G. L. Pease Montgomery

A recent blend sampled by my local pipe club members. Most felt the flavor was superb and that the nicotine content was light. One person in the group said he thought the nicotine level was just right and then admitted he thought chicken soup was a hearty meal. LOL!

The ribbon cut was way too stringy to suit me, so I chopped it in my blender for a more even load and burn. I learned that little trick from an article I read in P&T Magazine by famous pipemaker and tobacco distributor Mike Butera. It was one of the best smoking tips I ever picked up.

Moisture content was good and the room aroma is very pleasing. But alas, I couldn't find the beef (nicotine). Still, the flavors were so complex and rich that anything less than a 4-star rating would be unfair.

The various yellow, orange, brown and red Virginias offer some tangy ripe dark fruit, a tad more tart citrus and grass/hay, a touch of lemon and bread, and a bit of earth and wood. They are the lead components. The woody, earthy, lightly spicy, mildly floral dark fired Kentucky is an important condiment as it provides some nuances to the blend. The strength and taste levels miss the medium mark by a hair. The nic-hit is just past the center of mild to medium. Has a small chance of bite due to the tingly quality of the brighter Virginias, so a slow puffing cadence is recommended. Has no harsh notes unless you steam puff. Burns a tad warm and clean at a reasonable pace with a moderately complex, fairly consistent flavor, though the dark fired Kentucky occasionally perks up more than expected. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a average number of relights. Has pleasantly, lightly lingering after taste and room note. Can be an all day smoke. Three and a half stars out of four. I deducted half a star because of the occasional inconsistency of taste and warm burn.

-JimInks

FUN WITH C&D SAMPLES, Vol. III, No. IV

This was a 1 oz sample I picked up direct from C&D as part of their wonderful sampler pack. Nice looking orange-ish wide ribbon cut of predominately virginias. Just a few specs of dark leaf in there, which is likely the Kentucky. Loads easily and smokes to the bottom without effort.

I've smoked a lot of virginia blends containing everything from lemon to red and in most of them the flavor of the lighter VA's is stronger. As I prefer the darker VA's, such blends are not often my favorites. This one is no exception, but I think the slight addition of Kentucky leaf keeps this one from going overboard on the light side. There is an orange-peel flavor as I taste in Orlik's Golden Sliced but it's not overwhelming. As in the Solani VA w/perique I recently smoked, the "odd man out" condiment is expertly applied and creates a very light citrus flavor coupled with some spiciness - just enough. The flavor of this was spot on for me, for when I want something refreshing. I found just a touch of complexity in this one, that being the darker flavors coming through at the match and then going AWOL until the middle of the bowl.

Three stars for this because of one problem - tongue bite. It didn't bite me like a dog but it did have a tendency to sizzle just a bit, enough to make me mildly uncomfortable and slow my puffing cadence down to a point I'm not used to. As I have convinced myself that tongue bite is neither the fault of the tobacco nor the smoker (unless he puffs furiously) but rather a simple chemical imbalance between the two, I don't feel the need to warn anyone. If you like lemon VA's with just a ligh touch of darkness, try this one out!

Delightful, natural sweetness. My tin, bought off Pipestud, is 11 years old, so this has mellowed and aged beautifully. Therefore, my comments might not apply equally to a new tin. The tin note is why I smoke a pipe, slightly nutty and a scent of fermented hay, almost vinegary from the age. Easy lighting, flavor builds nicely through the bowl. I wish I could condense the nutty room note, slice it up and eat it.

Kentucky not that noticeable but it's there, a puff every now and then, adding a nice little frisson here and there. Not the most complex smoke, no, but the flavor is very rich. Don't overpuff -- doesn't bite, but VA don't like to be pushed. This won't satisfy nic hitters, who tend to 2-star it, but the flavor and room note are lovely.

Some have said it is too complex for newbies, but I disagree. It is mild enough and flavorful enough to be appreciated by newbs and is a wonderful introduction to a well-mannered VA. And it ages like a dream.

