G. L. Pease Barbary Coast

Only smoked it a couple times but remembered it was good. I like aromatics and the Brandy is why I bought it. Smells awesome with fruity brandy sweetness from the jar. Cube cut, so I had to pinch and tear the larger pieces to pack. Burns well, had to relight a couple times. Mild but pleasant taste. More of the fruity walnut than the Brandy. A great smoke. For me its a 4 star.

In the tin, smells of lambic and wine, with a nutty background. The flavor is a wonderful, comforting fruity (think plums, cherry, mulberry) and nutty – a slight acidity really allows the mouthfeel to shine, as pleasantly sweet and not in-your-face, truly, a great for all-day & anytime smoking. I do not, however, recommend it for DGT – it becomes a bit stale, hard-burning. Moisture content in the tin is perfect to start off a smoke right away, and burns beautifully straight through if sipped from the beginning. A wonderful after dinner smoke, like a small dram of port as a digestif. I think it will age gracefully.

My tin was dated 18 September 2013, so it was almost 2 1/2 YO when I opened it. The brandy is faint, but still detectable. As it is a Burley dominant blend, don't expect any complexity or significant development of flavours; for you will be sorely disappointed. Being a Cube cut, I always "gravity fill" my pipe until it's full. So don't expect this tobacco to burn fast, it will not! It burns slowly, but very nicely. Burley is very unidimensional but, for those who love it, it delivers a nice nutty taste. And this is top of the notch Burley; it's not harsh and there is no bitterness, even at the end of the pipeful. There is not a lot of sweetness either; however, the red virginias do manifest themselves, every once in a while. As for the Périque, it really plays a subtle, supporting role all along. Can I taste the brandy? Yes, it's definitively there but it does not impose itself. It also brings out the best in that very high quality Burley leaf and is the best topping that could have been added to enhance it. Overall, BC is a very nice Burley blend with just the right amount of nicotine (medium to strong; sometimes, almost on the strong spectrum). I enjoy smoking it very much. It's a lot more refined and elegant than the C & D's Burley Flakes which I have not enjoyed at all, as they smoke harsh and have way too much nicotine. I suspect I might just buy this one on a regular basis.

I am still relatively new to smoking burley based blends. I bought this based on reviews i read at this site. I want to say that the first time i smoked this blend i thought i had wasted my money. The second smoke i was pleased with it. It has a whiskey topping which is okay however in my case i do not like much additives or toppings . This topping doesn't go as far as to cause a cloying affect with over sweetening in the blend. I have read that tobacco is sort of well a vegetable. Look it grows in the ground and has it's own quality as far as taste and texture. This tobacco and a few others i have tried are good at relaying that pure tobacco taste and savor. I really did not think much of this blend until i was finished smoking it the raw flavor of the leaf came to me in a sour delivery. It was very nice. Which led me to think it was an all day smoke , it drew me back for more and that is where i go wrong because sooner or later no matter what you are smoking the nicotine will get to you. I didn't vomit like i did with Old Joe Krantz but i was headed that way. I like this tobacco i would give it right around 3 out of 4 stars . maybe ageing it will get me more of an all day smoke when the nic content dies out a bit.

I've been looking forward to smoking this one for some time. Upon opening the tin, the tobacco was a bit of a PG mess; not super-wet, but wet enough to be noticed. The tin note was interesting, definitely cased, a note of fruit, and I thought I detected some alcohol based additive, too. I loved the fine cube cut of this baccy, and, I thought I was going to be in for a nutty burley treat, but on lighting, all I got for the first third of the bowl was a blast of casing.

The nutty burley taste I expected was completely lost until around the first third of the bowl and, then, whammy, my expectations were suddenly met. The casing went deep into the background, and a wonderful nutty burley at last came to the forefront (there's a quality burley buried underneath all that casing! What the perique does for this blend, I couldn't say). The rest of the bowl was a delight to smoke and wonderful on the snork. The nicotine level was higher than I usually like. Burley purists may have an issue with this blend, be warned.

Overall, I enjoyed this baccy, but was taken aback by the dire amounts of both PG and casing. I wish Pease would decrease the amount of casing and allow the burley to shine through more.

