This Tobacco is Crap! No it Isn't! New G.L. Pease Article
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I've certainly expressed my opinions about certain blends, and that's my experience of them. I agree with Greg about condemning a blend after a bowl of it. I've disliked several of Greg's blends on first encounter, only to come around to liking them a lot with repeated exposure, Sometimes it takes time to "get" a blend. And sometimes you just dislike a blend no matter how many times you try it, the current version of Balkan Sobranie one example. I even gave that stuff 5 years to mellow and couldn't finish a bowl of it without gagging. That's a blend I loved in the '70's.
As for leaf never being better than now, he would know better than me, but then I'd like to know what's happening to it by the time I pop a tin, because it's not tasting like the best leaf I've ever had. Of course there are exceptions, like SPC Hogshead, which is really something new in flavor profiles and one that really grew on me.
And recent Esoterica Dunbar is just plain disappointing, as was the later HU Makhuwa, which no longer tasted anything like the Mahkuha I bought in 2016, or Director's Cut, where the Perique was subbed out with DFK. Could it be fine leaf being compromised by not so fine blending?
As for leaf never being better than now, he would know better than me, but then I'd like to know what's happening to it by the time I pop a tin, because it's not tasting like the best leaf I've ever had. Of course there are exceptions, like SPC Hogshead, which is really something new in flavor profiles and one that really grew on me.
And recent Esoterica Dunbar is just plain disappointing, as was the later HU Makhuwa, which no longer tasted anything like the Mahkuha I bought in 2016, or Director's Cut, where the Perique was subbed out with DFK. Could it be fine leaf being compromised by not so fine blending?
I betcha half or more of these reviewers from which Mr Pease derives his pique don't even have their palate developed enough to be relevant.
Life would be a lot more exciting if there were more totally awful tobaccos. I mean, if someone created something so awful that it became like a dare to try it, we could have so much fun. Like those ghost pepper challenges, or people who put a whole spoonful of cinnamon in their mouths, or people who try to stay awake and drive while listening to Tame Impala. 
Dan Tobacco's Holly's Non Plus Ultra. I dare you to smoke it.Life would be a lot more exciting if there were more totally awful tobaccos. I mean, if someone created something so awful that it became like a dare to try it, we could have so much fun. Like those ghost pepper challenges, or people who put a whole spoonful of cinnamon in their mouths, or people who try to stay awake and drive while listening to Tame Impala.
(Imagining): "Today I tried a small bowl of Totally Awful Tobacco. While I am an amatuer craptologist I have had to paddle my way though some serious crap in life, have had to put up with a lot of crap and have even, on occasion, had to sling some crap, but I have to tell you this stuff is pure crap. This is the crap to which other crap aspires. My inner fly on the wall achieved nirvana! The flowers and plants in my yard all perked up and its like they are saying thank you ! If you like crap you'll love this crap ! In a word: Craptastic ! I regret I can only give it 5 shovels but that's all they allow. I may have to re-review it to give it the 5 more shovels it truly deserves .... and remember I am an amatuer ! Wait till the real pros try this crap ! Whoo boy ! "
Yeh, as soon as I posted, the thought occurred to me that no matter how horrible a tobacco is... we all know that the "Cap'n" is going to like it and defend it on here, ha ha.
The problem with everyone hating Dan Tobacco's Holly's Non Plus Ultra is that it is always sold out everywhere. I can't find three tins anywhere. And, I would have to be disgusted with it fresh, and then wait three years to be disgusted with it again, and then again in ten years... you know... just to be fair.
^^^^^ This . . . I just came a across of new tobacco that I struggled to finish on the first bowl and the second bowl tasted worse . . . Ironically, it is one of the GLP blends.
Tobacco blends, much like life, are a nuanced experience. Without some less favorable aspects, we may never truly appreciate the goodness they offer. It's important to remember that taste is subjective, and every review should be approached with a degree of skepticism. Taking the time to form an opinion without rushing allows for a more accurate assessment
I've had the same experience with several of Greg's blends, but, found that with time and more trials, came to like some of them quite a lot. My impression is that Greg makes some complex challenging blends that reward over time.
I don’t review tobacco, as I don’t have a very refined palate and saying anything beyond I like or don’t it like is about as far as my taste buds will take me. That said there have been two blends that were rapidly consigned to the garden after a couple of bowls. Life is too short to continue that particular journey hoping that at some point a confluence of factors might transform a bad experience into nirvana. There have been a few blends that I initially didn’t like but due to many kudos on the inter webs I’ve gone back to, didn’t change my initial evaluation.
I do agree that reviews based on partially smoking a bowl are pretty useless and damaging. I pay attention to a small number of reviewers that I know will be diligent and give the blend a fair shot.
I do agree that reviews based on partially smoking a bowl are pretty useless and damaging. I pay attention to a small number of reviewers that I know will be diligent and give the blend a fair shot.
