Hearth & Home -- Classic Burley Kake

Brand: Hearth & Home
Blend: Classic Burley Kake
Style: Burley/Virginia
Pipe Used: Savinelli Natural #313
Price: $19.99/8oz.

Appearance: 7
Taste: 8
Room Note: 8
Value: 7
Overall: 8

Classic Burley Kake is a house blend created by Russ Oullette for the Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe (better known as pipesandcigars.com). This blend of various burley and Virginia tobaccos with rum, cocoa, and anise flavorings is a krumble kake and depending on how it was treated in the mail it may well be primarily ribbon-cut by the time it arrives on your doorstep. The order I received was about 25% kake and the rest had already fallen apart.

The tobacco was light to medium brown and just moist enough to hold the kake pieces together. The aroma of the unlit tobacco reminded me of classic New Orleans style bread pudding and smelled of rum-soaked raisins, vanilla, and a hint of rich chocolate.

I loaded my Savinelli Natural #313 with pieces of pre-broken tobacco, gave it a charring light and a gentle tamp, and started smoking.

From the first puff the blend reminded me of another pipesandcigars.com house blend, Butternut Burley. The tobacco had that same nutty burley base with hints of dark rum, vanilla, and maple syrup. Even the burnt caramel room aroma was the same.

Where the two tobaccos differed was in the ratios of the various flavors. Whereas Butternut Burley brings its aromatic features to the fore the Classic Burley Kake allows the tobacco to take center stage and the other flavorings serve as mere condiments. The addition of cocoa and anise flavors to the krumble kake also added some extra sweetness and a lingering tingle on the tongue that reminded me of lemongrass.

The Classic Burley Kake burned easily and never turned bitey even after some hard puffing. All that was left in the pipe was some dark ash and a bit of dottle.

This Hearth & Home blend offered up a delightful and flavorful smoke but given the fact that its little brother Butternut Burley can be had for half the cost I think I'll stick with that all too similar blend and leave the Classic Burley Kake for those times when I feel like fussing with a krumble kake.

Hearth & Home -- Anniversary Kake

Brand: Hearth & Home
Blend: Anniversary Kake
Style: Virginia/Perique
Pipe Used: Cob
Price: $19.99/8oz.

Appearance: 7
Taste: 7
Room Note: 8
Value: 7
Overall: 7

Anniversary Kake is a well regarded house blend created by Russ Oullette and crew at the Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe (better known in the online world as pipesandcigars.com) This Virginia/Perique (Va/Per) blend arrives as a krumble kake (don't ask me why the pipe world insists on this odd spelling) and depending on how it was treated in the post it may well be primarily ribbon-cut by the time it arrives on your doorstep. The order I received was about 25% kake and the rest had already crumbled (or is that krumbled?) apart.

The tobacco itself was medium brown in color and while not exactly damp it was very, very sticky. The aroma was top-notch and smelled of dried dates and fruit leather.

Because the blend was so goopy I decided to smoke it in a cob. The crumbled tobacco loaded easily and lit right up.

While I have a fair number of Va/Pers in my cellar I still haven't found one that really does the trick for me so I had high hopes given the almost universal praise for Anniversary Kake. Sadly, this blend failed to fully live up to my admittedly high expectations.

The flavor was nice but fairly mild and the advertised St. James Perique never really made its presence known on the palate. I'm a big Perique fan and just can't abide a VA/Per that's so lacking in the Per department. The presence of the various Virginia tobaccos was also somewhat muted and the rich sweetness I've come to expect from this leaf just wasn't there in enough force.

The room note was pretty nice and had that classic grandpa's old pipe smell that most folks seem to appreciate.

The tobacco burned well and only required a few relights along the way. It also remained bite-free and the Perique stayed fairly mellow on the tongue. Although the tobacco was sticky when I loaded the pipe it didn't leave any messy residue behind leading me to believe that no nasty artificial flavorings or preservatives were used in this blend.

Towards the end of the bowl an odd taste and smell emerged and that's when I finally realized why this blend seemed so familiar. To my palate Anniversary Kake tasted like the big brother to the classic drugstore blend Half & Half. Everything from the pouch aroma to the taste to the room note reminded me of this OTC blend. That's not a knock as I actually enjoy Half & Half but it certainly isn't at all what I expected from a Va/Per.

Anniversary Kake is a good, solid tobacco but it just didn't click for me as a VA/Per and as such my hunt for that perfect combination of sweet and spicy will continue. In the interests of fairness I gave the blend a try in both a meerschaum and a briar and while the meer seemed to make the tobacco shine the best it still just didn't impress me all that much.

Samuel Gawith -- Best Brown Flake

Brand: Samuel Gawith
Blend: Best Brown Flake
Style: Virginia
Pipe Used: Savinelli Oscar #313
Price: $26.76/16oz.

