Who Wants To Review My Holy Grail?
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The whole point is to do a single-blind review. He'll tell us all at the end. I'm excited to read everyone's notes, and then the review. Greg Pease used to do this way back in the alt.smokers.pipes days, and it was cool to read through the reviews.
Sounds like a fantastic, FUN journey! I'd like to be counted in. My favorite blends are most definitely English/Balkans. I started smoking at the age of 17 and enjoyed it for many years but had to give it up for the sake of domestic tranquility (a grail of another sort). My favorites then were Sobranie 759, Rattray's Red Rapparee and what's now known as Sutliff Byzantium 525. A couple months ago, I revived my old hobby and am enjoying tobacco more than ever. I will be in San Diego visiting my father for two weeks, so if you have a sample to spare, I'd relish taking part in this one! I reckon this is going to be one very interesting experiment. The heights of analog social media! Good luck and enjoyment to all who participate!
I haven't gotten mine yet but I live a little further than the other guys. So I hope to get it today, I'm really looking forward to giving this a good go.
I received my sample today, thanks clickklick.
So here are my thoughts on the tobacco. Bag note is familiar, smokey Latakia is abundant.
1st third thoughts. After charring light the taste is sweet and smokey. Slightly strong but tasty.
2nd third...I settle in and the tobacco required no re lights. More subdued and still a nice sweetness is coming through. I am very much enjoying this bowlful. Pipe has not heated up at all.
Last 3rd. Staying lit the entire bowl. Tasty. Intriguing. I know tobacco like this, but this has an advantage in smokability and flavor over others I've smoked.
I think the tobacco has Latakia of course, cavendish and orientals. Some perique spiciness comes through too.
Other tobaccos I've had that are similar. Dunhill / MacBaren HH Latakia flake.
Scale of 1-10. I give it nice 8.
I would REALLY like to be able to buy more.
I appreciate the chance to review this blend.
So here are my thoughts on the tobacco. Bag note is familiar, smokey Latakia is abundant.
1st third thoughts. After charring light the taste is sweet and smokey. Slightly strong but tasty.
2nd third...I settle in and the tobacco required no re lights. More subdued and still a nice sweetness is coming through. I am very much enjoying this bowlful. Pipe has not heated up at all.
Last 3rd. Staying lit the entire bowl. Tasty. Intriguing. I know tobacco like this, but this has an advantage in smokability and flavor over others I've smoked.
I think the tobacco has Latakia of course, cavendish and orientals. Some perique spiciness comes through too.
Other tobaccos I've had that are similar. Dunhill / MacBaren HH Latakia flake.
Scale of 1-10. I give it nice 8.
I would REALLY like to be able to buy more.
I appreciate the chance to review this blend.
Alright ... I just finished up my sample.
This is a splendid English / Balkan blend with LOADS of creamy smoke.
At first light, the Latakia and Orientals jump to life with Virginia in the back seat.
Soon, the tobaccos meld together and the Latakia becomes more subdued with the Orientals taking the lead
with a constant earthy / musty retro-hale.
I suspect some Dark Fired Kentucky is present as well but is blended in masterfully.
Heck, this smoke is so creamy I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little cigar leaf tossed in!
Overall, I will give this blend an 8 out of 10 and already have some similar blends stocked.
Compare to: Balkan Supreme or one of the Sobranie 759 matches
Thanks a lot for sharing the samples, Click!
P.S. My wife wanted to know just who this "Tabitha" was! LOL
This is a splendid English / Balkan blend with LOADS of creamy smoke.
At first light, the Latakia and Orientals jump to life with Virginia in the back seat.
Soon, the tobaccos meld together and the Latakia becomes more subdued with the Orientals taking the lead
with a constant earthy / musty retro-hale.
I suspect some Dark Fired Kentucky is present as well but is blended in masterfully.
Heck, this smoke is so creamy I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little cigar leaf tossed in!
Overall, I will give this blend an 8 out of 10 and already have some similar blends stocked.
Compare to: Balkan Supreme or one of the Sobranie 759 matches
Thanks a lot for sharing the samples, Click!
P.S. My wife wanted to know just who this "Tabitha" was! LOL
I didn't participate (who needs the cost of shipping to Alaska) but, I must say the entire concept is a kick and the thread is fun read. Well done! Very entertaining!
Looks like one or two participants got. Banned. I expect 9 reviews before revealing anything now so you guys better hold up your end of the deal!
Alright I smoked my sample! Notes to follow, but first a big thank you to Clickklick. :worship: Goodwill and generosity seems in short supply these days and I'm delighted to find a place where folks are enthusiastic to share things. This was a lot of fun and I'm grateful for the opportunity.
I don't have a lot of time to write but I wanted to get my impressions out now rather than put it off any longer. Bear with me if this seems a bit of a stream of consciousness.
I typically smoke small pipes, usually size 1-3 the widest of which has a 18mm bowl. Having gone a few weeks without smoking a shred of latakia and also having a sav 320 recently arrived, I thought this might be a perfect opportunity to see what a wide bowl can do with an english blend. The 320 ingested roughly 3/4 of the sample leaving just enough to fill the bowl of a belgique later just to form a basis of comparison.
