Skippy's Blend of the Week

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Time for this week's blend of the week review!


Blend of the Week #15: G.L. Pease Union Square




Starting with the ol' sniff test, the tin note here very much reminds me of the autumn, with the aromas of soil and damp fallen leaves really filling your senses. It's a pleasant scent combination that gives me the feeling that this Virginia was made for the chillier months of the year.

That damp autumn leaf litter aroma is well mirrored in the flavor of the red Virginias when smoked, accompanied by a little bit of breadiness and the occasional hint of lemony citrus from the bright Virginias; at least until the last third of the bowl when the lemon citrusy'ness becomes the dominant flavor for the remainder of the smoke. Those are really the only three notes I get from this one, so it's not the most complex Virginia in the world, but there is enough going on here to keep it from becoming monotone or boring.

Like the vast majority of pure Virginias it's a fairly subtle blend and none of the flavors are terribly bold or in your face, and after smoking so many strongly flavored dark fired blends lately I actually had a fairly difficult time recalibrating my palate to taste the softer understated flavors present in Union Square, but with a few days of effort I finally got a feel for it. I don't know the exact ratio of red Virginia to bright Virginia in Union Square, but if I had to venture a guess I'd say it's probably about 70% red and 30% bright based on the flavor.

In terms of mechanics, Union Square comes in a visually pleasing marbled broken flake which rubs out easily and comes slightly moist but can be smoked perfectly fine straight from the tin; which is the blender Mr. Pease's recommendation for best flavor. When smoked straight from the tin it requires a fairly average number of relights, particularly if you're a fan of the "fold n' stuff" method, though if you're willing to rub it out and give it a little dry time before smoking then relights will be minimal. In either case it smokes clean and dry and leaves little to no moisture in the pipe after smoking.

When it comes to my usual retrohale test, Union Square produces a mild sting through the sinuses but is still fairly retrohale friendly. I wouldn't want to retrohale every puff, but a little retrohale here and there isn't going to make you feel like you snorted a line of chili powder. Nicotine wise this one was a bit of a surprise, since I think Union Square might be the strongest pure Virginia I've ever smoked that didn't have any dark fired leaf in it! This isn't a Gawith heavy hitter by any means, but I would put it at the upper end of medium in terms of it's nicotine content, whereas every other pure Virginia I've smoked previously has been more towards the lower end to middle of medium. Union Square is definitely stronger than the vast majority of pure Virginias out there, but I don't think it's going to knock your socks off either unless you're totally unaccustomed to nicotine; in which case a little caution might be warranted.

Another surprise is that room note on Union Square is strangely tobacco'y, much more so than I'd typically expect from a pure Virginia since pure Virginias usually smell more like bread baking in the oven rather than anything non-smokers associate with tobacco, but the other members of my household found this one to be very tobacco'y and didn't care for it one bit. I thought it was a rather pleasant aroma myself, but it got a big thumbs down from the non-smokers in my life. On the flip side, when I reviewed Coniston Cut Plug awhile back I thought it had a very dense, heavy, and tobacco'y room note but when they got the chance to smell it this past week the other members of my household thought it smelled great and gave me approval to smoke it indoors anytime; so go figure!


Wrapping up this week's review, I'm actually a little indifferent on Union Square. It's a pleasant enough blend and I didn't mind smoking it for a week, but it didn't really wow me either. I liked the autumnal vibe it was going for with the red Virginias, but then the bright Virginia would pop in every now and then going, "Oh hey, by the way, I know you're enjoying those earthy autumn flavors but here's some lemon!" which just felt a little out of place to me. On the other hand I can see how it might taste a little flat and become bland without the bright Virginia in the mix, but the lemoniness of the bright Virginia in use here does clash with the red Virginia in a way that I just wasn't terribly fond of.

