SHPC Great Hiatus

The Cyprian latakia is deeply rich, smokey, and woody sweet as the star component. The Orientals are creamy sweet (Smyrna being one of them), earthy and woody with a very minor dry note, with a slightly more than mild ever present spice. They play a strong second lead, preventing this from being a lat-bomb. The Virginias are grassy, citrus sweet, and mostly lurk in the background as they form a base for the other tobaccos to shine. The nic-hit is mild to medium. Well balanced and a little dry, it burns at a reasonable pace, cool, clean and smooth with a very consistent flavor from start to finish. Won’t bite even if pushed, and there’s no harsh or weak spots to be found. Requires few relights, and leaves virtually no moisture in the bowl. The campfire after taste and room note linger a little. Strong enough to give the seasoned smoker the near-full bodied English taste he wants, and still be a repeatable smoke during the day and night, though it’s not quite an all day experience.

-JimInks

The tin scent of Great Hiatus is that of a heavy Latakia blend offering deep campfire notes. Arriving at the perfect moisture level for me, it was immediately ready to smoke. Despite the strong smell of Latakia, the flavor of the Oriental component comes to the forefront offering a wonderful creamy note. My guess is that there is some Smyrna in GH. By mid bowl, the Latakia takes over, but still leaves room for the other tobaccos. The Virginias offer some sweetness too. There is a spice note that builds throughout the bowl. My tin was a little over three years old so I am not sure how much the Virginia has sweetened verses a new tin. I am not sure if Russ Ouellette is making this blend anymore for SHPC as I have not seen it available for a while. I hope it returns as I blew right through my only tin and because this a very good blend that appears to have been overlooked based on the total number of reviews.

Blended by Pipesandcigars.com for the Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston, this is a truly classic English mixture. Rich Virginias, sweet Orientals and a generous dose of Latakia are combined for a complex and balanced smoke, with no predominant leaf.

Great Hiatus competes with Old Dublin and Ashton Artisan's Blend as the paradigm of English mixtures. Enough said.

Great blend. The Orientals give it a sour yet sweet base that is more forward than in most lat. blends. I think that is a good thing. The lat is there but does not overpower the other players and the VA makes a nice base that for me is more felt then tasted if that makes sense. Well worth the price.

I enjoy a wide range of tobacco types from time to time, but tend to gravitate toward the Latakia-Oriental-Perique blends more often than not. I recently bought a variety of premium tins to try out this winter, and added a tin of "Great Hiatus" to that list.

What a pleasant surprise! It lights fairly easily, stays lit once it's right, even when smoked at a very relaxed pace, and it is amazingly mellow on the tongue. It has perfect smoking manners. The room note (to my taste) is wonderful. The aroma and taste work perfectly together, and the taste is pretty much exquisite. It is deliciously spicy, with a variety of different flavors coming through, while not at all overwhelming.

Given the chance of a good day, or a lucky bowl entering the picture, I have smoked the entire tin over a few weeks, and I'm ordering a larger sized can of it pronto. It is delicious, and I swear I can sense a hint of Balsam fir in there somewhere.

Again, I have a number of favorite tobaccos rather than one or two "best" mixes, and each has it's place. Great Hiatus is a winner in a big way, and now, it has a place on my regular smoke list as well.

I first tried this as a sample at the 2010 Chicago Pipe Show. The next day I bought several tins. Since then I have twice ordered more. This is a great addition to my list of regular blends. I find it less powerful than some other Latakia/English blends, and, therefore, a great blend when I want something lighter than my usual heavy Latakia favorites. It lights, stays lit, and smokes very well. No moisture problems, and is quite consistent throughout the entire bowl. I will be keeping this in my regualr rotation of tobaccos.

I was only able to find this at Pipes and Cigars in bulk. When it arrived it seemed pretty dry with not much aroma and I was afraid maybe I had gotten the last leftovers of a long-neglected bag of floor-sweepings from the warehouse. It was just springy enough for a snug inverted pack so I loaded my pipe and let it rest for a couple of hours. When I first lit it I got no flavor at all, just warm steam, and came very close to dumping it and loading something else. Glad I stayed with it a while longer- after a few more puffs it started to come alive, at first with subtly sweet, grassy, Virginia flavors, gently joined a few minutes later by flavors of oriental spice and smoky latakia with a creamy, silky mouth feel. Once the flavors 'turned on' they stayed pretty consistent to the end of the bowl with Virginia continuing to provide the backdrop. Balanced, not overpowering, flavorful and interesting but always in the way of gentle strength. I am impressed and will keep some around. A real sleeper blend.

This has been my first choice English blend for several months. The latakia is prominent, the flavors come together well, I'd call the overall flavor "umami". The room note is pleasant to tolerable to me, but I'm certain a non-smoker would find it quite potent.

This blend grows on you. It wasn't until I tried it the second time that I really started to like the Great Hiatus. This was my first time with a true English blend as well as my first taste of Latakia. The flavor begins full and rich with a note of pepper (Latakia) on the first draw. Midway into the bowl the pepper flavor sweetens and mellows comfortably.

I can definitely imagine my self along side Dr. Watson and the esteemed Sherlock on a brisk adventure through the streets of London. What a fine blend this is!

Fairly new to english blends. Bought from pipes and cigars. Along with Billy Budd, Barking dog, Early Morning pipe, Larrys blend. But Great Hiatus steals the show. Superb smoke. Smooth, easy, Tasty...A must try. Fantastic room note. This is what pipe smoking is about.