G. L. Pease - Original Mixtures: Barbary Coast pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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Thedarklord	05/02/2008	Medium	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
I am a big fan of GLP blends so it is hard for me to write this review. Let me also preface this by stating that I am not a big burley fan... That being said, this tobacco looks and smells great. As the previous reviews have so elegantly stated, this tobacco has a strong brandy casing and appears as a brown sugar chunk. So far, so good, but this blend quickly disappoints in the bowl. Hard to light. Lot's of smoke. Mild, disappointing taste. Dare I say it's just a lot of hot air? I know burley doesn't age well, but I put some in the cellar to age anyway. Let's see of she changes for the better. I really tried to make myself like this blend, but if you are looking for a good Burley smoke, this is not it. Try C&D's Pegasus instead.
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Benton	04/28/2008	Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
As a fan of both burley and perique, its no surprise that this blend hit the spot for me. The tin aroma is strongly alcoholic and fruity like a plum pudding. The initial flavor is similar to the tin note, but also has a pleasant sharpness (perhaps brightness is a better word) that comes from either the small amount of VA in the mix, or maybe from the perique. The sensation is similar to the effervescence in sparkling water; very interesting, but it would be distracting if it was stronger. The topping fades after about 1/4 bowl, but the perique picks up at about the same time and they compliment each other very well. The topping sweetness also fades smoothly into the VA sweetness, which is magical. They don't call GLP the Dark Lord for nothing. My only complaint, a pretty minor one, is that when the tobacco is dry enough to smoke well (much dryer than packaged) the cubes start to come apart and the little bits tend to block the pipe's airway. It would be fixable with a pipe cleaner, but my favorite pipe has a stem that is just a bit longer than a standard pipe cleaner. It will be a while before I can get another tin of BC, but I'm already looking forward to it.
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Classical	04/02/2008	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I really love a high quality Burley and boy does this blend have it! But not content to leave it alone, there are the fine flavors of the VA and Perique to really add something special to the blend. The topping of brandy is brilliant and really brings the flavors home. A first class smoke in all respects except one: It just doesn't burn well. There, I said it. I can't get it to smoke well without 20 matches at least... I tried the drying and all, but it still won't stay lit. For the flavor and complexity when lit, this is a superior tobacco, but the sheer difficulty of smoking it just takes something away for me. But I think every Burley lover should try it. Accompaniment: Debussy's String Quartet.
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AnalogMoz	02/13/2008	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Today I purchased a tin dated 07/01/03--I have never had this before, but I am interested in quality burleys as I tend to smoke Va and Va/Per and like to have some variety. This sure was it! The tin aroma is plum brandy. Visually rather uniform, likely due to aging. Moisture was perfect. I loaded a Savilelli dry system (sans filter) full-bent and lit with a Zippo pipe lighter. Interesting! The taste, even 2/3 through, was almost exact to the tin aroma. Room note was pleasing. I guess I'd say the scent and taste were as close a match as any I'd seen. Stayed lit like a champ and smoked VERY cool. Burned to white ash with little volume of leftovers. Enough strength to keep me from immediately wanting to load another pipe, (a habit I get in the smoking "mood"), but no tounge or mouth fatigue. The perique is balanced and shouldn't offend people who aren't crazy of condimental tobaccos. In summation: subtle, sweet, non-saccarine, mildly complex. 4 Stars or 4.5/5.
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SMOKETSES	12/11/2007	Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
It is a Burley, cut in pieces. It is a complicated mix. The unique spice of perique, gives a different dimension. A thin flavor of cognac gives to the tobacco, a very nice touch in the palate. The Barbary Coast contains black timber of walnut tree, black chocolate and dry fruits. Unusual flavors for me. A tobacco for the all day! It needs to get a bit dry, though ?.
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Slow Triathlete	12/03/2007	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Barbary Coast was my introduction to the GL Pease blends and it did not disappoint. I do agree with a lot of the others who have posted about how wet this stuff is straight out of the tin. I poured the whole tin out on some paper towels and dried it overnight. Now it is perfect. The tin aroma is fairly strong when you first open it but it disappates over time. The flavoring is just right. It's enough to give you a sense of brandy but in no way is it overpowering. This burned relatively cool despite the brandy flavoring. I really enjoyed this one and will buy more in the future.
