I’m just wondering, what was everyone’s first introduction to tobacco use? When I was but a wee boy, my brother and I always wondered what our Great Great grandfather had in his pocket… Well come to find out it wasn’t bubble gum… Not sure of the brand of leaf chewing tobacco, but it didn’t set well with us… Also I had one uncle out of 8 that smoked a pipe, there was nothing better as a small kid to snuggle on his lap and smell the aroma of Borkum Riff Cherry or Whisky as he puffed away. In 4th grade I was reintroduced to Plug tobacco, it lasted about 10 seconds in my mouth… After moving to Wyoming in 1980 at the age of 12, I bought my first can of Copenhagen. It was no big deal in the 80’s for a minor to by tobacco in the wild west, all you had to do is say it was “For my dad”… Chew has been my mainstay over the past 33 years, started with Hawken, Happy Days, Skoal Original (cardboard can) then moving to Copenhagen for many years until recently Grizzly Premium Natural because of cost… About 1997 I started with premium cigars… Sampling well over 300, I have settled on Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, Don Diego Playboy and La Unica… 1998, pipes came my way, I can say that I am more of a collector of pipes and tobacco, only smoke several time a year… Favorite pipe tobacco is Lane 1Q… Snuff use showed up about 8 years ago, It kind of fell in line with pipes & cigars… I can’t say that I have a favorite snuff, again, I’m still newly introduced in my mind with so many to try… Medicated or Menthol are at the top of my list, while I like Ozona (all aromas), Wilson of Sorrow, Dean Swift and Silver Dollar… W.E. Garrett & Son’s is low on my list, but I will use it… Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get my first Toque order placed which will open my nose and eyes to other aromas and flavors… So please, share your experience…

Winston cigarette in the land lab in 6th grade.

I would have been around 8 or 9 and the girl that lived across the street would steal cigarettes from her dad and we’d hide under her front porch to smoke them. I remember the brand was Player’s Filter which are rather harsh smokes. I’d have the occasional cigarette up until senior year of high school when I made the genius decision to take up cigs full time. 25 years later and a few failed attempts to quit I found snus and gave up the smokes almost immediatey. Not long after I tried snuff and now it is my main tobacco of choice.

I did fail to mention that in the late teen’s to my early twenties, cigarettes did play a part… A lot of time they would be used while chewing… bad combination… However, I’ve been cigarette free for… I can’t remember when…

around 1970 RedMan leaf chewing tobacco ,bugler cigarette tobacco, Parodi cigars, Levi Garrett snuff,Prince Albert in a can. and anything else I could get my hands on. I had got some coke snuff that was like tiger energy snuff [tobacco free] 2 five gram tap tins for $0.25. Two years later I lost interest when Mary Jane showed up; I continued with cigarettes to mask the reek.I swore I was going to quit when a pack jumped from $.45 to $.75. I still enjoy tobacco in most forms Snuff ,Pipe,Chew,Snus,and the occasional Cigar

Kamel Red Lights (yes, Kamel with a “K”) at poker night when I was 18.

A Camel unfiltered cigarette back in 1962 or so with some friends when I was around 12. Hated it. I first tried chew (Redman) when I was around 16. It nearly made me puke. First tried a pipe when I was 17 in 1967. I liked it but it took me a while to understand it and smoke it without scorching my tongue. First tried nasal snuff around 1980 or so. I liked that as well.

got sick smoking Between the Acts little cigars when I was14. At 16 I was allowed to smoke at school out by the incinerator (times sure have changed). Camels were $2 a carton in New Hampshire back then…

man, first encountered tobacco whilst watching my dad puff smoke rings in 1976 ( i was 5 ). Then right before he quit in 1980 I snagged a couple of his Kents and went smoking in the garage. I was a natural smoker, didn’t choke or anything. Never became a smoker though, just occasionally. When I was 13 tried Dr Rumney’s mentho-lyptus wow! Later that year tried copenhagen mistaking it for nasal snuff- oh oh…Tried dipping but didn’t really like it back then. Not alot of tobacco until i was 18 and started smoking Sherman’s MCD’s- yummy ( for a cigarette ). That didn’t really last long…Tried my first cigar sometime in the early '90’s. I still like a cigar here and there. Tried snuff again in the early 2000’s and didn’t really know of a store with variety so it was poschl ozona etc mostly mentholated…didn’t really catch on with me until last year when I discovered Mr Snuff…quickly discovered all kinds of snuff! Then a few months ago ( due to Snuffhouse.org ) discovered Old Mill, SWS and Toque…now I have a nice little collection and snuff regularly and happily!

My mother used Winston and Camel cigarettes, so the act of smoking always seemed quite natural (and undesirable, at the same time) for me when I was a child. Once I saw my dad lighting a very old pipe: it was loaded with dry tobacco and unfiltered, so I grabbed it and took a puff that had me coughing for minutes. In my teens I acquired a relaxed, hippy/rocker/stoner like personality, and was tempted to smoke a cigarette or two between classes, but I didn’t liked it. However, when I was about seventeen and having already met Mrs. Mary, I was offered a poorly rolled, fat, cheap and untidy Flandria RYO cigarette, which (for lack of something better that would get me into an affair with such lass) I accepted. The tobacco was too loose, too dry and high in nicotine, so it not only burnt quite fast but also kicked as a mule. The dizziness and euforia were so big and good that that simple memory (never, of course, to be repeated again) got me smoking (mainly Luckies and RYO) during my first university years. I have some memories that I also remember fondly, like having a friend snatch a couple of very old cigars (or John Player Specials) from a forgotten tobacco drawer on his house and getting all high on sheer nicotine, or downing a whole pack of Luckies with him on about an hour without any ill effect. However,couple a years ago, throat started getting sore regularly, and to make things worse for my old friend the cigarette, I bought a Missouri Meerschaum pipe, some Montecristos and a few months later a Gawith Apricot tin (all of which gave me a more tasty and friendly version of how tobacco could be enjoyed). I’ve smoked the odd cigarette packet/RYO pouch since then, but snuff has been the main way of acquiring nicotine for me.

