I'm beginning to think that Jim (fnord) and I must be hard wired into the same hive mind. I recently put some Blue Mountain up for trade and he shot me a message with a laundry list of goodies that had me salivating. One of these was the new release from Lord Pease, Gaslight, an English plug of sorts. Jim's sample brick was a little more than an ounce, and once I took it out of the bag and took a knife to it I knew that it was going to be easier to work with than a lot of other plugs I've tried. I sliced it against the grain at an angle and crumbled it up a little, let it dry and it was good to go. First few puffs of the char light were latakia through and through. Since this blend was just released, there is little age on it, and that unaged C&D red Virginia "snap" as I like to call it came in small doses (something that goes away with some age). Once I got it tamped and really got into the smoke, it really hit me hard: Orientals. Lots of them. While the Oriental component seems heavy, in a weird way it balances very well into the smoke. The smoke has a certain spice, but not spicy like perique spicy. The best way that I can describe it, and a way that won't do the flavor justice, is almost the sensation you get when you're chewing of piece of spicy cinnamon gum. Not that this blend tastes in any way cinnamon-y, but it hits those same taste buds. Near the end of the bowl is where this blend really shines. The flavor takes on a nice dark, oily, bitter dark chocolate and coffee overtone while those Orientals turn sort of musty and leathery, and the red virginia "snap" becomes much smoother, and all the flavors from the first third and the second third really start to gel. Burns down to fine powder as well which is always nice. As I have come to say with most of the GL Pease blends I've tried (Quiet Nights being the rare exception), this blend is more than the sum of its parts. English blends in true plug form are pretty rare, and this blend is really nice if you like an English blend with character or you like plugs in general. As a side note, pack this one looser than you would most, because it is more dense and has more moisture than most loose cut English blends, and it tends to expand quite a bit during the first lights.