Jack Lee Blends Summer Sangria
By Baron Samedi
I enjoyed Summer Sangria in different parts of the day in a Meerschaum, a corn cob pipe and a briar. This is a long awaited blend from Jack Lee, aka Pipeinhand and one that I agreed would be light years different in flavor should he try and attempt it. Boy was I right! I don’t think there is an aspect of this blend that doesn’t screw with your head a little. For starters, I have to remark that usually in terms of blending, wine and tobacco don’t mix. They bring out the funk and usually not in a good way, so attempting a Sangria blend that doesn’t suck is damn hard! How do you remind the smoker of Sangria without wine? Can it really be done?
Pouch Note: As soon as you smell this stuff in the bag, you will realize this isn’t your usual aromatic. The smell that hits you will get an instant reaction and to be honest, I was a little apprehensive. The aroma that greeted me was a mix of Concord grape and Trix Cereal! We are not screwing around here. This is a damn aromatic and these Trix ain’t for kids. It’s almost reminiscent of the Kool-Aid like smell that hits you when you open a tin of CAO’s Cherry Bomb. My nose smelled it but my brain was trying to deny what just happened.
The charring light contained Sweetness and the nuttiness of Burley. Of all the three pipes I tried, the Meerschaum brought out the most of that, but my well-seasoned corn cob gave it an interesting roastiness right off the bat. I’ll get more into that later.
The True Light brought a rush of the grape and some tartness like the first sip of wine on a hot day where you seem to get all the tannins at once before the flavor really reaches out and touches you. It wasn’t Trix anymore, but it did start to remind me of the Sangria flavored sodas that I like to buy when I go to a Tex-Mex restaurant.
I will start out by saying that this smoke is certainly not for everyone. It’s not for guys who want a “not so aro” aro. It’s not for guys who dislike fruit flavors. Who it is for is the back-porch sitting, cob smoking, wine sipping, and French-inhaling flavor chasers. Summer Sangria is unapologetic about being a fully-cased, fruit flavor aromatic. There are a number of flavors involved here and hell if I can name them all, but I got wafts of grape, orange, rum, vanilla, cherry and I would swear there was whiskey in there somewhere. It’s a little like drinking…well, a homemade Sangria! It’s crisp, fruity and tart.
By far the best experience I’ve yet to have from this blend was last night when I stuffed a cob and popped the cork on a Blackberry Mead I’ve had in my closet for a couple years. Some blends pair well with a drink. This one commands it! I would suffice it to say any wine that was heavy on the fruit note will become a blast with this blend. The Blackberry Mead sidled right into the wine-like notes of this blend and helped bring out the other mysterious flavors that are floating around inside.
Likewise, I have to recommend that it be smoked in a corn cob pipe. It was good in a Meer, OK in a briar, but it started wailing like a Mariachi band when I dropped it in a cob! Straight out of the gate, from the charring light, I noticed a roasted quality and a mellowness that I did not find when smoking it in my other pipes. Aromatics and corn cob pipes are an almost historical combination and this blend will tell you up front why. The well-seasoned MM Legend let the grape-ness mellow and allowed me to run around chasing flavors like a half-lit Trix rabbit. The ultimate smoking implement for this would be a cob warden and knowing Jack Lee's personal liking for long-stemmed pipes, that's probably not a coincidece.
Being from Texas, Sangria is like a summer tradition. Sitting outside after sundown, when it finally starts to cool down, smoking and sipping a fruity home-made Sangria is a pleasure all its own and I’m happy to report that Jack Lee’s Summer Sangria is the perfect complement to that tradition, especially for pipe smokers who aren’t afraid to break out a Missouri Corn Cob and bring on the aromatics. The pouch note will give you a WTF moment and it does need some drying. I dried my entire sample under a lamp for about 20 minutes and it was good to go. But for the brave, who like to chase a good aromatic down the rabbit hole of shifting flavors (preferably while balancing a wine glass) this blend is going to be a hell of a good time!
