The Tobacco Barn is proud to announce the arrival of Tobacconist’s Choice Pipe Tobacco Cigars from Battleground Cigars. We’ve searched high and low to find the best Pipe Tobacco Cigars and decided that these great sticks are perfect.

These hand-made cigars are the brainchild of Michael Tarnowicz and are truly a family tradition. At any time you’ll find many members of the Tarnowicz clan working to turn out the best cigars from Connecticut shade and broad leaf tobaccos. But not just any Connecticut tobacco; their products are turned out from product certified to have been grown in Connecticut in the US!

We are currently carrying 3 flavors of their Pipe Tobacco Cigars: Smuggler’s Rum Sweet Vanilla and Triple Cherry. Tom and I sampled these at the IPCPR trade shown this last August and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival ever since. You’ll find those around you will enjoy you smoking these cigars as much as you do with their traditional pipe aroma.

Give them a try today and you’ll too be convinced that these aromatic cigars are perfect for those times when a pipe is just too impractical.

http://www.tobacco-barn.com/p-8283-tobacconist-choice-pipe-tobacco-cigars.aspx

Picture of rollers above courtesy of Battleground Cigars via CigarCyclopedia)

We recently received an email through MeerschaumPipes.com website with a question from a pipe smoker about some problem he was having with coloring his meerschaum pipe. He wrote:

Subject=spotting on my pipe
I bought a new meerschaum and I started to smoke it and as i smoked it i noticed that spots were forming here and there. Is it because the stone is absorbing the wax or is the wax moving around. Its my first meerschaum and I don't want to ruin the look it will get.

Here is the answer that we provided back:

The spots can be caused by a number of different things.

• Realize that meerschaum stone is a natural product and that impurities or differing densities of the stone may cause uneven coloring. This can be part of the fun/challenge of owning a meerschaum pipe.

• Are the spots appearing where you've touched the pipe while it was hot? Normally, touching your pipe while it is hot is not an issue provided your hands are relatively clean. In other words, don't touch your bowl (warm or otherwise) after reading the newspaper or after changing the oil in your car.

• Uneven coloring COULD be the result of uneven wax coating. This could be could be the result of "smudging" the wax with your hand while it is hot (not likely), by smoking your pipe too hot and driving the wax off (would normally result in a blackening of the shank/bottom of your pipe while the top part stays white) or by an inconsistent piece of stone (see first point above)

Our suggestion is to smoke it a while longer and see if the rest of the pipe catches up with the spots to the point that it no longer bothers you.

If after a reasonable amount of time (depends on how often you smoke it) the pipes appearance is still annoying you, you could remove the existing wax coating (which should remove almost all the color) and rewax it from scratch. This is NOT recommended unless you are fully willing to accept the consequences of your action. Many folks have tried this and ruined their pipe's appearance. There is probably little you can do (other than perhaps getting wax INSIDE the bowl) that would physically hurt your pipe but it may end up looking worse than when you started.

Can any of you others out there think of any other causes of spotting like this? Or potential cures to his problem? If so, speak up in the comments section below!

I found a reference to this piece by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) that he wrote when he was about 40. I thought that sharing this here would be most appropriate. This type of information should be shared far and wide with Brothers of the Briar (or meerschaum or clay or corn cob)…

Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker (Die 'erbauliche Gedanken eines Tabakrauchers)

When e'er I take my pipe and stuff it
And smoke to pass the time away
My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,
Dwell on a picture sad and grey:
It teaches me that very like
Am I myself unto my pipe.

Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,
Is made of naught but earthen clay;
To earth I too shall be returning,
And cannot halt my slow decay.
My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,
Of mortal life is but a token.

No stain, the pipe's hue yet doth darken;
It remains white. Thus do I know
That when to death's call I must harken
My body, too, all pale will grow.
To black beneath the sod 'twill turn,
Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.

Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,
Behold then instantaneously,
The smoke off into thin air going,
'Til naught but ash is left to see.
Man's fame likewise away will burn
And unto dust his body turn.

How oft it happens when one's smoking,
The tamper's missing from it's shelf,
And one goes with one's finger poking
Into the bowl and burns oneself.
If in the pipe such pain doth dwell
How hot must be the pains of Hell!

Thus o'er my pipe in contemplation
Of such things - I can constantly
Indulge in fruitful meditation,
And so, puffing contentedly,
On land, at sea, at home, abroad,
I smoke my pipe and worship God.

From: The Second Little Clavier Book For Anna Magdalena Bach

Perhaps a wee bit morbid but a great piece of pipe lore as well as an insight into the more introspective nature of pipe smoking.