Wellauer & Co Irish Oak

This is a Va/Per mixture. Virginias of average quality form the backbone, Perique donates a peppery strength and Cavendish offers some volume, lightness and reserved sweetness. I can’t get much out of the Virginias, honestly. The peppery Perique seems to cover up the subtle flavour palette of the Virginias.

Given its name “Wellauer Irish Oak” (WIO) automatically leads to comparing it with the famous “Peterson Irish Oak” (PIO) which sadly went out of production in 2019, when Peterson reshuffled their offerings after the takeover of Dunhill pipe tobaccos. There are minor differences between the two blends: PIO had a more distinctive taste of wood from maturing its tobacco in oak barrels. I loved this woody taste and miss it in the WIO. The Perique in PIO was more fruity (plum/fig), although in both mixtures the peppery side of Perique turns dominant eventually.

WIO is an all day, several bowls in a row kind of mixture without bite or harshness. I would say it is an unpretentious, average Va/Per mixture, that does not particularly stand out. It lacks a little in flavour diversity that would allow us to dig in deeper and keep us more interested. However, I like it and will buy it from time to time, without adding it to my rotation.

I am a new pipe smoker. I tried quite a few tobaccos before this one, whichever was recomended for new pipe smokers. But this one made me fall in love. Although i started smoking pipe with aromatics(my neighbour used to smoke pipe, and i always loved that strong vanilla taste around him), nothing really spoke to me in terms of smoking. I enjoyed Latakia, but didnt really love it. Like, i can understand why people love it, but for me its not something i would love to smoke daily. With aromatics, i think on account of beeing new smoker, i just couldn`t get the taste i want to. I just get some not pleasant tobacco taste, and somwhere on the exhale a bit of flavouring. With this tobacco, i got to enjoy that pure tobacco taste, with no dying bonfire smell, or some weird interpretation of aroma. Just some soothing tobacco taste with some spiciness. I guess the spiciness comes from perique, which, as it turns out, i love. Either the tin i got is a bit dry, or this mix in general burns hot and fast. I would recommend this tobacco to other newbies, who disliked Latakia blends, but whant some unscented tobacco taste.