Hermit Tobacco Works Co. Captain Earle's - Honor Blend

(3.21)
Captain Earle's Honor Blend is a blend of red Virginia, mild cavendish, Turkish and perique tobaccos. Blended for the connoisseur of seeking an all natural, non-latakia blend.

Details

Brand Hermit Tobacco Works Co.
Blended By Cornell & Diehl
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Cavendish, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Krumble Kake
Packaging 2 ounce and 8 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.21 / 4
18

6

7

2

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 33 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 09, 2011 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Pleasant to Tolerable
I had been wanting to try this for some time and finally got around to adding it to an order. I'm certainly glad I did!

The presentation in my tin was one large two ounce cake that was an almost uniform brownie-like color with just the occasional lighter strand here and there. It broke apart with ease and I rubbed out the entire brick to store in a mason jar at my tobacco cabinet. I laid out a pipeful to dry for a few minutes even though it felt just about right from the tin.

After airing for about 30 minutes, I packed my first bowl without problem and proceeded to fire it. It took to match well after the first false light and stayed lit to the bottom of the bowl. No bite was experienced. The flavors are fantastic! The Virginia, Perique, and Cavendish all get along well. The Turkish really rounds out the profile adding a rich, tangy note. The Cav is superior and reminds me a bit of the Cav that Dunhill uses. A natural sweetness from Virginia and Cav was balanced by a light sourness from the Perique and Turkish. Overall, one of the most pleasurable and unique smokes that I have had in quite some time. Nicotine is a solid medium with the occasional drift into Med-strong.

This is a nice everyday smoke for me. It has the unique quality of being a "set and forget" that will not get in the way of what you want to do. It also serves the smoker who wants to relax and comtemplate the smoke as the complexity is there if close attention is what you wish to give it.

I can see a couple of dozen tins of this on my next order. It should age very gracefully and be better at five years. We shall see. Cheers!
26 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 23, 2013 Medium to Strong Extremely Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
A nice relaxing sweet smoke. Uncomplicated, you have no need to concentrate on it. Just relax and enjoy a quality smoke and let your mind wander.
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 13, 2012 Medium to Strong Very Mild Medium to Full Very Pleasant
WOW…WOW, I've been smoking a pipe for 40 plus years and worked in 2 pipe shops. I tried mostly all tobacco's available. Capt. Earl's Honor blend is the BEST VaPer blend on the market for me. I love all of their Cake tobacco's The combo of these tobacco's are very tasty and satisfying to smoke. I'm so surprised that there are not more reviews on this one and Hermits. All of you pipester out there owe it to yourself to get this and store it up for future days. “J” is looking down on all of us Hermit fans from heaven with a big smile. God bless him may he rest in peace knowing he did a fine job in blending his fine tobacco's for us to share. Please give this a try. I know you will enjoy this as much as I do. A very HIGHLY RECOMMENDED blend and thanks to Louise and C&D (the Best tobacco blenders in the world) for keeping Hermit going. Others that are wonderful are as follows: Private Stock, Mystic blend, Night watch, Stimulus package, Ten Russians, C&D'S Bow legged Bear, Kajun Kake, Tuskegee Airman and Sunday Picnic and if you want an aromatic, Altumn Evening is to best aromatic for me. T.J.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 25, 2011 Strong Extremely Mild Medium to Full Tolerable
You can smoke a dozen VA/Per blends from around the world and never find anything like this. That alone warrants 4 stars. Any lover of virginias knows how hard it can be to find something new or unique. If you are used to smoking McClelland type virginias or any number of VA flakes, this will definitely be new. As for unique, well, just read on.

This is packaged, as many have noted, in a crumble cake form. When I first wrote this review similar offerings in the US were rare, but now they have become very popular. These crumble cakes do indeed crumble, and this again offers a unique, and pleasant, packing and smoking experience. It packs easily, with a little tap on the side of the bowl. It burns readily and evenly so long as it is on the dry side. It burns, in fact, very well, much easier than tobacco of a similar cut that I have tried.

The flavor also sets this apart. It offers copious smoke with a rich, natural tobacco flavor. The cavendish offers just a hint of sweetness, along with the virginias, and adds complexity. Overall it is rich and not monotone if smoked slowly. I think of the overall experience as offering a "dry" smoke, both in flavor and smoking characteristics, but this is an oversimplification which does not do the blend justice. I have not found this to have any bite at all, nor have I found it to be a hot smoke. One of my favorites, especially in a really good smoking pipe.

As I update this review I wanted to add a note about pipe choice. This is strong blend in the nic department. Unless you can stomach that in a large pipe (which I cannot) I suggest a smaller sized bowl. I think taller and narrower works better with this than a really wide shallow bowl, but you may have different results. I find that I can still get 30-45 minutes in a small bowl and the overall experience is much more enjoyable.
Pipe Used: Ashton Old Church bulldog, 1x
Age When Smoked: 10 years
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 25, 2016 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
I've not tried the new Honor Blend, but really liked the late 90's version when the late Jay Jones over sighting the blending. Honor blend combines a variety of leaf but the most notable to me was the deeply rich and smoky Latakia and Ripe and naturally sweet Red Virginia. It had a true depth of flavor that I appreciate and while the Perique appeared a bit, the presentation was wispy and just enough to perk up the palate.

