DO:
- Get an inexpensive corn cob pipe ~10 USD. The trusted famous brand is Missouri Meerschaum.
- get a well loved “codger blend” like Carter Hall or Prince Albert
- watch some YouTube videos on packing and lighting; keep it simple (3 step packing)
DON’T
- buy an expensive pipe to start with
- get frustrated with learning curve - patience
Tobacco Types
- wealth of info at tobaccoreviews.com
- aromatics (broadly, smell good but no taste)
- virginia / burley: core tobacco leaf types (notes of bread, hay, leather)
- latakia: smoke cured (campfire smokey smells)
Try them all. See what you like. (But va/burley is the best!)
Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/miguellopezmallach/15365251481/in/photostream
I tried to get into pipe smoking around 2004. Three of us did. We all bought cheap pipes and would sit around trying to smoke them. The internet was not the same back then for content discovery so we didn’t know what we were doing. I don’t think anyone from that group still smokes a pipe.
Around the same time I tried to get into cigar smoking. I remember the sampler I got being terrible. Again the internet was not as useful back then.