First impression when I opened the tin was something along the lines of "I think I should have gone for something less potent". The aroma from the tin however after the initial surprise was actually really enjoyable, strong but still enjoyable.

Smoking wise I found it a very full smoke; you can certainly taste the perique and it bites a little, not enough to cause discomfort but just enough to keep you on your toes which is something I enjoy about Irish Oak.

For me I find Irish Oak a great afternoon and evening smoke as it leaves one feeling most satisfied and very relaxed to the point of a slight light headedness.

Overall it's a great tobacco: strong but not overpowering and that cheeky little bit of bite to it.

I feel I shall be happily smoking this for a long time.

I bought this stuff on the back of favourable reviews on here and opened my tin, delivered today, with great anticipation. Great disappointment followed. No really discernible smell to the tobacco, just a generic mild tobacco aroma, maybe hay as others have said, and a slight sherry/cognac whiff.

On lighting the tobacco and exhaling it through my nose (I don't inhale) I immediately received a fizzing burning sensation in my nostrils, with no discernible taste whatsoever. None of the oaky/sherry nuances that others have described. The nasal fizzing overwhelmed every taste there might be. If this is Perique, it's not for me.

More of the same until my small bowl was emptied, half-unsmoked, 20 minutes later.

Undeterred, I took another bowlful out of the tin and set it aside to dry out. I returned to it 3 hours later having drunk a couple of pints of best bitter (which I find enhances my enjotment of tobacco) and tried again, with the same result. No nuances of sherry, and the oak I was getting might as well have been oak shavings. Horrible, rough, bad cigarette flavour.

Maybe that's what Perique lovers look for, but I'd be very surprised. I am about to re-align my tastebuds with a blast of Nightcap.

I will age this in the tin and see if it improves.

Update: Well, a fair time has passed since I first reviewed this 'baccy, and my opinion has changed favourably. I have decided that the secret to this stuff is to smoke it very gently and wait for the taste to show about 1/3 of the way down the bowl, when by taking small sips of smoke, rolling ot around your tongue and exhaling gently through the nose you can actually taste oak, and sherry and cognac hints.

I have this baccy reserved for occasions when I want a taste-blast after a couple of bowls of aromatic baccy (my usual being Erinmore Mixture with a pinch or two of a black cherry/vanilla shag incorporated as spice).

Uprated from one star to three.

This has risen immediately to the top of my rotation. It is full but not too full. The background is indeed rich and the Perique, imho, is slightly over the top. I don't really mind as it doesn't bother me until the end of the bowl. Meanwhile there is a very satisfying, complex, and smooth biteless smoke until the peppery, difficult finish. One of my favorites, with a richness and elegance reminiscent of a Dunhill.

Give it a try...

Easy to smoke, very tasteful, a classic. You must try it if you enjoy perique.

1ST NOTES:

Colour evoked:the green on the tin says it all.

Mental scene:outside in the country,sun behind the bare trees,autumn season beginning,,;get the feel of a season and save it for autumn it really works!

Great outdoor smoke.

Better when left for a day before smoking,,;complimentary drink;"newcastle brown ale" or jack daniels on crushed ice.

Damp bracken tin aroma,,earthy,,natural,,bonfire jacket potato's,,,mildly of beadies(indian herbal cigarettes)

Aroma acceptable or tolerated,,but it is not offensive,,its just a dry pipe smell..

Dry,,,mature,,,cool,,,strengthy,,,oak smoked,,,potato and oakleaf,,,jack daniels,,,jacket potato skins,,,white pepper hint,,,starchy room note,,,bitter raw potato after taste(but not unpleasing),,,savoury,,dry burner,leaves no real dottle and you can smoke it till it self extinguishes.

2ND NOTES:

Irish oak 2nd tin;probably not on the shelf long as no stain to paper lid.. Not as aromasome as first tin,,almost odourless,,,-taste not as strong either..

Its basically there though and reminds me of cigarettes slightly..

Smoked in a clay this time instead of my briars to bring out more flavour;which it does..

Not my best smoke but definately worthy enough to be in my circulation.. (i ended up jarring this tin and returned to it later;it basically needs a bit of age or drying out time because although it smokes well strait out of the tin it is quite steamy like boiling potatos to make mash,,;drying it makes it more spicy and seasoned.)

3RD NOTES:

50g round tin with a really nice shade of green label on tin(couldn't think of a more complimentary colour to describe the vibes of the contents;oak leaf green)

Open Tin Apperance: Tan and dark brown ribbons.

Taste: Mainly like the seasoning on dry roasted peanuts and raw potato peel/new potato's/white peper,,sometimes i taste oakwood/leaves on an autumn fire,,,sometimes parmesan or smoked cheese,,or cheese buscuits(must be the oak smoked association creating illusions on my pallet,,,;it does not smell like cheese in the room note you will be pleased to know)

Room Note: mild,innofensive,,,neither a pleasure or displeasure,,neutral mild tobacco smoke,,peppery up the nose close up, but ok on the eyes.

Slightly cigarettish - closest comparison to cigarettes would be "lucky strike reds"

No sherry detected in flavour - - absolutely no fruit memory whatsoever,but there is perhaps a sensation on par with the aftertaste of swallowing a paracetamol(trying to find adjectives)if you have drank sherry you will know what i mean:its probably the corky oak of the barrel that this stuff is stored in adding its flavour actually..

Burns to a white grey ash with no real dottle..

Pipe used:6" georgian clay.

Only a ghost hint of sherry aroma like when you smell an empty glass that has had sherry in it the morning after the night before(smelt from a distance),,,if i did not know this had been in a sherry barrel,i would not think of even identifying this....

Oak is my favourite tree of beauty,,,;this conjours up youth memories of climbing trees and burning holes in leaves with a magnifying glass using the solar rays and smelling the aroma..

