I cannot believe just how wonderful the taste and burning quality of this fine blend. My initial order was for one 50g tin. I'm going for more right away and I will be less likely to let others steer me away. One thing is clear the pallets of humans are as different as personality. You just got to try one when the inspiration hits.

*****

Anyway, I liked this even though I was convinced I would not like it, determined not to like it. Same with Grousemoor, I hated liking it, too. Two SG tobaccos I have not liked liking. I have tins of Squadron Leader I dread opening. And, I can name a few GL Pease tobaccos that are members of this set.

Not to be beating a deceased horse here, but I firmly believe that ribbon leads to hot spots in the pipe and tongue bite. Why mess with it when you can enjoy a cool, slow burning flake, plug or twist?

5/15/09 UPDATE: Anacol! In a larger bowl (24 mm) the burning characteristics are entirely different, very much improved. I am beginning to appreciate just how much the pipe can influence the tobacco. This stuff is divine in a big, old, heavy, bent billiard I picked up on eBay (a Ben Wade repaired and reconditioned by Tim West). This pipe combusts this ribbon better than any other pipe I own. Wow.

It smokes always cool, flavourful and dry, with just a hint of ?aromatic? which I just like very much.

Regarding the components, useless to say they are of the very first quality.

Would I be able to stick to a medium EM as an all-day smoke, Perfection has all the numbers to be that one.

Again, the high price still affects from receiving my four stars.

Taste-Aroma: Nice soft, tasty, sweet, with a spicy effect, a nutty tone, with the Turkish fragrant herbal taste and aroma predominating. A stoved sour cigarette taste develops towards the bottom. Classic tongue bite develops with consecutive bowls.

Nicotine: moderate

Room Note: Turkish cigarettes

Overall: The nice initial oriental taste at the top, followed by classic tongue bite by the bottom of the bowl, reminds me of Balkan Sasieni, which I recently tossed out. Two stars.

I wasn't going to bother reviewing this one as I have only gone through one tin in fact, I still haven't quite finished it, but having just read Tantric's review, I must fully agree, "Too much contradiction in flavours" although on ocassion, I have felt a need for "something-I-know-not-what" and perfection has helped if not cured.

May I just take a moment also to thank Tantric (and of course many others, far too many to name) for some sterling reviews, Ive read a goodly number of yours and you have pointed me in the direction of Old Gowrie and Marlin Flake for which you have my sincere gratitude, all of you.

UPDATE December 8th 2008

Now that the colder weather is here I've found that something a little tastier is required and although the likes of Golden Glow and Marlin flake, along with numerous others, will still be kept in rotation, I find myself starting the day with Skiff followed by Squadron Leader and now in the evenings, finishing of with a pipe or two of Perfection.

After so much Latakia, even I would have expected my palate to revert toward something a little less dramatic and perhaps mundane or "monochromatic" as some have refered to. On the contrary, I find this an excellent tobacco for the colder weather, which will give me a chance to age some of the virginia's I've been collecting over the summer months.

I can only assume my taste has changed, for where I once found contradiction, I now find harmony, and living on the coast, excellent "cold weather gear".

This specific Perfection mix misses it for me because it never got up and went where it was meant to be. I think it is sort of Frog Morton over the Vanilla Bean. The vanilla is there with VA and Latakia in a pleasant enough, easy packing mix, but after the first third, well, the game was called onacounta rain.

Not a bad blend by any means but my own, this is definitely in the "try them, try them and you may, Try it and you may, I say" category.

One note though........I think that Squadron Leader mixed with Cob plug (1792) at about 5:1 is a Great Smoke along the same line of thought.

It is, so far, my favorite smoke, followed by Optimum. Very pleasant room note, exceptionally smooth, and just sweet enough for a novice, like myself. It burns nicely, without any tongue bite. This is an area where I have been experienceing issues, as I have given up cigarettes completely, adn tend to smoke too greedily. I have just ordered a few tins, and will be buying more as the budget allows.

