Just be warned about the room note: While I enjoy the woodsy, smokey smell, my friends all did not find it very pleasant. I should have brought an aromatic, but was enjoying this blend so much that I wanted to share it. Smoke this in solitude, or in the company of other smokers who enjoy English blends; but bring your cherry, chocolate, and vanilla blends when it's social time!

Update 9/6/11 Well It's been 9 months, and this still has a bite and is hard to keep lit. This tobacco smokes salty , reminds me of "Engine 99". I'm removing one star

Update 1/5/12 There it is, almost one year of aging to the day and the bite is gone and the Turkish begins to play. Latakia is out front , like an oil refinery having an outdoor Bar-B-Que. The Turkish has nice support but rather than a sweetness from the Virginias , I get a saltiness. Upon lighting you get an explosion of flavor, Latakia & Orientals ,but this fades fast at about a 1/4 bowl and it becomes ashey. Actually, if you tamp this out and relite, you get another explosion of flavor for another 1/4 bowl ( great northern winter feature for running out of the house when it's 20 degrees outside and smoking 1/4 bowls !!) Oh, and it I still have trouble rubbing this out, you get little nuggets ( like Grape Nuts Cereal) that don't burn real well.

Updated 3/20/12 Hope you can live with my updates but as this tobacco aged and breathed it has improved. Orientals play well and the latakia is more in the background, you need to sip this to get the most. I tried this against "Larry's blend" and LB is smoother but less lat. and I like it better than 10TM. However, 10TM is worth 3 stars.

Updated 10/26/12 One more update I promise, I like my Balkans with more Orientals and sweeter. This is hard to sip, it goes out, that simple.I'll stick with Larry's blend and won't buy this again.

Before trying Abingdon I enjoyed English blends with latakia but Abigdon was like having a little tobacco with your latakia... Ten to Midnight is no different. The pouch aroma is Latakia, the taste is Latakia, and the aftertaste is (suprise) Latakia. I got heartburn just smoking this stuff.

Suffice it to say this is not my cup of tea and probably has reinforced putting me off of latakia for a good long while again.

YMMV

Now I don't know if the name of the blend is in reference to the Bronson film of the same name, but I do know that Penzance this aint'!

But that isn't such a bad thing, after all...

It comes in big ole' sticks, with lots of fine tobacco dust in the bottom of the bag (I got this in bulk at Uptown's in Nashville). It smells almost IDENTICAL to Penzance, but looks like it has slightly less oriental leaf in the blocks of tobacco that I bought. The blocks will most likely make the novice (or the impatient) have a fit.

(How can you be an impatient person if you are in the Brotherhood of the Briar???? Strange, but they ARE among us!)

So, I looked at the tobacco a bit closer. Imagine a Twix candy bar. That's how this tobacco comes: in a little Twix shaped rectangle. I saw trouble rubbing this out...

Undaunted, I took my time preparing the tobacco, and loaded up my pipe.

The initial flavor rush made me think that I had FINALLY found my beloved, long lost Penzance. The intensity fades, sadly, as you progress through the bowl. It comes back and forth, in and out, and I have found I appreciate this after a few bowls.

All in all, though, I WILL be stocking up on this fine Balkan/English blend by Hearth and Home.

If you LIKE latakia and sweet, pungent orientals, then you owe it to yourself to try this blend.

I recommend this for the price and the quality.

I found myself comparing this tobacco to wine: a beautiful nose, a powerful start, but no statement on the tongue once it is swallowed. It is sort of the equivalent of a "flabby" wine, where the structure doesn't quite match the body.

All of that said, this is a delicious balkan. As seems to be the case with all of the Hearth & Home blends, it is the product of a master blender, and is highly enjoyable. I just found it a bit shy of totally satisfying. I think it might be just right for someone who enjoys latakia but without the "dark side" of hambone and campfire that emerges in many other blends. It is worth noting that Mr. Ouellette has once again demonstrated his mastery of the leaf by developing certain flavors in the latakia while subduing and taming others with the Turkish and Virginia. This is a refined and civilized balkan blend... I think I would like it better with a little more barbarian in it.

I have found I need to smoke it gently or it bites. I will enjoy smoking what I have, but I won't be buying anymore.

Despite its aroma in the tin and in the smoke, the flavors are actually quite mild. You can smoke this for 90 minutes and not taste it when you set down your pipe. (For some, that's a benefit. For me? Not so much.)

This constantly gets compared to Penzance. The comparison is apt; this is as close to Penzance-without-being-Penzance that I've encountered. But for me, a lover of that Esoterica blend, it lacks the spice and effervescence that you'll find in a fresh tin of Penzance. With some time in the tin, Penzance's spice and effervescence fades away. (It's one of the few blends I've tried that is much better fresh than aged.) But it's the "aged Penzance" profile that you get here. In Ten to Midnight, the latakia dominates against what tastes like a soft cavendish foundation, only occasionally allowing waves of orientals to poke through. This seems to have more latakia, less orientals, and significantly more cavendish in it than Penzance. It's a softer smoke as a result, without the distinctive qualities that keep me returning to Penzance.

But let's set direct comparisons aside.

As a Balkan, Ten to Midnight succeeds somewhat, although the cavendish mutes things for me. (I don't believe cavendish belongs in a true Balkan, and I'm convinced it's here in good portion.) In addition, too many puffs seemed to consist of nothing but latakia. I believe a good Balkan blends the latakia and orientals in sufficient proportions to create layers of richness that neither tobacco could manage on its own. This never reached that level for me.

I don't think the Virginias surfaced at all during the smoke, making this much less successful if smoked as a straight English. It's perhaps more successful as a Scottish blend (because of my belief that there's unsweetened cavendish present), with an emphasis on the latakia.

Ten to Midnight is certainly enjoyable no matter what you call it or how you categorize it. But it's certainly not a Penzance replacement for me, and it won't make any of Pease's Balkans quake in their boots. (Except for Kensington, the only Pease Balkan that fails, in my opinion.) I'm glad I tried this, but I won't be buying any more.

One Note: Although this can require an extraordinary amount of finger strength to break up, I found that the long bars of tobacco actually have a kind of "grain" to them; try breaking this up from every angle, and you'll find that one direction works better than all the others. (And breaking this up as much as possible is essential if you want the mixture to remain lit in the bowl.)

Bob

Nice and dry it lights up easily and burns well straight to the bottom of the bowl. The pungant flavors reveal all of its componants, smokey, slightly sweet and somewhat floral, but the latakia is always at the forfront. As is so often the case with me, when the rich flavors really begin to develope I tend to puff harder and faster wanting more, thus ruining what I had. When puffed to hard those smokey sweet flavors quickly turn into an acrid insence type of wretch.

Bottom line, sit back, smoke slowly and enjoy !

There is one big drawback to TtM, however: it's really hard to light. As others have noted, it comes in rather hard cakes that take a good bit of effort to break up and crumble. I've found that adding some moisture and letting it sit for a day or two in a sealed bag softens it up enough to work more easily. Once it is lit, however, it's a really cool, long smoke. And, as with all PipesandCigars tobaccos, the price is right.

I plan to keep some TtM on hand from now on for when I get that Latakia craving.