G. L. Pease Barbary Coast

Grossly unAmerican.

It does NOT provide immediate gratification. It DOES require patience. It is NOT easy-burning.

Whatever. Even though I think this is one of the weaker Pease blends, it is still gratifying in an old-fashioned, wait-till-you're-married kind of way, What ticks me off is that Pease keeps making these fabulous tobacco blends that will absolutely outlive me. I want to smoke at least one fully evolved Pease blend before I die.

Hey, Greg, howsabout a smoke now Burley? Well?

Oh yeah, lots of cube cut Burley, subtle aromas from the caramelized spectrum. It's a lovely smoke during those brief intervals between lights. Wear thick socks and bring a few extra lighters.

This is my first review of a GL Pease blend, and this is my favorite type of blend, so here goes:

The good: It smells and tastes very nice, the flavors are well balanced indeed.

The bad: It is tough to get lit, and it is considerably more costly than other blends that are easier to manage.

While I won't buy it again, I can't really say it is bad, and if you can master the technique of getting it, and keeping it lit,you may find a boon companion.

It's certainly worth a try.

I should start out by saying I'm not a big burly fan. Normally the smell of just plain burley doesn't appeal to me, but this stuff got a pretty high rating so I figured it deserved a try.

On first opening the tin I was greeted with the overwhelming smell of brandy. To me it didn't even smell like tobacco. Obviously I was going to have to dry this out a bit. (I tried a bowl before drying however and found it way too much like smoking brandy. Not particularly interesting.)

In the can this stuff looks a bit like hamster food or something due to it's cube cut. I find this consistancy appealing for some reason... perhaps because it's nice and uniform. This is the first cube-cut I've seen.

After allowing it to dry out for at least a day or so its true character started to emerge. "Nutty" and perhaps "walnutty" or pecan-like are the main flavors I picked up. Theres a little brandy in there, which is probably where the whole "dried fruit" claim comes from. This doesn't appeal to me, since if I want brandy I'll go buy some and if I want dried fruit with my nuts I'll go get some trail mix. Though the aromatic component here is mild enough that its not completely in bad taste, to me its more of a nuisance than a plus. Luckily it mellows out considerably with a little drying.

The use of perique in this seems to be at about the level I can appreciate. Much more than this and it starts to bug me, but the way its used here I figure that its probably contributing the walnut/peacon-ness of the flavor.

Aside from the brandy, I feel like this is a pretty high quality mix of tobacco, but I'm not an "all day" smoker and I have a hard time appreciating anything this mild. Also the chief flavor component (nuttiness) isn't one that appeals to me that much. I tend to like latakia and virginia blends alot more.

Maybe one day I'll try this again if my tastes change, but until then I won't be buying any more. I would recommend giving it a try if the description sounds appealing to you because it seems to be pretty accurate and the quality is obviously good.

For some reason, I just wasn't as impressed with this blend as I had hoped to be. As summer approaches and temperatures rise here in Houston, I've been smoking fewer bowls of latakia and more bowls of burley, mostly Butera Kingfisher and Mac Baren's Navy Flake. Compared to these outstanding (and unabashed) burley blends, Barbary coast comes off as a bit of an odd duck.



For starters, when you first open the tin, the aroma that greets you is sort of a combination of brandy and vinegar, resulting in a (horrific) vision of brandy-splashed McClellands. The tobacco is in that familiar burley cube-cut, and inspection reveals that there is indeed a fair bit of burley present.



Once lit, the flavors of this blend to indeed include "walnut, chocolate, and dried fruits" as the tin copy claims. Along with a fair bit of virginia flavor. And a lot of brandy. Mr. Pease could definitely have gone a little lighter on the brandy. Unfortunately, the burley only peeks out at odd intervals, almost completely overpowered by the virginia and brandy. While this gives it more intensity and flavor than a more simple burley blend, in my mind it takes Barbary Coast out of the realm of "Burley Blends" and into the "Virgina" or "aromatic" categories, albeit a mild virginia or a mild aromatic. Actually, IMO Barbary Coast is a stronger virginia than Dan Tobacco's Hamborger Veermaster, which is a straight virginia blend!

At first, the Burley is nutty, the Virginias are providing just the right sweetness, and the fruity Perique is carrying the bottom end very nicely. But at mid-bowl the brut Burley, devoid of sweetness, begins to dominate -- throwing the blend out of balance. (Maybe the brandy topping just wears off, I dunno.)

Here, the Burley starts to produce a woody taste, bordering on bitter; and one can sense the Va's and Perique losing ground. It tends to get ashy tasting toward the end. Burley-philes won't mind how the smoke evolves, but VaPer lovers might be disappointed. It's more Burley-forward than typical Va-Bur-Per blends that use Burley merely to provide body.

If you like assertive, woody-tasting Burleys with an astringent finish, this is for you.

Its so subjective, this pipe smoking thing. I love Pease's blends...but this is for me among the least successful of greg's blends. It compares to Sixpence and functions as the milder kid brother of haddo's delight. Both of those are more interesting I think. The alcohol, something Pease does better than anyone, is overpowering at times....early in the bowl. There is nothing wrong with this blend...Pease is always good. Just not a favorite of mine. It lacks complexity and depth, and can burn a tad hot if you let it.

This smelled wonderful in the tin, was quite wet though. Tried to smoke some moist and the smoke was wispy, but had a rich flavor. Tried it dried, to get some good smoke volume, and the flavor profile had changed dramatically, and not in a good way. A no win scenario baccy.

I get the feeling that my "every day" smoke is going to come from GL Pease. I've read his input on forums, and articles and interviews and I'm convinced that he "gets" us pipe enthusiast. I wanted to like this tobacco. This was not that tobacco. The initial tin note was really nice. Smelled like fruit or candy or maybe cordial cherries. Really good. It was at a nice state of dryness, too. I got this at the same time that I got a tin of Cairo which ended up being a little too dry for my tastes. It tastes very spicy. Perique is very present and the Virginias lay a nice bed of sweetness that push it forward. I brushed my teeth before bed but I still tasted it in the morning. The next day I smoked another bowl after work when I was walking my dog. The tin note had changed a bit. Maybe it was the influence of knowing what the taste would be like, but it smelled more like cherry cough syrup. It had a medicinal quality that I didn't catch the first time around. The taste didn't move much but by now I had identified the flavor I had been thinking of. Jalapenos! Fresh Jalapenos. Not necessarily in heat but in spiciness. That may sound weird but I don't think it's a bad thing. I would suspect many of us are fans of bold food flavors just like we enjoy bold tobacco or bold liquor. I decided not to smoke the rest of the tin right now. I poured the rest into a Ball jar, labelled it and stuck it in my cellar. I suspect the edges will round out a bit over time. Oh well. Off I go to smoke more tobaccos. By the way, the room note is pretty bad. It reminded me of burning brush or grass. When my gf got home a couple of hours later she said "if you're going to smoke pot, at least get get the good stuff".

Very fruity tin nose. Full flavored. I prefer Jacknife.