Park Square arrives at the perfect moisture level. It's a bit drier than many tinned tobaccos, and no drying is necessary before packing and lighting. It packs easily, and in my experience it's best packed with a light hand.

The blend is made up of a number of Virginias, including light, matured, and stoved, plus Perique. The blend is an absolute riot of color, with shades of light yellow, medium chestnut-brown, deep reddish-brown, and black amongst the tobaccos. The ribbons are cut in varying widths. Just looking at the blend makes my mouth water. The blend smells as you would expect given the constituent tobaccos, with no noticeable aroma of anything other than tobacco.

The Virginias are masterfully blended here, providing the entire range of Virginia flavors. The Perique is added with a light hand, helping to balance the blend perfectly. There's a bit of something else here as well, a flavor that I've noted in some other Peretti blends. I don't know if it's a topping, or something left from Peretti's treatment their tobaccos, but it works well in this blend. It lasts just a few minutes, and then it's gone.

Lighting this blend is very easy. The charring light will burn for a while if you want it to. It's never taken more than two lights for me to get a bowl of Park Square going. It requires few relights along the way, especially if packed a bit looser than normal.

The first part of the bowl is all about the Virginias. The Perique is there, but just as a balancing element. The Peretti flavoring is noticeable at first, but it's unobtrusive and quickly dissipates. The tobacco burns well, and requires only the occasional light tamping to keep it going.

As the bowl progresses, the Perique becomes a bit more noticeable. Still, it's primarily a balancing element rather than a primary flavor. The bright sweetness of the light Virginias softens a bit through the middle of the bowl.

The moisture level while smoking is about average, requiring two or three pipe cleaners per bowl when I smoke it.

The flavors deepen a bit toward the bottom, though the change isn't radical. The blend remains well balanced to the end. It's not difficult to smoke this one all of the way down, leaving an extremely fine gray-white ash behind. I find that it's very easy to clean out the tobacco chamber after smoking this tobacco. It doesn't build cake very quickly at all (which is fine by me).

Park Square can bite if you puff hard, but that's true of virtually every blend that contains lighter Virginias. Although it's very nice smoked normally, this blend really rewards very slow smoking snd, especially, breath smoking. There are enough different flavors here to make the blend interesting from start to finish.

I'm a big fan of Virginia/Perique blends. Although I generally lean toward such blends with more Perique, Park Square is one of my favorite blends of this genre. This isn't an everyday blend for me, bit I'd miss it if it was gone. I feel very fortunate that Peretti is still blending tobaccos of this quality.

The taste is excellent, the slightly sweet tang of the three VAs balanced perfectly by the Perique in the blend. It's very rare for a tobacco to be this perfectly proportioned and shows just how skilled a blender Robert Peretti is, surely he is one of the world's finest. The only blemish on this fine tobacco is that prices have risen quite a bit. To be fair, this is an industry-wide trend, but at $45/lb. PS is an expensive tobacco.

Scores for PS: 18 out of 20 for taste; 9 out of 10 for burn; 7 out of 10 for value. 34 points makes Park Square a solid **** tobacco and another in a long line of winners for L.J. Peretti.

Red Virginia, Matured Virginia and Stoved Virginia are delicately spiced with just the right amount of Perique to create a rich and complex blend whose character evolves and emerges throughout the bowl.

Boy was I surprised by the appearance and texture of this blend. It is listed on tobaccoreviews as a ?broken flake? but the sample that I got would be classified more as a ribbon cut. The only word that I can think of to describe it is fluffy. It is very fluffy and springy and at first appearance appears to be really damp. Boy was I wrong. This blend seems to defy the moisture rules that I have come to learn. Packing it was extremely easy and it pushed down into the bowl without any pressure having to be exerted on it.

The light was also easy. I had to wait for it to go out after the false light because it wanted to keep going!! Once this was lit it was off to the races!! I now see why this is one of everyone?s favorites. And again I am surprised at the quality and taste of a ?house blend?. This is sold in bulk and like AJ?s VaPer and Anniversary Kake the taste and behavior of this blend outshines many of the more expensive tinned blends. The taste and burn stayed pretty consistent throughout the whole bowl. Doesn?t smoke hot and there is very little dottle when you get to the bottom.

I would classify this one as a mild to medium blend that could be smoked all day long if you wanted to. It has about a medium amount of Perique in it. Not the most I?ve smoked in a blend but certainly not the least either. It is also very smooth when you smoke it. The different tastes play off of each other but never outshine each other. I think that they mixed the individual components of this blend perfectly

Appearance: Dark red, brown and black ribbon/loose-cut leaf. Pretty even ratio of all three.

Pouch smell: Cloves, pepper and fruity wine.

Smoking quality: Park Square burns cool, dry and leaves the pipe clean. It can bite if pushed hard which is only to be expected given the nature of this blend. When treated properly, relights are a minimum.

Taste: Upon the initial puff, one tastes the sweetness of the Virginias. Soon, the spiciness of the Perique kicks in and it all comes together in a well-balanced flavor of subtle sweet with a dash of peppery spice. It is best when smoked slow and savored. The fullness gradually grows throughout the bowl but never becomes overpowering. Eventually, it goes out and will not relight. Turn the pipe over and see the soft white fluffy ash fall out of the bowl and into your ashtray. You will feel sad at first that the smoke is finished, but there is always more. You will want more.

Overall you get a very smooth, sweet, slightly tangy smoke with a twist here and there. No bite, easy burn, good price, highly recommended.

Park Square should provide interesting opportunity for experimentation through augmentation with a tin of pure Perique, should I ever find the need to order either again.