My first english experience

[Gumball]

I keep forgetting about trying Squadron Leader, I have to add that to the list.

My first English Blend and the baccy that made me realise there is more (form me) to pipe smoking that sticky-toffee-pudding aromatics.

Latakia blends took my enjoyment of the briar to a whole new level :cheers:

 

[riff raff]

I keep forgetting about trying Squadron Leader, I have to add that to the list.

My first English Blend and the baccy that made me realise there is more (form me) to pipe smoking that sticky-toffee-pudding aromatics.

Latakia blends took my enjoyment of the briar to a whole new level :cheers:

I concur, I haven't found an aromatic that I enjoy since going to the Lat-Side and I just stopped even trying them.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Thanks for clarifying (what there is left to clarify)... :lol: ...and the links/articles.

Mr. Pease has been the author of a lot of insightful and interesting takes on tobacco and pipes lately that I've thoroughly enjoyed. 8)

 

[glpease]

Hi Riff Raff,

The Savinelli is 30% Lat, which seems like it might be alot. Maybe that was the problem.


Bill

30% Latakia is quite a bit. There are some stronger Lat bombs on the market, though. Two that come to mind are Old Ironsides and C&D Pirate Kake.

Smokey

A couple quick thoughts.

There's actually little that can be learned from the percentage of latakia in the mixture, with respect to whether or not the mixture will be a latakia bomb. That said, 30% really isn't all that much in today's formulations, or even in some of yesterday's classics. The balance of the rest of the ingredients makes all the difference.

If there's a lot of oriental leaf along with it, the latakia tends to make a less dominant statement. When I first brought out my Westminster, I was offering samples at a pipe show. A knowledgeable piper I know tried it, loved it, and said, "This is so nicely balanced. I can't stand all these new blends that are pushing up against half-latakia!" He was shocked when I told him Westminster not only pushed up against that, but through it.

Piccadilly, on the other hand, has less than 30%, yet the latakia is quite pronounced, because of the softer nature of the other ingredients. Interestingly, Ashbury has a just a bit less than Piccadilly, but tastes like it has a LOT less, again, because of the oriientals that dominate the rest of the mixture.

I was visiting a wine maker friend the other day, and he remarked that a cuvée he'd just finished for the year had "only 12% syrah," but its powerful voice came through loud and clear in the blend.

This is one of the reasons I don't publicize percentages of the constituents of my blends. It just doesn't tell much of an interesting story.

Cheers,
Greg

 

[glpease]

Thanks for clarifying (what there is left to clarify)... :lol: ...and the links/articles.

Mr. Pease has been the author of a lot of insightful and interesting takes on tobacco and pipes lately that I've thoroughly enjoyed. 8)

Thank you!

-glp

 

[user 2031]

...

 

[glpease]

Really potentially obvious or dumb question time (but the asker is quite shameless):

...what, exactly, makes an "English" tobacco?

Actually, this is an awesome question and one which is a matter of contention. I've asked this question so many times I've lost count and gotten as many answers.

I've had tobacconists tell me that an English blend is simply one that is not a straight VA blend. Tobacconist University uses this definition.

I've had tobacconists tell me that an English contains a higher percentage of Latakia than other blends; Balkans containing more orientals.

I've had tobacconists tell me that English tobaccos are blends that come exclusively from England!

While all of this may be true (except the last one. Sheesh!), my experience tells me that the most accurate differentiation lies in the second explanation. A good English is going to be a blend which has a Latakia presence which is greater than the percentage of orientals. That's the best that I've got.

Well, I see a link to my article on the subject has already been posted, so I don't have to look it up... Grazie molto, Signore Buscati!

In summary, some of those blends that are considered benchmarks of the definition of "Balkan blend" have actually a rather small percentage of oriental leaf, including the fabled original Balkan Sobranie from the 1970s and early 1980s, when it actually still contained some Yenidje leaf. "English mixtures," of which I consider the original London Mixture to be a prime example, often contain rather a high percentage of oriental leaf.

Yet, for some reason, we've all grown up thinking that "Balkan" meant high percentages of oriental and less virginias, and "English" meant more virginias and less orientals.

