Hearth & Home -- Lakeland Brickle

Brand: Hearth & Home
Blend: Lakeland Brickle
Style: Aromatic
Pipe Used: Cob
Price: Free Sample

Appearance: 8
Taste: 4
Room Note: 8
Value: 8
Overall: 6

When a tobacco is described as being a Lakeland blend it usually means that it comes from one of the famed blenders in that region of England and is imbued with that famous floral-like essence. Since the aroma and taste of this style of tobacco is so unique it tends to have a rather polarizing effect on pipe smokers.

Given the recent shortages of tobacco blends coming out of the Lakeland region, the folks at Pipesandcigars.com have decided to try their hand at imitating the style and the result is the brand new Hearth & Home entry, Lakeland Brickle.

Open opening my sample bag I was immediately hit with the overwhelming aroma of potpourri as I gazed upon a sticky mass of tobacco that looked to me like one of my favorite trail snacks, the inimitable Clif Bar. The medium brown tobacco was very moist so I broke off a chunk, rubbed it out, and set it aside to dry for a few hours. Fast forward a bit and the tobacco was still just as damp so I decided to just smoke it anyway.

Given the powerful aroma of the blend I decided to smoke it in one of trusty corncobs so as not to ghost a briar. The tobacco packed nicely and lit right up.

H&H describes Lakeland Brickle as a Virginia (mostly Red) and Burley blend infused with classic Lakeland essences such as rose and tonquin and I have to admit that each of these constituent parts made themselves readily known on the palate.

The Red Virginia is evident in the sweetness of the blend which I found to have a vegetal nature akin to a sun-ripened tomato or cucumber. The Burley provided a richness and hint of cinammon-like spice. And the added essences really took center stage with flavors running the gamut from vanilla (thanks to the tonquin-style flavoring) to rose and lavender.

To me the taste was overpowering and alternated between a tasty piece of hard candy and grandma's favorite floral soap. I've often read complaints that Lakeland blends are too soapy and never really understood what that meant until now. Not only did it taste like soap but it also coated my tongue and throat in a way I haven't experienced since my four-year-old self called my mom the b-word and was treated to a taste of Ivory.

I'll also admit upfront that I'm sensitive to some floral scents such as eucalyptus and while I can't confirm that that particular essence is in this blend I was hit with a big headache soon after finishing the bowl. The truth is that strong Lakeland blends just aren't my cup of tea and this Brickle is one powerful tobacco done up in that style.

The room aroma was naturally very sweet and flowery so you're not likely to receive any complaints there and the tobacco burned nicely even with its high moisture content.

While the pipe smoking world laments how hard it is to procure many classic English-blended tobaccos, Hearth & Home has stepped up to the plate and attempted to emulate the famous Lakeland blends as a service to their customers. Lakeland Brickle takes its name seriously and delivers one wallop of an essence-filled blend. There's no doubting the quality of the product and I'm sure that it'll have many fans but sadly I'm just not one of them. For me the added flavorings are just too cloying and strong and overwhelm the natural tobacco taste.

G.L. Pease -- JackKnife Plug

Brand: G.L Pease
Blend: JackKnife Plug
Style: VA
Pipe Used: No-Name Apple
Price: $10.85/2oz.

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

JackKnife Plug is the inaugural entry in Greg Pease's latest endeavor, the New World Collection. This new line of tobacco by the master blender will feature nothing but New World (American) leaf which is fitting given that tobacco was first grown, smoked, and enjoyed on these shores. As a big G.L. Pease fan I eagerly awaited the initial release of this blend and joined in the feeding frenzy that ensued when those lovely tins finally landed on store shelves.

When I popped open the tin I was greeted with a solid little plug, or cake, of tobacco that was dark brown in hue and smelled of rich tobacco and nothing else. The tobacco was also a bit moist which isn't surprising given how recently it was tinned.

I appreciate the rich history of tobacco and pipe smoking so I've always had a thing for traditional plugs, ropes, and twists. The added ritual involved in preparing these blends for the pipe really enhances my enjoyment and allows me to indulge in another one of my hobbies, knife collecting, because as everyone knows you must always have the proper tool for the job at hand.

To prepare the plug I turned to my Case Sway Back Gent with a razor-sharp wharncliffe blade and proceeded to shave off a few thin flakes. I then balled these up and rubbed them between my palms allowing a pile of fine shag to collect in the dish below. After a few hours of drying the pipe was loaded and the tobacco lit.

JackKnife Plug is advertised as containing dark-fired Kentucky, red Virginia, and golden flue-cured tobaccos and while I'm not sure what all that means I tend to associate Kentucky with dark, flavorful Burley and golden flue-cured tobacco with yellow Virginias. The red leaf of course speaks for itself. And far be it from me to attempt to assign flavors to any particular leaf as tobacco blending is as much alchemy and art as it is science.

