GLPease 'Cairo'

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puros_bran

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Cairo is an interesting tobacco. It defies being stuffed into a typical catagory. Virginias,Orientals, and Perique...What do you call it?

Upon opening the tin the nose is assaulted with goodness. For two years I have been trying to decipher what I've been smelling. My closest guess is a box of valentine chocolates.
The tobacco is irregular cut, a bit dry, with light and medium browns and a very slight smattering of dark colors.
It packs and lights easy due to the cut and humidity level.
Smoked slow this may be the most rewarding mixture I've ever smoked. I don't fully understand where the citrus note comes from but its there throughout the smoke. The citrus leaves the mouth feeling clean and refreshed. On its own this effect would be enough to make me like this, but there is more.
As the bowl burns down through the stages it releases various flavors. Several degrees of sweetness, a fig newton like taste,a slightly funky 'must', but the one that baffles me is a nutty flavor, almost like cashews. If I didn't know the contents I'd swear it was burley I taste.
The mixture burns to a clean greyish ash with no dottle.

Remember I said 'Smoked Slow'. If you waste this tobacco by smoking it hot you will be rewarded with a mild case of bite and be convinced there's no flavor to be had. Smoke SLOW.
 
I have two WordPerfect files that itemize my cellar.

One is for va/vaper/vaburley. The other is for English/Balkan.

Cairo started out on the English/Balkan list then got moved to the va list and is now back with the E/B list. It is the only blend that I have done this with.

I agree with pb in that I can't agree with this one.

:bounce:

There is one tobacco that doesn't belong on either list,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nux Gallica.
 
Great review PB!

I used to smoke Cairo quite a bit. It is one of my favorite Pease blends along with Stratford and Cumberland.
 
I love a mystery-better make an order so I can help out here.....Long live GLP----
Thanks for the description,PB.You make it sound very tempting.
Is this one I should try as soon as received,or let it settle down in the tin for awhile?Or....get several tins and open at increments of six months....
So many tobaccos.Hope we all have plenty of time!
Peace!Tony
 
Good question Bro Tony.

Like all Pease blends I'm sure its designer kept aging in mind but I'm not the one to answer abot its aging potential.
Every tin I've smoked has been between 6 months and 2 years old, the difference is undescernable to me. I could probably tell if I had them open side by side but that never happens.


One thing I left out of the review. I find I blow more smoke rings with this mixture than usual. I've never been able to sit around with my conspiracy theorys and anti-anti-everything mind set smoking this stuff.
 
I've found Cairo to be a departure for GL Pease blends. Most change noticeably with 6+ months in the tin, but Cairo seems to need a lot more time to change significantly. With 3+ years in the tin, the tobacco smooths out, the color of the tobacco melds, and the tin aroma becomes somewhat wine like.

I'm a big fan of Cairo when it's young, and with significant age it's very special. I have a few tins that I bought back in 2000...I'm waiting for the right reason to pop them. I continue to buy Cairo so that I'll always have older tins in the cellar.
 
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with this blend, which I personally classify as an "oriental" mixture. I love the flavor and room note, but it bites me harder than almost anything I've ever smoked. This happens regardless of how cool or slow I smoke it, which ultimately led me to drop it from my rotation (the last time I had a bowl I only got a third of the way through it, and my tongue was actually so raw it was bleeding). I think I'm just having some kind of idiosynchratic reaction to one of the components, which is really a shame because it'd be one of my top blends otherwise.
 
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