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

As a big fan of straight Virginias I've been purchasing tins of various blends to sample for the past few years. I figured I would have plenty of time to find my favorites and stock up but the perfect storm of further taxes looming on the horizon and the increasing scarcity of popular blends led me to do something drastic -- I purchased one pound of Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake even though I had never even tried the tobacco before. At just over $25 bucks it was cheaper than any of the so-called drugstore blends that come in 14oz. tins and since I've yet to be disappointed by a Sam Gawith offering I figured I would take my chances and get it while the getting was good.

The medium brown flakes arrived in a cellophane wrapped box and were quite moist. I left one flake out to dry for a few hours and cellared the rest in half pint Mason jars. The flakes looked great with various swirling birdseye patterns made up of contrasting light and dark tobaccos. The aroma was that of sweet dried fruit and fresh-cut hay with just a hint of sandalwood incense.

Normally I rub out flakes before smoking but since this one was still pliable I cut it in half, folded it up, stuffed it into my Savinelli Oscar, and sprinkled a few bits of loose tobacco on top to get things burning. My normal pipe lighter wasn't up to the task of igniting this damp flake so I turned to my trusty Zippo with pipe insert and it had no trouble with the task.

The initial flavor was that classic Virginia sweetness reminiscent of slightly burnt caramel. While lighter Virginias often taste of sweet hay the Best Brown Flake was a little more robust and had undertones of freshly roasted corn on the cob.

As the tobacco continued to smolder a bit of tingling spice began to emerge and the flavor reminded me of sesame oil and a hint of pine resin. But at no time did the prevailing sweetness abate. Rather, these other flavors served to enhance that primary Virginia attribute.

I have to admit that I was enjoying myself and smoked the pipe hard and fast but at no point did the tobacco bite or take on any off-putting flavors. It was just sheer tobacco bliss from beginning to end.

The fact that the tobacco was fairly damp did necessitate a few extra relights but the flake did burn nice and slow until the dottle got too wet to smoke any further. In the future I'll try to let it dry out a bit more before smoking.

The room note was nice and smelled of musty, leather-bound books. The smoke did have a sharp edge to it but was in no way disagreeable.

Samuel Gawith makes some of the most popular tobacco blends currently on the market and as a result it can often be difficult to locate your favorites on a consistent basis. With that thought in mind I just couldn't resist the chance to grab some Best Brown Flake at an insanely low price and boy am I glad I did.

I have a few tins of Full Virginia Flake in my cellar and while many consider that to be the penultimate Virginia flake I have to say that for a day in, day out type of smoke I actually prefer the Best Brown Flake. It provides a milder smoke without sacrificing any flavor and I can easily see myself merrily puffing it all day long which would put me under the table if tried with FVF.

Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake has taken its place in my list of favorite tobaccos and I still can't get over the fact that it costs less than blends like Captain Black. This is a premium, classic Virginia flake and the only question in my mind now is whether I need to buy a few more pounds post haste.

HR 4439

We knew this day was coming. The fact that pipe tobacco is being taxed at such a drastically lower rate than RYO tobacco has led many RYO producers to relabel their goods as pipe tobacco. Well the taxman isn't stupid so now they're coming after pipe tobacco in an attempt to close this loophole.

So what will this mean for you the pipe smoker? Well for starters federal taxes on a pound of pipe tobacco will jump an astonishing 775% from $2.83 to $24.78. But beyond the drastic price increase looms an even more disturbing eventuality -- the disappearance of many small tobacco producers and the loss of countless beloved blends. Very few folks are getting rich in the pipe tobacco game and the increased up-front costs associated with a new tax will put a good number of small companies out of business.

The folks over at Pipes Magazine have put together a great page full of information on how to fight this impending legislation. I encourage everyone to make use of this link and act now to protect the pipe smoking way of life in this country.

G.L. Pease -- Westminster

Brand: G.L. Pease
Blend: Westminster
Style: English
Pipe Used: Peterson Aran #150 Bulldog
Price: $8.15/2oz.

Appearance: 8
Taste: 8
Room Note: 7
Value: 8
Overall: 8

If you've ever wondered what goes into the creation of a new pipe blend then head over to Greg Pease's blog and check out the story of Westminster. Born out of frustration at the loss of the classic Dunhill London Mixture, Westminster quickly became a star in its own right and is now widely hailed as one of the preeminent English-style pipe tobacco blends.

I first bought a tin of Westminster about two years ago at the start of my second attempt at smoking a pipe. Since then I've tried many English blends and the little Mason jar with Pease's offering has slowly crept farther and farther back into my cellar. But every time I stumble on that jar I have to stop whatever I'm doing, load up a pipe, and enjoy this wonderfully sublime blend.