Mostly, I don't pay attention to anyone but Jiminks. And, he doesn't like nor hate the blends he reviews, for the most part, except for the stars, which I never pay attention to. When I read a review, Jim's reviews, I just read to hear the tasting points, the nicotine levels, and try to imagine what it would be like. Having spent years getting my degree in aesthetics, the most useful thing I have learned is that for everything on the planet, someone will like it and someone will hate it. And, those two people have nothing to do with me. So, if everyone in the world hated something, I would still give it a go... for the experience, if not just to see if I agree with them. It's utterly pointless to let someone else's opinion ruin a mood.
I agree inasmuch as I think that I often have to "learn" a blend before I know if or how I like it. Sometimes I will put aside a blend, jar it, as an unpleasant experience, and then I come back to it weeks, months, or a year later, and it is a whole new blend.
Other blends I will enjoy quite a bit, but by the time the tin is empty, I don't feel the impulse to order it again, for a while or at all.
It's informative to hear this from a professional blender who has invested the years in developing blends in detail and over time.
I enjoyed some of GLP's Barbary Coast just yesterday. Love that cubed burley.
Other blends I will enjoy quite a bit, but by the time the tin is empty, I don't feel the impulse to order it again, for a while or at all.
It's informative to hear this from a professional blender who has invested the years in developing blends in detail and over time.
I enjoyed some of GLP's Barbary Coast just yesterday. Love that cubed burley.
We could have a Dung Smoking Contest, Amou Haji literally smoked dung. Then we could really call that blend crap and it would be the truth! LOL 
Sorry couldn’t resist, felt we needed something to lighten the mood.
P.S. I will make sure not to talk trash about blends anymore.
Sorry couldn’t resist, felt we needed something to lighten the mood.
P.S. I will make sure not to talk trash about blends anymore.
Agree about the GLP blend complexity but the blend in question was a total curveball regarding taste on the palette. I will revisit in a few weeks/months.
Turns out after doin' this here pipe thang for fitty years, iffa baccy doesn't have candy-syrup-glop dried all over it, there's a good chance I'll like it. (The only 'seption bein' that rotted-in-a-treestump stuff outta Loosianna. Too much 'a that is jist weird. In a bad way.)
The end.
The end.
Counting all the assholes in the forum, I am not alone...
I can sympathize with Mr. Pease to the extent that he is a skilled tobacconist and blender, and seeing his or his contemporaries' hard work so easily and carelessly dismissed can be frustrating. I try to take a Stoic outlook to criticism, but I also don't have my livelihood tied to selling a consumer product to an audience that can, in all fairness, be rather hard to please sometimes. So, I guess it would be glib of me to suggest Mr. Pease adopt my own detached attitude towards bad criticism.
What isn't glib to point out, however, is this weird and incessant faith in free market dogma that so many, including Mr. Pease, adhere to, even to the point of contradiction. To paraphrase: Mr. Pease stated that people who push a poor product would eventually go out of business because of market principles of demand. Let's ignore the many examples of deeply shitty and exploitive products that are currently thriving in today's markets. (Has this man never been forced to deal with a cable company before?)
Instead, I think it is important to point out that the very people he is expending so much energy complaining about, are also a large part of his consumer base; the kinds of people leaving multiple (oftentimes unlettered) tobacco reviews online are the kinds of people who tend to buy a lot of pipe tobacco. So, either consumers will make sure bad products go out of business because they are smart enough to know a good from bad product, or they are ignorant loudmouths that dismiss "trash" blends too readily. But they can't be both. The only way that would work is if those aforementioned ignorant loudmouths were a small contingent of the consumer base, but Mr. Pease clearly doesn't think that is the case.
Anyway, I generally like Mr. Pease's articles, and I certainly love his tobacco (Windjammer is a DELIGHT), but this one didn't have me nodding in rapt agreement or whatever. But, I did read it in full, and I wouldn't call it trash, so I gave it a fair shake, which I think is all Mr. Pease is asking for. Nothing wrong with that.
What isn't glib to point out, however, is this weird and incessant faith in free market dogma that so many, including Mr. Pease, adhere to, even to the point of contradiction. To paraphrase: Mr. Pease stated that people who push a poor product would eventually go out of business because of market principles of demand. Let's ignore the many examples of deeply shitty and exploitive products that are currently thriving in today's markets. (Has this man never been forced to deal with a cable company before?)
Instead, I think it is important to point out that the very people he is expending so much energy complaining about, are also a large part of his consumer base; the kinds of people leaving multiple (oftentimes unlettered) tobacco reviews online are the kinds of people who tend to buy a lot of pipe tobacco. So, either consumers will make sure bad products go out of business because they are smart enough to know a good from bad product, or they are ignorant loudmouths that dismiss "trash" blends too readily. But they can't be both. The only way that would work is if those aforementioned ignorant loudmouths were a small contingent of the consumer base, but Mr. Pease clearly doesn't think that is the case.
Anyway, I generally like Mr. Pease's articles, and I certainly love his tobacco (Windjammer is a DELIGHT), but this one didn't have me nodding in rapt agreement or whatever. But, I did read it in full, and I wouldn't call it trash, so I gave it a fair shake, which I think is all Mr. Pease is asking for. Nothing wrong with that.
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