G. L. Pease The Virginia Cream

(3.02)
Distinctively delicious! G.L. Pease seasons fine red and golden flue cured Virginia tobaccos with rare condimental leaf, enhancing the result with a subtle vanilla/bourbon topping that is never overbearing. Rare for a blend of its genre, The Virginia Cream delivers on its aromatic promise from the first puff to the bottom of the bowl, while leaving the pipe clean and free of phantom flavors. An all-American blend ideal for Virginia fanciers craving something a little sweeter.

Details

Brand G. L. Pease
Series Heirloom Collection
Blended By Gregory Pease
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Black Cavendish, Kentucky, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring Bourbon, Vanilla
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2 ounce tin, 8 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Mild to Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.02 / 4
18

22

13

2

Reviews

Please login to post a review.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 55 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 14, 2015 Medium Very Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Yes, it's an aromatic. There is a mild topping throughout. But that's where the similarity to just about every other widely sold aromatic tobacco I've tried ends. By far the primary taste in this blend is the Virginia, not the topping. It's expertly balanced with, to my taste buds, considerably less Dark Fired than other Pease blends have used, making this one of very few Dark Fired blends I can enjoy all day without throat pain in the morning. The topping is delicious, but it doesn't obscure the leaf, it accentuates it, bringing out the black cavendish while taking the edge off the remainder of the blend. And when you want a bit more kick, even a short DGT puts a lot more spice to the sweet. This blend reminds me of Sixpence not in terms of flavor, but in the skill of the blender. You can tell this balanced a blend did not come about by accident. No noticeable ghosting in any pipe, and seems to smoke well in everything. I preferred a meerschaum, but I think any clean pipe would do, and it smokes well in my Virginia pipes. Little to no drying time is necessary, if any, and it smokes clean to the heel, but the real proof of the pudding is after the smoke, when your pipe isn't left soaked with tar top to bottom. I'm going with "highly recommended" because I will highly recommend this to three groups of people. New smokers wanting to get to know how good an aromatic can be, experienced smokers who're convinced they don't like aromatics, and aromatic lovers who want to taste the tobacco from a blend. Which I guess is just about everybody.
Pipe Used: Clay, meerschaum, briar and cob
Age When Smoked: Fresh
43 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 19, 2016 Mild to Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
The mildly tangy dark fruity, earthy, woody red Virginia is what you first notice upon the early puffs. They tend to rise above the other components most of the time. The slightly floral gold flue-cured Virginia offers tart and tangy citrus with some grass as an important second lead, and the grass tends to over shadow the earth from the red Va. at times. There’s not much perique present. It is raisiny, figgy, plumy and offers just enough spice so you know it’s there. The small amount of dark fired Kentucky is slightly sour, woody, lightly nutty, earthy, floral, and its small spice hit tends to overshadow that of the perique. The spice content is not high at all, but just enough to tingle your tongue in most every draw, though it seems to be just a little more obvious at the half way point. The sugary black cavendish is a minor addition that helps smooth out the blend. The vanilla/bourbon toppings are subtle and very mildly applied. They don’t intrude much on the tobaccos, and weakens at the same time the spice starts to pick up, and the former may be the responsible for the latter. The strength is a couple of steps past the mild mark, while the taste level is in the center of mild to medium. Has a slightly more than mild nic-hit. Won't bite or get harsh. Burns cool, clean and well with a mostly consistent flavor and some smoothness. It’s not as sweet as Virginia dominant blends tend to be, especially when red Virginia is present. Leaves very little moisture in the bowl, and requires few relights. Easily burns to ash. Has a pleasant after taste that’s short lived, and the room note is pleasant. Can be an all day semi-aromatic smoke.

-JimInks
36 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 14, 2015 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Update: 8/8/16

This is slowly getting less crass in its presentation. Still not very refined, and the tobacco is still overly youthful in taste - too much like a rough example of burley rather than a Virginia. But it gives me some hope after 9 months of percolating in the jar. I'll try it again next year and see if it continues to improve. For now, 2 stars is plenty.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

Chunky, choppy cut of mostly lighter shades, with a tiny bit of black tossed in. Tin nose of vanilla bourbon, as stated, and although that's what it smells like to me, I probably would have agreed with hazelnut/rum as well. It's a booze aroma along with a fairly typical aromatic additive.

