G. L. Pease Barbary Coast

It smells amazing. Almost McClelland levels of vinegar. My tin didn't have much in the way of cube cute burley remaining. Most everything had unfurled a bit. It still packed like a cube cut, though. Moist, but burned well after a second charring light. Produced a fine ash with little dottle.

Smoking revealed dried fruit: plums, raisins, cherries. The perique drifts in and out, lending some complexity to what otherwise might be a pretty straightforward smoke. The brandy comes through as a bit of sweetness; I suspect that the people who are complaining about the overwhelming brandy smell and flavor are conflating it with the vinegar notes that my (admittedly well-aged) tin had.

It has a very light nicotine hit and is an excellent candidate for an all day smoke.

I ordered a couple pounds to age for another decade as soon as I finished my first pipe of this.

Well I keep reaching for this one, I'm loving it. To me very rich in a nice tobacco taste. Not a fast burner and I don't detect any bite whatsoever. Stays flavorful right to the very end. When I smoke this I feel like this is what pipe smoking is all about. Excellent. To me Peretti is the king when it comes to Burleys but this one is right there with them.

This cube cut Burnley is a delight. This flavors are marvelous and the blend is flavorful. The brandy flavoring is perfect, with a number of other flavors added. The red Virginia's support the sweet flavors perfectly. A sublime blend that I highly recommend.

Oh…now this is one of those rare blends that I just can’t get enough of and have a yearning for. This review is for a 8yr old tin and the time gods have done a number on this tobacco. The brandy has become one with the tobaccos and have melded everything into sublime smoking experience for me. Smooth, tasty, tingly, tangy, sweet and creamy. I just love it. I quickly bought more but won’t smoke it for years. I now have 6 tins aging….the wait is killing me!!!!!!

I want to start off saying, i have recently tried many "Burley Based Blends" and thought i had them all figured out and that there was no way i can be

surprised by one. Well, i was wrong, Terribly Wrong.

Tin Note: I don't know if you will all know what these are, but there are these chocolates in the shape of beans that are filled with brandy, Appropriately called "Brandy Beans". Well if you do then you know what this blend smells like.

Initial Light: Took me 3 false lights to get this pipe smoking evenly and consistently. I was expecting to get a earthy grounded flavor from the burley, but instead was grounded by a peppery kick from the perique. This was a shocker but i really liked it being it was a nice peppery taste and not over powering.

Mid-Smoke: The smoke was thick and packed with perique throughout the beginning of the smoke all through the mid bowl. Although it was not a bad smoked the perique so far was all i was detecting and the flavor had not changed much at this point. The burn was maintaining it's slow moving consistency and i was getting really cool, dry smoke from the pipe. Near the end of the Mid-bowl the peppery sensation mellowed down enough to enjoy the change of pace but was still around enough to keep me interested.

Bottom of the Bowl: Hello sweetness! the Virginia decided to join the party after all. Bottom bowl was a completely different smoke the pepper has moved to the background making room for the sweet mellow flavor of the virginia. It was almost like actually drinking a citrus like brandy, where the sweetness coats your mouth while you sinuses absorb a spicy sensation. The most complex part of this smoke, it was great.

Room Note: Sweet smelling aroma was tolerable according to the wife.

Dottle: Fantastic burn leaving behind some of the thickest compact ash i have seen to date. Makes me think of a Dairy Queen Blizzard in that i could literally turn the pipe upside down and nothing will fall out. In fact i think this compact ash played a great roll in keeping the pipe lit while not burning too much to smoke uneven. If there was a rating for dottle this would score high. Here's an example as too how thick the ash was, i would not have realized i had reached the bottom had i not taken the pointy end of my pipe tool and pressed it down into the ash.

Smoking Duration: 1HR

Overall: If i were to describe this blend in three word it would be "Full Coarse Smoke" as in your treated to the Brandy and peppery start while finishing with a sweet Virginia cake dessert. Definitely stands out amongst other burley blends i have tried. I won't smoke it daily but i will always have this in my cellar.

Recommendations:

- Give it time to dry its really moist in the tin and i think even more then 3hrs dry time would only do the smoke good.

- If i have realized something from this blend it is that i do not cube cut my flakes and plugs small enough, wow what a difference this cut made.

- Try and leave the ash compact in the pipe while smoking rather then removing it, its too thick to get into your stem so don't worry about that, but leaving it in, i believe, will help your smoke.

Because Burley is naturally low in sugar it can absorb added sugars, casings, and flavors. You can tell when Burley has been heavily cased by it being hard and sticky to the fingers. The down side to all the artifical goop is tongue bite and burn.

