when I'm drunk.

In my tobacco consuming years I tried all methods in addition to factory made cigarettes.

Pipes - the tobacco aroma is less objectionable but the pipes and the residue are smelly and messy. They make you look a bit of a knob.

Roll your own cigs - fiddly, not as satisfactory as a proper cig and make you look like a cheapskate.

Snuff - repulsive habit when you're in company, you keep blowing your nose and get brown snot.

All - make your clothes and your breath smell. Costly, make you a social pariah. Then theres the debilitating and fatal diseases.

Go for a run instead...... ;-)

Find the right pipe and you generally will not look like a knob (depending of course how you looked without the pipe, this is no miracle cure). Many of the lightweight, smaller, straight pipes that used to be a mainstay of the industry have fallen out of fashion - although they tend to suit many smokers better.

I've seen how people roll cigs in the UK and I'm not surprised they're unsatisfactory, they look like frigging toothpicks. I'd be seeing black dots swimming before my eyes before the second drag.

Finally I must rush to the defence of snuff. It is not a fun mentholated party drug to be snorted by the teaspoonful. Many who are unaccustomed to it take too much and inhale violently as if on a dare.
My preference was Fribourg & Treyer High Dry Toast which is very strong and fine and, gently insufflated, doesn't involve huge amounts of 'nose logistics'.
And of course snuff doesn't make your clothes smell unless you're blowing minty snot rockets onto your sleeve, does not affect your breath in any way, and is not associated with diseases.

Snuff.