The big question that many pipe smokers have heavily debated over the years is which makes the better material for pipe smoking - meerschaum or briar? I'm going to give you a few things to ponder and consider before making your next pipe purchase.

Meerschaum is the most neutral material for smoking pipe tobacco on your palate. It imparts no scents or additional flavor on your tobacco. It's ideal for someone who likes to smoke a wide range of pipe tobaccos. There is nothing like a meerschaum pipe to "speak the truth" rather than adding its own taste and aroma to the mix like briar or other materials will.

One of the great smoking qualities of meerschaum is that it provides a much cleaner smoke due to its porous nature. The porous stone absorbs tars and other unwanted by-products enabling you to better enjoy the taste of your tobacco. This allows you to truly appreciate the subtle differences between certain pipe tobaccos by providing a much smoother smoking experience.

A light-weight stone that is mined only in Turkey; meerschaum makes the perfect material for a smoking pipe. Meerschaum is noticeably lighter when compared to the same sized briar pipe. This lightness makes it ideal for pipe smokers that like to hang the pipe from their mouth while smoking it. Since pipe smoking is considered to be a relaxing pastime, the added lightness found in meerschaum requires less pressure from your jaw to support the pipe when smoking hands-free.

One beautiful characteristic of meerschaum is that the white stone tends to color and get more beautiful over time. It's not uncommon to see a meerschaum pipe become as dark as its briar cousin and even become hard to distinguish the difference between the two materials from a distance. This coloring and sometimes "graining" comes from the pipe tobacco that's been absorbed by the pipe over time being drawn to the outside surface by the beeswax coating that treats a meerschaum pipe.

Meerschaum may conduct heat better, making it little hotter to the touch, but at least there's not concern about burning a hole in it like it's briar counterparts. When smoking a briar pipe you need to build up a carbon "cake" lining along the bottom of your bowl to help protect the briar from burning over time. This lack of "cake" with meerschaum pipe smoking provides for a much purer smoking experience. You never have to worry about the flavor of your last tobacco mixing with the next one.

Enjoying a fuller Virginia or an English blend and then switching to a lighter aromatic tobacco can become a little unpleasant when the taste of the stronger tobacco over powers the lighter due to the flavors trapped in the "cake". This is one reason why many regular pipe smokers own more than one pipe allowing them to set aside different pipes for similar blends.

I'm sure that we could come up with a few more reasons to purchase one pipe over the other, but at the end of the day you won't go wrong with purchasing either meerschaum or briar. I hope that you have the pleasure of smoking your favorite tobaccos in them both. Enjoy!