I've been asked many times which of my blends are subject to future regulation, now that the new FDA have stuck their regulatory noses into our little corner of the world. Basically, anything not already in production on the so-called deeming date of 15 March 2007 will have to be demonstrated to be "substantially equivalent" to those made previously. It's unclear whether or not we'll be able to navigate our way through the flaming hoops put in our path, but the following blends are at risk, and may disappear in a couple years. I'll keep you advised as we get closer to what I consider the apocalypse for these blends, many of which are among my own personal faves.
After writing that somewhat disappointing review for Cult Militia I thought I'd write something a little more uplifting from a Company I've come to regard as one of the best when it comes to aromatic blends ... that's Sutliff - and the blend I'll be reviewing is Dulce de Leche
First a description from the P&C website:
"Sutliff Dulce de Leche is a great interpretation of the classic dessert for the pipe. A mellow mixture of premium Burley and Virginia is imbued with a smooth caramel essence to impart a lightly-sweet flavor and aroma."
Strength: Mild
Tobacco: Burley, Virginia
Style: Aromatic
Room Note: 3 - Balanced
My thoughts on Sutliff Dulce de Leche
First I needed to know what exactly Dulce de Leche was, and what I might expect it to taste like. So off I went on a search through the internet and discovered: "The dessert itself is a caramel-like confection from Argentina and Uruguay, loosely translated means "milk candy" or "milk jelly". In a traditional process sugar and milk are cooked over a low heat for hours until the mixture becomes thick and golden. It can be eaten just like that out of the bowl or poured over cake or ice cream like a dessert topping." Okay, so that clears thing up ... it's something sweet.
There have only been a few times when I've found myself disappointed with a Sutliff aromatic blend and strangely enough when my order of Sutliff Dulce de Leche arrived and I opened the plastic bag to get a whiff of the pouch note I was a bit apprehensive, because the aroma was quite similar to that disappointing blend "Coconut Almond". Now don't get me wrong, both the pouch and room note of "Coconut Almond" are delightful, and the taste is quite reminiscent of an Almond Joy. (So up to this point you're probably wondering - "what's the beef?") Well it wasn't the aroma or the flavor of "Coconut Almond" that I found off-putting ... it was the tongue bite I received while smoking the blend. It burned hot, and no amount of slowing down on my cadence could relieve the burn as I puffed the pipe. Very sad indeed because the flavor was wonderful ... just not worth the pain. The only way I could eventually smoke it was by blending in small amounts with other tobaccos. Three parts "Chocolate Mousse" and one part "Coconut Almond" usually tamed it down enough to quell the fire, and combining it with "Chocolate Mousse" gave it a very pronounced Almond Joy flavor. So all was not lost.
Dulce de Leche had a similar coconut aroma in the pouch - yet there was a distinct difference I couldn't quite put my finger on until I lit it up a bowl and pulled in my first mouthful. That's when I realized the difference. It was less of the raw coconut flavor you get from an Almond Joy or Mounds Bar, and instead the flavor of toasted coconut. I would liken the flavor to one of those toasted coconut marshmallows like Kraft Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites or Manischewitz Toasted Coconut Marshmallows. Not right out of the bag ... but skewered on a stick and toasted over a campfire, allowing the marshmallow to flame-up and char just a bit. Retro-haling Dulce de Leche brought back memories of ramming that still warm melted marshmallow into my mouth mere moments after blowing out the flame. That wonderfully delightful burned marshmallow flavor, intensified by the addition of roasted coconut. This is the flavor of Sutliff Dulce de Leche tobacco - sweet, creamy, nutty, and best of all - not a hint of tongue bite. It smokes slow and cool, and burns to a nice white ash. The room note is exactly what you'd expected from a marshmallow roasting over an open campfire. Another great aromatic blend from Sutliff which has been added to my rotation. And plan to have an ample supply in my cellar before the dark days are upon us.
@motie2, if you end up liking The Virginia Cream, go ahead and stock up as best you can. I already have around 4 pounds of GL Pease Sixpence just in case the FDA deeming regs don't get tossed. I could almost eat that stuff straight out of the can.