Ultimately this one isn't a keeper for me because of that, but thankfully I do have a few other red Virginia blends to try and may find one that suits me a little better! Speaking of which, next week's blend of the week is another red Virginia, though it's one that won't be around much longer and I may have a difficult time acquiring more of if I end up liking it's distinctly vinegary tang. Still, better to try it while I may still have some small chance of getting more of it than before it's entirely gone forever. Next week's blend of the week is...


Sutliff 515 RC-1

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Every now and then I like to do a bonus week where I review two blends instead of one, and since next week's blend of the week is one that'll be discontinued in the near future on account of STG's acquisition of Mac Baren and Sutliff, I thought I'd inject a little positivity into the week and do a Mac Baren produced blend that'll be remaining in production as well! Next week's bonus blend of the week is...


Bell's Three Nuns (Current Mac Baren production)

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Blend of the Week #16: Sutliff 515 RC-1




Cracking open the jar of this one, which had remained sealed for about 4 months since I got an ounce sample of 515 RC-1 in the mail last September, the malt vinegar aroma just about bowled me over! That has without a doubt the most intense vinegar aroma I've ever smelled from a pipe tobacco, though there is a little bready Virginia scent behind it. Altogether the tin note weirdly reminds me of eating at the seafood fast food chain Long John Silver's, since on the rare occasions I go there I always get the Hush Puppies (which are basically dense cakey balls of deep fried bread, if you've never had one) and thoroughly douse them in malt vinegar. As I load a pipe of 515 RC-1 I get the strange feeling that I'm about to smoke a malt vinegar dressed Hush Puppy.

The tobacco comes in a rough chunky ribbon cut that has a very rustic look to it, with a mix of red, dark brown, and light brown Virginias; so there appears to be three different grades of Virginia in this blend. It's a bit too wet to smoke straight out of the jar, likely due to the heavy vinegar casing, but it does dry quickly and easily and was ready to smoke after only 5 minutes of dry time (bearing in mind that the indoor humidity here has been about 35% this week).

Firing up the pipe and... Oooh that is tangy! So very, very tangy! The vinegar doesn't come through much at all in the taste of the tobacco, but oh boy does it ever create a powerful tanginess the likes of which I've never tasted from a blend before! Having never gotten to try a McClelland Virginia I've never had a Virginia that I would describe as "tangy" until now, but holy cow does this blend ever have a serious tang to it that strangely seems to compliment the underlying red Virginia flavors perfectly. In terms of the flavor of the tobacco itself, it's uncommonly dark and earthy for a Virginia. It's boldly savory, bready, darkly fruity, earthy like soil, autumn leafy litter'y, slightly floral, and all surrounded by a profound tanginess. Based on the shockingly vinegary tin note I wasn't expecting a lot of complexity from 515 RC-1, but I'm happy to have been proven very wrong! It also leaves a vinegar tang that hangs around on your lips for a good hour or two after smoking.

Mechanically speaking it's a surprisingly fast burning blend and it's easy to smoke through a small pipe of it in half an hour even sipping it slowly, though it does burn fairly cool, and to my additional surprise the retrohale is silky smooth! I can retrohale every puff of 515 RC-1 with no sinus discomfort at all, which is a great thing in my book since I am admittedly a habitual retrohaler. The nicotine content is squarely in the middle of medium, and I find it to be consistently satisfying but never overwhelming. It's a definite all day smoke for anyone who appreciates the flavor profile, and I think your pipes could smoke it all day too since it burns down to a very clean ash with almost zero moisture left behind.

In terms of what the other members of my household thought of 515 RC-1, they felt that the room note was fairly cigarette'y with a bit of that typical bread baking in the oven Virginia aroma mixed in and really didn't care for it, but I'm starting to discover that cigarette'y room note may just be a red Virginia thing since I've never gotten that room note from bright or heavily stoved Virginias. In any case though, I wouldn't expect non-smokers to find the smell of 515 RC-1 to be pleasant and was succinctly denied indoor smoking approval for this one.