My first taste of the blend featured a subtle metallic and mineral tang that I often find with maduro-wrapped cigars. This soon evolved into a savory, hearty, and slightly spicy flavor akin to roast beef on rye bread. At this point my eagerness took over and I began smoking a bit too fast which resulted in a tickle at the back of my throat to warn me to slow it down.

Halfway through the bowl the blend had mellowed in a subtly-sweet state that reminded me both of fresh-cut hay and roasted acorn squash. At this point I thought I had this blend figured out when, Bam!, a strong taste of vanilla and caramel emerged which was very similar to the flavor of Classic Burley Kake. I was not expecting such overt sweetness but it made for a welcome counterpoint to the blend's otherwise dense flavor profile.

After a few minutes of sugary bliss the mineral taste returned and the bowl soon finished up right back where it had started. What a wild and at times unexpected ride it was!

JackKnife Plug is a rich, heavy, and sweet blend more like a traditional English holiday pudding than an extravagant dessert. It also delivered a real roundhouse kick of nicotine even though I had purposely waited to smoke it until after eating.

The room aroma followed along the same lines as the flavor profile and offered up a strong but pleasant aroma of burning leaves and smoldering grasses.

The blend also burned slow and cool and required no fiddling save for a bit of tamping and a single relight at the very end so as not to miss out on any of the fine tobacco.

G.L. Pease's JackKnife Plug is an amazing tobacco blend that's full of intense and varied flavors and even after smoking half a tin I've only just begun to uncover its mysteries. Since the plug can be prepared in a myriad of different ways (folded flake, krumble kake, shag, cube cut, etc.) it always smokes and tastes a little different each time. And I can hardly wait to see how well this blend ages as it has all the hallmarks of a cellar classic.

So pop open a tin, strop your favorite blade to a keen edge, and have at it knowing that you're following in the footsteps of the smokers and sailors of old. JackKnife Plug is a real contradiction in terms -- a brand-new vintage tobacco -- and is pure pleasure in the pipe.

Mac Baren -- 7 Seas Regular Blend

Brand: Mac Baren
Blend: 7 Seas Regular Blend
Style: Aromatic
Pipe Used: Savinelli #313 Natural Prince
Price: Free Sample

Appearance: 7
Taste: 6
Room Note: 8
Value: 8 (based on list price)
Overall: 7

Mac Baren recently launched their new 7 Seas series of aromatic pipe tobacco and everything from the blend names (Regular, Royal and Gold) to the nautical theme and pouch aroma are reminiscent of Captain Black. While many pipe smokers look down their noses at such drugstore fare these old-school blends still make up the vast majority of pipe tobacco sold so they must have something going for them. And if Mac Baren has decided to make a none-too-subtle attempt to update such a classic then who am I to argue?

I received a few pouches of the Regular blend with some of my recent tobacco orders and decided to give the stuff a try. The tobacco was a dark, almost black, cross-cut mixture that was a bit moist and smelled of vanilla and hints of cocoa.

I loaded up my trusty aromatic pipe, gave it a light, and began happily puffing away. The tobacco lit right up and burned down about two thirds of the way before a single relight was required.

Mac Baren's 7 Seas Regular tasted very similar to Captain Black White in that the tobacco was lightly flavorful and the vanilla was quite noticeable. But whereas Captain Black has always had a nasty burnt plastic aftertaste to me this stuff was much more refined and smooth. It was still a fairly weak tasting blend but at least it was pleasant.

The room aroma was quite nice which is a feature touted right on the pouch as it aims to be as non-offensive a tobacco as possible.

The blend also burned nicely and caused no tongue bite which made for a leisurely 30 minute smoke and before I knew it all that was left in the bowl was a bit of ash and dottle and none of the goop that so often comes along with typical drugstore aromatics.

Mac Baren's 7 Seas Regular is a nice enough update to an old classic and can be had at a very reasonable price. I liked it well enough but there are just too many better aromatic blends out there to make this a regular smoke for me. But I do have to say that I'm intrigued enough that I just might sample the other two blends in the series to see what they have to offer.

Cornell & Diehl -- Pirate Kake

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Pirate Kake
Style: English
Pipe Used: No-Name Apple
Price: $27.60/16oz.

Appearance: 9
Taste: 9
Room Note: 7
Value: 10
Overall: 9

Recently I ordered a pound of Cornell & Diehl's Pirate Kake purely on a whim. I had never so much as tried the blend before but at such a low price I decided I might as well get an entire brick of the stuff and hope for the best.

The tobacco arrived as one large pressed kake sealed in plastic and was dated just four days prior to when my order was placed so this was one young blend to be sure. The kake was soft and pliable and a tad on the moist side and was composed of jet black tobacco with a few brown flecks mixed in. The aroma reminded me of a campfire log that had burned to coals overnight and been dampened by the morning dew. To many folks that is not a pleasant smell but to me it's pure bliss which probably explains why I'm such a fan of these strong latakia blends.

