Gold Block

[lightmyfire]

Have you ever tried Gold Block from Ogden?

This is composed of Virginia & Burley.
I wouldn't have buy it before having tried.
To be true, I have had the chance to buy a huge collection of old tobaccos about 6 months ago and there was around 40 tins of this Gold Block. I now have only 8 tins left, to explain how it pleased me... it became one of my best fellows...
This isn't a strong one, not at all.

First of all, these tins were dating back to 1990 & 1993. More than 20 years old and I can tell you, superb maturation/mellowing.
When opening, there was an explosion of gingerbread for the nose, so tasty I nearly wanted to eat it! :lol:
With more than 23 ans, the 1990 tin offers a still fat tobacco, well compact, needing a minimum of 30 minuts to dry...

At the smoke, it is very mild and could be recommended for a beginner, you have here a mild taste, a good maturation of the virginias.
I even smoked in cigarets when working on my pipes, to tell you ...
It is not that much famous on tobaccoreviews but I wanted to share my experience with it.

 

[misterlowercase]

Je ne parle pas français, allemand, néerlandais ou flamand, mais voici mauvaise traduction faite par ordinateur et des sons très drôle probablement! Est-ce la peine même assez lisible pour un sens?

:|

I'll go back to my mothertongue and offer some tidbits...
I am a big fan of Ogden's because they make St. Bruno, but I've never had the chance to try Gold Block, it sounds good. I do know that the main flavor profile comes from deer tongue which tastes like vanilla.
Looking at this older tin, we see it was made by Imperial as successors to D. Ritchieuby (? I can't quite make out the name, but whoever they were they were obscure)...

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...Imperial bought the trademark and blend then gave it to Ogden's to manufacture in Liverpool.

:

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It has been around for quite some time too, this ad is from 1939:

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Congratulations on your lucky find and enjoy it well!
I think maybe the 1993 tin was made by Orlik, they make it under license from Imperial now, they started making it in Denmark in the early 90's I think?
Did you buy all 40 tins?

:P

8 tins left is a pretty good stock,

but since you're in Belgium I think maybe you can get the new stuff easy from England?

They do not import it to USA and the online tobacconists cannot sell to USA either
I like your tagline,

When I smoke, I come back in my youth, when I was havin my head in the clouds...

8)

cool

 

[lightmyfire]

Hello misterlowercase,
I see that you are well versed in the Gold Block knowledge !

I bought the all 40 tins but sold also the half to a friend because, along with the other tins, the collection weighted around 90 lb of Net tobacco... so you can imagine the investment... I was obliged to sell a lot and still now not completely recovered.
The tins I have are stamped 'Made In England By Ogden's of Liverpool but, to be true, what just interest me was inside, not that this is my favorite, but a good one to smoke regularly.

 

[ogdenspipedream]

Hi all , I had a lot of tins of Ogdens Gold block , they were my late fathers , I sold most to the London Pipe Club ,but still have 2X 50g tins left , if anyone fancies a "nostalgic " smoke .

I am in England though so not sure how much the postage would be , want about £5 a tin ono , thanks .

Happy puffing .

 

[condorlover1]

Gold Block. I have smoked my way through quite a few tins in 1984 as the local news agent had it cheap and no Condor. I thought what the hell I will give it whirl. It's a very interesting tobacco and if I remember correctly very moist. Like most virginia tobaccos it was quite mild and didn't really do a lot for me but I have often wondered if it still tastes the same and the rain deer tongue thing is quite a surprise! Heres a UK advert for Gold Block from the 1980s!
http://youtu.be/LJBgEofQY1M?list=PLmN7-spl5hWBcbjnCl6GYMwEpnR1hr0FM

 

[brdavidson]

Unfortunately the new incarnation doesn't seem to be so nice or so mellow. I have wanted to try this for some time so I purchased from an online retailer in the UK and the pouch left a lot to be desired. Very dry, almost devoid of all taste and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Perhaps this is the deer tongue but I'm not really sure. Glad you enjoy it though and wish I could have had a chance at some older stock because the new stuff doesn't resemble the images I've seen of the older stock.

 

[condorlover1]

Lord! I have just remembered something germain to this conversation. It caused my pipe to gurgle away and it would become a ball of moist mush. It made the pipe draw very tight and it became like trying to suck farts out of a swan.

 

[kimbiker]

I'm not too keen on Gold Block but for quite a time I blended it with 2 parts Benson & Hedges Mellow viginia, thought that did good things to both tobacco's.

 

[huntertrw]

I first tried Ogden's Gold Block back in the mid 1990s, and the remaining open tin in my cellar carries the tag-line, "The Aristocrat of Pipe Tobaccos." This appears to be a polarizing product which you either love or hate; I love it.
A brief note in my Tobacco-Tasting Journal reads, "A rich Virginia-based blend. Pleasant, somewhat sweet, with a good, solid tobacco aroma. High tar content based upon the appearance of pipe-cleaners applied after completing each bowl."
To my nose this tobacco exudes the enticing aroma of dates (interestingly, they, too, seem to fall in the love-them-or-hate-them camp), and this seems to grow deeper with age. It produces a goodly amount of blue-gray smoke, and has a pleasant "pipey" room-note.
My initial bowl-full was kindled in a hotel room in Massachusetts where I became snow-bound during a business trip. I recall ordering a pot of coffee from Room Service, and then settling back with my pipe and a book of fly-fishing stories by the late Howard Walden. The Gold Block was an integral ingredient of a most pleasant afternoon that day, and has been a firm friend ever since.

 

[leeharvey]

I have nothing very useful to add to this thread but the following nostalgic memory. When I was at primary school, probably 6 or 7 years old, we were given wax ons for drawing, and they were handed out to us in square 50g tobacco tins, many of which were Gold Block. Some of them were other brands although I can't remember what brand. It seems that Gold Block was the favourite blend of, I guess, the husband of one of our school teachers, and it was these ones that all the kids were eager to get, they were the popular choice, presumably because the tin design was cool; simple and all gold. You could still get a faint whiff of the tobacco that used to occupy the tin before the olas, and those oblong tins still take me back to that time. Happy days. So if anyone invests in a vintage tin of Gold Block and it doesn't meet your expectations, at least you'll have a cool place to keep your ons...

 

[mso489]

Mild tobaccos have to have just the right harmony of flavors or they fall pretty flat (for me). The aged version may

have come into its own by aging the Virginia leaf. Burley isn't much improved by aging, or so it's said. But one

person's blah is another's ecstasy. One bowl might transform my thinking.