Westminster is a dark brown and black ribbon-cut blend although there are quite a few over-sized bits of tobacco leaf that really need to be further broken up before smoking. The aroma out of the tin is that of a light English blend in which the Latakia doesn't overpower the other tobaccos.

For this review I loaded up my Pete Bulldog and gave it a quick charring light. Tendrils of tobacco slowly curled over the top of the bowl so I gave it a very light tamp and relit the tobacco to get things started.

If you were to ask me to define "English" in terms of pipe tobacco I would wordlessly hand you a tin of Westminster. This blend features a perfect harmony of Virginias, Orientals, and Cyprian Latakia and all three components are held in check by each other to keep this blend from straying into Oriental or Balkan territory.

The combination of bright and red Virginias brings a very subtle sweetness that appears most readily in the room note as caramel but is not nearly that sickly sweet on the tongue. The Oriental tobaccos lend a bit of spice and the hint of a cigar-like kick that can be tasted when the smoke is exhaled through the nose. And the Latakia offers up its smoky delights without stealing the show.

I've been on a bit of a Latakia kick lately and have been trying tobaccos that are heavy on that particular leaf. For that reason I found Westminster to be milder in both body and taste than many of the tobaccos to which I've grown accustomed but I can't fault a blend for not being what it isn't.

For an English blend Westminster actually has a fairly nice room note. Once again we can probably thank the restrained Latakia presence for that.

The tobacco required quite a few relights which was surprising since it was fairly dry. At any rate it eventually burned down to a fine gray ash and left no dottle or moisture in the pipe.

While it's easy to decry the loss of so many vintage tobaccos in recent years I truly believe that we're living in, if not a Golden, at least a Silver age of pipe tobacco. Blenders like Greg Pease continue to roll out new, intriguing blends and with the help of the internet it's become all too easy to learn about, debate, and purchase the latest pipe tobaccos.

G.L. Pease's Westminster may have started out as yet another attempt to clone a classic, lost tobacco but through the magic that happens when different tobaccos are brought together it has instead emerged as one of the touchstone English blends.

I found Westminster to be a wonderfully restrained showcase for its constituent tobaccos and while it's a bit mild for my current palate this is a blend that can magically transport you to a time when pipe smoking was the norm and blends such as this one could be had at any newsstand for a few bits.

Esoterica -- Stonehaven

Brand: Esoterica
Blend: Stonehaven
Style: Virgina/Burley
Pipe Used: No-Name Volcano
Price: $28.99/8oz.

Appearance: 9
Taste: 8
Room Note: 8
Value: 7
Overall: 8

I must have been good last year as Santa left me a pound of Esoterica's Stonehaven under the Christmas tree. This Virginia and Burley flake is considered by many to be in a class of its own and the high demand means that it can be a difficult blend to procure. I'm just glad that the pipe smoking jolly old elf was looking out for me.

Upon opening the 8oz. Mylar bag my nose was immediately met with the strong aroma of fermented tobacco -- kind of a cross between dark rum and dried dates. The dark brown, almost black, tobacco was arrayed in nice rows of wide, thin flakes in a small plastic tray. The tobacco was wet to the touch so after divvying it up among a few Mason jars I selected one flake and left it out overnight to dry.

The next day I rubbed the flake out a bit and loaded up my no-name Italian rusticated volcano briar pipe. This is a short, stubby nosewarmer style pipe with a 1/4 bend and after cleaning and restoring it I decided to dedicate it to this particular blend.

I gave the tobacco a light and due to its dry condition it fired right up. Some of the longer strands of tobacco began to curl up and over the bowl but I decided to avoid tamping since it was burning along at such a nice pace.

The first few puffs delivered hints of that classic Virginia sweetness but the stout, fermented Burley quickly made its presence known by delivering that deep, rich tobacco taste that so many of us lust after.

The blend remained consistent throughout with that rich flavor being regularly complemented by that slight sweetness. The Virginias acted almost like a palate cleanser as they offered the tongue a brief respite from the heavier stoved and fermented Burley flavors.

And while the flakes smelled like dried fruit and fine liquor the only evidence of these trimmings was in the very pleasant aftertaste.

In describing Stonehaven I'm going to compare it to one of my favorite beverages, Guinness. Both are dark, heady concoctions that may at first glance seem overly stout and strong but since they're meant to be enjoyed regularly they're actually fairly mild and tame. You don't want your daily quaff to knock you on your keister any more than you want your daily smoke to do the same so don't let appearances fool you.

The tobacco gave off a lot of smoke but the room aroma was fairly mild and never took on that acrid smell one often finds with lighter Burley blends. To my nose it was reminiscent of a musty old book with a hand-tooled leather cover and coming from a bibliophile like me that's high praise indeed.

