[Ask the Pipe Doc is a regular column comprised of questions and answers provided as a way of educating pipe smokers. Answers are provided by our resident 'Pipe Doc,' Marty Pulvers.]

Question from Nelson: Recently the practice of dedicating only Virginia's or English blends, etc. to a pipe has come up a couple of times. Some people are staunch advocates of this practice. One well known pipe carver even suggested that you will never be able to fully appreciate your favorite blend if other blends have been smoked in a pipe before it. He says there's always those residual flavors left behind. I'm not sure I can buy into this completely. I have about 50 pipes in my regular rotation and I have, on many occasions smoked different blends in all of them at one time or another. It's usually a VA or English type blend and I rarely smoke anything that is cased. I have to admit that after smoking one blend in a particular pipe then switch to another blend I do taste some of the other blends flavors but after a few bowls they seem to dissipate completely.... or maybe not?  Since I've never dedicated one pipe to one type of tobacco do you think I'm really missing out on the true flavor of a blend? I guess I could always try this myself but when I'm ready to smoke a pipe I don't pick it off the rack, it picks me and I might not feel like smoking it's dedicated blend that day. I'm interested to hear what your thoughts are on this subject.

Answer from the Pipe Doc: Dear Nelson, I'm always happy to give my opinion to someone who professes interest in hearing it...

Yes, the prevailing wisdom is, and has been for the 46 years I've been smoking pipes, that each pipe should be dedicated solely to one style of tobacco. That is good advice, as far as it goes, but in your case, it clearly doesn't go far enough, and that is why you need The Pipe Doc. For you, the Doctor is “IN” and wearing his (much more costly) therapy hat.

One of the selling points I made with Doc Stogie Fresh (before he agreed to my 6-figure salary demand) was that I would be able to talk to his monomaniacal cigar smokers about pipes in a manner that even they could understand. One of the axioms that cigar smokers understand is that the “best” cigar is the cigar you like best. It is truly that simple. If one's taste preference runs to cat crap, that is the cigar that one should smoke. And all one should ask of that cigar (and I believe I can recommend a couple brands that fit the category) is that it be consistent and not occasionally taste more like beaver poop than the preferred cat caca.

Using that same analogy (not the poopy part) of the taste as having to appeal only to you, there is, as you know, no good reason why you shouldn't mix tobaccos in your pipes. They are your pipes. They are your taste buds. Who is to say that Virginia, smoked on top of Latakia, does not taste better to you? Or, perhaps the convenience of using fewer pipes might be more important to you than taste. Is that wrong? Nope.

Have you visited...

Indeed, because the Virginia now in your bowl has a hint of Latakia, it will certainly taste a bit different. And, by Gar, if that is a taste you like, or you like to try different, unknown combinations, or you like not having to think about the minutiae of taste, why would you even consider listening to what other people think is more correct? When they pick up the bill for your pipe tobaccos, they can have a say in what and how you smoke.

And, if others care that much about what, and how, you smoke, congratulate them quite heartily for having so few other problems that they have the luxury of having time to criticize your smoking style. As for me, I do have other problems to consider. I'm still waiting for that first check from the Doc... he promised it was in the mail.

Enjoy that tobacco,

Marty, The Pipe Doc

About the Pipe Doc: Our “Pipe Doc” normally goes by the name of Marty Pulvers, except when he is alerted that an APB has been issued for him. Indeed, he states, his proudest achievement is that he has been in the pipe and tobacco business for over 30 years and still has no convictions.

Other credentials include his being named a Doctor of Pipes by the Chicagoland Pipe Club and a Certified Kapnismologist (don't ask) by Pipe Collector's International... now defunct (don't ask). He is also a Certified Beer Judge, which he concedes has nothing to do with the subject at hand, but might help explain, in advance, the quality and tenor of some of his answers to your pipe questions.

Marty began his pipe voyage in abject ignorance of pipes and tobacco, and over the 45-plus years of pipe smoking, he claims to have experienced and learned a lot. Alas, he's willing to admit that it is possible he has been at it so long that this journey may have resulted in a complete circle.