Well yesterday I reviewed the Tom Eltang English and here are my thoughts on the new "Mixture" blend that I got as a free sample from SPC and thanks to the great people there.
Components: Burley Perique Virginia Family: Virginia
Cut: Broken Flake
On opening the sample bag I got a barnyard, hayish and manure smell. I even noticed a slight chemical smell but that did not carry into the smoke and I might describe the chemical smell as sour. I again used a new clean cob and the Grabow Omega to be fair in my review. The cut is a broken flake and I rubbed it out a little which produced some ribbon and the tobacco seemed to be of good quality. The fill was easy with just the right amount of draw resistance. Either I am getting good at this or it's the tobacco, probably the tobacco. The tobacco is made up of some light and dark brown tobacco and dark leaf which is probably the Perique.
Upon the charring light, and subsequent light the flake expanded inside the bowl to fill it nicely. I wish all the blends would do that, it would make things much easier for us Noobs. The 4 bowls, 2 in each pipe burned very cool, with the bowls only getting slightly warm to the touch. The smokes required only a couple relights, tamps and burned to a nice ash with no dottle.
Now for the nitty gritty on the smoke itself. The first bowl had a clear spice/pepper taste although not very strong. Considering the blend has virginias in it, I found it not to have a sweetness to it, actually kinda dry. I was expecting some bite considering the burly but there was none to speak of. The smoke also seemed to have a woodie note to it and was slightly bitter to me. I think the blend is burly heavy as the woodie note was to the forefront most of the time.
Now what I found interesting was that the second bowl I had did not seem to have any Perique in it. I did not get the same spice taste at all and just the woody taste and that bowl did not change at all. Seems the mix is a little inconsistent which produced the different bowl smokes which I was not happy with. The smoke was mild in strength when the Perique was not there and maybe mild-medium when it was.
Overall, I would say the blend is mild in nature, not very complex and without the Perique, boring. I really am not into a lot of Vaper's at this point in my piping career and can't really say how this would age, possibly some potential there, but given a choice of cellaring this or Escudo and considering the price points are almost the same, Escudo is a hands down winner.
Now considering my review yesterday of the "English" blend, having tried both in two days, I can now appreciate the virginias and their sweetness in the "English" blend. Again given the choice of the "Mixture" or the "English," go with the "English."
Well there you have it, my take on this blend.
Side note: I should let you all know that I used a Chinese pipe for one bowl and now I know why they are cheap. The bottom of the bowl was filled with a marshmallow styrofoam like material which when holding the pipe I put my finger through and had to chuck the pipe and tobacco and start over again. Lesson learned.
Components: Burley Perique Virginia Family: Virginia
Cut: Broken Flake
On opening the sample bag I got a barnyard, hayish and manure smell. I even noticed a slight chemical smell but that did not carry into the smoke and I might describe the chemical smell as sour. I again used a new clean cob and the Grabow Omega to be fair in my review. The cut is a broken flake and I rubbed it out a little which produced some ribbon and the tobacco seemed to be of good quality. The fill was easy with just the right amount of draw resistance. Either I am getting good at this or it's the tobacco, probably the tobacco. The tobacco is made up of some light and dark brown tobacco and dark leaf which is probably the Perique.
Upon the charring light, and subsequent light the flake expanded inside the bowl to fill it nicely. I wish all the blends would do that, it would make things much easier for us Noobs. The 4 bowls, 2 in each pipe burned very cool, with the bowls only getting slightly warm to the touch. The smokes required only a couple relights, tamps and burned to a nice ash with no dottle.
Now for the nitty gritty on the smoke itself. The first bowl had a clear spice/pepper taste although not very strong. Considering the blend has virginias in it, I found it not to have a sweetness to it, actually kinda dry. I was expecting some bite considering the burly but there was none to speak of. The smoke also seemed to have a woodie note to it and was slightly bitter to me. I think the blend is burly heavy as the woodie note was to the forefront most of the time.
Now what I found interesting was that the second bowl I had did not seem to have any Perique in it. I did not get the same spice taste at all and just the woody taste and that bowl did not change at all. Seems the mix is a little inconsistent which produced the different bowl smokes which I was not happy with. The smoke was mild in strength when the Perique was not there and maybe mild-medium when it was.
Overall, I would say the blend is mild in nature, not very complex and without the Perique, boring. I really am not into a lot of Vaper's at this point in my piping career and can't really say how this would age, possibly some potential there, but given a choice of cellaring this or Escudo and considering the price points are almost the same, Escudo is a hands down winner.
Now considering my review yesterday of the "English" blend, having tried both in two days, I can now appreciate the virginias and their sweetness in the "English" blend. Again given the choice of the "Mixture" or the "English," go with the "English."
Well there you have it, my take on this blend.
Side note: I should let you all know that I used a Chinese pipe for one bowl and now I know why they are cheap. The bottom of the bowl was filled with a marshmallow styrofoam like material which when holding the pipe I put my finger through and had to chuck the pipe and tobacco and start over again. Lesson learned.