That's okay though, since for all the nice things about this blend I don't think it's a keeper for me. At the start of a smoke and for the first 20 minutes or so I thought it was fantastic. "This is like smoking a hush puppy!" I thought to myself. But, by the time the bowl was done I was beginning to feel a little nauseous from all the vinegar. Sometimes smoking can be like eating, and while eating one hush puppy is great and half a dozen of them might be even better, by the time you've been eating hush puppies for half an hour straight your stomach starts getting really unhappy about the matter. I think, for me at least, that's kind of the situation with Sutliff 515 RC-1. The vinegar is great at first, but after smoking it for half an hour I've had more than enough of it and feel a little green around the gills; and the potent vinegar taste that lingers on your lips for an hour or two after smoking (and is very difficult to wash off, as I unfortunately found out this week) certainly didn't make my stomach any happier about the vinegar overload.

This one isn't for me, but that's okay, since I've got several dozen more blends to try and I'm sure this jar of Sutliff 515 RC-1 will go to someone who will cherish and enjoy it when I eventually get around to selling all the blends I've decided not to keep. For now though, on to the next one!

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Blend of the Week #17: Mac Baren Bell's Three Nuns




Before I get into the review I'd like to say straight off that I've never had any of the previous versions of Three Nuns so I can't compare the current iteration to the older stuff, but I do hope to give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from this particular trio of habit wearing ladies of the cloth.


A poke of the sniffer into the jar gives you a solid impression of what to expect from Three Nuns right up front. There's some sweet bready darker Virginias, a bit of barbeque pit smokey Dark Fired Kentucky, and a little kiss of honey. Not too much honey, it doesn't drown out the aromas of the tobaccos in the mix or turn it into an aromatic, but you can definitely smell that there's a few drops of bee squeezings in there.

In terms of it's presentation, Three Nuns comes in what could loosely be called a coin cut. Emphasis on "loose" since the majority of coins straight out the tin were either broken or partially rubbed out, and there's quite a bit of loose ribbon cut tobaccos in the mix, but you will find a few intact coins here and there. In any case, it all comes at the perfect moisture level to smoke straight from the tin whether you want to stack a few coins to fold and stuff in your pipe or fully rub them out to a fine ribbon cut, with no dry time needed unless you like your Virginias exceptionally dry; in which case a few minutes of dry time before loading your pipe won't hurt it.

Flavor wise, it tastes a lot like it smells! You get those slightly sweet and mellow bready darker Virginias as the lead component with an occasional bit of grass, hay, and acidity from the less prevalent brighter Virginias, then trailing a fair bit behind the Virginias in a supporting role is the barbeque pit smokey, woody, darkly earthy, every so slightly sour Dark Fired Kentucky. Lastly, as a very subtle background note there's just a little bit of honey adding a tiny touch of sweetness that serves to mostly smooth over the brighter acidic notes of the Virginias and sourness of the Dark Fired Kentucky to create a very even middle of the road flavor profile that never gets too sharply bright or darkly earthy; in spite of the flavor of the smoke varying quite a bit from puff to puff depending on how much Virginia or how much Dark Fired Kentucky is burning away in the chamber at any given time. There is a little Burley in the mix as well, though I can't seem to taste it and it must be a fairly small amount since it only bothered my very Burley sensitive throat a couple times throughout the week of testing.

Even though the base components of Three Nuns are fairly simple and straightforward, there's a lot of variety to the flavor and many different notes to taste if you want to sit back and analyze the smoke; but they're all mellow, smooth, and cohesive enough that it's a perfectly fine blend for absent minded puffing as you go about your day working on other tasks. That little bit of Dark Fired Kentucky and the kiss of honey mostly smooths over and tames the acidity of the Virginias to create a very comfortable and easygoing mouthfeel, though occasionally the bright Virginia does overpower the honey and Dark Fired Kentucky with it's acidity and stung up the roof of my mouth and sinsues a bit.

