But not very often.

Not recommended for anyone new to the pipe, certainly.

After I dumped out the pipe, about two hours later, I got an entirely different pipe and lit up Cornell and Diehl's 'Opening Night'. Now I know what perique tastes like, I can detect it in various blends. As I got down the pipe, I noticed that there was apparently a ton of perique in 'Opening Night'... but there isn't. We are all familiar with certain things ghosting your pipe and marring the taste of later blends, but this stuff is so darned powerful it ghosted my mouth for the rest of the day. I had to wash my mouth out with listerine!

I'm sure that there are better blending periques out there, since I have had them in several different blends, but this does make a nice addition to a ribbon cut Virginia to offset some of the tongue bite and offer a unique taste.

But only use a tiny bit! I stuck about five ribbons in a relatively large bowl with some Embarcadero and it was a full-blown VaPer.

I managed about a dozen puffs of this straight before I was overwhelmed. Even that little bit ghosted my pipe to the point where I need to alcohol-cure it to get the taste out, to say nothing of how much my palate was ghosted. But I did get the gist of the tobacco. I found it both peppery and salty - almost briny. It's clear that a little goes a long way with this stuff. Smoking even 12 puffs of this straight is akin to eating a 12 oz bowl of mustard.

Case in point: I put about 3 grams of it in with 3 oz of Rattray's Black Virginia and the perique taste completed overwhelmed the BV's stoved virginia tang (which is very light, to be fair). Cutting back to 2 grams in 4 oz of BV proved to be the right mix, as the two jet black tobaccos then merged seamlessly after a week. I've also put a pinch in with a couple oz of Cornell & Diehl's Haunted Bookshop but it was pretty bad, which I think says more about the C&D than the perique. If you have a blend lying about that is dull and needs some spice, try this in a small batch. I'd experiment with 1/8 gram of this to 1/2 oz of other tobacco to start, and you can even break that down further. Maybe I'll never be a blender like McClellands but it's fun to experiment and sometimes it'll keep you from throwing those boring blends away... and sometimes it'll force you to throw 'em away sooner! If at first you don't succeed....

A wise man once counseled, "All things in moderation" but what we often forget is that he added, "Including moderation." In the spirit of that wise man, I occasionally load up a small bowl of the stuff on its own and puff away. It is, as others have said, a pain in the a$$ to keep lit, but it's a sure cure for tongue bite, depression, constipation, indigestion, butt zits and fungal nails. Really.

As a blending tobacco, I think it's a stupendous gift. I put it in all kinds of things, especially anything that I've had bite me in the past. It's the muzzle on the pit bulls of the tobacco world.

Even though I haven't gotten around to trying anyone else's pure Perique blender, and so I have no real frame of reference, I have to give this the highest recommendation. It's dark as a swamp night in the tin and tastes like two-hours-on-the-turlet-Teddy's prune breakfast, but it does amazing things in the mouth and in the mind.

Lighting & Nicotine: Took two matches to get it lit, then immediately produced moisture. Very difficult to keep lit. Took a relight every few puffs. This allowed me to take break and recover from the nicotine, before each relight. I got woosy after a few puffs, but it is still smokable by itself, if you are a hardened character and inured to nicotine poisoning(Nicotine is a rodenticide.). After 1/5 of a bowl, I got knocked to the floor by Nick O'Tine and made my nose run.

Taste & Aroma: Smoky, pungent, dried fruit; peppery, overpowering blast to the nostrum. Not sweet.

Overall: The subtler qualities of McClelland Latakia and Perique are not well-displayed when smoked straight. This Perique is way too frustratingly difficult to keep lit; heavy in nicotine; some wicked, wicked stuff.

To more serious things, this is great tobacco blended with other weaker English, Virgina, Balkan or anything that needs zing. One ounce of Perique is enough to change the entire nature of a pound of your favorite blend. Very nice way to spice up your boring blends.

I would not presume, however, to smoke it by itself. This stuff is just too powerful.

Highly Recommended

My calls to Nichols & Brown, LLC, the outfit that rescued the last true perique farmer a few years ago, have brought up a disconnected signal. They were based in NOLA and I dont know if they survived. This throws into question whether there is any true Lousiana perique at all anymore.

But in the mean time, I can't knock McClelland's product. It's perhaps as close as you can get now.

As far as periqug goes, this stuff is a must addition to any serious smoker.

I have never (and would not) ever smoke this by itself. Even more then a tiny pinch is sometimes too much.

I have tried many blending perique's including C&D's and this one is by far my favorite.