G. L. Pease Haddo's Delight

Haddo's Delight has ignominiously ended my long-running streak of 4 star blends from Greg L. Pease. I gave it a last, college try this morning, then I unwound with a bowl of Sextant, which is a proper booze-laced GLP blend, IMO. Adding injury to insult, HD ghosted 4 of my pipes, bad, and it stunk up my clothes; and it's not even strong!

Popping a young tin quickly tells you most of what you need to know about smoking it as all else is obscured by the rising scent of plum brandy. No figs, and no "fruit" (fruit, schmoot...), just the plum brandy. Only after a period of acclimation could I barely discern the tobacco. The lot is deep, rich and pungent, all at once, but I'm hard pressed to say particularly and exactly what I smell (apart from the brandy...). If there's anything fermented in there (apart from the brandy...), I've missed it.

HD's rough, chunky ribbons have perfect, minimal water content in the tin, and they are easy to rough up, load and light. At first, given the strong tin note (and all the talk about it), I was surprised that the flavor (apart from the plum brandy...) took so long to arrive. Initially, there is - nothing. In view of the Perique, I would not puff hard, but the flavor picked up after the first 1/4. The Cavendish is almost tasteless vs. the Perique; ditto, the burly. The VAs finally arrive past 3/4, too little and too late, for my money. The Perique is another matter. It's first on the scene (after the plum brandy...), and it quickly snowballs. Fast, and/or strong puffers will get righteously "spiced", and how, and this may well be at the root of most of the complaints about HD's excessive "strength".

Revisiting the "strength" issue, I rate HD at just over "medium". If you think HD is strong, I recommend you be careful with many Pease blends, especially Triple Play and JackKnife Plug. OTOH, if you want something that is actually (quite) strong, with great, strong tastes, try Sillem's Commodore Flake.

All in all, if you really, really like Perique, and you love plum brandy, you might possibly like Haddo's Delight. And who knows, perhaps long aging can redeem this problematic blend. I'm not holding my breath.

Update: At 15 mos. the brandy is, IMO, the best part of the smoke, lending a nice aromatic quality to the initial "flavorless" period. After that, it's still just too much Perique, and not enough else, as before. While I like Perique, this "blend" is still lost on me.

Update: after almost 4 years rest in a Mason jar HD is finally ready for smoking! If you can find some that's been so aged, and you are good with plenty of Perique, I heartily recommend you smoke it. The alcohol is gone, settled into a rich, sweet plum that imbues and enhances the generally "fruity' smoke. There is not much in the way of the usual pepper, but there are very intense, Middle Eastern dessert spices that most will want to smoke slowly and snork gently. The VAs are still mostly subsumed, and the lot is well-melded. The white Burley puts a slight, bracing, bitter edge on it that I quite like. In brief, it's still "too much Perique", but now it "works", and all's well that ends well. I'm glad I hung onto my stash.