As I mentioned, the bag note shares a similar aroma to emp but the similarities end there. I tend to largely ignore bag notes and the appearance of tobacco. I know some folks really enjoy this aspect of exploration but I find them to often be red herrings, which was the case here.
It's a broken flake. However some of the strands are unusually long and thick which I think has a lot to do with the unusual flavor profile of this tobacco. The opening note was barnyard, peat, pine pitch of cyprian latakia. I braced myself for a bare knuckle brawl. But it was not to be.
A sweetness emerged, (sweetened black cav, I assume) and took the edge off the latakia. As soon as I was getting used to the idea of smoking a sweet english, a creamy nuttiness began to develop (burley?) shifting the whole flavor profile to something more akin to an american english. I really enjoy that category of tobaccos, though it's something new to me. Up to this point, this blend was reminiscent of St John, from the Owl Shop albeit with a lot more sweetness.
Toward the end, I picked up on a flavor I can't recall ever associating with tobacco before, strawberry.
This was a very unusual and complex smoke. At all times it was remarkably creamy, rich and delightfully full on the palate. The flavors seemed to unfold (pop might be a more apt descriptor) one at a time, but once know, they all seemed to build on each other. I smoked hal o the wynd a bit later and found the difference in smoke volume and fullness to be readily apparent. I found latakia, burley, and black cav. The virginia component didn't stand out nor did any oriental notes.
Right, here comes the hard part. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a complex yet easy to smoke sweet english. That said, I probably would not look to add any more as it exceeds my (very low) tolerance for sweetness. I know my tastes in tobacco tend to vary wildly depending on weather, diet, phase of the moon, to the point that making a numeric ranking on something this subjective isn't really worthwhile. That said, I can see how this blend could be someone's perfect 10.
Thanks again for including me. This is probably something that I wouldn't have tried and am very glad I did!
I don't have a lot of time to write but I wanted to get my impressions out now rather than put it off any longer. Bear with me if this seems a bit of a stream of consciousness.
I typically smoke small pipes, usually size 1-3 the widest of which has a 18mm bowl. Having gone a few weeks without smoking a shred of latakia and also having a sav 320 recently arrived, I thought this might be a perfect opportunity to see what a wide bowl can do with an english blend. The 320 ingested roughly 3/4 of the sample leaving just enough to fill the bowl of a belgique later just to form a basis of comparison.
As I mentioned, the bag note shares a similar aroma to emp but the similarities end there. I tend to largely ignore bag notes and the appearance of tobacco. I know some folks really enjoy this aspect of exploration but I find them to often be red herrings, which was the case here.
It's a broken flake. However some of the strands are unusually long and thick which I think has a lot to do with the unusual flavor profile of this tobacco. The opening note was barnyard, peat, pine pitch of cyprian latakia. I braced myself for a bare knuckle brawl. But it was not to be.
A sweetness emerged, (sweetened black cav, I assume) and took the edge off the latakia. As soon as I was getting used to the idea of smoking a sweet english, a creamy nuttiness began to develop (burley?) shifting the whole flavor profile to something more akin to an american english. I really enjoy that category of tobaccos, though it's something new to me. Up to this point, this blend was reminiscent of St John, from the Owl Shop albeit with a lot more sweetness.
Toward the end, I picked up on a flavor I can't recall ever associating with tobacco before, strawberry.
This was a very unusual and complex smoke. At all times it was remarkably creamy, rich and delightfully full on the palate. The flavors seemed to unfold (pop might be a more apt descriptor) one at a time, but once know, they all seemed to build on each other. I smoked hal o the wynd a bit later and found the difference in smoke volume and fullness to be readily apparent. I found latakia, burley, and black cav. The virginia component didn't stand out nor did any oriental notes.
Right, here comes the hard part. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a complex yet easy to smoke sweet english. That said, I probably would not look to add any more as it exceeds my (very low) tolerance for sweetness. I know my tastes in tobacco tend to vary wildly depending on weather, diet, phase of the moon, to the point that making a numeric ranking on something this subjective isn't really worthwhile. That said, I can see how this blend could be someone's perfect 10.
Thanks again for including me. This is probably something that I wouldn't have tried and am very glad I did!
It is interesting how different the reviews are(while still keeping some commonalities).
I would laugh if at the end of all these reviews clickklick declares the joke is on us as everyone received a different blend to review...muhhaha :twisted:
As of right now, I can't wait to hear what this blend is. What a fun thread!
Edit- I am not insinuating that clickklick would be capable of hijinks like that; merely I find this thread so exciting that a twist ending like that would just take the cake.
I would laugh if at the end of all these reviews clickklick declares the joke is on us as everyone received a different blend to review...muhhaha :twisted:
As of right now, I can't wait to hear what this blend is. What a fun thread!
Edit- I am not insinuating that clickklick would be capable of hijinks like that; merely I find this thread so exciting that a twist ending like that would just take the cake.
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