GL Pease Navigator

[cigrmaster]

I could have sworn there was a thread about this but I cannot find it. Anyway I got a tin in yesterday and of course cracked it open, cube cut some, dried it for about 30-45 minutes and then fired her up. By the time I was almost done with the bowl, I had ordered 25 tins. I like it. I think with age it is going to be better but it was damn tasty fresh. The rum casing was perfect, not too little not too much, it added to the flavors of the Virginia and Kentucky and melded beautifully. It does have some nicotine but not as much as JackKnife plug. The flakes were pretty uniform, not like a Dunhill flake, but still decently formed. They were easy to cube cut and they were multi colored showing the different tobaccos used. As soon as I lit up the flavors came blasting through, the nose was great. It kept getting better and better the lower I smoked. I smoked it till there was nothing left, no dottle just white ash. It was sweet all the way down to the end.
I predict this is going to be an instant hard to find once the word gets out. When I went to compare prices, smokingpipes was already out of stock so I bought all mine at PC. So far I have not seen any listings for 8 or 16 oz tins, no idea if Greg is planning on those.

 

[cigrmaster]

roth, have you noticed if when Greg releases a new product he only does so in 2 oz tins and then if it does well he then starts with the 8 and 16's? I guess it would make sense, why produce larger quantities until you see if the demand is there.
I guess it is up to us consumers to buy enough so it is worth it to Greg to make it in large quantities. I also wonder if the original release will be exactly the same as forthcoming batches. Leaf from different years will always taste a little different, maybe I should buy more and not wait for the larger sizes to come on line.

 

[mrenglish]

Hey now, Harris. You have your 25 tins. Leave some for us!! :lol:
I was on the fence about trying this one, but dang, I think I am going to have to.

 

[cigrmaster]

LOL, ok Mike I will lay off. Hey if I help to sell it out then maybe Greg will produce the 8 and 16 oz tins. Just think of me as the guy who made that happen.

 

[cigrmaster]

roth, excellent analysis. One example is GL Pease Ravens Wing. When I smoked English blends that was a favorite and then all of a sudden Syrian Latakia was off the market pretty much and that blend went the way of the Dodo. Will Greg be able to duplicate this blend exactly when all of the first run and the original tobacco's are gone? How will the new tobacco affect the next batch? I have always marveled at how producers are able to make the same blend year after year, taste the same with different crops of tobacco. Escudo to me tastes the same as when I first smoked it in 2000, yet I know they are using different leaf from when I first tried it. I guess the processing is as important or maybe more important than the raw leaf.

 

[gwtwdbss]

Thank's Harris. This is definitely going on the next order.

 

[mrenglish]

Well, P&C was sold out after I checked earlier today. Thanks, Harris. :evil:

 

[gwtwdbss]

Cup O' Joes still has some, at least on their site -- they also have 8 ounce cans: http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/dept?dpt=H&srch=KW&search_text=Navigator&submit=Submit

This is the Sutliff Brand not the GL Pease's Navigator this thread refers to. Simple mistake. I just wanted to point it out so no one ordered the wrong blend by accident.
The GL Pease tin looks like this:
GL Pease - Navigator

 

[mrenglish]

Thanks Roth!!

 

[supdog]

They also seem to have Penzance in the 2 oz size.

 

[gray4lines]

Isnt Navigator a good blend? Hopefully itll be around for a good while. I will be on the lookout for a couple more tins!

 

[cigrmaster]

Sorry Mike, but P&C is charging 8.61 a tin for 5 or more so I went after them, I got 5.5 tins free using them instead of any other source. I am sure they will reload quickly, they always do.
roth, No worries about me and FVF, I have my 10 or so pounds of that so I am good to go. The only SG bulk I will buy more of is St James flake and probably only another 4 pounds. I have 12 in the cellar now.
Gary, it sure is a great blend and I am sure Greg will be coming out with the 8 and 16 ounce cans of those soon enough. I did my part by making sure the first run was popular enough for subsequent runs and the larger cans, You guys will be able to save even more money now. Yeah that's the ticket, Morgan Fairchild told me to buy it all. :crazy:

 

[gray4lines]

I would smoke some more now! But I have a damn sinus infection/head cold.