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SApipe	11/27/2007	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
This tobac is very similar to Pennington Gap, only has brandy instead of bourbon. The tin aroma is very nice, however a little overly moist. It requires some drying out, but don't over do it or the ethanol evaporates out. The taste of virginia and burley wax and wane throughout the smoke, with the constant pepper spice of the perique in the background. Room note is pleasant. The only problem I had with it is the moisture content; it will gurgle towards the bottom 1/3 of the bowl, requiring pipe cleaner and it leaves small amount of goopy dottle. However, during the top 2/3 of the bowl it burns very readily with a white ash. Average amount of nicotine, will not cause dizziness or nausea. 3 stars out of 4.
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WmZiggy	10/26/2007	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Very Pleasant
Because Burley is naturally low in sugar it can absorb added sugars, casings, and flavors. You can tell when Burley has been heavily cased by it being hard and sticky to the fingers. The down side to all the artifical goop is tongue bite and burn. Barbary Coast on the other hand is soft to the touch. It did not stick to my fingers and rewarded me with nutty flavors and no tongue bite. Barbary Coast is slow burning, requiring some matches, but such is the nature of a cube cut Burley. In this case it is well worth the effort, for this is the finest cube cut I have ever smoked. Upon cracking the tin there is a top note of brandy. The alcohol is evident to the nose; I like this since it is also a mark of quality. The Virginia tobaccos and Perique provide for a subtle sweetness and plum flavoring. However it is subtle, never overwhelming the Burley. I smoked this mixture in a Canadian pot, a favorite for cube cut Burley in the Fall. Couple this with the World Series, a beer, and life is good!
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billb3	10/19/2007	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I really, really want to like this but trying to hurts too much. The tobacco is inordinately moist and only dries slowly. It is hard to light and keep lit and goes out a lot. The flavors mentioned on the tin are all there but it burns like lye on wet skin. Too bad.
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Tobacco Saves Lives	09/10/2007	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant
This one is all the label promises, chocolate, walnuts, its most certainly a great smoke.Highest recommendation. Is hard to light for the impatient. To Smoke: It is cubed cut into fine packed nuggets already, drop in pipe. Do not pack. fill to slightly above top level 3-4 MM at most. Press with ball of thumb to top level. Light, Relight and light. once the top is nicely toasted the rest always burns for me. the 'frank' method will not work. Typical -3- pack seems to make the nuggets form into a brick and is just not neccesary. Ps. Occasionally the nuggets get hot and 'crack' and 'snap' a nice effect!! Buy many small cans as the flavor dries out with the leaf, also i wont dry it out to make it burn better- its not worth it.
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student	08/22/2007	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
I'm reminded of McClellans Cajun Black blends here, not by the taste but because you have a fairly constant battle keeping the weed lit. When lit, it has a nice taste and the brandy makes for a fairly nice room note(According to my wife). The burley is top notch as one should expect by the $$ amount, The virginia leaf also is top notch and the Perique flirts in and out, mostly out. Which is fine by me. A well blended tobacco which burley lovers must try. Aromatic smokers shouldn't mistake this due to the brandy infusion, its a good burley smoke primarily. If it wasn't such a labor intensive blend, I'd give it 3 stars but in all fairness to other burley blends that are as good or better, 2 stars is all it rates from me. I will not be buying any more.
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daidunno	08/16/2007	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I think that most tobaccos are better kept a bit on the moist side in the tin and then dried prior to smoking, as they seem to hold the flavor better, so I don't like to complain about moisture, but this one needs to be almost exactly halfway between 'fresh out of the tin' and my definition of 'dry' to taste good and burn well. If it is a hair moist, it doesn't burn without a blowtorch and steams the tongue whereas if it's a touch too dry, it tastes OK to awful. That said, it can be very good to great when it is the right humidity and packed properly, although it does have a tendency to sort of sour towards the bottom of the bowl at times. I would give it 2.5 if possible, but rounded up because sometimes it is wonderful.
