Across the Counter
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No 3 – December 14, 2000
Is a pleasure shared a pleasure doubled?
I find it fascinating how often total strangers, with a taste for pipes or cigars, will strike up a conversation in my shop.
Experiences and anecdotes are exchanged well before names; each learns from the other; opinions are respected. It is as if sharing these moments enhances their enjoyment, even if the actual moment was in the past. That pipe or cigar under the stars in the bush – could it really have been that good?
And you don’t necessarily need a friend or a fellow pipe or cigar lover to broaden your enjoyment of smoking. Reading can do it.
We offer leaflets which outline the practical details you need to know to start to enjoy your cigar or pipe, and to help you in you search for the perfect tobacco blend. But for fuller enjoyment, dip into a book or magazine.
A comprehensive, well-written book will tell you why briar is used to make pipes, how it grows, and what happens to it during all the processes necessary to ensure that it ends up as that warm, comfortable object in your hand.
You can read the history of cigars, the agriculture, the difference the soil makes and the manufacture – long and short filler.
You can travel the tobacco world learning about the different countries that provide the wherewithal for your enjoyment; meet the people who make the products; read about famous personalities who share your love of tobacco.
Most books and magazines on the pleasures of pipes and cigars don’t really date. Tobacco products are not quite like wines, where vintages can be important to the quality of enjoyment. Back issues of magazines can offer a wealth of information, as you’ll see from the Cigar Aficionado magazines on special this fortnight.
Current magazines however may keep you up to date on what is new, what is available, and where you may enjoy a smoke outside your own home.
In the light of imminent legislation this could be important.
Colin Wesley
You can read previous articles from “Across the Counter” in The Library.
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