I'm here today with Michael Herklots from Ferio Tego, and we discussed the key differences between enjoying pipes and cigars. Check out our chat about what advice we would give for pipe smokers who are looking to venture into the world of premium cigars.

[Tyler Caldwell]: The question I have for you is, do you enjoy a good pipe?

[Michael Herklots]: I'm glad you asked it in that way because I do enjoy pipes. I've been in retail tobacco for 23 of my 26 years professionally, and learning about pipes, enjoying pipes, and selling pipes and pipe tobacco was obviously part of the job. It is not my area of expertise; it's an area of enjoyment. I'd say I know enough about pipes and pipe tobacco to be a helpful and thoughtful tobacconist, but certainly my focus has always been, and my area of expertise has always been more focused in the handmade premium cigar world.

Advice for Smokers

[TC]: Would you have any advice for a pipe smoker who's looking to venture more into the realm of cigars?

[MH]: It's no different than the same advice I would give to premium cigar smokers who are interested in learning more about pipes. The first thing I would tell them is that you can't go into the other with the expectations of the first. It's just not the same experience. They are completely different things.

It would be like saying, I love music, but in reality you like jazz and classical and you don't like metal and punk. And that's perfectly fine, but I think people who love music can appreciate and find things to love in the things that they're less familiar with. So don't assume that your experience with your new category will match the experience with the old, and instead of looking at the differences as what you miss, look at the differences as what you have gained.

For me, with premium cigars, you typically have a texture and a body that is more dominant and obvious. You have flavors that present more intensely because the point of heat combustion with tobacco to the palate is immeasurable. It also brings an aroma, feeling, and flavor because you are so close and intimate to it.

With a pipe, your experience is twofold. One, of course, is your experience with the actual pipe itself, so you have different decisions to make about the pipe and which pipe to smoke, and then you have to decide which pipe tobacco to smoke in that particular pipe. That's no different than looking at different blends and the sizes within those blends, and there will always be this relationship in your discretion of not just what flavor do I feel like, but what format do I wanna enjoy it in? With pipe smoking, the flavors are much more nuanced but they also tend to be more consistent.

With cigar smoking, the flavors are a bit more obvious, but I would beg you to look for more nuance on the finish and I would also encourage you to look for more dynamism as you smoke the cigar from the beginning towards the middle and the end, because there's much more development and compounding change from the foot towards the cap because of the long-filler properties of a handmade premium cigar. Those leaves run the entire length, and as they burn, you are turning this solid into a liquid and a gas that is being retained within those same leaves, and therefore creating this ability to build in flavor, intensity, and body. The physical characteristic of the leaf that gets from thinner to thicker relative to the leaf on its position, from the stalk to the tip of the leaf, is also a factor. There's much more opportunity for change in development in handmade premium cigars in one sitting than there often is in pipe smoking.

Finally, you need to look at what tobaccos you like and think about what they offer. Obviously, if you prefer lighter-bodied Cavendishes and more Aromatics, they offer a relationship to the pipe smoker that is both on the palate and in the air, as do your fuller-bodied, stronger, denser, earthier blends. The same applies for handmade premium cigars. Ask your tobacconist if you like full-bodied, rich, dense cigars, and smoky, peaty whiskeys, if there is a product that you can find in the pipe world that will meet you where you are. And the same in the opposite direction, for cigar smokers to pipe smokers.

We need to bridge that gap a little bit, so finding some commonalities and then recognizing what's different will allow pipe smokers to better appreciate the art of enjoying premium cigars. I think it's quite the same for cigar smokers exploring pipes.

[TC]: Personally, I've always been more of a predominant cigar smoker, and once I came here to Smokingpipes, obviously it was a new adventure for me to learn something new and I almost had to retrain myself as a smoker to get into that. But what I've always liked about pipe smoking is the difference of flavors. Smoking a cigar has much more impactive flavor, where smoking a pipe is more about the nuance and the subtleties of that.

[MH]: And you've learned it from someone who appreciates the other side more. My favorite experience smoking a pipe has never been alone. It's always been in the company of people who know more than me and appreciate it more than I do. I was always better positioned with the right blend for the right moment, packed the right way, and I always enjoyed it more when I had the help of, whether it's an expert consumer or an expert tobacconist.

[TC]: Absolutely, and there's just that enjoyment of being able to share that experience with these people as well. Let us know in the comments if you like cigars and you want to dabble into pipes, or if you're a pipe smoker and you want to dabble into cigars. Reach out to your local tobacconist or reach out to us here at Smokingpipes and we can help you on your journey.