At the tobacconist

[machinebacon]

Has anybody tried this one already?

Balkan Delight
Brand: Peterson
Blender: Kohlhase, Kopp & Co.
Tin Description: A traditional English/Balkan mixture of Oriental and Virginia ribbon with a strong dose of Cyprian Latakia, and spiced up with a bit of Louisiana Perique, Peterson's Balkan Delight is blended to please the experienced smoker.
Country of Origin: IE
Curing Group: Air Cured
Contents:
Virginia
Latakia
Perique
Oriental
Cut: Ribbon
Packaging: 50g Tin

Seems pretty new to me, newer than Hyde Park. Tin looks great.

http://www.peterson.ie/p/6479/balkan-delight
http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_det ... B&TID=5585

[ivanovnegro]

This one has to be new and sounds yummie.

[pidsley]

Did I mention this one yet? Is there anything SG doesn't do to perfection?



Samuel Gawith Brown No.4 Finest Kendal Twist. Along with Black XX, I put this rope in the rotation when I need something "full flavored" and don't care how long it takes to prepare. Ropes take me back to the days when men smoked (and chewed) real tobacco. Don't take this to a party Ivan, unless you want to drive everyone out of the room. This one is best saved for outside, or in my garage with a glass of Canadian Whisky. Cut it up with a razor blade or a pair of scissors, let it dry for the usual extra long time required by SG tobaccos, and enjoy the strength and flavor only a rope can give you. Loads of creamy dark smoke, memories of the old days. Awesome stuff.

[machinebacon]

Long live the pigtail/dog dropping! I suppose this is one (and the XX) are among the top 5 strongest tobaccos ever made.

[ivanovnegro]

Great choice Pidsley. Let me have it on a party. :)

[machinebacon]

Samuel Gawith's Chocolate Flake

I was very very hesitant to order this, because - well, the name is not really what I expect from a pipe tobacco. Then again, this is a Burley-Vagina-Latakia flake, so I knew it cannot be too bad. And indeed, Chocolate Flake has nothing to do with an aromatic flake tobacco like the Danish or German flavors. What we have here is something that comes very close to what can be described as a fragrant, creamy and leathery taste.

It seems that - at least in Asia - the CF is not a popular tobacco, because I got a tin in which the flakes were partly in bloom (will upload some pics later), but the content of the tin is Gawith-typically on the moist side. I rubbed the flakes out, and the Lat literally glued on my fingers, a hashish-type of feeling and smell.

After a few minutes of drying, I packed a rather large bowl with 1.5 flakes and lit up. No signs of artificial or added sweetness, just a nice cloud of Burley and Virginia, supported by the musk Latakia. It is a naturally sweet smoke, and one of the few creations where Burley and Lat play nicely together, thanks to the VA (seemingly this is the same base like Best Brown Flake) that is connecting the coffee-nutty Burley and the leather-malty Latakia. Again, no signs of sweetness, and honestly - if it would not say Chocolate on the tin, I would not even notice it. This is more like the chocolate powder on a cup of cappuccino.
Definitely a recommendation, excellent for this colder weather, but not room-friendly. 4.5 of 5 stars, it is less sweet than "Perfection", and thanks to the Lat a much better flake than "Kendal Cream". Will keep this in rotation.

Next to come: SG Navy Flake (prepare the towel!)

[DebianJoe]

I think that I'm going to ask for a few of these blends for Christmas from my family members. I kept thinking "I don't want a damn thing from anyone," and then it hit me...tobacco would make a good gift for pipe smokers.

[machinebacon]

i agree, it is easy for oneself to pick something for a smoker, and vice versa.

as promised, a pic of chocolate flake

[ivanovnegro]

Looks sweet Bacon. :) I already heard it should be a good baccy and it is on my list. I think it is the real cocoa without sugar therefore it is good.

...and then it hit me...tobacco would make a good gift for pipe smokers.

Hehe, of course, that is what I will get again this year from many sides, yummie.

[machinebacon]

Dave, your xmas present will be delayed, I go back in March :) But the Royal Yacht matures nicely. You can even choose another one, a Sam Gawith of your choice, as I get them quite easily here. Any wishes?


Edit:
[yt]dGT3dCflDok[/yt]
What a punk.

[ivanovnegro]

How about Squadron Leader, one that is more difficult to get here. :) The only ones I get here easily are Navy Flake and Balkan Flake.

[machinebacon]

Squadron Liver for my slivo friend, no problem :D Or maybe Skiff Mixture? I find them quite similar, and I even guess you might like it better than SL, because its Lat is more in front, and it is generally less 'bright' in flavour profile. I'll review the two side-by-side in the next days.

So the decision to delay the SG Navy Flake review was a good one. When I got up this morning I was greeted with typical November weather (at least for this hemisphere) - heavy rain, some wind, and quite chilly temperature. This fits Latakia-enhanced tobaccos very well, IMO.

