Hearth & Home -- Egg Nog

Brand: Hearth & Home
Blend: Egg Nog
Style: Aromatic
Pipe Used: Savinelli Oscar Natural # 313
Price: $6.59/1.5oz.
Appearance: 8
Taste: 5
Room Note: 7
Value: 7
Overall: 6

Unlike many pipesters who look down their noses at aromatic tobaccos I've always enjoyed and appreciated the various flavors and aromas that can only be found in this type of blend.  Sometimes you just want to smoke and smell sweet cherries, butterscotch candy, and perhaps some holiday egg nog.

As much as I like aromatics I'm even more smitten by seasonal, AKA Christmas, blends and look forward to each year's new offerings as well as regular favorites.  While placing an order for Hearth & Home's Fusilier's Ration (run, don't walk, and order some tins right now...I'll wait) I decided to give their tasty-sounding Egg Nog blend a try.

The tobacco in the tin was a nice looking ribbon cut blend of black and brown tobaccos and had a pleasant, but not overpowering, aroma of cinnamon and other holiday spices.  I quickly loaded up my dedicated aromatic pipe, lit the bowl, and was off and smoking.

On the positive side the blend smoked cleanly and coolly all the way to the bottom of the bowl and never once bit or gurgled even with my usual overzealous pipe smoking.  The room aroma was also nice though a bit subdued for my taste.

As for the taste it was, in a word, forgetful.  Advertised as having rum, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg flavors all I got out of this blend was some very light tobacco topped with just a hint of vanilla and the barest dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I was expecting a real "Ho-ho-ho here comes Santa!" over-the-top aromatic experience like that found in McClelland's superb Holiday Spirit.  Instead I found myself smoking bowl after bowl of well-behaved, yet ultimately bland, tobacco.

Hearth & Home's Egg Nog features great smoking characteristics and has a nice aroma but it just doesn't pack enough flavor to break into my aromatics rotation. I didn't dislike it but there are so many more enjoyable offerings out there that I can't see myself bothering with Egg Nog in the future.

Hearth & Home -- Fusilier's Ration

Brand: Hearth & Home
Blend: Fusilier's Ration
Style: English
Pipe Used: No Name Apple
Price: $10.50/2oz.

Appearance: 10
Taste: 10
Room Note: 8
Value: 8
Overall: 9

Russ Ouellette at the Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe (AKA PipesandCigars.com) has quietly been creating some of the most innovative new pipe blends over the past couple of years.  And as if that weren't enough he's also been introducing blends that pay tribute to some of the long lost tobacco favorites of pipe days gone by.

When I first heard about Fusilier's Ration through the Internet grapevine I was immediately hooked for a couple of reasons.  As a fan of Bernard Cornwell's Napoleonic-era Sharpe series the name of the blend and the excellent tin art certainly piqued my interest.  But what really had me salivating was the fact that this blend was a tribute to the long-gone Bengal Slices, a blend that I never had the chance to try but sounds like it would have been an instant favorite of mine.

Upon opening the tin the first thing I noticed was the aroma of the tobacco.  As a Latakia fiend I find few things as instantly reassuring as that sweet smell of campfire smoke and cedar.  The blend also has a top note of some kind that reminded me of citrus and fresh berries.  Mouthwatering to be sure.

The blend itself is packaged as a krumble, or broken, kake so you're likely to find whole chunks of pressed tobacco mixed in with bits of cross-cut leaf caused by, you guessed it, crumbling of the cake.  The blend is an attractive mix of various tobaccos ranging from jet black to light tan and the kake is very firmly packed so you know it was in a press for quite some time.

To load my pipe I just broke off a piece of the kake, rubbed it out between my palms, and gently filled the bowl to the brim.  Since the blend was very fresh I knew it would have some moisture so I wanted to give it space to expand in the pipe and still allow any steam to escape out the top rather than down the stem and into my mouth.  It took a while to get the pipe lit but once it got a nice smolder going it burned fairly well for such a young blend.

In the wide and varied world of pipe tobaccos there are blends that take a while to grow on you and those that immediately grab you by the lapels and proclaim themselves your new favorite.  Fusilier's Ration is very firmly positioned in the latter camp.

Until now my favorite blend has remained Count Pulaski, a relatively unknown light English blend from Altadis.  It's a blend that has everything I most like in a pipe tobacco.  The stalwart Fusilier is a very similar sort of blend except that it offers up just a bit more.

The flavor profile is well-balanced and the constituent tobaccos sing together in perfect harmony.  Savory, satisfying Latakia melds its leathery smokiness with the sweetly acidic Virginias while the Oriental leaf lends a bit of spicy incense to cut the richness of the Black Cavendish.  And the topping adds just the slightest taste of fresh fruit that really mellows the blend.  This tobacco is meant to be sipped, savored, and pondered over as the smoke slowly curls about your head.

The room aroma is just as delectable as the taste and reminds me of mesquite or cherrywood smoke mixed with sweet BBQ sauce.

Explaining why you like a certain pipe tobacco is as hard as explaining why you prefer redheads over, well, everybody else.  For me, Fusilier's Ration just hits all the high points that make for the perfect smoke -- the ritual of preparing the kake tobacco, the slow smoldering burn, the richly complex yet satisfying taste, and even the sweetly scented wisps of smoke.  When I picture pipe smoking in my mind's eye this is exactly the type of blend that I imagine myself smoking.  No higher compliment can be paid.

I may never get a chance to try the Celebrated Bengal Slices but at this point I can't say I much care.  As long as my cellar is stocked with Fusilier's Ration and Russ continues churning out one excellent blend after another then I will happily enjoy the bounty available today rather than pining after those long-lost classics.  As the tin states; "Fusilier's Ration -- Pipe Tobacco"  full-stop.

