The Pipe Bit: Glossary #6: On The Outside

By Chris Rentner

 

          We agree that the interior is what truly matters.  But sometimes we have to deal with what’s on the surface.

          The point of buying pipe tobacco is to enjoy the luscious—and expertly blended—product.  Unless you buy your tobacco in bulk, it is sold with some sort of uniform packaging.  This packaging should be portable and sealed well, so the lovely leaf inside is protected.  Over time, several methods of packaging our precious pipe treat have been tried:

          Tins.  One of the oldest-school methods of packaging pipe tobacco, tins are good but not great.  The tobacco is easy to grab-and-go, and tins are (or should be) sold air-tight, preserving the blend’s moisture content.  And you still have the empty tin in the end, perfect for storing your bobby pins.  But—and it’s a big one, and I cannot lie—tins notoriously dry out pipe tobacco once the initial seal is breached.  Tins are not able, once opened, to be made airtight again, so air invades very quickly, drying out the blend.  Plus, tins have become more expensive lately due to the cost of raw materials, and are a bit labor-intensive to fill and seal.  Tins can look handsome, and are collectible…but your blend’s days will fade quickly once a tin is opened.

          Bags and pouches are becoming the default packaging for pipe tobacco.  Portable and resealable with a zipper top, they are inexpensive to produce and have plenty of room for branding (to dip into the noxious pool of marketing).  But try to get a bag that is resealable; pouches like Captain Black and Borkum Riff, once opened, let in air.  Like with tins, you’d benefit by immediately transferring the contents of a non-zipper pouch to a plastic bag with a zip top.  The expert tobacconist will, of course, sell the tobacco already in resealable bags, as Uhle’s does (blushes modestly, kicks pebble, faints at keyboard, etc.).

          Bulk tobacco is a great value.  You can get the exact quantity you want, four ounces or four pounds.  It’s also a bit cheaper, and the more you buy, the more you save.  Distributors receive most bulk tobaccos packed in five-pound bags.  Mete out piecemeal by the ounce, the overhead is lower than pre-packaged blends, so it’s a good deal for all; and in the case of a tobacco blend that comes in both tins and bulk, buying the same amount in bulk may well, and should be, cheaper (told ya those tins are costly).

          There are some oddities in packaging, like Schermerhorn’s Bestoval, which is sold in fourteen-ounce screw-top plastic jugs.  But the best place for your tobacco is—naturally—your pipe.  Until then, keep your pipe tobacco sealed and dry.

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Dottle:  Remember when the first of the month had no requirements, other than flipping the calendar?  No taxes, no rent, no inventories…I suppose an increased awareness of time is one of the things that make up that state of mind called “maturity”….As predicted in my post “Star Trek/Sci-Fi:…And The Clouds Made of Smoke,” smoking was absent in the recent Star Trek movie, except for the rapidly chilling and dying embers of the franchise itself (barfs).

The Manly Smoke

When I walked through the door of the premium tobacco “industry”, I was made aware under no uncertain terms that I had entered a “man’s, man’s world”.  [James Brown may have had a point…]   But what, exactly, does that mean to the male smoker?  Established alongside the industry itself, the gender roles of the smoking man seem stubbornly imbedded in the very definition of a tobacco purveyor.

 

The cigar smoking man.  He is usually portrayed as a suave and debonair part of society, a James Bond for the real-world if you will.  Hollywood plays a large role in this association, serving up helping after helping of well dressed, dangerous-yet-successful men blowing smoke rings into the interior of their European sports cars as they race around some city I have yet to experience as they do.  These men are silver tongued with their women, usually just as sleek, fast and European as the cars.  These cigar smokers are tan, buff, well accessorized, dressed to the nines and always smoking the finest of top-dollar cigars.  Tough act to follow, no?

The pipe smoking man.  While a wholly different character for the role of smoking man, the shoes of this industry-designed man are no simpler to fill.  Pipe smoking man is sophisticated:  he has travelled the world, has solved major worldly problems with ease, is an accomplished author/PhD/mathematician, and speaks four languages fluently.  The pipe smoking man also averages 65 years on earth, sports at least a hint of silver or white in his hair, and loves his smoking chair.  This stereotype, while less aggressive, is nonetheless unattainable for 99% of tobacco smoking men.   

The real life male tobacco smokers are too varied to label.  They are anywhere from 18 to 88 years old.   Students, factory workers, professionals, artists, and the unknown all find pleasure in a carefully blended pipe tobacco or a hand rolled cigar.  Sometimes it is the pipe smoker with the silver tongue and the cigar smoker with the PhD.  Oftentimes you simply can’t tell, when popping into our lounge, just who is who. 

When it comes down to it, smoking man is simply that.  A man, tobacco in hand, creating a small cloud of enjoyment in his midst.

–Miss T

Want more?  Check out the “other perspective”, the female-smoker stereotype at www.myspace.com/uhletobacco (where you can find this blog’s original author)