Esoterica Tobacciana - Pembroke pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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Fife&Drum	05/27/2006	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Full	Pleasant
I've been smoking this a long time and decided to enter this review. Yup, Esoterica has another great one for me! Yes, as the description says, Margate w/ Cognac. The Cognac adds a slight perfume/sweet taste and scent that is relaxing for me. I can easily drift off into pleasant thoughts with this one. It's great with a cup of coffee that's been brewed over a fire. Ribbon cut and packs, lights and smokes the same as Margate. That is, a dark and rich English blend. The moisture may be too much for some, and drying just a bit would improve burn. But, either way I dig it. Straight away it burns fine for me. I love smoking this sitting around a campfire. Great stuff when you want just an added bit of flavor and aroma to that great weed called Margate. Four stars.
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CaptnDan	01/29/2006	Medium	Very Strong	Medium to Full	Strong
I prefer my Cognac in a glass, thank you very much. Nothing I can really say about this one. Not my cup of tea.
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DUPE.629	01/27/2006	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
January 2006. This is pretty good stuff!And I like it,but I definitely would not smoke it all the time,as we can't get it in Australia anyway. The flavour's were great for a change,as I prefer V-perique,Straight-V's,and latalika blend's. After airing out a portion of this tobacco on paper for 20 min's,I filled my Peterson bent & it only required 2 to 3 light's to get going with a few tamp's along the way to bowl's end. This blend is very tasty & most pleasant all the way through,leaving a nice clean grey ash at the bootom of the bowl. I'm not a fast puffer,& did not suffer any tongue bite at all. Recommended,to those who enjoy a splash of alcohol in their baccy.
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prinakis	01/22/2006	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is one of my best, after drying it out a bit, this tobacco is made for drinking, coffee, wine and of course a good french cognac... Very high quality...
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DrDNA	09/17/2005	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Notes: This needs to dry out a bit before you smoke it to allow it to burn well and optimize the flavors. It also benefits quite a bit from aging, and gets much better with a few months in the tin. I have smoked a few ounces of various vintages of this and have found it best in a Dunhill Group 3-4 briar. Appearance: A thin-cut golden and brown to black ribbon, fully rubbed out. It comes quite wet in the tin, almost sticky, and benefits enormously from allowing it to dry out substantially. Without this, you will likely not fully appreciate the flavor. Aroma: Fruitcake, frankincense, stewed plums and autumn fruit. French cognac, honey, Brie. Taste: Can nip the tongue a bit if one is not careful. After allowing it to dry out to a proper moisture level, it burns quite well to a fine grey-white ash, leaving no dottle at all. Plum pudding, Christmas cake, myrrh, frankincense, cognac, honey, raisins, stewed fruits, citron. Very soft, very subtle flavors. Rather subdued and very quiet on the palate, demanding attention to obtain full enjoyment. Comparisons: Similar to Esoterica's Margate, but with added complexity and sharper cognac notes, which make it a markedly different blend. Much darker (but not heavier) in overall complexion than, say, Dunhill My Mixture No. 965. Bottom Line: For those who enjoy tobacco blends imbued with spirits, a must-try. Those seeking a mild, subdued English blend with the added complexity of cognac will be pleased.
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jackhackett	09/10/2005	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Let me preface this review by saying that I've yet to try Margate, which is supposed to be the untopped/cased version of this blend. The cognac casing is in the forefront but isn't overpowering; seems to mix well with and even amplify the latakia in the blend. I only smoke aromatics a couple of times each week, and this is one of the three I've been keeping stocked. The musty orientals, the cremey latakia, and the light cognac do play well together and never seem to run with scissors towards the tongue. Drying out a bit will help decrease the typical aromatic gurggle and need for relighting. I usually take a bowl's worth out of the tin to dry for about 30 minutes before packing the pipe, usually a 4/5 billiard. And often this only needs a single relight during the smoke, mostly out of neglect on my part. I have yet to try an Esoterica blend that I didn't care for. Like everything they do, Pembroke is good material, handled well, reaching for something unique.
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smokey	02/19/2005	Strong	Medium	Very Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
some tobaccos seem to take a while to make an impression, and so it was with this one. i had very high expectations, because of all the good reviews i had read about it. after the first pipeful, i had to admit i was very let down. it seemed overly moist, was hard to light and required constant re-lighting, and seemed to have a bite to it. i left the can open, fluffed up the tobacco, and let it set for an afternoon. with each pipeful after that, things seemed to get better. the burn definitely improved, and i started appreciating the suttle and very different flavor, probably coming from the cognac topping over the latakia. this tobacco seems to have a pretty high nicotine content, which i enjoy also. i like to have a bowl of this after smoking a strong latakia blend, like old ironsides. they seem to compliment each other. the cognac flavor dominates the first half of the bowl, then the latakia seems to take over. kind of like an appetizer before the main course. i would recommend anyone who enjoys english blends give this one a try. just don't rush to judgement after the first pipeful. 3 stars.