So, in the end, this gave me a strong 2 star smoke (2.65 stars).

Somewhat recommended.

Keep on Pipin'

Full flavor and nicotine hit with first light at Barbary Coast. Pepper, tang and spice accompanied by a hint of creamy sweetness from the alcoholic topping. Out of the fresh tin (out of which it smells awesome) it had a tendency to turn into some evil, sharp, scratchy and overwhelming Burly/Perique beast, even with the slowest sipping applied. I like Irish Flake and SG Black XX, but this one puts cold sweat on my forehead and makes me dizzy.

It was only after almost two years of aging that it smoothed out and became bearable/palatable to me, but still failed to excel or give me something I’m craving for. I might never find out if it was my particular tin, because I wont buy another.

I much prefer Pennington Gap as the smaller cousin if you will without the fuss (to me), leaving the tins of Barbary Coast to those who can really enjoy it.

For the short time I've been smoking (11months), I've tried the codger burley blends Prince Albert and Charter Hall. I needed a point of reference, Right! To make the mild Prince Albert flavorful I added a touch of Absinthe to it. Did it make it better, Barely. So when I heard about Barbary Coast, ( knowing Pease was doing it right) with its kiss of Brandy, I had to give burley another go. Glad I did.

I assumed Gl Pease's Haddos Delight was topped with rum, it being inspired by Crowley's Rum soaked 100% Perique. Barbary Coast proves this assumption wrong, Haddos has brandy. In fact if Haddos Delight is to strong for you, try Barbary Coast. To me BC should be considered The Great Wild Haddos little brother.

The topping of brandy floated in and out throughout the bowl, with A high quality of Cubed Burley, spiced with nice peppery perique. The red Virginia sweetened up this dark earthy chocolate nutty burley blend. At times I got a black pepper flavor that was very pleasing. This blend is a sipper.

You need at least an hour of drying time with this blend, in my honest opinion. Although this blend isn't goopy or too wet in the tin.

Barbary Coast, as well as its big brother Haddos Delight, have a permanent place in my rotation.

Well there's a first time for everything and this is the first G. L. Pease blend that I really didn't get along with.

There are very few burley mixtures that I can smoke but I feel that this had the potential to be one of them. It's a shame because the flavors in this mixture do work, and like many of Mr. Pease's quality blends there's excellent balance here, not only between the components comprising this mixture but also in the primary flavor & the subtleties that seem to want to develop down the bowl.

Barbary Coast has a delightful semi-sweet musty mulled-wine flavor that's supported by a delicate perique spice note. The perique is used perfectly and as for the brandy topping, I think it's superbly done. While I wouldn't classify Barbary Coast as an aromatic, in my mind this is what a good aromatic tobacco should taste like.

So what's my problem then? Barbary Coast is mélange of stubborn cubed burley and shredded kindling-like VA and perique ribbons. The Cubed burley presented two problems for me. For one, it didn't want to stay lit and two, once I got it lit the more subtle flavors were rapidly whisked away, and usually within minutes my pipe was on the verge of overheating. Even using the most delicate gravity fill approach that I could possibly conjure up with minimal tamping and delicate puffs, this blend wanted to either burn like molten magma or not at all. The results were almost always the same - Hot pipe, subtleties gone and a crispy tongue at bowl's end.

I have one more tin of Barbary Coast in my cabinet. It's got a good amount of age on it, and it's much older than what I recently smoked. At some point I'll tempt fate, pop it open and see if the results are the same. Yes the flavor potential with this blend is that good.

I found this to be a very subtle blend. The burley came through very well but the others flavors (Virginia, Perique, brandy) are to be found only by those who seek them out. I really enjoyed the complexity of it all. Very challenging to smoke properly. If you're a new pipe smoker I would come back to it in a few years. Due to the complexity I got the best flavor out of long, full draws as to employ the full palate.

This blend didn't develop much for me, in fact, it kind of gets harsh if you smoke a really deep bowl (deeper than 1 1/2") so I recommend a shallow but wide bowl. Pretty heavy nicotine is another reason not to smoke a huge bowl.