36
TOBACCO BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
A
nother Sunday night dinner
with family and friends—we’ve
spent all afternoon slow roasting
a beautiful fat chicken and baked fresh
bread that was allowed to rise as long
as it needed to be just so…we’ve picked
out the perfect wine and set the table
with care, yes every night is a candlelit
dinner at our house, a cozy remnant of
our Danish traditions.
Of course, if you eat just to get full, a
box of fast-food chicken nuggets serves
the same purpose, but slow cooking is
gaining in popularity as more and more
people decide to take the time to enjoy
the process, be more in control of what
they eat and stop rushing everything.
By the same token, pipe smoking is far
from convenient. If you are just after a
quick hit, a “nicotine delivery device” will
provide that, but how different it is from
savoring the ritual of enjoying a good
pipe!
The discreet sigh of opening a fresh
tin of tobacco, the way the beautiful
bright Virginias play against the darker
mellow—almost black—tobaccos, the
feel of your favorite pipe in your hand,
smooth but somehow not hard. Finally
inhaling the deep aromas of the blend,
feeling around for just the right amount
and filling it in your pipe—not too firm
or too loose—but, like Goldilocks, just
right. All this anticipation leads up to
the final enjoyment of smoking your
pipe.
Pipe smoking appeals to all the senses,
and a pipe is to be relished, you can’t rush it.
But in today’s world, where everything
is premade,where electronic cigarettes are
assembled in China,
I enjoy knowing that
I chose to fill this
specific pipe that I
picked out, maybe
even blending two
tobaccos
together,
creating my own
blend. I am in control
of what and how I
am smoking.
These days, time is the one indulgence
we rarely allow ourselves, and maybe that
makes it the ultimate luxury. So with all
the hustle and bustle going on in our lives,
try to take the time and enjoy relaxing
with an unhurried pipe full of your favorite
tobacco. Put the leisure back in your life—
at least for the moments it takes to sit and
truly enjoy slow smoking.
TB
Slow Smoking
A leisurely pipe offers the pause you need when life is racing by.
By Erik Stokkebye
