Drucquer & Sons The Merry Monk

(3.20)
An English-style flake mixture, the Merry Monk is composed of Red and Bright Virginias seasoned with Cypriot Latakia, piquant St. James Perique, White Burley, and Black Cavendish. Once blended, the mixture is pressed and aged in cakes before being cut into flakes, marrying the flavor-enhancing benefits of the pressing process with the convenience of a sliced flake. As a blend, this mixture is a medium-to-full-bodied smoke that offers a tangy sweetness accented with notes of woodsmoke, cream, and nuts.
Notes: Founded in 1841, Drucquer & Sons was a famed London tobacco shop that relocated to Berkeley, California, in 1928. The shop was more than just a tobacconist though; it was a community. It was where some of the greatest tobacco-blenders in recent memory — like Carl Ehwa of McClelland and Gregory Pease of G.L. Pease — first plunged their hands into fragrant tobacco. The historic shop may be gone, but its rich history and brand of pipe tobaccos continues, reformulated from their original recipes by Gregory Pease (and made by Cornell & Diehl) for the modern smoker.

Details

Brand Drucquer & Sons
Blended By Gregory Pease
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type English
Contents Black Cavendish, Burley, Latakia, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 100 grams tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium to Full
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.20 / 4
1

4

0

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 06, 2023 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable to Strong
The Saint James perique provides a wealth of tart and dry, barely sweet plums, spice, earth, wood, mild dried figs, floralness, toast, sourness and mesquite. It takes a light lead at times due to the potency of the plum, spice and mesquite. When it doesn’t, the small lead belongs to the musty sweet Cyprian Latakia, which offers a fair amount of smoke, earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, floralness, and light spice. The sour, nutty, earthy, woody, bitter, rough, bready white burley is a couple of levels behind the perique and Latakia in the third slot. The bright Virginia is a tad more noticeable than the red Va. Combined, they produce mild tart and tangy citrus, grass, bread, earth, wood, tangy dried dark fruit, sugar, and floralness along with light sour lemon, spice and acidity. They are a couple of rungs above the earth, woody, and lightly creamy sweet, toasted black cavendish. It is a condiment. The strength is a couple of steps past the center of medium to strong. The taste just edges past that mark. The nic-hit is in the center of medium to strong. Won’t bite or get harsh. Has a little roughness. The mildly moist, mostly broken flakes may need a light dry time although I did not do that as per my review custom. It burns cool, clean and slow with an occasionally inconsistent, complex, rather dry sour, plummy, spicy, floral, mildly sweet, bitter, smoky and nutty, savory, rugged, piquant flavor that extends to the long, lingering after taste. The room note is pungent. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a fair amount of relights. Not an all day smoke. I recommend a wide bowl for this blend. Three stars.

-JimInks
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 05, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
Tin note of smoky, dark fruity wine and peaty vegetation. Tobacco is a flake of marbled black, brown and dark brown with a little tan. Moisture content is ok. Most pipe smokers will want to dry it out a bit. Flakes rub out with a little effort. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild to medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and very consistent, with notes of smoky, peaty herbal hay, lemon grass, toasted bread, zesty citrus peel, wood, spices, leather, earthy, slightly spicy, more buttery than creamy, tart dark fruit, slight dryness, a nutty and floral incense background note, and a very peppery retro. Latakia is leading with Virginia, Perique, Burley and Cavendish supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is great.
Pipe Used: Castello Old Antiquari SC 56F
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 1 month
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 09, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
A new blend and a good blend which is mostly broken flake in my tin. Slightly moist, but for me did not need drying. A little fruit flavor, sweetness, and the fact that it was pressed and sliced makes for a solid merging of the flavors. A year or two of aging will certianly merge the flavors even more. I will be buying an extra tin or two for aging
Pipe Used: Savinelli Roma 320
PurchasedFrom: Smoking Pipes
Age When Smoked: Fresh
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 08, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable to Strong
I appreciate what Pease has done recreating the Drucquer blends so this new release caught my eye. My first thought was to question if our hobby needed another English blend to go along with the hundreds already out there and if Drucquer needed another blend with the same components as Red Lion. After giving this a try the answer to both questions is a definite yes.

Despite having the same blend of tobacco, Merry Monk is nothing like Red Lion. I think part of this comes from a different proportion of the various tobacco used and some comes from Merry Monk being a flake while Red Lion is a ribbon. In Red Lion the Virginia seems more apparent while Perique leads the way in Merry Monk. If I had to pick one phrase to describe Merry Monk it would be smoked plums. But it is so much more than just that. The pressing into the flake form really serves to meld the flavors together. Where I could somewhat detect the individual tobacco types in Red Lion, that wasn't the case with Merry Monk. They all came together in one terrific taste experience.

I have smoked quite a few English blends but have never had one quite like this. I waiver between three and four stars but will give it a very solid three for now. I think many who try this will go with a four. Definitely recommended.
Pipe Used: Savinelli Laguna
Age When Smoked: 2 months
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 17, 2024 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Tolerable
A dark and rich English blend

I appreciate how rich and voluminous the smoke is from the burley, cavendish and Latakia. It is the blend for an evening of blowing smoke rings.

The cedar-incense of the Latakia melds exquisitely with the sweet creaminess of the Black Cavendish and what I suspect are earthy red Virginia leaf. The perique adds some funky spice. The burley is noticeable alongside sourness of the Turkish leaf, both of which remain in the background of each sip of smoke.

I really like Merry Monk, although I am not sure that it quite reaches perfection on every level for what I appreciate in an English blend. I could be convinced to change it to four stars.
1 person found this review helpful.
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