I am an unabashed fan of G.L. Pease tobaccos. When Montgomery debuted as a Pease Virginia offering some ten years ago in the Fog City Collection, I purchased it with high hopes. I was mildly disappointed. My lack of enthusiasm came not from discovering Montgomery to be a mediocre pipe tobacco. Rather I was disappointed in not rating it as outstanding.

Opening the tin I discovered a mostly mahogany colored ribbon with a natural smell not unlike that of Orlik Golden Sliced. Many tinned tobaccos are overly moist upon opening. I rated the moisture level of Montgomery as ideal. It lit easily, and was easily kept going with the sipping puffing style favorable for Virginia based smokes. Virginias can present a tongue bite problem, but a gentle puff rate will suffice to keep bite negligible for most smokers. Those with sensitive tongues may find it bitey, but not to a degree different from other Virginia based blends.

The red and lighter Virginias produced a grassy with citrus overtone taste that was perfectly fine. With the Virginias alone, the taste would be light. But Montgomery also has a Kentucky (smoked burley) element that ups the taste to a point squarely between light and medium. The room note is pleasant, natural tobacco, and will offend none but the anti-tobacco Nazis.

Montgomery offers a pleasant smoke, on the lighter side of the spectrum, with a very low nicotine presence. It burns to a very light grey ash, and leaves negligible dottle at the conclusion of the smoke.

So what is wrong with Montgomery? Not a thing! The only reason I award it only two stars is that there are a myriad of other Virginia based pipe smokes I like even better. Such as? Orlik Golden Sliced, Hamborger Veermaster, Dunhill Flake, Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake and Full Virginia Flake, a bevy of Fribourg and Treyers, and an even larger contingent of McClellands.

I have smoked Montgomery several times since first trying it a decade ago. My judgement remains the same. Montgomery is a very fine light to medium Virginia offering which suffers only from comparison to a considerable number of other blends.

G. L. Pease - Montgomery (Fog City Selection).

OK, I'll get straight to the vacuous reason for my buying this: my favourite character in the Simpsons is Mr Burns, full name Charles MONTGOMERY Burns. I know, I should grow up!

It's presented as quite a fine ribbon, medium brown, with a small amount of black pieces. Like most of the 'Pease blends it arrived with good hydration. Due to the finer build of the ribbons a bowl can be easily over packed, thusly impeding the burn. So load with a lighter hand.

Montgomery's smoke is mainly Virginia. But it isn't just the one variety, sharp citrus, hay, dark fruit, etc., all the flavours are present. To be fair they do fluctuate in volume throughout a bowl: eg, at the beginning there's more dark fruit and a bready quality, but this fades over the bowl. Dark fired Kentucky can often turn me off, when the smoke tastes like a 'tyre fire', but Montgomery has just enough to raise the flavour from mild, without turning it into an astringent mess. Because it needs loosely packing to prevent a poor burn it can go the other way: puffing too vigorously can make it burn fast. So, take it easy. If treated correctly it's well behaved, though.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: pleasant.

Montgomery? I'll happily rate it with four stars:

Highly recommended.

This is a deceptively rich blend that seems at first to be simply a light virginia. Yes there is a touch of Kentucky in there, but its pretty minor. Ribbon cut which i dont usually like so much, but in this case it seems to work to the advantage of this blend. Its just an organgey and sort of bright light Virginia blend...but sweet and very tasty. As such, it has real depth. Now straight up (or nearly so) virginias are not hard to find..stoved heavily or not stoved at all. McClelland makes great VAs, like blackwoods flake. But thats another kind of smoke. This is more like Fribourg and Treyer's Golden Mixture. And in a sense, like golden mixture, it makes a great all day smoke. Nic hit is mild. No bite, but very flavorful and as i say, deceptively rich and more complex than one might think. Never a taste of ash. I think C&Ds Opening Night, and Pease's Union Square beg comparison, too. I dont rate this as highly as Opening Night...or even 1776 by McClelland...but then those are in my opinon as good as straight virginia gets.

