G.L. Pease JackKnife Plug - Pipe Tobacco Review

By Bob Tate

The tin aroma of this blend is a nice sweet and tangy smell that tickled the nose some. For this review I decided to mix the cut of the tobacco up. I shaved some of the tobacco off of the plug into a very fine ribbon cut and then I cut off a flake and cube cut it. After rubbing out the ribbon cut portion, the tanginess became a little more pronounced, but overall it smelled pretty much the same as it did before cutting the plug. The moisture level was a tad on the moist side, so I let it dry for a bit. I then mixed the ribbon and the cube cut tobaccos and loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light.
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Sir Walter Raleigh Regular - Pipe Tobacco Review

By Bob Tate

The pouch aroma of this blend is a rich and tangy straight tobacco aroma. There are no other aromas present that I am detecting. It actually smells a lot like cigarette tobacco. The moisture content is a tad bit on the dry side and is perfect for smoking right away. This blend is pretty much cubed cut and packs fairly easily. I loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light.

On the charring light:
Flavor: A pretty bland tobacco flavor with not much going on. It does not taste like any type of pipe tobacco that I have ever tasted.
Aroma: The aroma is OK. My wife says that it reminds her of the old time pipe tobacco aroma.

I finished lighting the pipe and settled in for the smoke.
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Mac Baren HH Highland Blend - Pipe Tobacco Review

By Bob Tate

As some of you may already know, HH Highland Blend is based off of an old blend that Mac Baren used to produce called Highland Mixture. They tweaked and re-worked the recipe and re-named it HH Highland Blend. You can read more about it in Kevin’s article and review – New Mac Baren HH Highland Blend Exclusive Sneak Peek

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The pouch aroma is smoky and sweet with a hint of tang. The sweetness stands out above the smokiness from the Latakia and there is a heavy smell of BBQ/BBQ sauce in the aroma. I sometimes notice this BBQ type of aroma and flavor in some blends with Latakia. It smells really nice. The moisture level is perfect for smoking without any drying time needed. I loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light.
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Cornell & Diehl #107 Haunted Bookshop - Pipe Tobacco Reviews

By Bob Tate

The pouch aroma is a nice straight forward tobacco smell with a light hint of tanginess. The moisture content is perfect for smoking right away with no drying time needed. The cut of this blend is rough, coarse, and chunky. I loaded the pipe using the Three Step Method and proceeded to the charring light.

On the charring light:
Flavor: Is a straight forward tobacco flavor.
Aroma: Is a straight forward tobacco aroma with a hint of sweetness.
I finished lighting the pipe and settled in for the smoke.
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Cornell & Diehl Releases New Blends at Richmond Pipe Show 2010

By Bob Tate

At the 2010 Richmond Pipe Show, Cornell & Diehl introduced four new blends. Two of the blends are under the Cornell & Diehl label, one of them is a new G.L. Pease blend, and the last is a new blend for the Hermit Tobaccos.
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Mac Baren 7 Seas Royal Blend - Pipe Tobacco Reviews

By Bob Tate

The pouch aroma of this blend smells really good. I am picking up on hints of vanilla, chocolate, raisin, a little bit of fruitiness, and maybe a very light hint of rum. This seems to me to be a mixture of the Regular Blend and the Gold Blend. The moisture content of this blend is on the wet side and it is a little sticky. Some drying time would be recommended. I loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light.
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Mac Baren 7 Seas Gold Blend - Pipe Tobacco Reviews

By Bob Tate

The pouch aroma of this blend smells very nice. I am picking up on mostly Vanilla with hints of Chocolate. Moisture content is on the wet side and a little sticky. Some drying time would be recommended. I did not let it dry and just loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light. Upon the charring light, I smelled the vanilla right away. It smelled great and left a very pleasant, lingering room note. The flavor of vanilla was also there and it tasted very nice. I finished lighting the pipe and settled in for the smoke.
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Mac Baren 7 Seas Regular Blend - Pipe Tobacco Reviews

By Bob Tate

The pouch aroma is nice and rich smelling. I pick up on the aroma of raisins, chocolate, and maybe a light hint of coffee. I had someone else smell it and they said that it smelled mainly of raisins with a hint of rum. Either way, it smells really good. Moisture content is on the wet side and a little sticky. Some drying time would be recommended. I did not let it dry and just loaded up my pipe and proceeded to the charring light.
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Cornell & Diehl #417P Night Train - Pipe Tobacco Reviews

By Bob Tate

The tin aroma of this blend is a nice sweet and tangy tobacco smell. The tanginess hits my nose with some strength and starts my mouth to watering. The moisture of this tobacco was perfect for smoking right away with no drying time needed. This tobacco comes in a pressed cake form. I used a really sharp knife and cut off slices of the brick (Fig. 1) across the grain. Once the slices were cut, the tobacco basically crumbled apart and I only needed to lightly rub out some of the larger chunks (Fig. 2).
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Interview with Greg Pease of G.L. Pease Tobacco - Part 1

By Bob Tate

Greg Pease is the owner of G.L. Pease, Intl. Greg began blending pipe tobacco over 30 years ago and in 1998 left his regular job of 18 years to pursue tobacco blending full time. In early 2000, G.L. Pease Tobacco was born. G.L. Pease tobaccos have become one of the better known premier pipe tobacco blends today. Greg makes it a habit of using only the best quality tobaccos that are available at any given time in his blends. G.L. Pease tobacco blends are made by hand and in small batches to maintain the integrity of his blends.

He also runs his own website [glpease.com] which is loaded with useful information about pipe tobacco and the G.L. Pease tobacco blends, all of which is written by Greg himself. You can see all of the G.L. Pease tobacco blends with their descriptions at glpease.com and cornellanddiehl.com.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Greg some questions. Here is our interview with Greg Pease of G.L. Pease Tobacco:

PM: When you first started blending pipe tobacco blends, was it more of a hobby or did you have plans to make it into a business?
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