[Role Modlin]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

I'd like to amend Murdock's post from earlier. It was a solid post, but I want to highlight one thing...cigarettes are generally more dangerous than cigars.

One is that they're in bite size form, and more tempting to smoke again and again. Also, the tobacco in cigarettes tends to be treated and mixed with chemicals. These chemicals are a big part of cigarette's danger, and are not present in most pipe tobacco and cigars.

I'm not arguing that cigars and pipes are as dangerous as cigarettes...I don't believe that they are. However, to ignore the fact that there are some risks is being foolish.

[Than]

Wouldn't the greater size of cigars at least cancel out any "benefits" over cigs? I mean, you may be getting more chemicals in a cigarette, but the sheer size of most cigars seems like it would guarantee way more tar and stuff.


A friend of mine suggested mixing whiskey, hot apple cider, and a little cinnamon for a winter time type drink. Has anyone tried something like that before? I have my doubts about mixing whiskey and apple cider.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Lee

I'm not arguing that cigars and pipes are as dangerous as cigarettes...I don't believe that they are. However, to ignore the fact that there are some risks is being foolish.

Oh, no, I completely agree. I'm just saying that cigars and pipes were designed for moderation, and cigarettes were designed for frequent indulgence. The tobacco is augmented with harmful chemicals to make it more addictive, for one.

Cigars and pipes, like red meat and alcohol, can be dangerous both in moderation and in large amounts.

Originally Posted by Than

Wouldn't the greater size of cigars at least cancel out any "benefits" over cigs? I mean, you may be getting more chemicals in a cigarette, but the sheer size of most cigars seems like it would guarantee way more tar and stuff.

Well, once again - cigarettes are usually inhaled, cigars are not inhaled. Much more tar and nicotine gets into the bloodstream via the lungs than it does via the mucus membrances of the mouth. The inhalation is a much bigger factor.



But everyone should note - I've heard from some cigar buffs that the biggest danger to the average cigar and pipe aficianado (who tend to use moderation) is mixing alcohol and tobacco. As Jason/Murdock noted, the body's natural lining in the mouth protects from a number of bad things. When you drink, that lining is temporary removed by the alcohol. If you then smoke, you've cut down your body's natural defense.

[The wirerat]

I understand the want to smoke cigs beause of nicotene but what about cgars? what makes them so much more enjoyable?

[Visirale]

Cigars don't taste like garbage. They often have very nice refined flavors that linger on and on. Cigs leave a horrible after taste, and I've only smoked kreteks, which taste better...

A cigar is an experience... it lasts for 30 minutes to an hour or more... It's just something you have to try. I didn't really think I would like them that much, but I do.

Tonight I tried a C.A.O. Brazillian "Gol!" which was way too dark for my likings. I also had another C.A.O. Gold, and it was once again really good, but for reasons beyond my control I had to get rid of it. .

I also got a realllllyyyy nice cigar cutter. It's pretty nifty.

I'm done spending money on tobacco for a while, haha. I have most everything I need now besides a humidor, and I think that might be overkill...

[bread man]

I've always wanted to try a cigar, but I'm a wuss. I'm thinking of trying one when a friend turns legal age and wants to do it with me.

[H.M. Murdock]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Sure thing, I'll try to get some links and/or scan some articles. Of course, if they've seen those Truth ads about ammonia and such in cigs - that stuff ain't in cigars/pipes.

A few things to add to this:
Cigarettes have evolved to fit a mass market.
Beginning in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, cigarettes went from a hand-rolled business- an evolution from the Spanish origins of the cigarette, if memory serves, which was rolled by scantily clad women in sweltering heat for local consumption- to a machined endeavor using mechanical rollers that could spew out tens of thousands of cigarettes in the time it takes an experienced roller to make a few hundred by hand at best. From there, the market exploded, due to the cigarettes' accessibility and also because British American Tobacco was using such effective advertising.
The result was that cuts in quality were often made to provide a cheap cigarette. Among these were the introduction of pressed sheet tobacco, concentrated additives to restore flavor to cheap tobacco, or make flavorless crap taste like quality mild, and (this is my favorite) asbestos filters injected with nicotine and artificial flavoring.
It goes by logic that, in favor of cheap marketing, further degradations in quality would occur to offset rising tobacco taxes, eliminate targeted naturally occuring substances tagged as harmful by medical researches and, of course, to make bad tobacco stretch farther.
I would give more dates and specifics and actually say something worth reading, but my brain is fried. I should be finishing up paperwork so I can go to bed, but honestly, after spending 9 hours with the worker I am evaluating, I feel like I've had enough time with him.