@xDutchx -- I'l get to the virginia Cream this afternoon.
@ghostsofpompeii -- I found your review intriguing, in that (except when I packed a bowl of Barbados Plantation mixed with Vanilla Custard too tightly) I've never had a Sutliff blend bite me.
I'm really looking forward to trying the several Sutliff bulk rum blends to see how that stack up agains Barbados Plantation.
Today, I tried Pease's Virginia Cream, an all Virginia blend with a vanilla/bourbon flavor (topping? casing?). It is ready to go right out of the tin. There is little or no vanilla/bourbon aroma upon opening, just a deep tobacco aroma. It smokes nice an cool right out of the tin, a bit peppery, but I had no tongue bite to speak of. The tobacco burns to a nice dry white ash, with no goop in the dottle.
It's definitely not for me, as I am more interested in the added flavor (taste and room note) than I am the real tobacco taste. (I've admitted this before.)
This would be a great blend for a VaPer smoker that wants something a little sweeter for a change; a sort of aromatic for the non-aromatic smoker. BTW, it has a pleasant enough room note, but nothing approaching that of my Sutliff favorites.
Sorry for the brevity of this review, but it's really my first. I usually just rave, "Hey, this is great!" or "No thanks; not for me."
So, I recognize this as a quality Virginia blend, even if I don't like it very much.
In case you guys don't already know about this, a guy on Youtube has 74 pipe tobacco reviews. His analysis is probably not scientific, but his taste impressions might be worth noting before you plonk down your money for an unknown blend. Here is the url: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5bk8l-rKXpF9loCe9j9evXu-3Q_zRHHg
@mfresa -- You're talking about Bradley at Stuff and Things on YouTube. I've followed him for almost a year now. Between his tobacco reviews and his side channel, "Sunday Smokes," he's become like an old friend. I highly recommend Bradley and his reviews to your attention.
@motie2, yes, it is Bradley. Forgot to mention he is on the quest to replace his "Dunhill Elizabethan" VaPer, and it seems a lot of his reviews are VaPers, but he does get other types in there as well. I skip the numbers bit and listen to his taste impressions.
Firstly; it's not a cake, the cake was available a few years back but is no longer. The tobacco comes in a heavy, coarse shred that took some time to rub out. The tobacco has that rich, some say ""Ketchup" smell that McClelland's English Blends have. It felt to be a little moist but it packed well in a wide bowled pipe, lit easily and produced billows of smoke. Rich flavor with a fruity, sweet, spicy taste, and stayed lit well with no bite even with heavier puffing. It had gray ash with some charcoal at the bottom.
I DG'd this and the flavor stayed there after 1.5 hrs..
I bought 2 oz. to try and think I'll be getting a pound or so for the cellar.
My reviews would probably fail the guidelines set forth by the article because I tend to ramble on and personalize the reviews with past experiences and storytelling. For instance working at the Ovaltne plant and the smell of the smell of the popcorn, peanuts, and hot caramel coating during the making of Fiddle-Faddle and Popycock ... or the aroma of coffee re-heated several times over ... but I think it might paint a better picture than the tried and true methods of the professional tobacco reviewer as suggested in the article.
Personal comparison between 2 Old Tobys: 1) from Country Squire, 2) from Just For Him. - Very similar blends, but I find the second blend a little less sweet, not as goopy as the first (no offense JD). They both are blends of Burley, Virginia, and some slight Perique, with a fruity casing.
Anybody else compare these?
The product from Just for Him was part of their Middle Earth sample pack. Tried the Shortcut to Mushrooms yesterday, was not impressed. It was similar to Country Squire's JS Blend, which I prefer. The mushrooms weren't very strong, and the latakia was on the weak side. Still smokable, IMHO.
Turns out "Old Toby's" is a very popular "brand" in the marihuana community.
Try putting OLD TOBY'S into Google.
I have, however, found a tobacco
Is this what y'all were talkin' about?
I also found http://www.oldtoby.com the website of The Old Toby Podcast, "..... one of the only Pipe and Tobacco Radio Shows in the entire world! Inside the pages of this site you will find all sorts of useful resources for your pipe and tobacco smoking hobby. Tune in regularly for lots of ways to get the latest news on pipes, tobacco, pipe tobacco laws....."