Gallaher -- Condor Ready Rubbed

Brand: Gallaher
Blend: Condor Ready Rubbed
Style: Lakeland
Pipe Used: Cob
Price: Acquired via Trade

Appearance: 8
Taste: 6
Room Note: 6
Value: NA
Overall: 6

In the U.S. the popular, old-time pipe tobaccos are affectionately referred to as drugstore or over the counter (OTC) blends because way back in the hazy past when most men smoked pipes these were the blends that were available at every newsstand and corner store. If your granddad smoked a pipe then he most likely smoked one of these classics.

The same is true for pipe smokers across the pond except that in the UK they smoked, and continue to smoke, a completely different line-up of classic blends. Most of these are no longer sold in the US so the only way to acquire them is through a fast diminishing handful of websites or tobacco trades and swaps with fellow brothers of the leaf.

A few years back I traded for two, 50g pouches of Condor Ready Rubbed and they somehow ended up buried deep in my tobacco stash. Last week I did a much needed inventory of my cellar and at the bottom of a box I found those two emerald green pouches and decided to jar them up and finally give the blend a try.

To my mind a Lakeland blend is a British aromatic style that uses natural floral and botanical flavorings layered on top of strong tobacco. I have had mixed results with Lakeland style blends and know that they usually ghost a pipe almost immediately upon smoking so I decided to use one of my trusty cobs instead of a briar pipe.

Even after a few years left in the pouch the tobacco was still at a perfect smoking moisture level. The dark, reddish brown tobacco was very finely cut and felt and packed just like a classic shag cut blend.

The pouch aroma gave immediate notice that this was a Lakeland blend as it smelled of rich, sweet tobacco and that almost cloying mixture of floral and citrus scents that are the hallmarks of this style.

The pipe lit right up and after the first few hard puffs I was rewarded with an itchy sensation in the back of my throat. That was my first warning that this was not a blend to be hurried through.

The flavor was initially subdued with the sweet taste of the Virginia leaf coming through. But it didn't take long for the Lakeland essence to make its presence known and soon enough all I could taste was potpourri. I tried slowing my smoking cadence down a bit and that did help to temper it somewhat as I began to taste a faint coffee and liquor presence instead.

As if wrestling with the gamut of flavors wasn't enough, Condor Ready Rubbed is also a strong tobacco and all the puffing and fussing soon had me feeling the effects of the nicotine. The blend is like a brute in a fancy suit with a flower in his lapel -- as you lean forward to sniff the blossom he lands a right hook to your jaw.

The room aroma was also overpowering and the smell of potpourri and incense hung in the room for hours much to my chagrin.

Condor Ready Rubbed is a classic UK pipe tobacco that falls firmly in the love it or hate it category. While I appreciated it on some levels I find that I just can't get around that classic Lakeland essence. I've always been sensitive to perfumes and such so this is clearly never going to be my style of tobacco. That being said, it did burn quite nicely and packed a real punch so I can see how it has stuck around for so long. I'm glad I had a chance to try the stuff but I think I'll be passing the remainder on to the next pipe smoker who wants to give it a whirl.

Cornell & Diehl -- Star of the East

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Star of the East
Style: Balkan
Pipes Used: Cob & Briar
Price: $10.40/4oz.

Appearance: 8
Taste: 8
Room Note: 8
Value: 9
Overall: 8

I've spent much of the past year revisiting old blends and therefore haven't opened a new tin in quite some time. As part of that process I've been smoking many English and Balkan style tobaccos and have found that I really enjoy those with a healthy amount of Oriental leaf. So in my most recent tobacco order I decided to try some of Cornell & Diehl's Star of the East as it is often cited as packing a lot of Turkish punch.

The tobacco was a ribbon-cut mixture of black, tan, and dark brown leaf. The aroma in the pouch was very much Latakia-forward and reminded me of Balkan Supreme, my current favorite Balkan blend. Upon lighting up I was immediately surrounded with a cloud of thick white smoke that remained until the final embers in the pipe died down to ash. Since the blend is advertised as containing 50% Latakia I was fully prepared for a somewhat funky smell but was surprised to find that the Orientals really took charge and brought a pleasant incense-like aroma.

The Latakia was also somewhat subdued in the flavor department and lent a creamy, piney taste rather than the expected leather and oil profile. Mixed with the Turkish leaf this lent the blend a light flavor with hints of jasmine tea. The Red Virgina came on about halfway through the bowl and brought some very welcome nutty sweetness to cut the spice a bit. The smoke finally wound down with an almost astringent aftertaste that left my palate feeling nice and refreshed -- not typical behavior for a so-called Latakia-bomb.

Everything from the aroma to the flavor and even the burn characteristics reminded me of the aforementioned Balkan Supreme but this blend was less forceful and much more subtle. If you're looking for a true Latakia-bomb stick with Pirate Kake or Lancer's Slices but if you're searching for a pleasant Oriental blend then Cornell & Diehl's Star of the East fits the bill perfectly.

Pulaski Day

Being new to Illinois I had no idea that there was an official state holiday to commemorate the great Polish cavalry hero of the American Revolution, Casimir Pulaski. Since Count Pulaski is one of my favorite pipe tobacco blends you better believe I'll be loading up a bowl to celebrate the life and accomplishments of this truly unique hero.

How the Time Does Fly

I can't believe it's been 8 months since my last post/review. A very unexpected cross-country move certainly put a big dent in my time and access to my pipes and tobaccos but the real reason for my neglect of this blog is that I've been revisiting and enjoying some of my favorite blends as of late so I haven't popped open a new tin in quite some time hence there's been nothing to review. I'm thinking of posting some snuff reviews on the site as that should give me something to write about.