This is a first for me... a first in that I will not write a review on a blend until I've gone through at least a full two ounce tin. That approximates, in my estimation, about thirty to forty bowls. Some blends that I have not liked (nor finished the tin) I will not write a review on, since one's enjoyment of different blends is subjective; hence I will only write a review on those blends that I find enjoyable. And for what its worth, I typically smoke English and/or Balkan blends; I do enjoy (quality) Virginia flakes and the very occasional Virginia/Perique. I've only smoked four bowls of this and decided this deserved a write-up; this is an exceptional Virginia/Burley blend. As a rule I am not a smoker of blends that contain Burley; this is not because I don't enjoy Burley blends but because my wife, bless her, does not care for the "cigarettish" room note that Burleys will often leave behind. I don't blame her, since I don't care much for that aroma myself. However, there is not much Burley in Montgomery and I could not write enough nice things about this blend; Mr. Pease's tin description is dead-on accurate. The tin I am currently working my way through was aged almost two years before I opened it. The blend does indeed have "subtle complexity" when smoked in a large bowl pipe and it must be smoked in a leisurely fashion in order to catch these subtleties. It has a delightful natural sweetness (just as Mr. Pease asserts); it has a delightful room aroma (my wife commented on this "That smells very pleasant") and it burns "cool". I even tried it in a double-wall porcelain "Old Mokum" danish pipe and the outer walls of the pipe remained cool to the very end (this in and of itself is so rare as to be notable). And finally it has a quality that really counts for me and is hard to define - it is a "comfortable" smoke... one just feels "comfy" and "at home" while smoking Montgomery. Now that I know what it is like (with some age), Lord willing, I shall buy about a pound of this to cellar and to enjoy several years from now. This is an exceptional blend.

A sweet, quick-burning, fine short ribbon with fruit overtones from a casing or topping (the "ancient archives" part). The tin note is peach, berry, and a bit of raisin, not much of the typical grass and hay you might associate with a Virginia. It is well made and easy smoking but can also bite easily like any tobacco of this type. In all aspects it seems practically identical to the Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia from the 1970s and 1980s (I haven't tried the current one). That tobacco is what immediately popped to mind when I opened the tin, although I hadn't smoked it in over thirty years. Montgomery also has a touch of dark fired Kentucky, which seems pointless to me because it is so minute as to be undetectable. Overall a good example of a moderately cased/topped ripe Virginia in the English style. Add Perique to this and you'll get Dunhill Elizabethan.

My tin of Montgomery was a sample and according to the date on the bottom of the tin, about a month old. The new tin size is a step forward for many smokers as they use the tin as their dispenser of tobacco. I always empty the tin into a heavy guage zip lock bag and store the bags in snap lid ceramic jars, if the quantity is only 50 grams- 2 ounces. The neat thing about the new tin is the very kool graphics. Fog City is not London, but San Francisco and the graphics are from old maps. Love it.

Opening the tin, you are presented with a very nice VA smell, soghlty sweet, just a little bit grassy. The tobacco is all ribbon and is mostly yellow with a few chards of dark brown. This is a mixture of several Virginias and some Kentucky (Burley). I am senstive to nicotine, so i am glad the Kentucky is just a "smidgeon".

Packs easily and fires up with out too much fuss. This is a tobacco for the contemplative smoker, not the blast furnace stoker. It can get hot if pushed, but if not, is very cool and as all glp mixtures, burns down to a dry clean heel.

The smoke is slighly sweet and is mildly complex. It won't require your undivided attention like say Renaissance, but is not monochromatic. The room note has a high spousal approval rating.

I have just gotten into VA flakes and I am sure VA flake smokers will wonder, how does this mixture compare to a nice Flake? Apples and oranges. The overall flavour and experiences are different. That said, you will not enjoy this mixture to the fullest unless you dedicate a pipe to it. I beleive that all mixtues shine the bgesti f smoked in a dedicated pipe, though.

Montgomery has lighter, some might say cleane,r flavour compered to Flakes. I have made room for both in my jars. The Kentucky adds a nice measure of fullness and the overall exerience is "creamy". If you like a heavier tobacco or one with spice, it looks like the next mixture in the series, Telegraph HIll, will be "it" for you. I like my food spicy and my tobcco round and creamy, so this is a highy recommended new mixtre for me.