Mike's Picks and Tips

Pipe Tip: When you have finished smoking a bowl of your favorite tobacco in your beloved pipe and completed your usual cleaning, set the pipe upside-down. Resting the pipe "bowl down" will help the pipe to cure better. With the bowl and mouthpiece both pointing towards the table or shelf, all remaining juices and resins will run to the rim of the bowl and to the edge of the mouthpiece. This will prevent interior buildup and result in a cleaner, cooler and sweeter smoke for years to come.

Pipe Picks: Savinelli Roma and Savinelli Oscar pipes. The Tobacco Bowl has just received a sub-stantial supply of both of these classic pipe lines. Now is the ideal time to find the right one for yourself or for a gift while selection and time before the holidays are both in good supply. We would also be glad to order any of the available shapes in either line if we don't have 'your' pipe in our large inventory.

Pipe Tobacco Picks: Caminetto and Ferndown tobaccos are now in stock. Reviewed in the Fall 2000 pipes and Tobaccos magazine, these tobaccos are highly recommended. Nicks favorite is Ferndown's Yellow and Brown Medium Reserve. This mild English blend is made with choice Red Virginias lightly seasoned to perfection with Latakia and other Orientals. A must smoke!

Cigar Tip: As the weather changes into fall, temperatures will become erratic and dynamic. This is especially true if you take a fine cigar from the comfy confines of a humidor out to the cool breeze of the porch for an evening smoke. These sudden changes are exacerbated when one adds fire to the cigar and makes part of the cigar really hot while the remainder remains relatively cool. Such dramatic differences cause cigar shock; this is when the wrapper will buckle and crack. By letting the cigar rest in the new environment (i.e. outside) for 10-15 minutes before smoking, the cigar will acclimate to the smoking conditions. This process will help to avoid cigar shock and unpleasant smokes.

Cigar Picks: Cigar smokers should never be afraid to try the "old hat". Too often well established cigars are overlooked due to a lack of flashy packaging and pizzazz. Often it is the well-established and quieter cigars that have the most consistent quality and flavor. Moreover, these same cigars are often not priced as high as others. Two cigars that fit this description perfectly are the Cuesta Rey #95 and the #47. Corona and Robusto respectively, these Cameroon wrapped Dominican cigars are some of the finer cigars in the world. Too often they are overlooked because they have been around for some time and don't carry a lot of weight. At $5.45 for the #95 ($122.72 per box of 25) and $6.45 for the #47 ($145.13 per box of 25) these are two hidden gems of the cigar industry. All
cigar smokers looking for that classic taste that is easy to find around the nation will be very pleased to try these cigars.

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