English Blends

[seakayak]

I was never a fan of English blends but maybe, after all these years, my taste is starting to mature. For our Florida friends, a fellow pipe smoker who works for Smoke Inn gave me a tin that blends a Turkish and Perique mixed with an English blend for a remarkably nice smoke. It's called EXPLORER and has made a convert of me. Happy exploring.

 

[pauljmjr]

corncobguy -- check out Larry's Blend -- one of Russ Ouelette's Hearth & Home blends -- available online at PipesandCigars in the Bulk section. It's a very nice, tasty, but not overly strong English. And it's extremely reasonably proced -- especially now where PipesandCigars has their own blends at 20% off for the month of December.

 

[judcole]

I've added Meridian to my list of blends to try. ::

 

[mrgunnar177]

Meridian is on my TAD shopping list for after Christmas. ::

 

[bigvan]

If Greg MuthuF*&%in' Pease gives you a personal recommendation, you would be wise to listen.

 

[guitarguy86]

While I really enjoy English blends, I am still fairly new to pipe smoking(about four months), so take what I say with a grain of salt.

One of my first ones was Larry's Blend. It didn't really hit home for me, because I was just starting out and at the time I was mostly into aromatics. Your experience with this blend may be different. Everyone has their own taste.

Next, I went with Hearth & Home Ambassador's Blend. That one is a bit spicy, however, I do like it.

Sutliff Sunrise Smoke was one of my next ones, and I still enjoy that blend as well.

I also enjoy Hearth & Home Black House, which is high up on my list.
Hope that helps! ::

 

[undermidnight]

I know some may think it is a mild flavor, but I have recently fell in love with Samuel Gawith Commonwealth. What a nice smoke!!! Long time aromatic smoker who recently discovered the love of English blends.. this was a nice blend to ease me into english. I plan to pick up a tin of Squadron Leader on Monday.
Jason

 

[portascat]

Instead of thinking strictly along "English lines", include some Balkan style, some English/Aro hybrids like the JustForHim middle earth stuff, and Navy and Navy influenced (Escudos, Black Frigate, etc.)

 

[rmbittner]

I'm late to the discussion, but. . .
For me, a great "standard" English -- and one that's not talked about much -- is Dan Tobacco's London Blend #1000. It is not a "luxury" tobacco (it's not in the same ballpark as GLPease's Westminster, which is a superb blend) and it doesn't have the popularity of, say, Dunhill's Standard Mixture Medium. But after smoking nearly 150 different blends (a small handful compared to some folks here, I'm sure), it remains, for me, a very well-made example of a medium-strength English blend in which all of the elements are well-balanced and discernible. You'll find many English blends that don't live up to it, as well as a number that will exceed it. But I think it makes an excellent middle-of-the-road standard by which to judge traditional English blends in general.
Bob