Low Country Pipe & Cigar Waccamaw

The red and bright Virginias provide a fair amount of tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, sugar, mild tart and tangy citrus, grass, floralness, vegetation, light sour lemon, and a pinch of spice. The red Va. almost dominates the bright Virginia, which provides a little evenness to the overall Virginia taste. The earthy, woody perique has as much plums, figs and raisins as it has pepper as a supporting player. The dry, lightly buttery and more sour, smoky, woody, floral, spicy, herbal Izmir is right behind the perique in terms of effect. The strength is medium. The taste is a couple of notches past that mark. The nic-hit is almost medium. No chance of bite, harshness, or dullness. Has a few small rough notes. It's a broken flake that burns slowly, cool, clean and even, requiring fewer relights than many other blends of this cut do. Has a fruity, spicy, floral, mildly sour flavor. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. Has a lightly lingering, pleasant after taste. The room note is stronger. Not an all day smoke, but it’s repeatable. Three stars.

-JimInks

This review is going to focus on a relatively new tobacco. It is Low Country Tobacco?s Waccamaw blend. Now for those of you who don?t know, Low Country Tobacco is the actual store for smokingpipes.com. It is in Little River, SC which is about 40 miles from where I live. Yes, I?m that lucky. These blends are the result of a collaboration between Sykes Wilford (owner of smokingpipes.com) and Craig Tarlor (owner of Cornell & Diehl Tobaccos). As of right now there are 4 blends in this series.

Now for those who are VaPer purists I will warn you that this blend has some Izmir leaf in it, which is another spice tobacco that lends itself to this blend.

Now for the review.

When I popped the tin of this blend I was greeted by a wonderful smell. Sweet and sour with a lot of spiciness in there. I will warn everyone that I will compare this to GL Pease?s Embarcadero blend quite a bit for reasons that I will explain in the summary below. This blend smelled a lot like Embarcadero when I whiffed it the first couple of times. This blend comes in flake form and the flakes are about the same size as Orlik?s Golden Sliced. The blend arrived quite moist in the tin and all of my flakes were stuck together. I just dumped the whole thing out on a few paper towels and rubbed them all out so that they would dry out a little more thoroughly.

I filled the pipe with this blend using the 3 pack method all of the times that I smoked it so far. This worked out quite well. After drying the tobacco a bit this blend took to the first light and never stopped. After the blend got going my nose was greeted with the most intoxicating aroma of sweet Virginia, spicy Perique, and a sourness that I can only guess comes from the Izmir. It was delightful!

The first third of the bowl was pretty spicy and kept things interesting. There is A Lot of Perique in here. All of the components were playing off of each other and going in and out of the taste. The second third of the bowl all of the flavors and aromas seemed to blend together and really come to the forefront. It tickled and burned a bit from the spiciness when blown through the nose. Truly amazing!

The last part of this blend was more of the same. It settled down a bit towards the very end of the bowlful with the sourness taking the drivers seat near the end.

This blend is truly a great blend right out of the tin. I can?t wait to see what a little age does to this tobacco. As I stated above, there is a ton of Perique in here and it lends to quite a bit of Nicotine as well. Now as most of you know, C & D makes all of the blends for GL Pease. I cannot help but think that this blend is Embarcadero with some Perique added into the mix. The tastes and smells are almost identical. However, the Waccamaw is about $1.50 cheaper for a tin than the Embarcadero. I?d be interested to hear from everyone on this one about whether they think there are definitely similarities or if I?m just imagining all of this.

If you like Perique bombs, then this blend is definitely one to try out.

The Izmar leaf was readily detected at the match and I liked it a lot. But, since Izmar is one of the heavier Orientals it can overwhelm at times and it did with Waccamaw. The descriptive says Waccamaw contains "a dash of Izmar." Well, it was a big dash.

The flake crumbled up easily when rubbed and burned very easily and evenly throughout the smoke. It may be awhile before I try a second bowl but for those who enjoy regular wallops of Oriental leaf, this one is sure to please.

Sweet, sour, spicy, with lesser notes of fruit. I would rate the sweet and sour notes as medium, the spice as full, and the fruitiness as mild. There were times during the second half of the bowl that I thought I was smoking either Dunhill's Elizabethan Mixture or C&D's Bayou Morning. This blend is slightly more complex due to the addition of the Oriental component. If you like either of those blends you should try this one. A truly enjoyable and satisfying blend.

I recently bought a Bruce Weaver billiard from SmokingPipes.Com and decided to throw in a few tins of tobacco in the order. I've been meaning to try the Low Country Waccamaw -- a true flake tobacco with virginia, Perique and Oriental leaves -- since I love vigrinia flakes, Perique and orientals, it seemed like a no-brainer. I was not disappointed. First of all, the 2 ounce pull top can is well done. The dark brown streaked with brown and speckled with gold whole flakes, stacked vertically, are wrapped and covered with paper -- something every blender using these cans should offer. The "tin note" is best described as citrusy-herbal with a hint of spice. The flakes are a perfect moisture for my tastes and did not need drying after cube-cutting, so I loaded up my Wally Frank rhosesian and went to town! The charring light and true light was fine. The spicy-fruit flavors from the Perique and the "soft kick" from the oriental (Izmir?) is upfront, causing me to mutter "Wow!" Lots of billowy delicious smoke. The air-cured virginia comes in to round things out -- smooth, creamy, but not as sweet as I expected, which is fine -- after all, it's the oriental and Perique which are the stars in this blend. This is not to cast aspersions on the virginia here, because it's absolutely top notch. Ahh -- about a third of the way in, those virginias step up and sweeten -- you know, that natural sweetness of quality Carolina leaf -- that creamy-tart sweetness that coats the mouth. There's a considerable amount of Saint James Perique and Turkish in this blend, and they remain center stage throughout, which is nice -- it's a concert, not a solo performance. This blend is made to be sipped slowly to experience its full potential. I am certain this will age extremely well and even though it's packed in a zip-top can, the packaging should protect it over time. While Waccamaw, IMO, is not for beginners, experienced puffers who are looking for an unusual "Va/Per" that also like, or want to try, a flake with oriental tobacco other than latakia should definitely give this one a shot.