This "review" is based on only four bowls, which are all I can handle at the moment. Interestingly, it's not the flavoring that turns me off. The flavoring is mild and tastes as advertised. It doesn't intrude on the tobacco taste but rather enhances. And therein lies the problem - the tobacco. Either I have lost my taste for C&D-sourced Virginias or they have changed. My recent experience with them has been that they are rough and immature. This blend follows that suit. It smokes like it has a heavier burley taste and that burley is way too young. As this is Virginia (with Kentucky), it's even more disheartening. I think the recipe is a good one but the tobacco used is not up to par and the entire thing needs time to percolate in a jar. I'm going to shelve the rest of this one for at least 3-6 months and try again. Anything Peasian is worth the extra effort, and I hope this one proves to be so. As of now, I find it barely smokable. Let's see what time does.
25 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 12, 2015 Medium Mild Medium Pleasant
Smells real good in tin, like a soda as suggested.

Beautiful leaf, bight and red ribbons with some dark specks or chunks. On dry side. Packs easy. Burns steady. Not hot or wet. No chemical residue.

A steady sweet note thru the bowl with occasional spice; toward end maybe some more spice detected. But not highly flavored or real sweet like most aromatics. Can't say the sweetness tastes like a soda or pure vanilla to me, just nice company to the quality rich base tobaccos. The taste was a combo of delicate, nice flavors. Not earthy or hay.

My stuffed tin lasted about 40 bowls in two size 3 pipes. I broke each pipe in with about 15-20 bowls of TVC. and after 10 or so bowls the flavor was just about the same in each pipe -- but one broke in sooner. The flavor lasted until the last shreds of tobacco in the tin (two+ weeks). An achievement that such a light flavor stayed with the bowls and tin until the end. I find most flavored tin blends lose something after about 7-10 days unless you preserve the tobacco. I didn't; just smoked it up exclusively. Make sure you seal the lid back on after packing, and of course if you will take more than 2 weeks to finish a tin, you should preserve it in a jar.

I don't know if age will sweeten it more, as the already sweet flavor accompanies the Virginias. But aging may increase the taste experience a little.

I compared it to Blue Note due to the looks (though that has flakes) and a little to 3 Star Blues' original flavor profile. However, TVC is mostly unique.

Highly recommended for Virginia smokers who want something different but not extreme.
Pipe Used: Arlington, Rinaldo
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes
Age When Smoked: new
17 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 26, 2015 Medium Mild Medium Pleasant
If there’s ever an aromatic that smokers of more natural mixtures might enjoy this could very well be the one. First of all, this isn’t a limp-wristed vanilla blend and the topping is never the focus. It’s only a mere sidebar to the overall flavor experience, an aromatic accent or high-note if you will.

From the description, this one seemed like it would be right in my wheelhouse. The Virginia Cream is sweet and spicy with a handful of appreciable nuances. The bulk of the Virginia's are bright, adding a delicate grassiness that melds harmoniously with topping. An earthier red Virginia flavor is also present, working with the rest of the components to lend a solid backbone and a few complexities. Altogether the sweet & spicy effect, mixed with the subtle touch of vanilla & bourbon produces a flavor that I find to be somewhat reminiscent of horchata.

By mid-bowl the taste intensifies, delivering a more rustic variation on the theme. Mid-bowl also delivers a bit of strength. Overall there are no huge flavor-shifts to be found in a bowl of this, only good Virginia flavor with a moderate amount of spice and a pleasant & very well executed top note.

The Virginia Cream is an easy-going & relaxing smoke. It’s smooth, sweet and enjoyable. Altogether, I prefer smoking this in a pipe with a wide & shallow bowl. I have a couple pot shaped pipes that I have dedicated to non-Latakia mixtures. These do a nice job focusing the flavors of more complex blends by helping to keep the ember burning on the cooler side. Of course, smoking this with a slower cadence helps improve the flavor as well.
15 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 24, 2016 Medium Mild Medium Very Pleasant
The Virginia Cream (Heirloom Collection) from G. L. Pease offers a light aromatic that may well pass muster with smokers who normally puff on other types of tobacco.