The nicotine content is at the very upper end of medium, which makes it a fairly perfect all day anytime smoke in my book. It's a bit stronger than a pure Virginia or the vast majority of English blends, but just a little less potent than a strong blend like Nightcap. I'd put Three Nuns at right about the same strength level as Cornell & Diehl's Haunted Bookshop, maybe a tiny touch stronger, if that's a helpful point of reference. It's relaxing and satisfying, but not so strong that you have to keep an eye on how long you've been smoking it for or make sure to have some food on your stomach before you smoke it.

The retrohale varies from puff to puff, with most being quite smooth when you get more darker Virginia or honey, and others being fairly spicy when you've got more Dark Fired Kentucky or bright Virginia burning in the chamber. The majority are pretty smooth though and I did find myself retrohaling this blend fairly often.

Relights are infrequent when the coins are rubbed out, though it will take a fair few relights to get it going if you choose to stack up a few coins to fold and stuff instead. Either way it burns clean and dry, though it does leave behind a small amount of moisture at the bottom of the bowl; but no ghost to speak of. I actually used Three Nuns to break in the new Dublin Hunter bowl on the Falcon pipe pictured above and it did the job admirably! However, like most blends containing any sort of Burley (which includes Dark Fired Kentucky) it will turn a little harsh and acrid tasting if you set down partway through the bowl and return to it some hours later, though being that this is a mostly Virginia blend it won't turn quite as harsh or unpleasant as a Burley forward mixture if you do need to put the pipe down for an hour or two.

On a final unfortunate note, the room note from Three Nuns is fairly dense, heavy, and cigarette'y and will not appeal to anyone who doesn't care for the aroma of burning tobacco. There is a little bit of baking bread and barbecue pit scent to the room note, but it's mostly overpowered by the cigarette'iness.


Gathering my thoughts to form a final personal opinion on Three Nuns, I'm starting to learn that outside of a few particular blends that are very bright and summery tasting all around like Sutliff 507C Virginia Slices, Orlik Golden Sliced, or Samuel Gawith Fire Dance Flake I simply don't like bright Virginias very much. I don't care for the citrusy flavor they impart to darker earthier tobacco blends and I don't like the way the acidity of bright Virginias stings up the roof of my mouth and the back of my sinuses. I rarely find blends containing significant amounts of bright Virginia to be comfortable to smoke, which as someone who generally can't have Burley is rather unfortunate.

Just like with last week's Union Square, the bright Virginia in Three Nuns kind of kills it for me. I loved the darker Virginias and the Dark Fired Kentucky, and the little honey note was great, but every time that bright Virginia crept in I found myself wishing I was smoking something else. On the plus side, stoved and dark fired Virginias seem to treat me just fine, and with each new blend I try I learn a little bit more about what does and doesn't work for me.


As far as next week's blend of the week goes, it's an odd thing but ever since I started smoking Gawith's dark fired Virginia blends like 1792 Flake and Coniston Cut Plug, as well as some others I haven't reviewed yet such as Kendal Dark and Bosun Cut Plug, nothing else seems nearly as enjoyable to smoke. Maybe it's intense bold flavors or the richness and smoothness of the dark fired Virginias, or the fairly significant nicotine sedation feeling that comes on after about 10 to 15 minutes of smoking them, but every other style of pipe blend has just felt a little anemic to me lately when compared to Gawith's dark fired Virginia blends.

It could just be a phase and maybe my tastes will change eventually, but at this point I do feel like I may have finally found my style of pipe blend that I enjoy most and haven't felt much desire to smoke anything else recently. Some people like bright or red Virginias, some people prefer Burleys, and other folks enjoy English or Balkan blends with Latakia, but dark fired Virginia blends are what ticks all the boxes for me. I suppose that is what this review process has always been about though, just figuring out what works best for me and what I want to deep cellar for the long haul, so if dark fired Virginias are where the pipe blend exploration train stops for me then I'd be pretty alright with it.