Barbary Coast on the other hand is soft to the touch. It did not stick to my fingers and rewarded me with nutty flavors and no tongue bite. Barbary Coast is slow burning, requiring some matches, but such is the nature of a cube cut Burley. In this case it is well worth the effort, for this is the finest cube cut I have ever smoked.

Upon cracking the tin there is a top note of brandy. The alcohol is evident to the nose; I like this since it is also a mark of quality. The Virginia tobaccos and Perique provide for a subtle sweetness and plum flavoring. However it is subtle, never overwhelming the Burley. I smoked this mixture in a Canadian pot, a favorite for cube cut Burley in the Fall. Couple this with the World Series, a beer, and life is good!

I don't personally know any pipe connoisseur who could knock this blend. Overall, Every GLPease blend ranks a 3 or 4 in my book. Barbary cost ranks a 4 because of its general taste, complexity, balance, perfect moisture content, and finish.

Being that it has a large amount of cube cut burley, it took me about 3 - 4 bowls to find the best way to pack. Gravity packing with a gentle tamp is the best way to start. Puff on it for about a minute, then gently tamp again and relight. Using this method, it will smoke 2/3 to 3/4 of the bowl before the final relight. From the first to the final puff, the experience is a nutty, vegetal, grassy like experience with an exotic spice to round off. All of these flavors mix well, rotating their dominance in succession throughout the experience. The last quarter or so of the bowl after relighting allows the walnut-fig like taste of the perique to dominate with a sharp spice, but without bitterness. There is usually a flake or two left of uncharred burley when it is all said and done, but hardly wasteful, as the experience is what I consider ideal for any pipe smoker.

Two recommendations: 1) as the tin gets down to the last 20%-30%, drop a little humistat disc into it to allow just enough moisture to keep from smoking too hot. 2) Smoke in a fine briar when you have time to sit & enjoy. It is too good to waste on an on-the-go venture.

Boy, am i glad i kept this tin, and smoked it all the way throgh. Here's the story on my affair with BC.

Popped the tin a month ago. Sticky chunks. Smelled good, but... essentially sticky chunks. I went to rubbing a few. Played with packing for a few days, knowing beforehand the challenge most described with packing this. Like many reviews here, my reaction was...

"... is that it?"

It was ok at best. Nothing deserving praise or worship, like we all hear. Then one day, the extremely loose plastic cap(which most pease tins suffer from) which i kept covering the tin fell off, when the tin was(unknown to me) knocked from my desk. I found it 4 days later, 1/8th contents on the floor. I still had well over half the tin safe, so i cleaned up the chunks, and decided to smoke some then and there. The chunks were now bone dry. So dry, certainly considered unsmokable quality for most tobacco. I gave a whirl.

....Wow. It was -amazing-. I just dropped the chunks and dust into my pipe, and for reasons i can't explain, this stuff just plain works best that way. I cannot detect the brandy at all, just sweet virginia and burley intermingling, with a very light hint of perique, almost undetectable. I was simple astounded that a blend without latakia could satisfy me so much. So do yourself a favor. Get this stuff BONE, and i mean bone dry, and try it. I scincerely believe if any of the reviewers here that give 3 stars or less, tried this really dry, we'd have solid reviews of 4 stars. Your results may vary ofcourse, but i just don't see how. I'm now a Barbary Coast junkie.

Happy smoking to one and all.

I find it difficult to develop an appreciation for Burley blends in general. With a couple of exceptions, I just don't understand what all of the fuss is about. Having said that, I think that Barbary Coast is one of the more interesting Burley blends I have tried.

I enjoy the smell of the leaf in the can, and I really love the cube cut of the tobacco. This blend provides a smooth and mild smoke, maybe a bit too mild for my taste. The Brandy adds an interesting top note to the Burley. I find the room note to be mild, but my wife claims that it smells like a cigar (?). Lighting is easy and the burn rate is good. Did I mention that I really do love the cube cut?

I agree with other reviewer's comments re: the nuttiness, but I find that the Virginia flavor is very much in the background. I like the overall taste of this tobacco, but I just wish that there was more of it.

Post Script 5/4/2004: I recently opened a can of Barbary Coast that had been aging for well over a year. What a difference - absolutely fantastic! The nutty, creamy Burley is well balanced by the sweet, tangy Virginia flavors with just the right amount of Perique spiciness. This is what I was expecting when I reviewed a fresh can months ago. Also, this blend seems to work best for me in a larger (group 4-5) size pipe.