pipesandcigars.com Russ' Tastykake

TastyKake, prepared by way of the culinary magic of Mr. Russ O. An exquisite wafer, smartly blended, stewed, then pressed into just a scrumptious cake high in grain and density; yum. You must admit that it does resembles one of those health-conscious fitness bars from the likes of Quest; call this one Piper’s Indulgence if you must. After all there are proteins and carbs in tobacco so it’s legit.

This English/Balkan (whatever) style blend, presents a well portioned and seasoned mix of Carolina Virginia, Turkish Oriental, Latakia, Perique and the smoothing element of Black Cavendish (Green River Burley).

An aged citrusy bottom provides sweetened support for the mingling of smoky, incensed Latakia and the tart, floral, pungency of the Oriental. Turkish features move a smidgeon to the forefront on this one, making it more Balkan in classification in some camps. The well metered Perique holds some complementing dark musty fruitiness ,while the Green River Cavendish performs exceptionally well in melding the assortment into a creamy smoking taste sensation .

Balkan or English, who can really say? What I can say is that I love Oriental-forward Latakia based blends. This surely is a TastyKake one with an overall profile that is sweet-sour, smoky, spicy and smoothly sharp. Meets my 5-S standards for a quality English/Balkan recipe. An exclusive and limited Ouellette run that truly takes the cake!

I was intrigued by this based on the blend components, that it was a cake, the blender (Russ O.), and also the reviews on P&C and here.

The pouch smell is what you would expect from a blend consisting of the constituent tobaccos. Thick BBQ sauce, smokey, spicy.

This is where my review will go into some guesswork.

I never had the regular Plum Pudding, but I have smoked my share of the Plum Pudding Bourbon Barrel, one of my favorite blends.

Something in the smoke of this reminded me of that, sans the bourbon. Okay... So, since I have a pound of these cakes, I took one and added some strong bourbon to it and placed it in a mason jar with a leftover stave cube from PPBB.

So far the jar smell is identical to PPBB, and that isn't all from the wood cube. The smell from a used of of those isn't THAT strong. So, I can't report on the smoke as that needs to dry and age, but if I am correct, and I think I might be, this stuff is close to PP and if you add bourbon, PPBB and it's WAY cheaper than the SPC blends. I figured I'd throw that out there for the experimental bunch. UPDATE: I smoked some that I flavored with bourbon and man it really adds something to it!

Either way, Tastykake is a great blend and I love it on its own merits. I plan to buy many pounds of it in the future so I never run out.

Those in search of a cheaper alternative to GL Pease Quiet Nights might also want to check this out as it has almost the same types of tobaccos except for the cavendish.

I absolutely love this blend. Bought 8 0z. and it came in 3 good size bricks. Easy to prepare, just break some off and gently pack. Lights and burns with no fuss. The flavors are awesome and vary according to how you pack it in your pipe. And any way it is packed it burns slow and flavorful. Takes a while to smoke a big bowl if you are using a large pipe, so its great for when you want a pipe tobacco that lasts like a cigar. English flavors that will have you wanting more! Russ O is the Home Run King of fine pipe tobaccos and this one is a Grand Slam!

Jar note of smoky sour stewed plums. Tobacco is black, dark brown and light brown Krumble Kake. Moisture content is ok. Drying may be preferred for some. Easily breaks and rubs out. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and very consistent, with notes of smoky sweet, leather, very woody, incense, spices, dry, tangy citrus, mildly bitter orange, bread, earth, very savory, vinegary fermented dark fruit, musty vegetation, floral, mildly spicy, herbal, slight sourness, creamy, a lemon grassy background note, and a peppery retro. Latakia is leading with Virginias, Oriental/Turkish and Perique supporting. Black Cavendish is supporting from the rear. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

I've observed this tobacco being compared to Seattle Pipe Club's Plum Pudding Special Reserve (PPSR), and even called "the poor man's" version of it. I've only smoked PPSR once as a friend was able to obtain some, and I have other tobaccos that call to me more loudly, but PPSR is an excellent tobacco. And I must admit, this does call up the spectre of PPSR when smoking it, and both are Balkans, which I enjoy the most, but I certainly wouldn't call this the poor man's version of anything. In fact, gun to my head, I would choose this instead. I find this particular blend better balanced overall with the same smoky latakia notes, sour orientals in the background and naturally sweet cavendish and virginias with the occasional pungently spiced perique flavor peeking through. Breaking the kake up by hand isn't a chore at all from the tranferred mason jar and filling the pipe from the rubbed pieces from the lid is a nice and easy movement. If you pack densely it will force a few relights more than you're used to, but it isn't goopy at all, simply holding more moisture within the particles due to the nature of kake as opposed to a ribbon cut. If you like, rub into smaller pieces or allow to dry a few minutes more. This is one of those offering where you wonder due to price and quality you don't see people speaking of it more often. It's not a latakia bomb as due to the addition of more tobacco varieties, but you can see it's heritage in the brother offering of "Ten to Midnight" which is a well done tobacco, but not as good as this.