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thedstnguishdgntlmn	02/05/2005	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I love the Esoterica series and most Germain and sons blends,but this one is not really as good as I have been told.The blend is a heavy English with cognac, which in theory ,should be outstanding, but alas, it falls a little short.This is a high quality tobacco that yields a good pleasurable smoke but I will stick with "And So To Bed". The blend is good. The aroma is nice.I will offer you the counsel that if you do not like Anise, do not try this.The other Esoterica offerings combine the Anise with the tobacco and they yield pure pleasure.Pembroke has the cognac and anise quarreling with each other. I would try it ,but there are others that are better.
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emmbee	02/03/2005	Medium to Strong	Strong	Very Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Great tin, elegant calligraphy and mostly stunning reviews. Unfortunately, this tobacco does nothing for me. It?s characteristically Esoterica/Germain with its sour, briny, licorice/anise tin aroma. And So to Bed is a milder, tangier version of Pembroke. It?s a stringy ribbon cut of stoved tobaccos with latakia and laced with cognac. This is Margate drunk on brandy. Though I love cognac, I?m discovering that that venerable spirit is best left to breathe in a snifter. It may go well with a good smoke, but they should remain good friends in separate dwellings and never marry or move in together. Whatever Latakia is in this mixture is completely overpowered by the booze, and it?s a distraction, not a compliment. If you?re going to smoke this stuff be sure to devote a single pipe to it, because it will permeate the bowl with that distinctive Esoterica casing. This is a quality tobacco for those who might appreciate this style, but it?s just not my particular taste. At least I am pleased to have a pipe smoking buddy eager to take it off my hands so that the tin didn?t go completely to waste. Overrated! One and a half of five stars
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mythdoc	01/24/2005	Medium	Mild	Full	Strong
Pembroke is such a luxurious tasty tobacco! Before writing this review, I had occasion to smoke a tin of unaged Pembroke, followed by a tin with 4.5 years of aging. The new tin was very good, the aged wonderful. The sharper edges had softened, and the latakia had mellowed to a supple smoothness. I love the way Pembroke produces clouds of chewy, smoke-ring-ready smoke. On the other hand, you will not win much goodwill smoking this in the presence of, shall we say, certain significant others who barely tolerate your smoking habit! BTW, I like the cognac topping, which is never obtrusive, just a hint of elegance underlying the full English taste. About the only thing I could say against Pembroke is that it has a certain drying effect upon the mouth and palate. If you are a latakia lover with a place to smoke this far away from the wife and kiddies, you will not go wrong with this blend. mythdoc
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Hauser	01/17/2005	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant
I have both a new tin and a 5 year old tin and I've found agin it changes it though not for the better or worse, just different. Aging mellows out the blend a bit but I enjoy the new batch version just as much as I enjoy the aged version. Tin Opening - Opening the tin reveals a mottled string cut blend, that over time has merged the colors slightly. With the 5 year old tin, the familiar Pembroke aroma is still there though mellowed. Packing - Packs well in all pipes I?ve tried it in. Lighting - Two matches and a tamp. First Impression - The first few puffs release a pleasing English/cognac aroma and the taste is complex without being confusing. It?s rich without being heavy and full without being overwhelming. Mid Bowl - Down through the bowl, the flavor remains and though its complexity fades, for me into something comfortable. Each puff makes me want the next for the simple pleasure of this blend. I find no tendency to smoke wet or hot. At five years, it?s mellower then a new batch. It is neither better nor worse, just different. Finish-Finishes stronger with the cognac having been burned away though the quality of the blend shows through, keeping you going for the pure tobacco taste of the blend. It smokes very cleanly with a grey ash. Over all-My favorite English blend. It is Margate plus and unlike most blends with a topping, this topping actually enhances and improves the blend rather then masking it or detracting from it. I don't know what Cognac they use to top it but I wouldn't be surprized if it was specifically developed for this blend rather than for drinking. I am normally not a fan of liquor top tobacco but this one hits the mark better then anything else I've ever tried. A true pleasure!
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Beer	10/19/2004	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable
Evidently my tin was aged, as the tobacco had several sugar crystals and the paper was stained brown: good! The cognac casing can be felt, but it is not intrusive: its presence simply adds a "darker" and sweeter tone, both to the tin aroma and the taste. Actually, the empty bowl after smoking this has a faint alcoholic smell... The taste is dark, deep, musty: similar to Margate, of course, but darkly sweet and richer. The overall effect is a bit cloying in its dark sweetness, although it is not a very full tobacco. As usual with this brand the moisture level is excessive, resulting in a wet and difficult smoke and in the formation of rust inside the tin after a few days you open it. Bad!