Waccamaw presents as beautiful, dark brown broken flake with a deep, rich tin note of dried fig, raisin, date, and a hint of plum. Those same flavors present on the charging light, with the plum note a bit more assertive. The addition of Oriental here is a key element in differentiating this blend from its peers and becomes apparent in the first third of the bowl with by the addition of a subtle floral note to the traditional VaPer flavors. The Orientals also dry this blend out a bit, subtracting from the tang of what might otherwise be a more traditional, if robust VaPer. I find that a positive in that Orientals tend to take the bite out of red Virginia and produce a smoother smoking blend, without subtracting from the body or depth. Ironically, Orientals can accentuate the Virginia flavor in that those more sensitive to these tobaccos can taste them more fully without bite or burn. 

This is a fairly stout blend with a generous portion of Perique, and the addition of the Oriental(s?) serves to smoothen out what might otherwise be a blend more similar to Fillmore in its strength and depth.  The vitamin N  is strong with this one, so those more sensitive to nicotine should take whatever precautionary food and drink measures one takes.  I would say this even places a step above Fillmore in nicotine content.

By mid-bowl, the Virginias are largely drowned out by the Perique and Izmir, providing only the slightest hint of sweet on the tip of one's tongue. There is no tang or damp sweetness- only the pungency of mid-bowl Perique and the salty/herbal flavors of the Izmir (and, to my palette at least, a bit of Samsun).  This flavor profile continues though the final third with a hint of nut and wood balancing out that mid-bowl Perique blast. 

The Orientals really tame the Virginias here, while allowing for a more-than-ample dose of Perique with no bite. Waccamaw smokes dry and cool, even while providing a blast of spice and substantial nicotine. You'll feel that N in the mouth and the back of the throat, but never on the tongue. This is a superbly crafted tobacco by folks who must smoke a lot of stout VaPer blends and worked hard to dial in just the right proportion of Oriental (it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it...). The proportions are just right here to create a powerful blend that doesn't carpet bomb the tongue and taste buds, yet will leave even the most intrepid pipeman satisfied. 

What a blend! 

Waccamaw had been on my hit-list for awhile, but I always seemed to push it aside in favor of my go-to VaPer blends.  Then a fellow pipeman included this as a sample along with a trade of some other blends. I'm not sure whether to thank him or hate him. Needless to say, I promptly ordered up several more tins. So now I've got yet another favorite...  Waccamaw is a world-class, robust VaPer hybrid that deserves a place in any VaPer smoker's cabinet. Outstanding. 

Close your eyes and simply rev up your blender's and smoker's brain parts. Think of ridiculously high quality light and red virginias, perique and oriental that tastes as good as it smells. If you don't like what your mind conjures as a taste then step away. If you think there's a possibility there for you, then BUY THIS! The flakes are the C&D thick cut that so many of us like. Smokes easily and tastes great from start to finish. I'm not a reviewer that describes taste from first to second to third of the bowl. EVERY tobacco gets stronger/muddled towards the bottom. But flavor as you go down the bowl? Delicious. Love the oriental piece. These oriental leaves are phenomenal but not overbearing. I like VaPers very much but, to beat a dead horse, I love blends that add orientals. Anyway, enough. Terrific smoke. The kind of smoke that makes you want to sell a lot of your stash since those tins will now pale by comparison.

My tin is well aged, about 8.5 years. I didn't get that much of the Izmir leaf, but more of a fine, aged Virginia scent in the tin note (stewed fruit), and excellent Virginia in the taste and room note, with a bit of the Turkish from time to time. One of my sons told me it had an herbal smell, but in a good way.

Since my tin was so well aged (thanks Pipestud), it smoked like a dream. Haven't tried recent production, but should. The broken flake folds and stuffs easily -- did not try rubbing it out or chopping. No drying time needed, maybe due to age. Highly recommended.

I really, really like McClelland's St. James Woods. Waccamaw is very much akin to St. James, but darker and murkier, creamier and mysterious. This blend comes at almost the right moisture level so I let it sit a while and breath. I took the soft flake, rolled it around in my fingers and slipped it right down the bowl. After a few lightings things got spooky! This tobacco is wonderful! Been smoking a pipe about 30 years and I might have found the one here! Update: This blend has a good nico zip to it and the wife said it smelled "alright". I wish this came in bulk.

I find Waccamaw to be sweet, sour, spicy, tangy, and full of dark-fruit flavor but not sharp at any point. At center stage is aged Virginia sweetness, lemony and bright, accompanied and supported by the other tobaccos that give it a creamy, buttery, soft finish on the exhale. Nice big billows of white smoke. A bit too full in flavor in my view to be an all-day smoke but delightful on the palate, flavors fairly consistent and enjoyable all the way down the bowl. Presented as a flake but after a couple years in glass without any special handling mine looks more like ready-rubbed. Inverted pack in a large bowl took a couple of relights but burned almost completely with just a bit of fine, gray ash left at the end. I will keep some of this on hand - I expect that it will only mellow even more with age. Highly recommended for sure.