Navy Flake - there are so many, and all of them are different. It'snot like with "Balkan" mixtures, where you have a kind of recipe that the blenders follow - it is a term that is randomly picked, and the only thing they all have in common is that they are - well, flakes. Actually it would not be necessary to add the "navy" in front, because after all it was the sailors who transported their tobaccos in block form from which slices could be cut off, saving space and preserving tobacco quality on their long journeys over the seven seas. It seems that some blenders add some kind of (alcohol) flavor on top, calling this an "Admiral's Flake" (which you should avoid by all means) or a "Navy Cut" (we are getting closer). I like the idea of alcohol-flavored flakes, as long as it is not overwhelming and not fake.

What qualifies as a good 'navy flake'? In my opinion, it should stand the test of time - backwards. Can I imagine a real seaman (the Popeye-type) smoking a certain flake, say, 300 years ago? Not sure if Popeye would have smoked MacBarens (acceptable!) Navy Flake, and he would definitely have tossed the content of Admiral's Flake into the sea. What about SG's Navy Flake?

I could not get information about when SG started to produce their NF, generally they either mention "200 years" or "new line" when you read their company-own tobacco descriptions. If somebody knows (!) something about the history of NF, please share. I could simply write SG and ask them for some info on their baccys. They are my favourite blenders, still.

NF comes in chunks and slices of different thickness and width. It seems that the VA content here is higher as in Balkan Flake, though I always found them to be very similar. Give it an airing time of 30 minutes, else you will have to relight through the first forth or third of the bowl, which really spoils the taste and enjoyment.

NF has more golden strings of tobacco pressed in the flake, and this also shows in the smoke. While you do get the Lat-iness in taste and especially in appearance (yes, this is still not a room/wife-friendly tobac and the flakes are dark and oily), the taste has a stronger emphasis on the VA, strangely enough. The VA base looks like the Full VA Flake: rubbery, bouncy, and when rubbed out it really expands and stays springy. By the way, it smoked easier and stayed lit longer in a smaller bowl.

The rum is there when you pop the fresh tin, and especially at charring light. Later it develops into a slightly tongue-numbing helper, very little additional taste, but every now and then it comes through and hits your nostrils (that is the place where you actually notice the rum topping, in my opinion). I also noticed that the flavor changes depending on the speed of smoking - as the wind blew a bit stronger, the rum flavouring nearly disappeared, and the VA's hayish/cigarette-ish taste came to front. It is an excellent outdoor tobacco, once you get it lit. Unfortunately, the moist flakes - paired with the VA's natural tendency to bite - can really cause some slight irritation at the tip of the tongue. Rub the flakes out, if you like, and let them air for at least 15 minutes, and give the charring light and the first puffs enough time and attention, else you find yourself alternating between smoking, drinking and lighting.

If you found Commonwealth Mix too flat and too 'burnt' in taste, or the Balkan Flake too heavy on the Lat, then maybe get yourself a NF. Gawith has found a way to wrap up the Lat in a creamy VA and enhancing the flavor with something that you don't even really notice (SG are masters of flavoring, it is there but you can not really put a finger on it)

Of course I am an SG fan (not all of their tobaccos, of course),and the NF is very high on my list. It is a masculine, interesting tobacco, with a lot of flavor changes happening throughout the bowl, and it exactly knows what it wants to be. 4.75 of 5, for me. And I would give it a 5 star rating if ... well, I repeat myself - SG finally manages better flake quality control (I know it is part of their culture but sometimes it really sucks to experiment with it) or offer the NF as mixture. That would be my island tobacco then. Oh wait, maybe there is already something like this, sans the rum? Next review: Skiff Mixture

(pics follow)

[machinebacon]

Dear TobaccoReviews registered user:

The rebuild of TobaccoReviews is having its final polish applied as this email goes out. We expect to go live with the new site on Monday or Tuesday (Nov. 25 or Nov. 26). There may be an hour or two of downtime, but if things go right, it will be almost unnoticeable.

What is noticeable is the redesign of the site. When we started, the plan was to update and repair many of the administrative functions that were, well, they were toast.

But as long as we're at it, we thought, let's ask users if there's anything they'd like to see changed. You may remember that email from last spring. We received hundreds of suggestions for improvements, and most of them made sense, so we tackled a complete rebuild to accommodate the excellent recommendations that came in. We couldn't do everything, but we did a lot.

You're going to be surprised when you see it. It has a much cleaner look and a huge number of new functions. Images are now enabled, so you'll be able to submit photos of the tobaccos (and of yourself if you'd like to have one attached to your profile). New search and sort capabilities will help you more easily find reviewers who have the same tastes as you. Individual reviews can be voted on for helpfulness, a field you can now sort by. You'll be able to see the experience levels and preferences of reviewers so you can determine how much weight to give their opinions.

