5 year aged Haddo's Delight - Win!

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derlict311

derlict311

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Tin dated: 09 20 07

I popped open a tin of Haddo's tonight after reading some older posts about how great it is after years in the cellar. Let me start by saying I didn't REALLY like Haddo's when it was fresh. I smoked a tin this summer only to come to the conclusion that I wouldn't rush back to it. Too tart, too fruity and too much obscure flavors for my enjoyment. Imagine my surprise when I ran into two five year old tins..."Oh really? That ought to be good, right?" Tonight I cracked the first one. This review is written largely by the emotions and the overall excitement of the experience:

Immediately after cracking the tin I noticed how different it smelled compared to this summer's newer tin. The casing is mostly non-existent and the smell of aged perique predominant, along with faint notes of fruitiness. The lighting is perfect. One charring light to start and then one more bit of fire and it was going for good. This is completely different blend than what I have smoked before. Wow. The sweetness subdued, the perique quieter and to me, less harsh. The notion that I originally had that Haddo's is a grandpa smoke, too dainty for me, is completely gone. I can see why aging this blend is so popular and why for perique lovers, this is a must own.

On a more critical side, something about the age of this blend made it smoke dry. I couldn't shake the cotton mouth thing. I needed something to drink while enjoying it. Maybe that had something to do with the jog I had before I smoked it. That said, a fine smoke and recommended if you can get your hands on it.

On a final note, if Haddo's is this good with age on it, how good is Cumberland with the same amount of time...or Blackpoint? Mr. Pease you are a blending genius. Thank you.
 
Well I have read here that Blackpoint is fantastic aged. & I can speak from experience that Cumberland aged is amazing. So much so that I was searching high and low for aged samples for a while after tasting some from 2004.

Anyway your post is good news to me because fresh Haddo's was not to my liking, and I purchased several tins of it.

When I smoked a small portion of my tin from early 2012 I felt like I was being gassed-out by the perique. It was really overwhelming. I love perique with a passion, but the perique intensity of fresh Haddo's was a bit above what I prefer. I did however really appreciate the presentation and the complexity of the first bit of the bowl. Around Mid-bowl I was a bit over-taken by this mixture and a touch woozy.
 
I'm glad you gave some aged Haddo's a try -- it's a totally different beast from the fresh product. I won't touch it until it's aged at least two years, at which point it becomes spectacular.

 
My only experience with Haddo's was a very well aged sample sent to me by Shane. After smoking that, I'm hesitant to try it new. I should buy a few tins and loose them in the back of the closet.
 
derlict311":rnh0s2ev said:
Tin dated: 09 20 07
On a final note, if Haddo's is this good with age on it, how good is Cumberland with the same amount of time...or Blackpoint?
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Aged Blackpoint is ridiculously good. If you can find it, it's a must buy...if you can't, buy the new stuff and forget about it for three or four years.
 
Well my depositions ended a bit early this morning and I was a block away from Holts, so I popped in to see what was new. They had a few tins of Haddo's and thinking of this thread, I figured what the heck. :D

Dated 11/15/11 so its already about a year old. :cheers:
 
alfredo_buscatti":79w5fjel said:
Cumberland is good fresh and superb with age.
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Ha Ha! The Cumberland that I had was some that you sold in your fire sale to Shane, who was kind enough to send me a sample. That stuff was SUPERB! :D
 
The fire sale moved about 7 lbs from 2004-2007. Crazy acquisitiveness, but that was me. But though I loved it best, I was preoccupied with both HOs and cigars for the last 3 or 4 years of my former pipe career and only smoked it occasionally. But HOs sacrifice flavor for strength, good for what they are but if you want complexity, standard blends are better, or at least that's what I think now.

Ha! the jokes are on me:):).

Shopping for single malt, I had a conversation with the clerk about the value of aged spirits. He said that he'd had some 20 y/o and felt it was so changed that it had become something altogether different. He doesn't like that much age, but I do; so far, the more the better: incomparably more smooth and melded, the original present but vastly improved.

But some guys like fresh better.
 
No stupid questions on this board! I spent the first 2 or 3 years of my pipe career asking questions.

Yes, I do believe you can over-age; but I have no experience to say so; but others have said so. It's a matter of taste and what you prefer. Some guys like tobacco fresh while other guys say that they love age. If you like age you like melding and smoothness but the guys who vote fresh want vibrant flavor. Blackhorse once said that he wanted that full flavor.

Some tobaccos don't do well with age, latakia, reportedly. I used to read that about 10 years was its limit, after which it faded; but then in the last few years I've read that prolonged age is fine.

I think it's fair to say that some blends don't age well. I've forgotten which tobaccos are said not to improve, but I believe that burley was also in this category. But anything with at least a third? VA is going to improve. VA ages particularly well. Cumberland is maybe 50% VA but it also has a very significant dallop of KY; that's what gives it its distinctive taste. Moreover that KY is from a large lot bought by Pease and C&D, and it was already 20 years old; not long after, Cumberland was released. Pease told me that it's a large lot. The taste of that KY gives fresh Cumberland distinctive taste, and some don't like it; aged, the VAs comes up and the KY goes down.

Pease has a large amount about aging on his site. He has probably done as much experimentation and study about aging as anyone else.
 
Greg seems to have a real nack for blending stuff that ages well. I attribute that to his, from what I have read, considerable research on the topic. Both smoking and, at least, semi-scientific research on that aspect of blends.

I have very little experience with aged tobacco at this point in my pipe life but I am looking forward to the experience!
 
Thistleoak":dwd6tic3 said:
Probably a really stupid question... can you over age tobacco ?????
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This year I've got into buying aged tins and had some favorable results. I've had several different blends now, with aged Viriginias being head and shoulders above the rest. I can tell you that if you can find something with a significant portion of Virginia in it, you will notice the difference immediately when taking the Pepsi Challenge versus fresh Virginia blends. Today I had some seven year old Montgomery from Greg Pease, which is 100% Virginia (seven different kinds of Virginia, actually). It was fantastic with it's age. Smooth, sweet, bright and zero bite. Now if this was a fresh tin, I could see how it could be tongue bite city if smoked too fast. But today, it was golden.

So to answer your question about too much age?? Virginias I would say, No, you really can't screw up a good virginia. They have the most potential to take on a more mature identity. That's assuming you are aging with sealed container, not opening them up EVER...or if it's a tin, leaving the tin UPOPENED so as not to disturb the aging process. Aging stops after the seal is cracked, for those who don't know. Latakia fades the quickest and pretty significiantly after a only a couple years... not that it isn't enjoyable, cause 'tis. I would speculate that your best bet for it is under three years. Burley, doesn't matter from what I've experienced. It isn't affected by the aging process...not like the others anyway. Perique, ahhhhh perique. Like Viriginia, the sky's the limit. I have several blends with some or a lot of perique in it and they are so much better when they have some years under their belt.

Since I'm not real patient, I can't imagine actually leaving a tin unopened for seven years without having "a weak moment". Fortunately there are plenty of ways to find tins with age to try out, namely Ebay or Pipestud.
 
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