Quite a unique flavour for a non aromatic;i would compare this baccy to the beer equivalent of "newcastle brown ale",,;it has a starchy, earthy,mineral soil bitter bite which becomes an aquired taste(like tonic water)

Nicoteen hit is above medium but not strong(for me)and i could make this an alldayer...

It doesn't ruin my pallet if i stick with it;but like "newcastle brown ale"(alegorical comparison);making a transition from something else like an aromatic onto this requires a bit of patient reaquaintence time...

I buy this again because of its no nonsence personality factor.. Its neither soft in an aromatic sence or haughty and sophisticated like an english..(me talking shit and getting carried away with the pen in my hand;)Its a charge hand smoke"the gaffer";it knows its purpose,doesn't say much but what it says is to the point,,,"no bullshit"(i know that probably doesn't sound like a lot of peoples gaffers,so i will take that back and call it "self employed",,,;its a good unique stand alone blend)

Like rollup cigarettes you have to keep it busyish or it will need a relight,but it relights easy..(it doesn't have much sugar content to self combust)

PRO's: It doesn't seem too tarish on my pipe cleaners,so you can get a few bowls in before giving a swab..

No tongue bite;if left open for an hour to dry its perfect.. Consistant flavour through the tin and bowl..

UPDATE 04/06/2012. Recently i have aquired a selection of old nylon and aluminium vintage system pipes on ebay because i wanted to know if i could bring anymore taste out of my baccy collection beyond my previous standard clay pipe tobacco taste trials,which were to know what a good baccy is like in the first place beyond owning and commiting to more expensive pipes.

This next phase is really for fine tuning to bring out the best of what i consider to be already good baccies, and having a selection of pipes with varing diameter draught hole smoke tubes and certain gimmicks has really let me expore the capabilities and augment and diminish certain nuances.

I have just smoked this Irish Oak in a Duncan Delta aluminium shank pipe with a moisture trap, and a single exhaust port bowl(some of these bowls have 4 extra satelite holes).. For the first time i can actually taste the perique rather than just sence its peppery presence up my nose. I have been smoking some orlik bullseye recently to aquaint myself with a VaPer archetype,and also some Dunhill Night Cap which contains a pinch so i know what i am definately identifying.

A good smoke has just got better because a peviously hidden nuance has come out,i can taste a ketchup spirit sweet and sour plum factor which goes well with the already present salt and pepper within,and can also get a certain amount of the aged sherry barrel factor this time.

I still stand by my previous review comments because they are relevant to the pipe i was smoking at the time and i have found that the pipe is a real time contributive variable that determines what gets tasted in the final exhaust delivery in my mouth.

This Duncan Delta pipe has a 3mm draught tube in the stem which makes it wider than my tighter 6"inch clays and narrower and more concentrate than my regular saddle pot briar and it lets the perique show itself. The clay concentrates the bitter potato of the virginia/earthy burly so much that the perique was only felt but not actually tasted(it was ok in the clay and the taste was definately amplified compared to my first regular briar trials).

This is now a more balanced smoke and sits between the two draught diameters of my clay and saddle pot. It really goes to show whats hidden under your nose when swapping pipes around. I used to judge tobacco too early, and even some that i wrote off i have since re-explored with my new pipes to find that they were ok afterall and it was just that i was smoking out of an unsympathetic draught of pipe.Its definately a 50/50 always,and i recon as long as i get the pipe end sorted i will get better results even from mediocre rated baccies which makes them taste like better brands when smoked in an average or random selected but not necessarilly the most sympathetic pipe.

A three star tobacco has become a 3.5,i could and may give it a 4 in the future.

I won't go into many details since this blend has so many reviews. What I puffed on was a salty, cigar flavored tobacco that I found intolerable after smoking only a few bowls of it. I do wish I had kept it and let it age in a jar; but I was so overwhelmed by just how bad it was, it went straight into the trash. Hopefully my particular tin was an aberration for this blend because it rates as one of the worst tobaccos I've ever tried.

I don't necessarily agree with the reviews by a few others. I find this to be a nice woody Virginia Perique rounded out with the Cavendish and Burley. It isn't sweet at least not in the typical Virginia way, I taste the oak quality from the aging in barrels, or at least that's what I think I taste, not so much a sherry quality though.

Tin note: I found similar yet strikingly different to Escudo, grassy, hay-like, with a distinct fermented dried fruit sort of smell.

Taste: I love it! I taste the woody Virginias, the slightly peppery, but to me fruity, Perique, the Cavendish and Burley lend some body and depth but I don't taste as much Burley as I would think, and I know and love a good Burley. Perhaps it's the Cavendish that has picked up a tinge of the sherry, less of a wine flavor than an oaked dark fruit sharpness. The retrohale exhibits the same tastes as Escudo with variations, to me it's a smooth, creamy, toasty, slightly caramel with raisins or figs taste. I don't get the comparisons to cigarettes, perhaps that was a trait of the original blend, I don't know this is the first I've tried it. But to me it lacks the acrid taste of cigarettes, at least American ones typically blended with Turkish. Maybe, just maybe I could see the comparison to an all Virginia cigarette, but even then I find Irish Oak to be far tastier and less one dimensional.

Smoking: Lights easy, packs easy, I smoke it in my other Virginia pipes with no trouble, no ghosting, my tin might be a bit aged, so it's the perfect moisture level right out of the tin, no tongue bite. Doesn't smoke hot at all, no matter how I might get puffing, which surprised me considering the components of the blend. I can get carried away puffing for more of that great taste on many virginia or burley blends and will find the bowl heating up quickly, not so with this one.

All around I find it to be a superb smoke! If you like VaPers give this one a try, I have and it's a nice change of pace. If you like aromatics this probably isn't for you.