And Old Toby, as it turns out, was a Native American.
Just for Him was the tobacco shop in my college town. I wasn't a pipe smoker then, but I'd always pass it while driving around Springfield, MO, and wonder what it was like inside. A few years later once I started looking into pipe smoking, I was surprised to discover that it was a well known tobacco shop.
I've only ordered Shortcut to Mushrooms from them, but it's one of my favorite aromatics. It might not be the most flavorful aromatic, but the aroma is wonderful. It's one of the few blends I'll smoke around people.
@motie2, stumbling upon Just for Him was in pursuit of the "earthy" tobaccos I had asked about earlier, as the Shortcut to Mushrooms was advertised as earthy. Yes, as @thebadgerpiper says, the aroma is nice, but I think the earthiness I asked about earlier will probably be found in the blends that include cigar tobacco, which I haven't ordered yet. The reviews on Shortcut to Mushrooms talk about notes of Shitake and "earth", but they are very mild. I was filling the pipe and a hard chunk of something fell out, which, when I inspected closer, seemed to be a piece of dried mushroom stem. It was dark in color and seems to have been "aged" with the tobacco, so I put it back in the bowl and carried on. At the end of the session I dumped it out and sure enough, it had turned ash white. So I think the mushrooms do add something to the experience. Overall it is pleasant, but not exactly what I was looking for. by the way, thanks for your research on "Old Toby". It seems to be a marque that has been around for a while and used by various folks.
No more reviews from me for a while, I have no time and when I sit to smoke my pipes or a Cigar I don't want to sit and remember everything, I just want to relax and enjoy and not think at all......If I ever find the ultimate relaxing blend I will call it Zombie! It will be that blend that makes you go numb and forget everything from the past week! No not going to have pot in it for you hippies in here. lol
Now just one minute, I'm the one supposed to be calling everyone hippies! To me anyone left of Margaret Thatcher is a hippie (I call all people on the left hippies by the way, it drives them nuts) or anyone with hair longer than military standards is also a hippie. Not that I think everyone who fits that criteria is actually a hippie, it's just a stupid thing I do. Plus the way to tell if it's a real hippie is, of course, the smell test. See you got me going. Hippies have a way of doing that to me. By the way, how long is your hair Mr. Wolf?
All joking aside, if you don't have time to post a review that's fine with us (me at least). You might consider posing in the "what am I smoking now" section and just give it a thumbs up or down. Sometimes that's enough to get me to try a new blend or skip it in favor of another.
I go numb for a week when I see my 401k statement and try to calculate how long until I can retire.
Hey, @Philip -- I represent that remark, so allow me to respond with the 2017 edition of The Hippie Manifesto:
American politics represent an epic existential struggle between Right Wing Extremists and Spineless Weasels.
(The Extremists almost always win, because their opponents are .... wait for it .... spineless weasels.)
We old hippies want nothing to do with American politics. It makes us feel unclean. (And I shower twice, daily.)
We disavow both sides: A plague on both their houses. (For the use of appropriate Shakespeare reference, Romeo and Juliet: Act 3, Scene 1, +10 points)
Now, please understand, I, personally, have been described as "a cynical pessimist weirdo," so there's no reason to start a flame war over my remarks. I'm just a cranky old hippy. I admit I'm wrong and y'all are righteous in your convictions..
That's fine. Please put me in the Extremist camp, which I'm very proud to be a part of. Loving liberty, honoring the Constitution and holding dear the values that have created the greatest country the world has ever known has become very extreme.
Don't know the reference, and there's no need to be sorry, or not. I value everyone, even those I disagree with. If a flame war involves lighting a pipe, then count me in!
@Phillip and @motie2 ... You want to see a couple of hippies - I've got a photo for you. When my band Vesuvius was accepted as one of the 11 bands to appear on the WKQX HOMETOWN ALBUM our local newspaper "The Gary Post Tribune" did a photo shoot to go along with an article written about us and our inclusion on the album. I dug these out of an old scrapbook and did the old 'photo of a photo', so the end result is not as clear as it should be. I'm the guy with the beard and bad hair cut.
