I think I burned through the majority of the bright Vas early on, and now I'm into Orientals and Latakias, and seemingly equal portions of both. Am I now smoking a Balkan blend? I'll say this, the first severals bowls-with Vas present, seemed to require many many relights, aggravating to no end. Now I burn thru bowls with minimal fire, and the taste now is smooth and mellow.

I like this taste very much, would be better than EMP for all day smoke. It's coarse cut is pleasing to me, but maybe I should have mixed it prior to smoking. I'll buy another can if other GL Pease blends prove less tasty.

UPDATED: Absence does make my heart grow fonder for this blend.

Nothing wrong with this blend. It's a reasonably potent latakia mixture with decent sweetness, although not as sweet as the tin description made it out to be. I suppose like most smokers I delve into a new GLP tin with certain expectations of high complexity and/or unique flavors. This one seemed middle-of-the-road to me, and didn't distinguish itself the way Meridian, Quiet Nights, Charing Cross, Odyssey and some others do. Rather than "silky" on the tongue, I found this one to be dry and sort of "chalky". The components seemed all there but I was, quite frankly, bored. Keep in mind that these are just my perceptions but this one fell into the "ordinary" realm, along with Westminster and Union Square. None of those three distinguish themselves in their genres, and seem less fully realized than several competitive blends. I know of a few people that truly love those blends, so the issue is strictly that they don't produce any jump factor in me personally. But I also wonder if this one has fewer followers than most of the other GLP blends.

It reminded me a bit of Dear Tongue, but not quite. Can't put my finger on it, but the sweetness gets to me a bit...

Overall, this is a great, slightly flavored, English mixture.

Give it a whirl, you might enjoy it greatly...

I believe this is my favorite Pease English blend to date!

Aroma: Quintessential medium to full english, but with a tad more sweetness than I'm used to in such a Latakia-heavy blend.

Appearance: Quite dark, looks like at least 50% Latakia by appearance, but I don't think the ratio is actually that high. There's the occasional bright yellow leaf here and there, and the rest is brown to golden leaf. There are several twigs (actually veins, I suppose) in the blend, along with some nickel-sized chunks of Latakia. But this just adds to the fun. I like opening up one of those big leaves and dreaming about growing my own tobacco this summer.

Pipe 1: Savinelli Bulldog Pipe 2: Peterson Dublin Pipe 3: Nording Signature Freehand Pipe 4: Stanwell Vario Billiard

Flavor: This tobacco shines in any and every pipe I've tried. The charring light is usually my favorite part of the pipe ceremony (same with cigars), where the flavors are toastiest and warmest, and this is no exception. The toasty orientals meld with the very mildly sweet Virginias, and it's all overlaid by the rich, slightly bitter smokiness of the Latakia. This is in my opinion the best balanced of the Pease heavy-Latakia blends, at least for my Latakia-lovin' palate.

As the bowl progresses, the light toastiness quickly gives way to a rich and hearty smoke that begs for a campfire and a calm, starry night. The room note is actually really nice, like burnt toast or steaks burning on the grill with a sweet, charred honey rub.

I have no trouble keeping it lit, but then this sample was quite dry. I believe the boys at Romeo's had opened an 8 oz. tin, and they bagged up two ounces of it for me. I'm sure it's a bit more moist when fresh from the tin, but this level of dryness works perfectly for me. I just stuff it in carelessly, one or two or three layers depending on the pipe, and put the fire to it. And the embers very obediently offer up a sacrifice of rich flavor that coerces you to just sit back and think about important things.

Four stars for this excellent Pease English, and it's on my "stock up" list.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: One might think that GL Pease would have run out of ideas for English mixtures by now. I mean, seriously -- how many variations on "latakia + virginias + orientals + maybe a little something extra" can one man develop without becoming redundant?

Obviously, that time has not yet arrived. Not that Maltese Falcon is any kind of radical departure from other Pease offerings. It is composed of really good leaf (as usual), the components are superbly balanced (again, as usual), and its burning characteristics are decent enough (no surprise there). What makes this one interesting to me is the addition of a what Pease describes as a "discreet and mysterious spice." Is it a topping? A casing? Some odd oriental discovered in a remote Tibetan valley while on a trek to discover fabled Shangri La? Pease doesn't tell us, and I've already given up trying to guess what it is. At times it reminds me of incense (myrh) or even cumin, for crying out loud! Whatever. I will say that there's just enough of this "spice" to cause this tobacco's flavor profile to deviate from that of a typical English mixture. I don't know that this spice is quite special enough to really elevate it above other blends in the crowded genre of Englishes, but hey -- it might just be your Holy Grail.

Is this a classic blend? No, although Pease has blended more than his share of those. Is it a worthwhile stop for English afficiandos? Most definitely. Do I recommend it? Sure -- your mileage may vary, even if I don't plan on adding any more of it to my cellar.

Another very nice English blend from GLP with a unique spice that I cannot identify. Has excellent burning qualities. A wonderful change of pace but not an everyday blend for me. I would prefer a little more Virginia and perhaps some air cured leaf for a little more strength. Not quite as tasty as Westminster or Samarra in my opinion. Still, those are minor criticisms. Overall, another fine blend from GLP. I recommend all lovers of English blends give this one a try.

Odyssey and Abingdon are better in regards to more balance, but still not balanced enough for me. Samovar, by McClelland, is full in flavor, rich in Latakia and Oriental tobaccos, yet punctuated with the occasional sweetness breaking through that I like.

If I were a lover of ladles of Latakia, I think one could do better even in the GLPease lineup, thus two stars.

The tin aroma promised an enjoyable experience. But the tobacco was very dry and the smoke would become tasteless within the first 5 minutes.

All the tins I had were as such.