Savinelli Miele (Honey) Italian 6mm Filtered Briar Pipe 673KS

• Overall Length: 135mm
• Overall Height: 48mm
• Bowl Height: 41mm
• Bowl Diameter: 45mm
• Bore: 19mm
• Weight: 49g
• Unique Honey Collector Pipe Tamper
• Cloth Pipe Bag
• Gift Boxed

Miele is Italian for honey, and Savinelli has pursued the theme with considerably more enthusiasm than merely staining the pipe yellow and calling it a day.

The 673 KS is one of Savinelli's best-known shapes, a handsome Bent Rhodesian with a broad, rounded bowl, gently sloping upper section and cylindrical shank. The KS denotes King Size, although at 137mm long and around 47g it remains a very manageable pipe rather than some great briar cudgel.

The smooth briar has been given a warm honey-coloured finish, which leaves plenty of the grain on show. Our example has some particularly attractive figuring across the bowl and shank, with the golden stain lending the whole thing a wonderfully warm appearance.

Then we come to that stem.

Savinelli has fitted the Miele with a marbled yellow acrylic mouthpiece, its mixture of amber, cream and darker flecks deliberately recalling honeycomb and honey itself. The translucent decorative rings at the shank provide a neat transition between briar and acrylic. Savinelli says the stem was designed specifically around the beehive theme.

They haven't stopped there either.

The Miele belongs to Savinelli's Flavour line, and the chamber receives a honey-flavoured treatment using nectar extract. This is intended to lend a gentle sweetness during the early bowls as the pipe begins to develop its cake. It isn't a permanently flavoured pipe; the treatment is there chiefly to make those first smokes a little more agreeable.

The dimensions are particularly appealing for everyday use. The chamber is 19mm across and 34mm deep, giving plenty of capacity while keeping the overall proportions compact. The bent stem and 47g weight should also make the 673 KS reasonably comfortable in the hand and teeth.

This version accepts 6mm filters, and Savinelli completes the Miele presentation with the splendid little wooden implement pictured alongside ours. It's fashioned after a honey dipper, because apparently somebody in Milan decided they were going to commit to this idea completely. Savinelli describes it as a specially created pipe companion intended to resemble a honey tool.

There's a danger with themed pipes that they become novelties. The Miele escapes that because underneath all the honey business is the 673 KS – a very established Savinelli Rhodesian shape, made from briar with sensible proportions and a 6mm filter system.