It should be noted, though, that cigarettes started out as completely unadulterated tobacco. Their only difference was that they were the rough equivelant of a bowl of pipe tobacco, but wrapped in paper. They were disposable, like cigars, but portable and not at all so presumptuous as a cigar or a pipe. They were cheap, easily distributed for retail transaction settings, etc. There's no real difference between all of the methods of tobacco consumption, unless we were to take the stereotypes established in Victorian fiction and treat them as fact- then we would see that cigars are symbols of power and wit, pipes of intelligence and prudent thought, and cigarettes are pretty much for slobby hobags. Over time, cigarettes have become the pride and joy of corporate America, while cigars and pipes have been left relatively untouched, though I am personally grateful that it is now very hard to get intoxicated to the point of passing out on any available tobacco delivery systems, as was standard in the first few hundred years of tobacco's popularity.

Okay. Bedtime. I was going to say more, but I forgot. Dang it.

[SilverNitrate]

Originally Posted by Visirale

Cigars don't taste like garbage. They often have very nice refined flavors that linger on and on. Cigs leave a horrible after taste...

I'm going to have to disagree here.

I've smoked more enjoyable tasting cigarettes than I have enjoyable tasting cigars. I have yet to have a cigar that leaves a "nice refined flavor" in my mouth. But... since everything tastes different to everyone... I know not everyone will enjoy the flavor of different cigarettes.

Besides... to me... cigarettes are the form in which I enjoy my tobacco the most.

[Dr. Worm]

Originally Posted by The wirerat

I understand the want to smoke cigs beause of nicotene but what about cgars? what makes them so much more enjoyable?

Well it´s not just the nicotene, cigarettes also make you look cooler and help you make friends.

[Lightknight]

So, back to the finer things and not bickering over crap.

A landmark event occured this week in the world of The Finer Things. For me at least. I went to a pub. "What's so special about that, Gavin?" Simple, it is perhaps the most famous pub in the U.S.

Cheers

[redbaron]

Originally Posted by Dr. Worm

Well it´s not just the nicotene, cigarettes also make you look cooler and help you make friends.

there is actually some truth to that, oddly enough.

[+Donny]

Originally Posted by redbaron

there is actually some truth to that, oddly enough.

So do pipes. If I see a pipe-smoker, there is bonding. Boom.

[Ax]

I love smoking cigars, but I hate having smoked cigars... The aftertaste to me is horrible, but during that moment, wow, just wow...

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by +Donny

So do pipes. If I see a pipe-smoker, there is bonding. Boom.

Totally agreed. I was nightwalking around downtown one evening and I happened to pass an older gentleman with a pipe doing the same. Instant bond!

Folks who gravitate toward pipes, I've found, tend to share a great deal in common. At first I was uncomfortable being surrounded by so many other white guys with beards, though. Not that pipe smoking divides along racial lines, as experience has also shown me.

Anyone comes to Austin, let me take you to Pipe World's smokers lounge.

Originally Posted by AXguitar

I love smoking cigars, but I hate having smoked cigars... The aftertaste to me is horrible, but during that moment, wow, just wow...

This happens to me too, so I usually smoke a strong hot tea, such as peppermint or vanilla or cinnamon chocolate. That way, the aftertaste is drowned in tea, but I get the taste of each puff.

[H.M. Murdock]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Totally agreed. I was nightwalking around downtown one evening and I happened to pass an older gentleman with a pipe doing the same. Instant bond!

Or pipe/cigar smokers. I discovered an instant bond with a fellow when I got off of work today and we worked on that instant bond for two hours of non-stop conversation. He with his cigar (or 3), me with my pipe (or 3). Good times.

Anyone comes to Austin, let me take you to Pipe World's smokers lounge.

Let's see...


What are you doing in June/July?

This happens to me too, so I usually smoke a strong hot tea, such as peppermint or vanilla or cinnamon chocolate. That way, the aftertaste is drowned in tea, but I get the taste of each puff.

Wait. You smoke a strong hot tea? I've heard of smoking green tea due to the alleged high it gives. But still.