To give it a try I broke off a nugget of the kake, dropped it into my pipe, and sprinkled a bit of rubbed out tobacco on top to act as tinder. The stuff lit right up and once that piece of kake got a nice ember going it refused to go out. I never had to relight the pipe and only tamped it a bit more out of habit than necessity. The pipe was even left on the workbench for minutes at a time while I changed the wiper blades on my car and still it wouldn't stop smoldering. At the end there was only ash and a wee bit of soggy tobacco leftover which isn't bad considering how damp the blend was to start with.

So it burned perfectly which counts for something but how did it taste? C&D defines Pirate Kake as a blend with lots of Latakia accompanied by Turkish and Cavendish cut Burley so the dominant flavor, not surprisingly, is the Latakia which reminded me of the leaf that's used in Count Pulaski. Since that ranks as one of my favorite tobaccos I knew I was in for a treat.

Taste and smell go hand in hand and I can't fully describe one without the other so when I say that this blend reminded me of a well-oiled baseball glove or the seats in a vintage roadster I'm not implying that I've tasted either one but when I smoke this blend those are the images that come to my mind.

I could happily puff all day long on a pipe that offered nothing more than that but with this blend there's the addition of the Turkish and Burley tobaccos to consider. The Oriental leaf added a nice, underlying hint of spice and a bit of robust cigar flavor to the blend while the stoved Burley brought a nutty richness that kept the flavors nicely balanced.

The room aroma was about what once would expect from a heavy Latakia blend. I enjoyed it immensely but I'm not daft enough to think anyone else would so for me this is a blend best enjoyed in solitary comfort where a man can revel in the smell of burning gym socks if he so chooses.

It was a risky move buying a full pound of this stuff on a whim but in this day and age it's often best to get while the gettin's good and in this instance the bet paid off handsomely indeed. With excellent flavor and perfect burning characteristics, Pirate Kake stands as my favorite Cornell & Diehl blend to date. It's certainly not a tobacco for everybody but is highly recommended for all Latakia fans and those with fond memories of standing out in center field chewing the leather laces off their mitts. OK, I admit it, I have tasted a baseball glove before so sue me.

Cornell & Diehl -- Bayou Morning

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Bayou Morning
Style: Virginia/Perique
Pipe Used: Savinelli #313 Prince
Price: $18.59/8 oz.

Appearance: 8
Taste: 8
Room Note: 7
Value: 10
Overall: 8

Cornell & Diehl's Bayou Morning is one of their many VA/Per offerings that can be had at a ridiculously low price in bulk form so I decided to try some out with my latest tobacco order. The blend is a ribbon-cut mixture of medium to dark brown tobacco with streaks of black Perique. The aroma is that of tangy sweet Virginia leaf with hints of cocoa and black pepper.

Once my pipe was loaded I gave it a charring light, tamped, and then gave it a relight whereupon I was immediately met with a very strong spicy taste which forcefully announced the presence of the Perique. This almost overwhelming jolt of flavor lasted until the first embers began to smolder and the flames from the initial light dampened a bit. Whew, I thought I was in trouble for a while there!

After that first smack across the face the blend then began to blossom and the sweet Virginia flavors emerged to temper the Perique a bit. But at no point did that spicy leaf ever fade into the background and any heavy-handed puffing soon brought it back to the fore with a vengeance.

The hint of bittersweet chocolate that was evident in the pouch aroma also played out upon the palate and offered up the perfect contrast to the zesty Perique. This combination of spiciness and sweetness put me in mind of such Latin fare as mole sauce or even the fresh melon sprinkled with hot chili powder found at many a roadside stand.

Bayou Morning provided that classic VA/Per flavor profile but it teetered right on the edge of being a flat-out spice-bomb. That's not a knock against the blend but it certainly does make it stand out among its peers.

The room aroma was fairly pleasant but the mustiness from the strong Perique presence provided a bit too much funk to the smoke to be truly enjoyable.

The blend was well-behaved in the pipe and only required a few relights. As mentioned, fast smoking is a no-no with this one unless you typically order your Thai food at level 5.

Cornell & Diehl's Bayou Morning is one VA/Per that isn't afraid to fly its Perique flag high and proud. It's far and away the spiciest blend I've yet had and provides more flavor in one small bowl than should be legal. At C&D's typically insane low price this is a blend well worth stocking up on and I can't wait to see what a few years will do to meld and temper the extreme flavors a bit.

If I wasn't already slavishly devoted to Haddo's Delight as my morning with coffee blend then Bayou Morning would be a prime candidate to take its place. I guess the name really does fit the blend in this case.