@motie2 Picture 1 ... This is a behind the scenes publicity shot of you on location where you're both directing and staring in one of those Italian cannibal adventures filmed in the Amazons. I can imagine you behind the camera shouting ... "more blood, more blood" to the special effects team.
Picture 2 .... It was the 70s' and the adult film industry was booming. So with money to be made on either side of the camera, it was time for a little cheese cake pose to add to the G-Man's portfolio.
Picture 3 ... Just returned from a 26 city tour as bassist for The Grateful Dead Reunion concert - and had the time of your life.
Great pictures. In that 60s' pic you seriously look like an Italian movie star. And in the 70s' pic it appears we shared the same barber. Or I should say we avoided the same barber.
Great photos gentleman. Usually pictures taken in that era bring smiles because of what we would now consider outrageous clothes, but were stylish at the time. These were all pretty tame for the time, a bit of polyester and a vest, but no platforms or bell bottoms.
@motie2 - I know a handful of old hippies from the 60s and most of them want nothing to do with either politically party. I think 3 of them are still vote straight democrat tickets but they were the ones who were more into communism and socialism back in the late 60s. The rest of them think the democrats are too far to the left on everything and the republicans are too far to the right on social issues. The good thing is they vote pretty much down the middle of the spectrum.
Comments
After writing that somewhat disappointing review for Cult Militia I thought I'd write something a little more uplifting from a Company I've come to regard as one of the best when it comes to aromatic blends ... that's Sutliff - and the blend I'll be reviewing is Dulce de Leche
First a description from the P&C website:
"Sutliff Dulce de Leche is a great interpretation of the classic dessert for the pipe. A mellow mixture of premium Burley and Virginia is imbued with a smooth caramel essence to impart a lightly-sweet flavor and aroma."
Strength: Mild
Tobacco: Burley, Virginia
Style: Aromatic
Room Note: 3 - Balanced
My thoughts on Sutliff Dulce de Leche
First I needed to know what exactly Dulce de Leche was, and what I might expect it to taste like. So off I went on a search through the internet and discovered: "The dessert itself is a caramel-like confection from Argentina and Uruguay, loosely translated means "milk candy" or "milk jelly". In a traditional process sugar and milk are cooked over a low heat for hours until the mixture becomes thick and golden. It can be eaten just like that out of the bowl or poured over cake or ice cream like a dessert topping." Okay, so that clears thing up ... it's something sweet.
There have only been a few times when I've found myself disappointed with a Sutliff aromatic blend and strangely enough when my order of Sutliff Dulce de Leche arrived and I opened the plastic bag to get a whiff of the pouch note I was a bit apprehensive, because the aroma was quite similar to that disappointing blend "Coconut Almond". Now don't get me wrong, both the pouch and room note of "Coconut Almond" are delightful, and the taste is quite reminiscent of an Almond Joy. (So up to this point you're probably wondering - "what's the beef?") Well it wasn't the aroma or the flavor of "Coconut Almond" that I found off-putting ... it was the tongue bite I received while smoking the blend. It burned hot, and no amount of slowing down on my cadence could relieve the burn as I puffed the pipe. Very sad indeed because the flavor was wonderful ... just not worth the pain. The only way I could eventually smoke it was by blending in small amounts with other tobaccos. Three parts "Chocolate Mousse" and one part "Coconut Almond" usually tamed it down enough to quell the fire, and combining it with "Chocolate Mousse" gave it a very pronounced Almond Joy flavor. So all was not lost.