My conclusion is that at best, the terms are interchangeable, and at worst, are completely meaningless. I've take to using "Latakia mixture" to refer to blends in which it's a dominant component.

-glp

 

[glpease]

A couple quick thoughts.

There's actually little that can be learned from the percentage of latakia in the mixture, with respect to whether or not the mixture will be a latakia bomb. That said, 30% really isn't all that much in today's formulations, or even in some of yesterday's classics. The balance of the rest of the ingredients makes all the difference.

If there's a lot of oriental leaf along with it, the latakia tends to make a less dominant statement. When I first brought out my Westminster, I was offering samples at a pipe show. A knowledgeable piper I know tried it, loved it, and said, "This is so nicely balanced. I can't stand all these new blends that are pushing up against half-latakia!" He was shocked when I told him Westminster not only pushed up against that, but through it.

Piccadilly, on the other hand, has less than 30%, yet the latakia is quite pronounced, because of the softer nature of the other ingredients. Interestingly, Ashbury has a just a bit less than Piccadilly, but tastes like it has a LOT less, again, because of the oriientals that dominate the rest of the mixture.

I was visiting a wine maker friend the other day, and he remarked that a cuvée he'd just finished for the year had "only 12% syrah," but its powerful voice came through loud and clear in the blend.

This is one of the reasons I don't publicize percentages of the constituents of my blends. It just doesn't tell much of an interesting story.

Cheers,
Greg

Very interesting. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right. Most of my favorite blends are G.L.Pease blends!

Thanks so much! I'll never tire of hearing (or seeing) those words! I love my job!

 

[Kyle Weiss]

See, GL does it again: here I am, a decent cook both professionally at one point and at home, knowing certain ingredients have nuances with their nature (either more oe less flavor, type of flavor, etc.)--and here I am in ignorance assuming tobacco is logarhythmic and all set on the same scale. Never mind I already knew process, curing aging, storing, pressure etc, has an effect on overall result. It just didn't immediately occur to me that you can use less intense of one tobacco to bring out the flavor of another, where a novice might just use stronger tobacco.

Kind of like if you want more sound do you use more power or get better (or more) speakers? I have a Harman Kardon amp from 1971 that only 40 watts per channel that overpowers any modern 300 watt amp in its class... It's about balane, not power. Evidently tobacco is similar. I should have known.

 

[riff raff]

I've yet to sample a GL Pease blend, which seems like an egregious oversight!
Can someone recommend a mild English in that line?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I've yet to sample a GL Pease blend, which seems like an egregious oversight!
Can someone recommend a mild English in that line?

Hear hear... I love the straight VA "Union Square" from GL, but I'd love to try a nice mild English, too. 8)

 

[riff raff]

Stumbled across this GL Pease vs Sobranie comparison this morning, it seems I'll have to find some Meridian. I have a tin of the new Sobranie (and Solani, untried). The Sobranie was all right, but I wouldn't rush back for another tin, as if I could find one. The biggest issue I had with the new Sobranie was it burned into such a fine ash, it constantly clogged the draft hole of the pipe (several), which was quite irritating.

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-tobacco-reviews/balkan-sobranie-re-release-review-and-throwdown/

 

[user 2031]

...

 

[deepbass9]

Great link on the Pease article Alfredo! This link, to a book no longer in print was in the reader comments. Tough to read online, but probably worth printing the 75 pages.
http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_s1/TI56720085.pdf

haha...page 17 "plum pudding taste"....cool!


Yes, Maltese Falcon is a good GLP that won't smoke you out by any means. Chelsea AM, too.

 

[ArchaggelosPipes]

My first english mixture was Dunhill MM695, I loved this tobacco.Then Onyx and Squadron leader were good for my taste but I still can't smoke them more than 2-3 times in a week.

 

[riff raff]

Hmm, I picked up a tin of GLP Merdian yesterday and just finished a bowl in my new (old) Comoys and now my James Upshall. It didn't light well and I really didn't enjoy the flavor that much. I jarred it and will have to revisit when it gets some age. It didn't seem particuarly moist, but just would not stay lit. Maybe I've become too accustomed to my Boswell Magnum, which is a much milder blend.