G. L. Pease Windjammer

The white burley is at the core of the flavor profile of this navy flake—melding well with the sweet Virginia leaf and the rum casing. While I can taste the perique, it remains in the background unlike in Pease’s Va/Per blends. The rum casing is pleasantly noticeable in the smoke. Overall, Windjammer is an enjoyable and smokable navy flake (broken flake) with a fantastic tin note.

In smoking it side-by-side with other Pease Va/Pers, I found Windjammer to be a bit milder than his other offerings. Telegraph Hill has a richer flavor profile with more perique and earthy red Virginia leaf. That mentioned, I appreciate Pease's homage to navy flakes of years past.

My tin date on this blend is about three or four months from the time I'm writing my review.

The flakes are broken and this is mostly a ready rubbed combined with a broken flake. I would like to see better flakes in the future but that's just me wishing. The tin note is a little sweet like Navigator, but it has that dried fruit and leather thing going on. There is a hint of cocoa or chocolate there too.

I don't know if I've ever had a blend made by C&D light so easily. This blend is so easy to smoke. The flavors are melded well and this is a joy to smoke. This is on the fruity, leathery, deep end of the Virginia-Perique spectrum. This is nothing like Escudo. Smoking slowly and sipping will reveal the breadth and depth of the flavors, which I won't bore you with.

The strength is medium-full and so is the taste. The nicotine is medium-ish for me. I would advise a beginner not to smoke this on an empty stomach, unless you have a high tolerance.

I would recommend this to the Virginia-Perique enthusiasts as long as they don't mind the topping. It's quite subtle and doesn't interrupt the experience. I would even go as far as to say it mostly affects the tin aroma. I really don't know how G.L. Pease makes so many great blends, but I'm glad he does.

Another thoughtful offering from master blender Greg Pease, Windjammer (tin dated 01-26-21) is likely to please experienced camp followers, along with other careful smokers to whom the listed ingredients sound good. The addition of dark rum is judicious rather than cloying, and C&D’s proprietary black Cavendish is more like deep, twice-fermented Burley than the glop found in many aros. Tin note is rummy, for sure, but some drying is required to get the most from Windjammer, preferably via rest, and by then the rum is a faint, sweet, fruity enhancement to the fine selection of premium tobaccos. VAs in the tin are bready and yeasty air-cured and stoved reds, with a nice balance from flue cured brights that add meadow grasses and sparkle, and smooth figs, dates and baking and dessert spices from the Perique, with some soft earth and faint cocoa from the Burleys. Dried W handles, loads, lights and burns down very well, leaving only a little dark ash and enough soot to require a couple of pipe cleaners in the early going. Combusted scents are a woodier, more resin-y iteration of the tin notes, and the combusting tastes add walnuts. I suppose from the bitterness that both white and darker Burleys are included. For me, the best of this blend is in the light snork, which includes faint vanilla after some rest. I find it easy to puff away here, which pushes the strength (and the nicotine) from medium toward strong, and the tastes become full that way. Room note is just a little too strong to be pleasant to others. Aftertaste is an extension of the best-of-the smoke, only it’s a good deal sweeter.

I might have preferred more low notes in this blend. As is, most of the action is from the mid band, up. A month’s rest makes it more smoke-able and it also smooths and softens it somewhat. I’m pretty sure the ticket here is sealed tin aging, but I didn’t do that. 3 stars, almost 4, as I have smoked it.

This came as a very broken flake, which at least allows easy folding/stuffing, burning just on the hot and faster side (perhaps also an effect of the Cavendish). The tobacco flavor seems mostly based on the Red Va's reinforced by the Perique and other Virginias. The burley notes were faint in the first part of the bowl and largely absent thereafter. The rum isn't overdone but present throughout and the flavors integrate pretty well. A trifle damp even for me, it still takes a light easily.

GLP
Windjammer

Blend notes:”Windjammer combines naturally sweet, ripe Virginias, nutty burleys, toasted black cavendish, and a generous measure of perique, married together with a splash of dark rum.”

The Virginias support Windjammer’s structure with provide citrus, grass, sugar, and tangy dark fruit. In among these taste profiles you also get a hint of mildly acidic lemon.

The spicy, plum-esque sweet perique tastes of raisin or figs.

The burley offers a nutty, woodsy background element. The toasted (likely unsweetened) u
black cavendish adds a creaminess as a condiment.

The rum casing seems to bring a synthesis to the whole experience.

Windjammer is a lighter version of Haddo’s Delight (which I adore). It’s a less pure experience than the always excellent Escudo but then this is a VaPerBur blend with unsweetened black Cav. It’s milder and not as tasty as Viprati and milder than, say, Penny Farthing.

Windjammer would be a terrific entry level VaPer but not in a classic just Virginia and just Perique form.

3 out of 4 stars.

If you haven't popped a tin of this yet don't make the same mistake I did.. put it back in the cellar and let it sit there for at least a year.. It is a very good blend.. but.. for all those familiar with pease/cornell and diehl blends.. you know what I mean.. time is gonna iron out the youthfulness of the leaf and you just know it is gonna be that much better.. Nevertheless, this stuff is quite tasty.. If you like a rum raisin profile.. maybe with quite a bit of spice and nuts.. I think this one may please you.. im gonna throw out a guess.. Maybe 20 percent perique.. I may be way off.. but the perique really stands out especially in the first half of the smoke.. it is wonderful.. the burley makes itself know too.. the rum is also a major component.. that aspect reminds me quite a bit of Navigator..it blends really well especially bringing out the nuttiness and accenting the sweetness of the virginia and the spice of the perique.. the virginia is nice and fruity but a little fresh.. it is gonna grow over time for sure.. the cavendish is a nice touch and luckily not too influential.. just kinda ties it all together.. I really enjoy this one.. it does like to burn a bit hot.. I would recommend some dry time.. it is a full smoke.. not a heavy hitter in the nicotine department.. but certainly not mild.. GL Pease never disappoints.. Always interesting the way he plays with flavors and I think with a few years on it this could be a modern classic. PART 2 I gotta say.. the more I smoke this.. im less impressed.. maybe age will meld it all.. but im getting a lot of rum and not very much flavor many smokes.. sorry.. maybe not quite going down to 2.. but thinking about it.. actually a little bit surprised by some of these 'high creditioneled reviewers who give this 4.. I don't get it.. and I'm a big GL Pease fan..

This may be GLP style, adding its own unique flavor to stir.

There was no problem with the nicotine content, there was no problem with the lighting, I just found a little bit of the flavor that the tobacco should have in the last third.

I categorize it into the transit station series and taste it occasionally, but can't spend every day with it.

20230316: really enjoying a bowl of this, taking it slowly from a meer. Nice light nicotine buzz most of the way through the bowl, I think medium is a fair assessment. I think most of my original review stands.

Tin note: i get cider. Smoke: spiced (cinnamon in particular), tart, stewed fruit, toast, mild sweetness. This is pretty good, one of the better vapers I've tried I think. The flavor does wane towards the end of the bowl, and the smoke is tough on my mouth. Not my favorite style, but i might consider smoking more of this.

Nice tin aroma with the rum evident but not as prevalent when smoking. Ideal moisture content and packs easily. Smokes cool, without bite or condensation. Complex flavors throughout the smoke.