Dulce de Leche had a similar coconut aroma in the pouch - yet there was a distinct difference I couldn't quite put my finger on until I lit it up a bowl and pulled in my first mouthful. That's when I realized the difference. It was less of the raw coconut flavor you get from an Almond Joy or Mounds Bar, and instead the flavor of toasted coconut. I would liken the flavor to one of those toasted coconut marshmallows like Kraft Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites or Manischewitz Toasted Coconut Marshmallows. Not right out of the bag ... but skewered on a stick and toasted over a campfire, allowing the marshmallow to flame-up and char just a bit. Retro-haling Dulce de Leche brought back memories of ramming that still warm melted marshmallow into my mouth mere moments after blowing out the flame. That wonderfully delightful burned marshmallow flavor, intensified by the addition of roasted coconut. This is the flavor of Sutliff Dulce de Leche tobacco - sweet, creamy, nutty, and best of all - not a hint of tongue bite. It smokes slow and cool, and burns to a nice white ash. The room note is exactly what you'd expected from a marshmallow roasting over an open campfire. Another great aromatic blend from Sutliff which has been added to my rotation. And plan to have an ample supply in my cellar before the dark days are upon us.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5bk8l-rKXpF9loCe9j9evXu-3Q_zRHHg
I skip the numbers bit and listen to his taste impressions.
A short review on McClelland's 2020 Mature Cake.
Firstly; it's not a cake, the cake was available a few years back but is no longer. The tobacco comes in a heavy, coarse shred that took some time to rub out. The tobacco has that rich, some say ""Ketchup" smell that McClelland's English Blends have. It felt to be a little moist but it packed well in a wide bowled pipe, lit easily and produced billows of smoke. Rich flavor with a fruity, sweet, spicy taste, and stayed lit well with no bite even with heavier puffing. It had gray ash with some charcoal at the bottom.
I DG'd this and the flavor stayed there after 1.5 hrs..
I bought 2 oz. to try and think I'll be getting a pound or so for the cellar.
Taking the mystery out of writing tobacco reviews by G.L.Pease
http://luxurytobaccoreviews.com/reviews-without-tears.php
- Very similar blends, but I find the second blend a little less sweet, not as goopy as the first (no offense JD).
They both are blends of Burley, Virginia, and some slight Perique, with a fruity casing.
Anybody else compare these?
The product from Just for Him was part of their Middle Earth sample pack. Tried the Shortcut to Mushrooms yesterday, was not impressed. It was similar to Country Squire's JS Blend, which I prefer. The mushrooms weren't very strong, and the latakia was on the weak side. Still smokable, IMHO.
OK, you got a two-fer-one review there, gents!
I've only ordered Shortcut to Mushrooms from them, but it's one of my favorite aromatics. It might not be the most flavorful aromatic, but the aroma is wonderful. It's one of the few blends I'll smoke around people.
The reviews on Shortcut to Mushrooms talk about notes of Shitake and "earth", but they are very mild. I was filling the pipe and a hard chunk of something fell out, which, when I inspected closer, seemed to be a piece of dried mushroom stem. It was dark in color and seems to have been "aged" with the tobacco, so I put it back in the bowl and carried on. At the end of the session I dumped it out and sure enough, it had turned ash white. So I think the mushrooms do add something to the experience. Overall it is pleasant, but not exactly what I was looking for.
by the way, thanks for your research on "Old Toby". It seems to be a marque that has been around for a while and used by various folks.
@Phillip and @motie2 ... You want to see a couple of hippies - I've got a photo for you. When my band Vesuvius was accepted as one of the 11 bands to appear on the WKQX HOMETOWN ALBUM our local newspaper "The Gary Post Tribune" did a photo shoot to go along with an article written about us and our inclusion on the album. I dug these out of an old scrapbook and did the old 'photo of a photo', so the end result is not as clear as it should be. I'm the guy with the beard and bad hair cut.
@motie2 Picture 1 ... This is a behind the scenes publicity shot of you on location where you're both directing and staring in one of those Italian cannibal adventures filmed in the Amazons. I can imagine you behind the camera shouting ... "more blood, more blood" to the special effects team.
Picture 2 .... It was the 70s' and the adult film industry was booming. So with money to be made on either side of the camera, it was time for a little cheese cake pose to add to the G-Man's portfolio.
Picture 3 ... Just returned from a 26 city tour as bassist for The Grateful Dead Reunion concert - and had the time of your life.
Great pictures. In that 60s' pic you seriously look like an Italian movie star. And in the 70s' pic it appears we shared the same barber. Or I should say we avoided the same barber.