Cornell & Diehl -- Three Friars

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Three Friars
Style: Virginia, Burley & Perique
Pipe Used: 1/8 Bent Acorn
Price: $18.59/8oz.

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

Cornell & Diehl's Three Friars is advertised as a light VA/Per with Burley and I decided to add some to a recent tobacco order. The blend is a light brown ribbon-cut with sparse flecks of black Perique sprinkled throughout. The aroma is lightly sweet and sour with a hint of raisins and the tobacco arrived at the perfect moisture level for immediate smoking.

Upon lighting my no-name acorn I immediately tasted the nutty, tart sweetness typical of quality Burley and Virginia and this was to remain the dominant taste throughout the smoke. The Perique added a nice bit of zesty spice and mustiness but was very much in the background. Three was also a very faint hint of citrus that nicely offset the spiciness. If I had to sum up Three Friars in a few words I would say it's like a top-shelf Carter Hall with pizazz.

The room aroma was fairly benign even though the blend produced lots of smoke.

The tobacco burned clean and dry right down to the bottom of the bowl with only a few relights. There was a noticeable nicotine kick but nothing too overpowering.

C&D's Three Friars is a fine tobacco but I would classify it as a Burley blend rather than a VA/Per since the Perique was so subdued. Considered as a Burley it certainly shines and features much higher quality tobaccos than what is found in most OTC blends. And the crazy part is that it is even cheaper than those classic drugstore tubs. Three Friars might not break into my VA/Per rotation but it will certainly kick those lesser Burley blends to the curb.

The combination of light taste, stellar burn characteristics, and low price make Three Friars one of those much sought after all-day smokes and on that front it comes very highly recommended.

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. -- Sweet Rum Twist

Brand: Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.
Blend: Sweet Rum Twist
Style: Twist
Pipe Used: No-name Apple
Price: $6.89/1oz.

Appearance: 9
Taste: 8
Room Note: 6
Value: 6
Overall: 7

When you embark upon the hobby that is pipe smoking it's with the understanding that you're venturing into a world rich in history. And nothing harkens back to the days of old quite like classic rope or twist tobacco. This is the stuff that was chewed, snuffed, and smoked before the days of our relatively modern tobacco mixtures and flakes.

I've always been intrigued by the gnarly looking ropes of tobacco featured on many a tobacconist's shelves -- virtual or otherwise -- but was scared off by the notoriously strong flavor and high nicotine content typically found in this style of tobacco. But in my latest order I finally worked up the courage to add in a sample of Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.'s Sweet Rum Twist.

When the tobacco arrived I was greeted with about a seven inch long tobacco rope (thanks for the generous extra amount smokingpipes.com!) that was fairly moist and had that rich tobacco aroma I typically find in my cigar humidors -- what a great scent! I sliced off three thin coins of the stuff, rubbed it out into ribbon form, and then set it aside to dry overnight.

When I went to load up my no-name apple-shaped pipe this afternoon the tobacco was still a bit moist but I still forged ahead. It took a few extra charring lights to get it going but soon I had a lit pipe and an insanely great volume of deep, rich tobacco smoke swirling about my head.

Sweet Rum Twist is supposedly made up of full-leaf Virginia tobacco that's topped with a sugar and rum mixture before being twisted into ropes and cold-pressed. So what you have here is a pipe tobacco blend that is created in much the same way as a rudimentary cigar so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the flavors reminded me very much of a good cigar while at the same time tasting nothing like a cigar -- if that makes any sense.

The taste was very full and strong but still pleasant with the natural Virginia sweetness combining with the added sugars to bring out a robust flavor similar to a mild cigar but without the complexity that comes with the addition of the wrapper and binder leaves. And the faint presence of rum also reminded my palate of Esoterica's Stonehaven to some extent although the Rum Twist was much stronger.

Make no mistake, this blend is very heavy as the lack of stoving or heat-treating of any kind makes for a very raw and powerful tobacco flavor and punch.

As mentioned, this blend produced scads of smoke and it was pretty heady stuff as well so it isn't likely to win any prizes in the room note department.

Since the tobacco was moist I had to relight the pipe frequently but that actually helped in a way by causing me to slow down and not smoke as fast as I usually do which is probably why I encountered no ill effects from the heavy nicotine content. Since I tend to be very sensitive to the vitamin N this is probably the smoking cadence I'll stick to with this blend.

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.'s Sweet Rum Twist is true tobacco classic and I'm glad I finally worked up the nerve to give it a try. What I found was a strong tobacco loaded with heavy flavors and lots of smoke that should be smoked slowly and savored while the mind harkens back to the time of tall ships and tobacco-loving sailors.

This certainly won't become a part of my regular rotation but as an occasional treat Sweet Rum Twist fits in nicely between typical pipe blends and cigars on the tobacco strength continuum.