Open the tin and you find a tan ribbon cut tobacco with a few small dark chunks, apparently the black cavendish, which I suppose carries the aromatic flavoring. I often find tinned tobaccos overly moist upon first opening, but this one I can light up at once. The sniff test reveals that this is an aromatic, but not an overly strong one.

Once lit, the Virginia Cream gives a pleasant room note, not unlike that of cookies baking. When the bowl is finished you find a light grey ash with just a bit of moisture, but no goop.

The mild bourbon vanilla flavoring is noticeable, but does not overwhelm the Virginia base, and carries a soft overtone that seems similar to caramel. Those Virginias (red and gold) strike me as being more grassy than citrus like. The tobacco flavor is definitely Virginia, although not particularly sweet Virginia, darkened just a bit from the minor Kentucky (smoked burley) component. The Virginia Cream has a smidgen of perique which I do not really taste, although when exhaling through the snoot I get a slight perique nose tingle.

Smokers who usually puff on aromatics will likely find this a pleasure, even though this is an aromatic very definitely on the light side. Tobacco tastes are very subjective, and whether or not aromatic lovers will be inclined to move this into the regular location depends on that individual palate. But the vast majority of aromatic lovers will likely find this a pleasant smoke.

Those whose preference runs toward Virginias will also find The Virginia Cream an enjoyable experience. The bourbon/vanilla melds nicely with the Virginia flavor, and most definitely does not obscure it. The two tastes complement rather than clash.

Those who normally smoke blends with a distinct Latakia or oriental nature will find The Virginia Cream a quite different experience, but I suspect many among them will rate it as OK for a change of pace.

Burley lovers will not find the Kentucky in this mixture prominent enough to meet their yens. But again I suspect many of them will judge this as an an acceptable change of pace.

I smoked this both with pipes dedicated to Virginas and aromatics. If your pipe collection is large enough to where you you do not often smoke a bowl in the same pipe, you will not encounter ghosting problems.

In terms of personal enjoyment I would give The Virginia Cream all four stars. But in terms of recommendation for the general pipe smoking world, I will restrict it to three stars.
11 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 12, 2016 Mild Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
G. L. Pease - The Virginia Cream.

The blend appears to be more of a Coarse Cut than a simple Ribbon. Out of the two colours in there, brown with a small proportion of black, there are a few robust pieces of the latter. The note from the tin is quite aromatic and it has a decent water amount, so on with the smoke:

The moment I take my first puff it's clear to me that this is a blend of eminence; the vanilla (I don't get any bourbon) doesn't seem thick, cheap, or vulgar, it just oozes class: added in the right quantity to give a quality embellishment to the smoke without stealing all the thunder.

Putting the added taste to one side, that leaves the natural tobacco's: again, they're a very high quality. Even though the tin appeared to only have a tiny proportion of Black Cavendish in there, it tastes like there's more than that. I don't get much grass notes from the Virginia, but I do get an easily discernible Perique hit. The Kentucky is the final tobacco to mention: nothing remarkable, nor particularly pre-eminent, but it gives structure to the smoke.

My only quibble with V.C. is the very slight tongue bite. But considering that that's subjective there's no reason why that should put you off!

I don't get a great deal of nicotine from this, but that sits fine with me.

This is a top class blend:

Highly recommended.

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Chacom Robusto
PurchasedFrom: Gauntley's U.K.
Age When Smoked: Four Months
9 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 29, 2015 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
OK, let me get this off my chest before I go any further. If your a tobacco "Purest" and avoid anything with a "Top Note, Casinig etc". Don't spend $9 and change on TVC and come here and bash this fine blend. Because you knew what you were getting into before you made your purchase. Now on the other hand, if you're open minded toward what you smoke and like new things then I think you may just have to try TVC. I have to say that I've really enjoyed the half tin so far. This is definitely a very nice VA and it shines through from beginning to end. Don't get me wrong it's not as if the other tobaccos in the blend aren't noticeable because they are. The Dark Fire is there and gives a little more backbone to the blend while the Perique adds just a touch of extra spice. The cavendish is there just to round things out. The dreaded "Top Note" is barely noticeable which is a good thing. It does pop up as you work your way through a bowl more so in the room note than in the taste of the tobacco. Yes it adds to the sweetness but in a good way, because if your like me it smooths out the spiciness of the DF & Perique. A very well balanced blend from a master blender (Well done Mr Pease Well done). TVC burned cool, dry down to a fine white ash. No Goopy mess in the bottom of the bowl. No pipe cleaners needed to work your way through a pipe full. This is NOT some weird gimmick. This is just a damn fine blend, I just hope that they start to offer this in half pound tins because I only ordered a quarter pound and it won't last long at the rate I'm going. I can definitely see this as an all day blend. So once again if you have an open mind and want to experience an Areo that "Is and Isn't" at the same time then TVC might just be right up your alley. I Remain your Brother in Smoke 4/4
Pipe Used: Savinelli 2000 Bulldog Radice Reverse Calabash
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Fresh
8 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 15, 2015 Very Strong Very Strong Overwhelming Strong
I must begin by saying that I have been a Pease fan for years. It's gonna get 1 star for now as such, here's why. Tin note had no vanilla, bourbon or any other aroma of those listed here by other reviewers, not contradicting anyone on their tin and experience of course, it just didn't happen for me and mine.