Pipestud
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 27, 2016 Medium to Strong Extremely Mild Full Very Pleasant
Hermit - Captain Earle's - Honour Blend.

This review's from a 2oz tin, not the 8oz one.

The tobacco is presented as a single kake, rather than the way Bengal Slices and Hearth and Home's Ten to Midnight arrive: slithers of kake. It's medium brown in colour, with some lighter and darker spots, and a touch too moist. It takes quite a firm hand to crumble it; I twist and snap the kake into pieces then rub them in between my hands over the kitchen work surface, and then I allow some time to air.

Considering this contains Perique and Turkish, which can be a bit prone to cause the smoke to be overly sharp, it's a very well rounded taste: I get some good notes from both the Perique and Turkish, but also a drop of honey from the Cavendish, and a slight touch of Virginia-hay in the background. The temperature of the smoke sits about in the middle, and it doesn't bite me even if I really put strain into my puffs. Providing it's been given enough time to abate the moisture content it gives a good burn, but without an airing it will use a lighter full of fuel for one bowl!

I like the room-note, albeit a lot of folks would probably find it too strong, and the nicotine's easily more than medium.

This is very good, I'll happily highly recommend it.

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Mr Brog No. 52 Scoot
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Three Months
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 10, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Overwhelming
Single brick of pressed medium brown and a tin nose of red VA mixed with potting soil, with a far background of some kind of spice rack scent. Not terribly pleasant aroma, but I've smelled worse and enjoyed them.

Very simple to crumble this cake - no knife required, not even a fingernail. Loaded easily and stayed lit. Flavor was very full-bodied but not overly strong, particularly in nicotine content where it was decidedly medium. Notable about this one was the room note, which can best be described as indescribably horrible. Smelling this in the room would make the unsuspecting think that a furnace had blown, or the oven. Not a smell that's the least bit comforting to a homeowner, let's put it that way. The flavor was red Virginia tang melded with a heavy perique pepperspice and some oriental. I did not notice any Cavendish and certainly nothing resembling sweet. This was a robust, almost feral tobacco taste with a rough, coarse texture. Kind of cigar-like in a way. If someone wanted a blend that could be described as simply "tobacco-y" but had problems with burley, this might be one to reach for. Not very complex, but pretty singleminded of purpose... like a tiger! I finished the tin but can't do better than 2.5 stars for this - can't even round up. Just too unrefined for my personal tastes. But one that might make for some interesting blending experiments.
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 04, 2004 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
The Hermit blends have an interesting presentation. They are pressed together in two oblong bricks and packed in a tin that the same size and shape as the GLPease tins. Interestingly, the tins are also dated on the bottom using the exact same stampings that GLPease employs. Perhaps they are blended/packed by the same company?

There is no need to rub it out, as with a flake. The tobacco can be easily crumbled from the brick and into the pipe. The blend is mostly ribbon-cut red virginia. There are some light brown pieces (I assume the cavendish and Turkish) and I assume the light touches of nearly black are the perique. The perique touch is light. The cavendish is only slightly apparent; along with the Turkish it smooths out the peppery note of the perique. It has a little more body and stength than most medium Viginia/Perique blends. The Turkish adds richness and smoothness, adding an interesting variation to the VA/Perique theme.

This high-quality tobacco needs virtually no relights, and burns to a fine grey ash. I've smoked this in a large Peterson Sherlock Holmes bulldog and a medium Sasieni 4-dot canadian.

I will order this again, as it's an interesting change of pace from my usual VA/Perique staples. But the cost with shipping is a little prohibitive: $36 for 3 assorted 2-ounce tins, postpaid. You can order it here: http://pipestyle.com/

If it were available for less at my local tobacconist I would buy it more often. This is a fine blend, but it's competing with my favorites from the U.K. and GLPease, and costs considerably more.
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 22, 2005 Strong Mild to Medium Very Full Pleasant
When I first tried this tobacco, it was at the Hermit table at the NYPC's show. It knocked me out with it's strong hit of nicotine! It also was very peppery and spicy. I was immediately intriged. Here was a natural virginia with perique that really satisified my taste buds for a potent virginia blend. The sample i tried was fully rubbed, but when i popped my first tin, it was pressed...in other words, a crumble cake. Preparation for a bowl can thus be a little messy, one should take care in rubbing or will result in tobacco dust. After numerous bowls, i also found it wise to leave some chunks to load into the bowl first, to provide a platform for loading the rest of the bowl. That way, you will not draw the smaller particles into your mouth. That said, you will be rewarded with a delicious smoke that gets stronger as you down the bowlful. It amazed me that it gives off volumes of thick smoke with very little effort. I also recommend not smoking on an empty stomach. It is now one of favorite virginia smokes in my almost exculsive virginia tobacco rotation! This one's a keeper!
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 24, 2017 Very Strong Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
To me, it tastes like Kajun Kake with Oriental that gives a slightly smoky flavor, great for home, lots of nicotine which I like, small amount of tongue bite develops if you let it get too hot, non-aromatic VaPerCav with oriental to spice it up makes a unique blend for followers of the non-aromatic VaPerCav blends. If you have to sneak a bowl in the home office while the wife is home, this might be worth a try. Great for Sunday mornings when you need a little nicotine to jump-start the last day of the weekend. Definitely one of my weekend go-to blends.
PurchasedFrom: PipesAndCigars.com
Age When Smoked: Fresh
4 people found this review helpful.
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