Hey all, since my "Kibo On OTCs/Pouches" ongoing thread has been so warmly received, I've decided to take up another review series, this time for the Drew Estate Pipe Tobacco tins. I recently grabbed the 8 tin sampler set from P&C, and I'm halfway through them already, so it seems a good time to start to me!
I have to preface this one a bit: You see, I've been a cigar guy too, all along. If you unlock and open my humidor, its all DE, all the way, all 150 or so sticks. To me, for all the stogies I've puffed down, Drew Estate could do no wrong. ACIDs, Undercrowns, Liga Privada, My UZI, etc....I love em all, and keep a great many on hand when I can. So when I heard DE was putting out pipe tobacco, I watched like a hawk....and any time my local B&Ms got them...they sold out before I could get there. Fast forward through months of bad luck and such, and here we are...and well, no one's perfect. NO ONE. So, let's go in the order I popped them...
That means we'll start off with Harvest on Hudson. When I popped the tin open, the rush of apple was satisfyingly intense. Like fresh apples, fresh apple cider and fresh apple juice, with some apple wood smoke under it all. The tobacco itself was slightly moist but not oversaturated. Wild colors and cut variance throughout, like a myriad fall leaf pile. Easy pack and a match light in my MM Legend brought a nice full bodied tobacco flavor drawn through a newly cored Granny Smith...then an aftertaste of McIntosh and Golden Delicious. A retrohale brought out Fuij-esque sweetness with the Granny Smith rich/bitter taste...all the while, there was no mistaking that this was quality pipe tobacco here. It was great tobacco with a lot more. All the way, it burned smooth, easy, and surprisingly no danger of bite. Easy and fulfilling, depth enough to be the only thing you're doing but smooth and ready enough to be your all day dragger. Burnt to nice light ash, no dropoff throughout the whole bowl, and no gurgle. Harvest on Hudson gave me something I never knew I wanted; a damn fine apple flavored pipe tobacco. To call it in cinematic terms, this is your thoughtfully made feel-good movie; you can sit back and take it at face value or you can analyze for deeper meaning, and either way you'll most likely be happy at the end of it all and willing to revisit for more perspective.
I have to preface this one a bit: You see, I've been a cigar guy too, all along. If you unlock and open my humidor, its all DE, all the way, all 150 or so sticks. To me, for all the stogies I've puffed down, Drew Estate could do no wrong. ACIDs, Undercrowns, Liga Privada, My UZI, etc....I love em all, and keep a great many on hand when I can. So when I heard DE was putting out pipe tobacco, I watched like a hawk....and any time my local B&Ms got them...they sold out before I could get there. Fast forward through months of bad luck and such, and here we are...and well, no one's perfect. NO ONE. So, let's go in the order I popped them...
That means we'll start off with Harvest on Hudson. When I popped the tin open, the rush of apple was satisfyingly intense. Like fresh apples, fresh apple cider and fresh apple juice, with some apple wood smoke under it all. The tobacco itself was slightly moist but not oversaturated. Wild colors and cut variance throughout, like a myriad fall leaf pile. Easy pack and a match light in my MM Legend brought a nice full bodied tobacco flavor drawn through a newly cored Granny Smith...then an aftertaste of McIntosh and Golden Delicious. A retrohale brought out Fuij-esque sweetness with the Granny Smith rich/bitter taste...all the while, there was no mistaking that this was quality pipe tobacco here. It was great tobacco with a lot more. All the way, it burned smooth, easy, and surprisingly no danger of bite. Easy and fulfilling, depth enough to be the only thing you're doing but smooth and ready enough to be your all day dragger. Burnt to nice light ash, no dropoff throughout the whole bowl, and no gurgle. Harvest on Hudson gave me something I never knew I wanted; a damn fine apple flavored pipe tobacco. To call it in cinematic terms, this is your thoughtfully made feel-good movie; you can sit back and take it at face value or you can analyze for deeper meaning, and either way you'll most likely be happy at the end of it all and willing to revisit for more perspective.