Reviews can be sorted by several different fields now, so you won't have to wade through them by date alone. We now have a tobacco "type" field for submitting whether a tobacco is an aromatic or English or Virginia/Perique, etc. Searching for tobaccos or reviews is now available by many different fields or any one field. There are so many new capabilities that an email can't list them all.

When I first saw the new design, my immediate response was, "Well, this isn't going to work." The site's appearance hides its functionality. An hour of exploration proved to me that we were building a superior site, and I hope you'll give it the same chance. Let your cursor hover over various elements to discover layers of new options. Click different graphs and headers to find different sort features. Wander through the site, experience what it offers, explore its capabilities—we think you'll be impressed.

Changes will be necessary. There are thousands of errors in the database that we as a community can repair. In the past, and for very rational reasons, any change needed to go through a moderator. Because we have new fields to populate, we are turning off moderation for the following categories:
Blend Type, Contents, Flavors, Cut, ImageFile and Production Status (whether currently available). You can change these items in a blend without moderation for the short term, so that we can all benefit from the quick population of the new fields and the correction of inaccurate information. However, as you can imagine, if people start uploading inappropriate images, we'll have to turn the moderation function back on, which will slow things down. I think our community can be trusted to handle this database with care.

By the way, SmokingPipes.com has given us permission to use any tobacco tin images from its site, so if you're looking for images to add to the reviews, it's a good source. Please thank them for their kindness and contribution to TobaccoReviews by visiting them and placing an order when you're next looking for tobacco.

Please log in to TobaccoReviews next week and check out the new site. Let us know what you think, and enjoy one of our hobby's most entertaining and instructive resources.


Chuck Stanion
Pipes and tobaccos magazine
3101 Poplarwood Court, Suite 115
Raleigh, NC 27604

www.pipesandtobaccosmagazine.com

[ivanovnegro]

Great review as usual and wow, finally pics at tobaccoreviews.

And sure, I forgot to say Skiff, too.

[machinebacon]

Squadron Leader (top) vs. Skiff Mixture (down)

They never been so similar in taste like in this bunch. Something is fishy here... I only noticed the Squad Ldr is a bit more oriental-sour (bit like London Mixture), while Skiff is more Lat-ish (like Standard Mixture).

Have to investigate....

[DebianJoe]

Rincon De La Pipa No. 1

Holy hell, what have I been missing?!?! I had answered the question "What do you want for Christmas" with "Tobaccos...pipe tobaccos." So, today, my wife gave me this saying "I don't know if it would store in a closet well until the 25th." So, I took out her grandfather's pipe, which is a small old hand-carved Irish pipe, and lit up a bowl.

The Rincon No. 1 is a blend with a heavy Balkan influence. I got 8oz of it, and would note that it was pretty dry out of the bag. Lit up without any trouble, and instantly I was stunned. It has some Oriental overtones, but is surprisingly smooth and doesn't bite the tongue. It's heavily bodied, and my wife said it smelled like old-leather and cream (room note?). There isn't any unnatural honey flavoring as far as I can detect. I really like it, but my adjustment from regularly smoking what I'd call "trash tobacco" to something of some quality may cause me some bias. So here's some reviews from people who actually know what they're talking about.

I love it.

[machinebacon]

Rule of thumb: when there's Lat, it doesn't bite.

Welcome to the reviewer's circle, glad to have you around :)

[pidsley]

Joe, you might also want to read (and join) pipesmokersforum.com. Lots of friendly pipe smokers; I know you probably don't need another forum to read, but you might enjoy it.

I have a fairly diverse cellar and could send you a package of samples if you are interested. I made this offer to pdiddy and he never took me up on it (I think because he values his privacy too much to give me his address, which I completely understand) but if you'd like some free tobacco, send me a PM with your address and tell me what you like and what you would like to try.

And I'll just throw these out there again: http://www.smokingpipes.com http://www.4noggins.com

[ivanovnegro]

Old-leather and cream, that's how we like it here.

[DebianJoe]

I received the "Pidsley sampler" today. All I can say is that I really appreciate the variety and effort that was put into it.

1. It wasn't a mail bomb.
2. I've yet to die from poisoning.
3. Pidsley took the time to bag up a collection of tobaccos from his collection and send them to me via UPS, which I really appreciate.

I tried out cornell & diehl "Bayou Morning" so far, and it's a blend of Virginias and perique. I found it to be really light on the first few puffs, but by the time that I finished a bowl, I was starting to get a bit dizzy. Much stronger than I had anticipated. I will say that I enjoy the "earthy" tone of the taste, and it has an almost spiceless room note.

For future purposes, I'll probably use a smaller pipe for it. The pipe that I used is a straight pipe with no filter of any kind. It was a bit stout for this, but I wanted to try it in something freshly cleaned and scraped.