 

[mrenglish]

No worries, Harris, just messing with you. That is a seriously good deal.
I have a weird love/hate relationship with Pease blends. It seems that if I like it fresh, I do not like it once it has age on it and if I don't like it fresh, then I like it after its been aging for awhile. I loved Caravan when it first came out and ended up with like 20 tins. But when I tried it after it had been on the shelf for awhile, it was a no go. :crazy:

 

[glpease]

Señor English, your comment is interesting. Of course, it's well established that blends change over time, and what appeals when young may drift away from those favored characteristics over time, or vice versa, but I don't recall such a dramatically different experience with a blend. Taking Caravan as an example, time will round off the edges, bring some additional fruitiness to the virginias and added complexity to the orientals. Our tastes are all different, which is a good thing, of course. I prefer the aged version, but do enjoy its youthful exuberance as well. There are other blends that I prefer young.

That said, remember that the target is constantly in motion. For the first couple years, changes happen comparatively quickly, but at the five or six year point, they slow down to a crawl. You might revisit the tins after another few months, and find they've reached a new sweet spot for you. It happens.

When I develop a new blend, I'm still sometimes surprised by just how much they change over the first couple weeks. In fact, something blended today can taste very different tomorrow, and different still next Monday. This is one of the reasons I spend so much time on each blend's development. I need to explore their individual trajectories over several months before I can have some confidence in what will happen over time. Unlike most blenders, I take long-term aging into consideration with almost everything I produce. (Some are actually designed to be smoked young. Interestingly, even those that I think of as "buy 'em and smoke 'em" blends find fans in their "tired" years, which is why I've chosen never to make recommendations along these lines. Again, we've all got different tastes.

So, if you've still got tins of Caravan about, give them a few months, and another go. It still might not appeal to your specific tastes, but, then again, it might.

As for Navigator in larger tins, it will come. The delay is usually just a matter of waiting until the high initial demand settles down a bit, so that production doesn't get insane. It's usually a few months before it becomes practical. Navigator's release was timed poorly, so it's not really hitting its stride, yet. We'll see how it goes over the next couple months, and we'll be able to plan for larger tins accordingly.

In any case, I'm really heartened to see some nice reviews of my newest offering. I think Navigator's got legs, and it will appeal to a lot of smokers seeking something stout and tasty. It's quite a different sort of blend for me, and it was a lot of fun developing it. Thanks for the support, guys! Makes my day.

 

[atboth]

That reminds me. I need to open one of the tins of Triple Play or Jacknife that I put by when they first came out. They should've become really enchanting by now.

 

[kcghost]

I know some people who got to do some sampling of this blend prior to its release and they swear it is one of the best things Greg has done.

 

[cigrmaster]

I smoked it again today and it was awesome. I think this one is going to age beautifully like all my Virginia flakes. I have never smoked a flake that did not get better with age, and I do not believe this will be the exception.
Greg, how about taking the Navigator as is and adding Perique to it. I think the Perique would add a spicy component to the sweetness already in this and you would have another winner on your hands. You can call it Navigator Maximus.

 

[hunterwold1]

Wow, great hearing all of this. I have some on order but waiting now for over a month. They were expecting some within the week of my ordering but no indication there is availability yet. Looking forward to both the Navigator and Sextant.

 

[cigrmaster]

Hunterworld, no need to wait it is in stock here.
http://www.smokershaven.com/g-l-pease-pipe-tobacco-navigator-2oz-tin.aspx
I have been looking forward to smoking this once a day as part of my 4-5 bowls a day. I usually make it my second or third of the day.