Fine connoisseurs enjoy premium cigars, pipes

It’s a Tuesday night, and the sound of distant laughter and the distinct smell of cigar smoke… It’s a Tuesday night, and the sound of distant laughter and the distinct smell of cigar smoke waft across Oakland Avenue. It’s coming from the second floor of Peter’s Pub, where the Fine Tobacco Organization holds its weekly meetings. The group works to bring together fine tobacco connoisseurs and fill them in on the products’ history, the ways they’re cultivated and packaged and proper smoking techniques. ‘Fine tobacco,’ said organization president Edward Tselishchev, is code for premium cigars. ‘Premium cigars,’ he added, ‘means lots of work and effort is put in to the product, all the way from the farmers that grow the tobacco to the producers that package the cigars.’ According to Tselishchev, it takes at least a good year to produce a premium cigar, and, unlike wine, they don’t get better with age. ‘ ‘Once they are rolled and packaged, there is no improvement in the cigar,’ he said. Club members don’t restrict themselves to cigars. Pipe tobacco, a higher-end form of tobacco, is extremely popular. The club is also looking to purchase a hookah. Tselishchev said he’s not concerned that the group is promoting smoking. ‘Cigars are all natural products,’ he said. ‘Also, every member is 18 years old and has the right to choose whether they wish to smoke tobacco or not,’ he said. ‘I certainly don’t believe that smoking is healthy, but I am a believer that anything in moderation is acceptable.’ The tobacco connoisseurs, Tselishchev said, foot the bill, in the form of a $10 to $20 entrance fee for their own tobacco. The Fine Tobacco Organization was established last fall, when the Student Organization Resource Center approved it. But the group hasn’t received funding from the resource center or from the Student Government Board. A woman working in the Student Government Board office referred calls to Gina Scozzaro, the Student Organization Resource Center business manager. ‘The SGB will not fund the purchasing of any tobacco products or paraphernalia for the FTO,’ said Scozzaro. ‘The FTO is welcome to apply for funding for guest speakers and conferences. The FTO is given the same opportunities for funding as any other student organization.’ And the group promotes itself in many of the same ways. Richard James Campbell, a Pitt student and recent addition to the group, said that he saw the FTO’s table at the student activities fair and thought it was ‘a beacon of light.’ ‘Tuesday nights are the highlight of my week,’ said Campbell, who has yet to miss a meeting. Tselishchev said he and his friends were looking for a way to relax when they got the idea for the FTO. ‘My friends and I just wanted a place to go after a hard day of class to eat, have fun and smoke a good cigar,’ he said. So every Tuesday, the group rents the private, second floor of Peter’s Pub, which is exempt from the state-wide smoking ban. Tselischev said that the atmosphere inside the pub is perfect for this sort of group, and that’s why they have more than 40 members.