I asked two other nonsmokers, at different times and places, to smell the tobacco in the tin, without showing them the label (eliminates power of suggestion effect). Both independently said it smelled like soured or spoiled fruit. My own thoughts on the tin note were "spoiled apple smell" - which I kept secret during the smell test of the other two folks so as not to influence their opinion. Basically we all 3 agreed and all found the odor unpleasant - nothing "aromatic" about it to me.

Now to the smoking
I got serious pepper effect from the very first draw,,,, unlike any blend I have ever smoked,, I mean SERIOUS pepper folks. So much so that I couldn't feel anything but the pepper effect. VA creaminess?? Maybe,,, I wouldn't know because the pepper burn dominated my palate.

I LOVE pure VAs, some aromatics, VaPers, and a few English blends, so I had VERY high hopes for this blend and couldn't wait to try it. My favorite VAs all have that "creamy" taste and I was hoping this one would too,,, but the pepper effect was simply overwhelming in a way I've never experienced with any other blend, English or otherwise.

Not finding fault with GL Pease here. There is just something not quite right about it all to me and my tastes.

I remain a GLP fan.

I hope to experience what others here have posted if I can ever bring myself to buy another tin.....But,,,,,,, for now,,,,,

1 star
*
Pipe Used: Any
Age When Smoked: new tin
6 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 08, 2020 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Tolerable
I was greatly disappointed by this blend. I bought this because it was the newest blend offered by GL Pease at that time and it looked interesting. (about 5 years ago) I didn't look at the tin description or contents, the name alone convinced me. Why? I have no clue. lol I guess this evoked within me an image of Virginia flavor and Vanilla Cream soda and that seemed interesting enough. Reading the tin description after purchase, I believe this was kind of what Pease was going for as well.

I read through many of the reviews while smoking through this tin and found some common themes that I disagree with strongly. One is that this is a good intro to aromatics for non aro smokers. Unless I got an oddball tin or the topping completely evaporated from the in tact sealed tin, I could barely sense any topping at all either in the smell from the tin or the taste while smoking. If someone gave me this to smoke and did not tell me what it was, I would not even guess it an aro, so I fail to see how something that does not taste like an aro can be a good intro to aros.

Another thing that I seen many reviewers comment on is how easy smoking and non biting this happened to be, and that it was a good blend for beginners coming off of aros. Maybe I smoke a little faster than all who have said this, but I found this to be quite bitey and difficult to get into the zone. I would definitely not recommend this blend to a beginner.

Now on to the Virginia flavor that I anticipated, as I think I have said enough in regard to the topping and the vanilla soda I was expecting. The tin description talks of rare condimental leaf being added. It does not take long to figure out that one of these "rare condimental leaves" is Dark Fired Kentucky. I like DFK, but it, with the other condimental leaf, just overpowers the Virginia in this blend IMO. The Virginia does not have a lot of sweetness to begin with, by adding these heavy leaves to it, It just makes this a dirtier earthier tasting blend than I expected.

Onto the good. It is perfectly dry IMO. It does burn nice and once you do get it in the zone, it tastes alright. This blend kind of reminds me of Aromatic Dutch Slices from PS, but not as good IMO. I won't miss this blend, but it is not a one star bad.

Age When Smoked: 4yr 4mth
5 people found this review helpful.
Please login to upvote this review.

target="_blank"