Not impressed. The supposedly light vanilla flavouring is totally overpowering, both on the nose when sniffing a newly-opened tin and on the palate when smoking. It also tastes suspiciously synthetic. I have tried leaving the tin for a few weeks and coming back to it and am not much mollified.

All a matter of taste, I suppose, but I find this pretty much unsmokeable.

Personally I dislike artificially sweet Latakia mixtures. I get the impression the tobacco becomes bloated, heavier than it really is, and confusing. More or less the same thing happened when I smoked Bob?s Chocolate Flake, or MacBarns? Latakia. The thing is I don?t enjoy the STRUGGLE in my palate between the vanilla casing agent (or chocolate, or cherry or whatever) and the salty-mineral-earthly-humid leather-burnt wood nuances of Latakias (especially the Cyprus variety)

Mind you, I?m not referring to the savoury interplay between Latakia, and the NATURAL sweetness of Virginias, Orientals, or even Burleys. In fact McConell?s Scottish Mixture uses a fire-cured Kentucky that provides a naturally sweet and smoky enhanced contrast to the Latakia, not to mention Dunhill?s use of an UNSWEETENED variety of brown Cavendish leaf in My Mixture 965 (nowadays I have no idea what Orlik uses in that blend).

However, in Perfection, as in Chocolate Flake, or in MacBarens? Latakia mixture, there?s too much of a contradiction in flavour, and it poses, at least for my poor palate, something impossible to solve. I mean can one imagine the Pittsburgh Steelers? Iron Curtain playing a gentle and suave defence against the Dallas Cowboys? Not that Latakia should have the strength of Mean Joe Green or Jack Lambert, but it definitely is no Lynn Swann either (yes, yes, I?ve been watching the NFL channel).

After a bit of drying time it loads and lights nicely. The vanilla starts out a little assertively, but once things warm up, it moves to the background. At this point the Virginia and Latakia take turns on bass and tenor with the Turkish coming in with alto and even some soprano harmonies. Metaphoricaly speaking. It doesn't make any real sounds. Other than the ones in my head. If I keep my tinfoil hat on nice and snug.

Not one I smoke as a steady diet, but like to have it around.

Another high quality SG mixture. Not an everyday smoke, but nice for a change of pace from your regular English/Balkans.

On the charring light and first third of the smoke the Latakia dominated the taste. About mid-bowl the Latakia took a back seat and the Turkish/Virginia interplay took center stage. The smoke was mild, subtly sweet, with a nice Turkish twang with Latakia under tones from mid-bowl to finish. From mid-bowl to finish I enjoyed this tobacco best.

If you buy this blend as a Vanilla aromatic you will be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a toned down English, you might enjoy it. I like blends that use Latakia sparingly, such as IRC's Dr. Bradly. I would characterize this as a step up in Latakia from that blend.

I've tried Balkans, and to be fair to my own lack of sophistication, I'm not quite able to pick them apart from their English cousins in a blind test. Virginias are fine, but sauced up they can get nasty. I'm not averse to a topping if it doesn't burn the hell out of my tongue.

I thought then, maybe there is an aromatic out there that is both unique in taste and worthy in strength. I immediately ruled out 1792 and Royal Yacht. Sure, they're great, but I'll take them in small, bi-annual doses.

What I was really looking for was a strong Cavendish tobacco. Is there such a thing? What if I laced Captain Black with Perique? That would be wrong.

On one of my infrequent trips to the regional B&M, I mentioned this to the man behind the counter. He immediately offered Perfection as a capable alternative. He said it was a sweeter smoke, medium body, with a vanilla taste.

When I fired this thing up I immediately detected the Latakia. In my opinion, a blend with any Latakia will quickly make this the strongest element in the blend. It's true, Perfection has a topping, but I'll be damned if I can detect any. It's heresy perhaps to ask for a cased aromatic over a natural English mixture. Maybe I'm just not getting this pipe smoking thing.

To me, Perfection is a mild English with few discerning traits. It's decent, but there's too many decent tobaccos that fall in the same category. I'll keep looking.