By Baron Samedi
I enjoyed Summer Sangria in different parts of the day in a Meerschaum, a corn cob pipe and a briar. This is a long awaited blend from Jack Lee, aka Pipeinhand and one that I agreed would be light years different in flavor should he try and attempt it. Boy was I right! I don’t think there is an aspect of this blend that doesn’t screw with your head a little. For starters, I have to remark that usually in terms of blending, wine and tobacco don’t mix. They bring out the funk and usually not in a good way, so attempting a Sangria blend that doesn’t suck is damn hard! How do you remind the smoker of Sangria without wine? Can it really be done?
Pouch Note: As soon as you smell this stuff in the bag, you will realize this isn’t your usual aromatic. The smell that hits you will get an instant reaction and to be honest, I was a little apprehensive. The aroma that greeted me was a mix of Concord grape and Trix Cereal! We are not screwing around here. This is a damn aromatic and these Trix ain’t for kids. It’s almost reminiscent of the Kool-Aid like smell that hits you when you open a tin of CAO’s Cherry Bomb. My nose smelled it but my brain was trying to deny what just happened.
The charring light contained Sweetness and the nuttiness of Burley. Of all the three pipes I tried, the Meerschaum brought out the most of that, but my well-seasoned corn cob gave it an interesting roastiness right off the bat. I’ll get more into that later.
The True Light brought a rush of the grape and some tartness like the first sip of wine on a hot day where you seem to get all the tannins at once before the flavor really reaches out and touches you. It wasn’t Trix anymore, but it did start to remind me of the Sangria flavored sodas that I like to buy when I go to a Tex-Mex restaurant.
I will start out by saying that this smoke is certainly not for everyone. It’s not for guys who want a “not so aro” aro. It’s not for guys who dislike fruit flavors. Who it is for is the back-porch sitting, cob smoking, wine sipping, and French-inhaling flavor chasers. Summer Sangria is unapologetic about being a fully-cased, fruit flavor aromatic. There are a number of flavors involved here and hell if I can name them all, but I got wafts of grape, orange, rum, vanilla, cherry and I would swear there was whiskey in there somewhere. It’s a little like drinking…well, a homemade Sangria! It’s crisp, fruity and tart.
By far the best experience I’ve yet to have from this blend was last night when I stuffed a cob and popped the cork on a Blackberry Mead I’ve had in my closet for a couple years. Some blends pair well with a drink. This one commands it! I would suffice it to say any wine that was heavy on the fruit note will become a blast with this blend. The Blackberry Mead sidled right into the wine-like notes of this blend and helped bring out the other mysterious flavors that are floating around inside.
Likewise, I have to recommend that it be smoked in a corn cob pipe. It was good in a Meer, OK in a briar, but it started wailing like a Mariachi band when I dropped it in a cob! Straight out of the gate, from the charring light, I noticed a roasted quality and a mellowness that I did not find when smoking it in my other pipes. Aromatics and corn cob pipes are an almost historical combination and this blend will tell you up front why. The well-seasoned MM Legend let the grape-ness mellow and allowed me to run around chasing flavors like a half-lit Trix rabbit. The ultimate smoking implement for this would be a cob warden and knowing Jack Lee's personal liking for long-stemmed pipes, that's probably not a coincidece.
Being from Texas, Sangria is like a summer tradition. Sitting outside after sundown, when it finally starts to cool down, smoking and sipping a fruity home-made Sangria is a pleasure all its own and I’m happy to report that Jack Lee’s Summer Sangria is the perfect complement to that tradition, especially for pipe smokers who aren’t afraid to break out a Missouri Corn Cob and bring on the aromatics. The pouch note will give you a WTF moment and it does need some drying. I dried my entire sample under a lamp for about 20 minutes and it was good to go. But for the brave, who like to chase a good aromatic down the rabbit hole of shifting flavors (preferably while balancing a wine glass) this blend is going to be a hell of a good time!