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Bobbior5907	06/20/2004	Medium to Strong	Medium	Full	Tolerable to Strong
As I have never gotten to like Latakia, I do not usually gravitate toward traditional English-type blends except those attenuated by the addition of some type of topping in the form of rum or, in the case of Pembroke, cognac. I prefer high quality aromatics, VA flakes, burley & Perique blends, etc. However, the reviews from Wm. Serad on down are almost universal in their praise of the Esoterica Tobacciana line of blends and, in particular, Margate. Pembroke is described as Margate with the addition of cognac. I haven't tried Margate, so I approached Pembroke uninfluenced by any prior experience with either Esoterica Tobacciana in general or Margate in particular. I smoked several bowls of Pembroke one night in a recently acquired 50 year old estate Kaywoodie that I had "opened up" by Jim Benjamin down in San Diego, CA (see Rick Newcombe's articles about proper air flow for pipes collected in his book, "In Search of Pipe Dreams"). Sufficient air circulation is absolutely critical, especially when smoking moist dense blends. A hot, wet, bitter, and generally unpleasant smoking experience is frequently the result in the absence of adequate air flow, which most pipes lack. Anyway, as to Pembroke, it has a Latakia-spicy, fermented aroma in the tin. Upon ignition, the flavor is also spicy with a tangy semi-sweet undertaste. The cognac is evident and, to to my way of thinking, nicely circumscribes the Latakia element. The flavor and aroma are rich, thick, and nicely rounded, with the edges softened by the cognac. I think this a great after-dinner or late night blend. It burns well for me and resolves to a fluffy mottled ash. I give Pembroke a grade of B+.
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tslots	05/15/2004	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Some shy away from blends topped with spirits, but I find it makes a wonderful combination in many cases ... and this is one of my favorites. This blend really shines when allowed to age for a couple of years. The Cognac just seems to marry all the different tobaccos together, the result being something much better than the sum of the parts.
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pipper	05/01/2004	Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable
Upon opening the tin, I was hit with a very strong vinegar smell, from the cognac. The tobac also presents very wet. I tried a bowl, and the cognac was just too strong overpowering any tobacco taste. I left the tin open for a couple of days, then came back to it. The first day that the tin was open, the aroma/vinegar permeated the room, and I found this unpleasant, thinking that I would never enjoy this tobac. Upon the second day of air drying the tin, I was now presented with something much more tolerable. This is a very fine smoke, once dried, and the cognac offers its own smooth flavor upon the Margate blend. I find that it mutes the orientals that were so tasty in Margate, but causes its own unique addition, which I find quite nice. I enjoy this taste from time to time, perhaps late afternoon, before dinner. Just make sure you air dry the tin for a couple of days before use.
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sagesmoke	02/02/2004	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

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Rocketman	08/25/2003	Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant
I have tried many blend topped with various types of liquors...Rum, Whiskey, Bourbon, etc. To me they seemed like aromatic tobaccos using bar fodder rather than fruit smelling chemicals. But here I find quite a difference. Esoterica marries Margate ( a nicely complex english blend in its own right ) with French Cogniac. And while I only drink Cogniac on rare, special occasions ( and enjoy the effect of it as well as the aroma ) I don't particularly care for the taste. However, in this instance, the Cogniac appears to enhance the natural flavors of the Virginias and Latakia to the extent of turning a typical ( albeit tastey )English blend into a very refreshing smoke. While the liquor flavor is quite pronounced, it enhances rather than overwhelms the flavors of the components. And as the smoker tastes the Virginias and Latakia whafting in and out, so too does the taste of the liquor change, thus enhancing the complexity. My supply has been ageing for a bit over 5 years and I unfortunately don't know if the excellent flavor, the almost creamy feel of the smoke and the somewhat pleasing aroma of this blend can be attributed to the quality of the base tobaccos or the graceful ageing of the Cogniac. I can but partake of its pleasures and leave the conclusions to reviewers more knowledgeable than myself. A fair trade-off in my opinion!!!
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BrittPark	06/22/2003	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable
This is a very interesting smoke in that it is the most mutable tobacco I've smoked. In the first third of a bowl, the cognac and Latakia team up to produce a powerful smoky, almost soapy taste. By the middle of the bowl the taste becomes much more rounded and the sweet taste of Virginias plays a much greater role. By the end of the bowl you'll swear you're smoking a Virginia blend in a pipe that's been used for smoking English blends. Now to me each of these flavor phases (with the exception of the soapiness) is very attractive. I love following the flavor changes as I smoke a bowl down. Highly recommended.
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MissouriFisherman	02/08/2003	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
I frequently smoke this in a Sansieni 4-dot apple which I feel controls the right balance of aroma and strength. I find myself rotating this mixture with "And so to Bed", but I prefer this one a little more, probably because I will often drink a brandy while smoking.
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pmonroeb	12/30/2002	Medium to Strong	Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Pembroke is supposed to be Margate with a cognac casing. Margate is in my rotation, so I gave this a try. There are few English tobaccos available with a liquor casing, Pease's Mephisto is the only other that comes to mind. Pembroke comes almost wet, far too damp to smoke well. The aroma is dominated by the casing. After letting it dry out some, I gave it a try. My impressions are that this is a very good tobacco, but that the cognac is just too much. I have had good success by mixing this down about 50% with some other English mixtures I had open. I did not have an open tin of Margate to mix this with, but I'll bet that mixed 50/50 or even less with Margate, that this would be a very good change of pace.
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