I have been piping extremely sporadically since the age of 19 when I visited a friend in Coventry and 3 of us bought pipes and tobacco from a good old pipe tobacconist.

We had some cherry tobacco and some english styles - I seem to remember preferring the English.

I smoked a pipe on and off - sometimes with years in between and with no great consideration for what I was smoking, how and when. Condor, Clan and St Bruno all got outings during this time.

Two of my brothers also smoke pipes and are novices much like me.

The year now is 2017, I'm 30, I have a house, 2 children, a wife and a shed.

This is where I now do my smoking - and for the last year I have been working my way through various different iterations and styles of tobacco - taking in all the usual suspects in the UK

Dunhill - EMP, Nightcap, Standard Mixture, Royal Yacht, Ready Rubbed, Deluxe Navy Rolls

Samuel Gawith - Squadron Leader, Skiff, Black Cherry, Best Brown

Peterson - Uni Flake, Hyde Park

Gawith and Hogarth - Dark Kentucky, various flavoured

MacBaren - Mixture, Bold Kentucky, Acadian Perique

And many more including St Bruno and Amphora Full

I will review the above in time.

I have had bad smokes, good smokes and one or two perfect smokes - which were flukes.

I am collecting and experimenting with pipes in all varieties, shapes and materials - mostly briar and cob - to achieve as many Perfect Smokes as I can between now and my own personal armageddon.

I hope to continue to learn from this site and begin to share my own views and opinions on as many tobaccos as I can.