Stonehaven also remained bite free even after I caught myself puffing so hard as to make the bowl of the pipe uncomfortably hot (a real no-no to be sure). As for relights, the tobacco only required one when I neglected it for a few minutes to fuss with my iPod. Other than that it burned evenly down to a light gray ash and left very little dottle and no sticky residue in the bottom of the pipe. I had been warned that this blend often leaves behind a bit of a mess in the bowl but it seems like a thorough drying of the tobacco before smoking avoids most of those problems.

Stonehaven reminded me an awful lot of one of my favorite Virginias, McClelland's Blackwoods Flake. While the McClelland offering is a bit sweeter the two tobaccos look, taste, and behave like siblings and I can see substituting one for the other when stock runs low.

Esoterica's Stonehaven is a fine tobacco and I liked it enough to dedicate a pipe to it but I can't say that it completely blew my socks off. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by my past experiences with so many great blends but I found it to be a bit too mild for my palate.

That being said, the fact that the tobacco came to me in such damp condition leads me to believe that this batch is fairly young and I can't wait to see what a year or two of aging does to alter my perceptions.

Samuel Gawith -- Squadron Leader

Brand: Samuel Gawith
Blend: Squadron Leader
Style: Oriental
Pipe Used: Peterson Aran #150 Bulldog
Price: $7.50/1.76oz.

Appearance: 8
Taste: 8
Room Note: 6
Value: 9
Overall: 8

Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader was one of the first two tobaccos I purchased a few years back after deciding to embark on this adventure we call pipe smoking (the other was Penzance -- not a shabby way to start off, eh?). I'll admit that the snazzy tin art lured me in as I'm a huge aviation history buff but it was the almost universally positive word of mouth that really convinced me that this tobacco would provide the perfect introduction to the sublime wonders of the pipe.

Well, like many beginning pipers, I had a world of trouble at the start and promptly quit the hobby. I tossed my opened tins of tobacco and my two cobs into a box in the garage and marched right back to the safety and security of my humidor and the more forgiving cigars nestled within.

Fast forward about nine months and as I was cleaning out the garage I stumbled upon that same box of discarded pipe stuff. I figured what the heck, I might as well give it another go before tossing it all in the trash so I loaded some dried out Squadron Leader into a cob, gave it a light, and boom! -- angelic singing, rapture, bliss, and all that jazz ensued. I finally "got it" -- the perfect smoke, pipe nirvana. It would take me many months of tinkering before I could consistently "get it" on a regular basis but now that I knew what was possible I was off and running.

So if Squadron Leader was my very first pipe smoke and the tobacco that brought me back into the fold then why did it take me until now to get around to writing a review? Well, as soon as my slide down the slippery pipe slope began I started accumulating new blends like cat hair on a black coat. The same Squadron Leader that started it all was lovingly sealed up in a Mason jar and promptly forgotten at the back of the cellar.

Sure I've always known that it's there but the constant search for the "new" placed the blend very much on the back burner. It was only while watching the recent tobacco shortages unfold that I was reminded of old Squadron Leader. If every online shop was sold out then it must have something going for it so maybe it was time to revisit this old friend.

Upon opening that same Mason jar, now with about two and a half years of age on it, I was greeted by the slightly spicy and pungent aroma of the Oriental tobacco. Being a very fine ribbon cut, Squadron Leader loaded easily into my Peterson Bulldog and after a quick light I was off and smoking.

In the interim since my first taste of this blend I've come to enjoy many heavy Englishes and one of the first things I noticed about Squadron Leader was that the Latakia that is usually a front and center component of traditional English blends was very muted. By tempering the impact of this smoky flavor, the spice of the Orientals was allowed to shine. And while the blend never quite hit the same level of zest as some Balkans that I enjoy, by moderating the spice the blend allowed the Virginias to offer up their own sweet and tangy flavors.

As I was enjoying my smoke I kept catching whiffs and the taste of cigars and while there's no cigar leaf in this blend there's something about the combination of tobaccos that reminds me of a light Connecticut wrapped cigar. Not something I was expecting at all but it was certainly enjoyed.

As for the room aroma, that same essence of cigars came and went while for the most part the aroma was similar to expensive cigarettes which isn't surprising given the presence of the Oriental tobaccos.

Squadron Leader provided an easy smoke as it burned steadily from start to finish and only required two relights. All I was left with after an hour was that much sought after fine white ash.

To my mind and palate, Squadron Leader is a perfectly balanced blend that refuses to allow any one tobacco component to outshine the others. Some may label this a light English but to my thinking the tamed Latakia and prominent Orientals define this as an Oriental blend first and foremost. And while there are other blends out there that provide more of this or more of that, there's always a place in the rotation for a tobacco that provides a consistent, mild smoke with a range of flavors.

Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader is a classic blend that can be had for a song when, and if, it's available. My advice would be to buy it when you can, cellar it if you must, but please don't forget about it like I did. There will always be the allure of the latest blend but there will also always be a place for the tried and true Squadron Leader.