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Final Identity	05/02/2007	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This, to me, is the least noteworthy of all the palate experiences that GLPease offers. I love their tobaccos (and am delighted to note that they now use tins which can accommodate fingers) in general, but this one is just, well, blah. Nondescript. All the other reviews are right, roughly. The one thing that stands out it that it's so wet that it's kind of hard to light so I suggest a meerschaum, a calabash, or a well-vented Peterson system -- something that wicks up or sops up moisture. That won't help you with getting it to light -- the best trick for that, is to pack it tight tight tight -- but it will take ADVANTAGE of the moisture rather than merely trying hard to circumvent it. Now why did they call it "Barbary" and not include Latakia?
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tbone	03/28/2007	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
If you can figure out how to get it to burn let me know. I love everything about this but it's basically unsmokable unless you hold a constant flame to it. Maybe you'll have better luck. Try Penington Gap for a similar smoke that's more user friendly.
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SopwithCamel	03/28/2007	Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is my first review of a GL Pease blend, and this is my favorite type of blend, so here goes: The good: It smells and tastes very nice, the flavors are well balanced indeed. The bad: It is tough to get lit, and it is considerably more costly than other blends that are easier to manage. While I won't buy it again, I can't really say it is bad, and if you can master the technique of getting it, and keeping it lit,you may find a boon companion. It's certainly worth a try.
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emmbee	03/19/2007	Very Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Again, the customary Peasean belles lettres introduces you to a flat, unexciting cube cut burley that burns well and leaves a nice white ash. A friend who writes for this site proclaims ?Pennington Gap grown up?. It?s more like PG gone prodigal. It has a delicate tin aroma, as do all Peases, but that?s where the enchantment ends. I love C & D cube cut blends, especially the heavenly Crooner and the delightfully boozy PG. This is a disappointing variation with more elegant tinning and a bit of poetry. Hardly worth the extra cost and West Coast pretentiousness. Two of five stars
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thedstnguishdgntlmn	03/14/2007	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I was actually shocked that I liked this blend so much. There are 86 reviews prior to this one so I will give only some observations I feel might be helpful. This is very similar in flavor to Haddo's Delight.It has that same strange complexity to it. The Perique is quite noticeable and so is the BRANDY top dressing. This really is Pennington Gap "All Grown Up". Not as Sweet, and much more of a natural aromatic. This is my most important observation concerning this blend: MIX THIS WITH MCCLELLAND'S BLENDING ORIENTAL AND YOU WILL HAVE AN EVEN BETTER BLEND IN MY OPINION. 1 third McC Blending Oriental and 2 thirds Barbary Coast and you will have a magnificent creation. Try it first on its own merits though. A solid 3 stars!
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ajaj	03/13/2007	Mild	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
I am not "classified" as a burley smoker. However, Cumberland and Barbary Coast are two great offerings from GLP. Barbary Coast is a cube cut burley which I would classify as a natural aromatic. Please, don't get me wrong, this is not an aromatic in the sweet cased sticky sense; it's subtle and great for a change of pace from my normal VaPers. The liquor top note is nice and the burley has a nice refined smoothness to it. Every now and then, there is a detectable pleasant "pepper" flavor which I attribute to the virginias interacting with the remainder. Great change of pace tobacco. aj
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Stocky	03/12/2007	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Solid top shelf burley. Keeping it lit is no joke though. I pulled out an old root briar "tall" bowl for this one. I'd say only smoke it when you've got some time to tend. And I wont dry it out just to make it burn better, for I'm sure the lovely taste would suffer. Hey, some time's getting a campfire started is a challege. That doesn't take away from the experience. Every tobacco has it's "place"; with B.C. it's more of a "time". btw I've added a bit more Perique to my tin... personal preference.
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Patriot	02/11/2007	Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
Wow, "ditto" to the previous reviewers who enjoy Barbary Coast. I totally agree with the concept of this blend as an "all-day smoke"--although difficult to keep lit initially, once going, it lasts a good while. Another awesome "Pease" of genius!
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