That all said, I've got quite a few dark fired Virginia blends left to review and next week's blends of the week are two such blends. They're said to be the same blend, with one version coming in rope form and the other pre-sliced and ready rubbed, but the tin notes do smell rather different so I'm going to smoke them both and compare them. I haven't tried smoking the ready rubbed version yet, but I have smoked the rope half a dozen times already and my initial impression is that (for my tastes at least) it is the absolute finest non-aromatic pipe blend I've ever smoked! Whether or not I'll still feel that way after smoking it every day for a week is yet to be seen, but either way I'm sure to find out! Next week's blends of the week are...


Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Happy Brown Bogie & Brown Twist

 

[khiddy]

This one isn't for me, but that's okay, since I've got several dozen more blends to try and I'm sure this jar of Sutliff 515 RC-1 will go to someone who will cherish and enjoy it when I eventually get around to selling all the blends I've decided not to keep. For now though, on to the next one!

Is it too early to put a dibs on your jar? I use 515RC-1 as a blender, and it's an essential ingredient in my "The Famous Howie Kailin Blend". And there's nothing like it on the market, so I'm hoovering up every bit I can get, in order to forestall the inevitable. The loss of 515RC-1 is a disaster, frankly. I'm hoping that C&D or someone will offer an equivalent, or I may just have to figure out how to turn whole leaf into what I need.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Is it too early to put a dibs on your jar? I use 515RC-1 as a blender, and it's an essential ingredient in my "The Famous Howie Kailin Blend". And there's nothing like it on the market, so I'm hoovering up every bit I can get, in order to forestall the inevitable. The loss of 515RC-1 is a disaster, frankly. I'm hoping that C&D or someone will offer an equivalent, or I may just have to figure out how to turn whole leaf into what I need.

Sure thing! I'll send you a DM about it.

On a side note, I seem to be having trouble staying on task this week. I smoked Brown Bogie for a bit on Monday, but since then all I've wanted to smoke is Haunted Bookshop and Carter Hall!

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

As y'all might have guessed, I got totally sidetracked last week and ended up only smoking Brown Bogie once and never got to Brown Twist at all, so those reviews will have to wait until this weekend after I've had a chance to smoke them both throughout the week.

What sidetracked me was suddenly discovering that if I smoke a Burley blend in one of my Falcon pipes, which draw moisture and tar away from the tobacco into a little reservoir below the bowl as you smoke so the tobacco doesn't turn harsh as you get further down the bowl, they actually don't seem to bother my throat hardly at all! I still got a little bit of Burley throat after smoking Carter Hall three days in a row, though it was only about ¼ as bad as usual.

With that in mind I think I'm going to try to pick up a Falcon International stem that takes 6mm filters and try a bunch of different filter styles (Medico and Dr. Grabow paper filters, Savinelli balsa, and Vauen Dr. Perl charcoal filters mainly) and see if the combination of Falcon's humidome system to draw moisture away from the tobacco and a filtered stem might make Burley blends smokable and non-irritating to my throat. I'd sure be happy if it did, since I'd smoke Haunted Bookshop every day if I could! Carter Hall, Briar Fox, and Pegasus are favorites of mine as well, and I'd love to revisit Irish Flake if I can find a way to make it tolerable to my throat.

That's a project for another week though. This week, back on task!

 

[Puff nstuff]

I'm late to the party, but I'm really enjoying catching up on your reviews!
GH Rum/Jamaica Flake struck me in exactly the same way as you described:

'To me Gawith Hoggarth Jamaican/Rum flake is, in fact, a codger style Burley blend of unusual strength...'

It's like a premium quality codger blend, with extra depth and more nicotine. I really like it.

Keep up the good work, Skippy!!

 

[Brendan]

Yes
Thanks for the effort, although I'm sure you're enjoying yourself doing these
This thread swayed me to give 1792 Flake a go, so glad I did, it's been a daily smoke for the past 2 weeks. Loving the GH & Co.
reviews here. Just need to get my hands on some Rum Flake apparently.