G. L. Pease Caravan

Well, I finished the tin of Cairo and, as promised, moved on to this one. The good stuff just got better! Wow, this is nice! On opening the tin, the smokiness of the Latakia is unmistakable, but you can still notice the sweetness of the virginias. The moisture content was just right for me, a touch to the dry side, because I tend to pack too tightly anyway. Once the tobacco is lit and going I notice the savoriness of the orientals. They become more pronounced as the pipe goes along. I don't detect the burley at all, but I'm not familiar enough with burley to know what it does anyway. I only know that in this blend, it doesn't turn me off in any way. Unless I run into some better Balkan style blends, this one will be a regular of mine.

I am a big fan of Pease's other Balkan, Charing Cross, so I came to Caravan with high hopes, I found it dark and smoky, with a musk/leather undertone. I had expected a stronger version of Charing Cross with a deeper taste. What I got was a rather one dimensional dark Balkan. I prefer the more robust and flavorful C.C., I will finish the tin, in time, but I won't be buying another.

When I want a Balkan, I want multiple bold flavors coming to the front of the blend from the first puff. Caravan is much more subtle, a fine tobacco, but it does not fit my current tastes.

A good Balkan-style blend, I had great expectations on this one but it didn't impress me much. Maybe I didn't step on a lucky tin, but the main impression is that's a very difficult tobacco to keep lit: I've tried many different pipes and moisture conditions, it has all been useless and that spoils the smoking pleasure. In the stints it kept lit, I noticed the usual great quality of the leaf, in particular the Oriental component is prominent, and I like this side. I have another tin seasoning into the cellar, I just hope it will be better.

This was my first experience with Latakia believe it or not. The pipester who took me under his wing gave me a can from early 05......So my experiance was the first blend I truely liked. Spicey and exotic. The harmony of Va and Orientals was the main stage for me. The latakia was there for effect, But didn't run the show. I like that. I'm not a latakia drip person.....Unless the latakia level in 965, or nightcap throws me in that class. I like harmony- and thats what this is.

Multi-dimensional and yet, not overly-dimensional is how I can best describe GLP's Caravan. It's a great, all around blend. Sweet Virginia's skillfully ballanced out with Latakia and Orientals. Smooth, doesn't bite to easily, and smokes easily.

I do not know if I would call this a true Balkan,but it is very good.I love all things coming out of Cornell&Diehl(except Bow Legged Bear- read my review!)and this is no exception. This is not a blend for those who love heavy Balkans.I appreciate understated and complex mixtures-and this is one of the finest.So much has already been written so please allow me to give an analogy to another blend.If you were to take King Charles Mixture(Germain) and realy spice it up a bit,you would have this. I really like it.Funny thing the flavor changed dramatically(for the better)after being open for a week.Slightly sour and mildly rich-it is worth a shot. 3 of 4 stars.

I agree with most reports here that Latakia is the strong suit of this blend. However I must confess I am not totally sure I can find much depth beyond that beloved weed.
The Orientals here provide a muskiness - not the spice and zest that I seem to want as a counterbalance to the rest of the blend. They seem to get lost.
If I want heavy Latakia I'll go for Raven's Wing. IMO a much more flavorful blend than Caravan. If I wanted a balkan I'd head for one of the Esoterica English blends or something with a more unique flavor like Samarra.

This is a good tobacco, but I find it somewhat one dimensional. As with most Pease blends, I have found qualities come forth with extended exposure. If I discover any new ranges in this offering I'll update the review.

Update -04/08/04 I left this stuff alone for a few months and returned to it. The remainder had been sealed up and humidified as properly as I could manage. What I found surprised the $%#@ out of me. Indeed now I can taste the deeper complexity of sweet-sour-smokey tones under the latakia blast. I have been enjoying it very much. To the point that it may force me to kick out little brother Samarra as my favorite oriental. Of course I've left *that* alone for a few months too...

Normally I smoke more than half a tin before reviewing, but I smoke this stuff slowly enogh that i figured I ought to review it before it gets too dry or something.

I wish I had tried more balkan blends before this one so I could comment on it more intelligently, but what the hell. This is only the second tobacco I've tried which calls itself a "balkan mixture" and I suspect that this is more true to that genre than the first I tried (Frog Morton on the Bayou).

I love latakia. I love orientals. I love a decent sweet VA. I love a properly used air-cured leaf. This stuff is pretty much what I expected, and though I wasn't surprised with it I wasn't disappointed one bit either. In the tin it smells spicy and exotic (mostly latakia) with a somewhat unusual bit of sweetness. In the pipe (I mostly smoked this in a Savinelli bulldog/apple, sometimes with a balsa filter, and sometimes in an old calabash) it smokes about like it smells in the tin.

There's not much I can say about this that you can't guess from the description on the tin. No big surprises here and if it sounds appealing to you then it will smoke appealing as well.

This is a dependable balkan blend that, although good, just isn't as good as alot of others. I prefer Balkan blends over almost all other types of english, and this just didn't knock my socks off. Don't get me wrong- the overall tobacco experience is far from bad- but give me some penzance or balkan sasieni any day. This is obviously a high quality leaf and makes for a good all day smoke. It has no bite and the smoking characteristics are great. Good for those moments when you don't have the time to focus on your pipe.