My first taste of Penzance!

[joequo]

I finally procured some Esoterica Penzance recently and fired up my first bowl of it for lunch. A lot has been said about this blend already and much of my feelings are echoed in the hundreds of reviews floating around the web but...WOW this stuff is excellent. Full, rich, CREAMY smoke. This stuff is so smooth. This is not the strongest lat-forward blend I've smoked but it is the most complex and the creamiest. It delivers flavors that are in the same ballpark as one of my other favorite blends, Lancer's Slices, but Penzance takes that and refines it many, many times over. Totally worth the hype, in my opinion. Let the hoarding begin!!!

 

[Storm_Crow]

I'll have to give it another go. Penzance didn't float my boat the first time I tried it, but admittedly that was really quite some time ago.

Nowadays my go to complex lat forward blend is Odyssey, which is a truly outstanding smoke.

Have you tried Odyssey? If so, how do you feel it compares to Penzance?

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Hilarious Mason Jar label.

Storm, in my experience comparing Odyssey to Penzance is a bit of an apples to oranges scenario. Odyssey, especially a tin with very little age on it is almost overly-complex. If find Penzance to be full-bodied, semi-complex, but at the same time mild and billowy soft on the palate. Someone wrote recently on here about how Penzance has kind of a one-note flavor. I agree with this, but I would call a very unified and harmonious flavor, never tiring but very little segregation flavor wise. I never find myself smoking it and thinking "oh I taste the VA component, and now I am tasting the Turkish, etc." Where that was definitely my experience with Odyssey. Obviously this has everything to do with the cut/pressing of the product.

 

[idbowman]

I love the use of "hello my name is" tags for the bulk jars. Had to do the "fake a cough so no one thinks your laughing at work" routine just now.

 

[Storm_Crow]

Hilarious Mason Jar label.

Storm, in my experience comparing Odyssey to Penzance is a bit of an apples to oranges scenario. Odyssey, especially a tin with very little age on it is almost overly-complex. If find Penzance to be full-bodied, semi-complex, but at the same time mild and billowy soft on the palate. Someone wrote recently on here about how Penzance has kind of a one-note flavor. I agree with this, but I would call a very unified and harmonious flavor, never tiring but very little segregation flavor wise. I never find myself smoking it and thinking "oh I taste the VA component, and now I am tasting the Turkish, etc." Where that was definitely my experience with Odyssey. Obviously this has everything to do with the cut/pressing of the product.

Yea, I didn't recall it as being much like Odyssey, but I was such a lat newbie at the time I smoke Penzance.

When I think "smooth lat" I think of Artisan Blend, 3 Oaks Syrian, Maltese Falcon, or Sillem's Black. I suppose Penzance bridges the gap between smooth and complex? Not as smooth as 3 Oaks Syrian, and not as complex as Odyssey, but with some of the qualities of both?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Hilarious Mason Jar label.

Storm, in my experience comparing Odyssey to Penzance is a bit of an apples to oranges scenario. Odyssey, especially a tin with very little age on it is almost overly-complex. If find Penzance to be full-bodied, semi-complex, but at the same time mild and billowy soft on the palate. Someone wrote recently on here about how Penzance has kind of a one-note flavor. I agree with this, but I would call a very unified and harmonious flavor, never tiring but very little segregation flavor wise. I never find myself smoking it and thinking "oh I taste the VA component, and now I am tasting the Turkish, etc." Where that was definitely my experience with Odyssey. Obviously this has everything to do with the cut/pressing of the product.

This. 8)

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Yea, I didn't recall it as being much like Odyssey, but I was such a lat newbie at the time I smoke Penzance.

When I think "smooth lat" I think of Artisan Blend, 3 Oaks Syrian, Maltese Falcon, or Sillem's Black. I suppose Penzance bridges the gap between smooth and complex? Not as smooth as 3 Oaks Syrian, and not as complex as Odyssey, but with some of the qualities of both?

Storm, I have no reference point with Artisan Bend or 3 Oaks Syrian, although I do have some 3 Oaks Syrian in my cellar. Of course Syrian Lat, at least the mixtures that I have tried is very subtle compared to its Cyprian counterpart.

However, compared to Maltese Falcon, which I have smoked a lot of, I'd say that Maltese is sweeter, drier, spicier and more lively on the tongue than Penzance. While Falcon surely has a smoothness to it, to me Penzance is softer, creamier and a bit greasy. Penzance represents something special in that it's very refined. You get this full blown flavor from a very mild easy to smoke tobacco. At times, with a lot of full flavor Latakia blends I experience a bit of mouth fatigue usually in the form of a leathery/zapped tongue feeling. I have never experienced this smoking Penzance.

Whether Penzance bridges any kind of gap between smooth and complex I can't say for sure, but I can say that I really like it and subjectively for my taste it is really is something special.

 

[Fishfuzz]

Love the label! Did you make them yourself or find them somewhere?