If I remember correctly, Sherlock Holmes used to be portrayed smoking a Meerchaum pipe,
a large one with a sort of "S" curve, with bowl lower than the bit. I could never get mine
to taste right. Always too much condensate, and tongue bite.

meerschaum
n.
5Ger, lit., sea foam (< meer, sea + schaum, foam), transl. of ML spuma maris, orig. used of coral, calque of Gr halos hachnc: name transferred in 18th-c. Ger to a variety of lithomarge6
1 a soft, white, claylike, heat-resistant mineral, a hydrous magnesium silicate, H4Mg2Si3O10, used for tobacco pipes, etc.
2 a pipe with a bowl made of this

never get mine to taste right

Take some careful breaking in, if I remember right. I had a meerschaum lined calabash once. Didn't smoke it too much.

Dear Faldage: Some smokers have tongues far tougher than mine. My father smoked a brier
the size of his fist, and let it go out each time he went into a patient's house, and relit it
when he came out. I tried that just once and wished I could spit my tongue out.
The radiologist at CMGH smoked unbelievably bad cigars. I took one of them out of his
coat, and inserted a rubber band a couple inches into it. He smoked it, and just looked puzzled
at us interns who were choking from the burned rubber fumes.