Both my parents used to smoke and I remember pinching one of my Dad’s B&H and me and my sister smoking it at the back of the garden. Wasn’t even sure of what to do and certainly didn’t inhale! Years later I moved on to a pipe at Uni (just to be cool and different) and discovered a tin of WoS at my Dad’s house. That got me interested in snuff and the last couple of years I’ve developed the habit nicely I still smoke ciggies but am very close to being smoke free

Both of my parents smoked cigarettes when I was a child, and there was also a period when my father smoked a pipe. I remember a Peterson looking pipe, but it might have actually been a Grabow Omega, and he smoked drugstore cavendish blends. At some time around 6th grade I started sneaking half-finished cigarettes out of the ashtray and smoking them with my friends. I did have snuff once, at a medieval themed restaurant in Bavaria, where we (kids!) were offered snuff after the meal. I thought it was pretty cool. Ah, the 70s. Later, around the beginning of High School, I happened to be living in a place where there were cigarette vending machines, from which I could buy very cheap packs of Camels. Didn’t get hooked on them, but it was a fun social activity with my friends. In college, I was too poor to smoke (could barely afford to feed myself). so cigarettes were a very occasional treat. Later, once I had a better paying job, I started to enjoy clove cigarettes sometimes (I was in the goth subculture at the time) and Indian bidis. Now and then I’d also buy a pack of Backwoods cigars. I never became a habitual smoker, but sometimes just wanted to enjoy the flavors and nicotine. In the mid-90s I had a chance to smoke a couple of genuine Cuban cigars, and a couple years later bought a couple of Dominicans, though I don’t recall what brands. Didn’t smoke much at all in the '00s, then about 4-5 years ago I got into RYO cigarettes. Bought whole leaf Virginia and Burley, shredded and rolled them. A big improvement over the commercial stuff. I got into researching about tobacco, and not long after became obsessed with cigars and pipe tobacco. The RYO cigs then seemed insipid by comparison. Because part of my learning about tobacco involved searching the internet for information, it was inevitable that Snuffhouse would turn up, and I started reading threads here and pondering how snuff might add a new facet to my tobacco explorations. Found some American scotches in a store (Railroad Mills and Bruton) and wanted to go beyond that. Mull of Oa, GH Kendal Brown and some others really brought me into the fold, and eventually I took the plunge and joined this forum as a member. My wife equally shares this cigar/pipe/snuff fascination with me, so it’s a hobby we enjoy together. Smoking together is a bonding experience, and we have hours of good conversation. It’s also nice to try new snuffs at the same time and compare our impressions.

Earliest memories are of my great grandfather smoking his pipe. Always wanted to smoke, I can remember at 4 asking him to smoke his pipe for me. He reached for his aromatic blend but I asked him to smoke Carter Hall, which I still remember left him surprised. At 14 I “borrowed” one of his cigars. Started chewing during the summers when working outside around then too but just did not really enjoy it that much. My mouth was always dry and the chew helped better than gum. Cigs. were few and only for a very short time. Moved right back to cigars. Bought my first premium when I turned 18. A love affair that has been going off and on for 22 years now. Finally got around to the pipe I longed for a little over 4 yrs ago and really took to it. Now I am completing my experience with snuff. I wanted to try some since I was 4, when I saw a guy take some. I wanted it so bad, I tried black pepper off the table. My grand father still laughs at that. Why did I wait so long? Well, I got busy with life and when I had time could not find any locally. I was slow to go through the UK as I hoped that the areas I was in would get some in. Finally, gave up and just ordered some.

Everyone else seems to have much more exciting stories than me. I just smoked cigarettes from a very early age, about 12, mainly Dunhill Reds or Camel no filters. When I got bitten by the Indonesia bug, I smoked mainly kretek. Then, about 15 years ago, I saw a second hand pipe in a flea market and bought it on a whim, which started the pipe thing. That led to cigars, mainly cheap hand-rolled Indonesian cigars, although I made it a point to buy a premium cigar at the Duty Free every time I went through an international airport. Finally, about three years ago, someone on a pipe forum suggested I try snuff. And that’s where I am now.

My great uncle Jean Baptiste Dugas rolled his own from 100% perique and ungummed OCB wheatstraw papers. On Sundays after Mass he’d buy a pack of Picayune non-filter lung bombs on the way to the local watering hole for a post worship Sazerac or ten. I’d sneak puffs from those until I got caught and he forced me to actually inhale the evil noxious cloud of toxic vapor those things produced. Shortly after I recovered I went back for more and started pinching his homemade snuff/snus, also heavy on the Perique with a good load of dark fired in there. I invented a new shade of green. Undeterred, I plodded on, stealing my dad’s camel non-filters, and after a severe ass whoopin’ I was tobacco free until I discovered Dr. Rumney’s Mentholyptus in the early seventies, Dean Swift Bezoar Fine Grind in the mid seventies and the briar shortly thereafter, along with the joys of good cigars. The rest, as ‘they’ say, is history. I just wonder who the hell “they” are.

@chefdaniel. I don’t know if you are a pipe smoker but have you tried D&R’s Picayune? They say it is based off the old cig. recipe. Good strong nic. there.