Seattle Pipe Club Mississippi River Special Reserve

I've given this tobacco a lot of thought and now that I've reached the end of this plug, I have a pretty good idea how I feel about it. My last bowl nailed it for me.

This is a really good and unique tobacco very similar to the cake Mississippi River. I love it's unique flavor that stands alone in my cellar. I can find myself craving it's natural complex flavors that other reviews have done a much better job than I could in describing. But this tobacco has one serious flaw, in my opinion, that's a deal killer for me. It's the plug.

How do I describe my displeasure of how this tobacco is presented? It's like a beautiful Italian car that has lines only the Italians can produce, an engine sound that races your heart, leather interior that flairs your nostrils, but can leave you stranded on an empty road in the middle of the night.

This tobacco is one of the worst burning tobaccos I've ever smoked. I've tried it in most of my pipes, trying any shape with the hope it will burn better than previous bowls. But, no such luck.

I have studied this tobacco with keen interest in the hopes of breaking it's code. I decided the problem is the plug. The tobacco leaves are cut into small pieces, laid flat in many layers, and pressed at incredible pressures to produce a solid plug. So far, so good. However, when the plug is cut or broken apart by hand, it produces a pile of extremely flat leaves very similar to fish food.

Packing this fish food tobacco into the pipe produces a very tightly packed bowl that does not allow air to flow between leaves. No matter how loosely I pack the bowl, the rigid flat leaves naturally fall horizontally in the bowl, each leaf on top of the other. Every other cut of tobacco from crumble cake to ribbon cut, even ready rub, leaves room for air to flow around the tobacco. But not this one.

The result is a great tasting tobacco that must be relit every other puff on the pipe. Just keep the lighter in your hand and prepare to relight every time you place the pipe in your mouth.

As much as I like this tobacco for it's flavor, the regular Mississippi Mud is very similar without all the hassle. The Reserve would have been a home run if it were presented as a crumble cake.

As with Italian and British cars, I'm done with this plug and need something a little more reliable.