Why You Should Smoke a Corn Cob Pipe

 

Used with permission from tobaccopipes.com

The All-American Pipe

If you’ve never smoked one, we think there are seven good reasons why you should pick up a corn cob pipe. After all, they are one of the most iconic and affordable types of smoking devices.

1. For Tasting Pipe Tobacco

One of the most popular uses for a corn cob pipe is as an inexpensive and unbiased “tasting” pipe. Many smokers feel that briar changes the flavor of pipe tobacco. To get a true sense of the blend an aficionado will often use an inexpensive cobto taste a new blend. 

Another benefit of using a cob for tasting is that you will prevent unnecessary ghosting problems on your briar pipes. Ghosting is what happens when a particularly strong tobacco leaves a scent and/or flavor on the pipe, affecting future smokes with different and less intense blends. This is particularly important with strong varieties like Latakias, Periques and heavily cased Aromatics.

Traditionally Meerschaum pipes have been used for tasting, but a quality meerschaum can be both expensive and delicate. It is much easier for modern smokers to keep a few cobs, priced under ten dollars, on hand.

2. To Learn About Pipe Smoking

Learning to smoke a pipe takes patience and practice.

Depending on your patience and budget, investing as much as a few hundred dollars in smoking pipes, pipe tobacco and accessories may not be a good way to start. An inexpensive corn cob and a good tobacco are often an excellent alternative for learning and can be purchased for less than the cost of a trip to the movies.

Learning to smoke with a corn cob is different than learning with a briar pipe. However, the minimal financial risk and ease of entry make it a popular way to start for many newbies to the hobby (If you decide to learn with a corn cob, you may find this piece on what to do during your initial smokes helpful).

3. Because Cobs Are Cool

There is something wonderfully ironic about smoking a cob while Instagraming that makes the mashup of old and new a very retro-cool thing to do.

Go for a finger-scroll through the hashtag #cobtuesday on Instagram or search the term on YouTube and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Many bearded Millennial guys, smoking their Kearney Kobz Pipes, while posing for thecamera seem to be a new breed of selfies cropping up around town. It’s a marriage of American nostalgia and modern technology that has seen a surge for a few years now.

4. But Not Too Cool

If, like all of us, you’ve taken up smoking pipes in your twenties or thirties there is a danger of looking a little suspect wandering around town puffing on a Churchwarden or an elaborate Rinaldo pipe. Like bow ties, cowboy boots and other “old world” accessories a briar pipe can require a certain amount of swagger for someone under 60 to pull off in public. Not so with a corn cob.

Cobs are humble enough to make it clear to anyone who sees you that you’re smoking a pipe because you love it, not as a fashion statement.

Think of it as the equivalent of stopping off for a burger at your local greasy spoon versus going for a $20 Bison Burger at a trendy local gastropub--both are delicious, but only one cares about presentation.

5. They Cost Less Than Lunch

Remember that $20 burger?

You can enjoy almost any Missouri Meerschaum pipeyou fancy for less than that lunch.

Corn cobs are inexpensive and come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. One of the reasons these simple pipes have stood the test of time is that they provide a clean, slightly sweet smoke at a price point accessible to everyone.

6. To Sweeten Your Smoke

Many cob smokers feel that the sweetness of a corn cob comes through, in a subtle and pleasing way, when they smoke a bowl of tobacco. The tongue’s response to the bit of sweetness coupled with the taste of your favorite blend is pure bliss to many a collector.

7. Corncobs Change The World

Sort of…

The history of corn cob pipes is absolutely over-flowing with some of America’s greatest political, literary and artistic icons. Just to name a few:

  • Mark Twain - real name, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, helped make Missouri Meerschaum the name it is today. He also remains the author we all hold up as the gold-standard for writing The Great American Novel.
  • Daniel Boone - An icon of the American frontier. He was a hunter and pioneer.
  • H.L. Mencken - Known as the “Sage of Baltimore”, Mencken was a journalist, editor and scholar who greatly influenced the politics and literature of much of the early twentieth century.

Whether you like to sit on the porch or wander the woods while you smoke, a corn cob pipe is a time-tested tradition we think every pipe guy or gal should try at least once. So make like Mark Twain this Cob Tuesday and light up a bowl in a Kearney Kobz Missouri Meerschaum modification.


Copyright Kearney Kobz