G. L. Pease Caravan

I really like the smell of Caravan in the tin and I used to somewhat enjoy Caravan when a first became a pipe smoker a couple of years ago. But as I experienced different tobaccos, my interest in Caravan waned. I decided to revisit it this week and my interest is no longer there. At first light I get a sweet smokiness, but the smoke turns “dirty.” The level of spice was too much for my taste too. Unfortunately, Caravan is no longer a favorite of mine.

G. L. Pease - Caravan.

I hate it when the ring pull snaps off. And the insult to injury was I couldn't find the tin opener!

It's a well rubbed ribbon, with no twigs or big leaves. The moisture's perfect.

I find the Virginia gives the least flavour of the four. The Latakia, Oriental, and Burley do the most work; the Latakia and Orientals more so, until they all become even for the last quarter. The Lat' and Orientals give a whack of fragrant wood and smoke, with a tiny amount of creaminess. It tastes this way right up to the last quarter, when the Burley develops volume: becoming a bit 'rougher' tasting. The burn from Caravan's good, but the smoke tends to bite me a bit.

The nicotine: above medium. The room-note: pleasant to tolerable.

Caravan. Right then, it's a well made blend, but I find it a bit of a bore: somewhat recommended.

Two stars.

I am afraid I am having to disagree with the more favorable reviews of this blend by Mr Pease. To my palate, Caravan remains harsh to the point of being unsmokeable. I have tried many a different bowl and day but the negative traits of this mixture remain essentially the same. The flavour is harsh - perhaps the right metaphor is shrill - and the overall experience rather unpleasant. I hope to find better offerings among Mr Pease's impressive line up. This Caravan, I let pass.

I find this blend lacking to some other GLP balkans. I got this one looking for a mornig tobacco in the best English tradition; sweet VA's, smooth Orientals and a light tinge of Latakia.

Somehow I was expecting some big oriental content and when I opened the tin, sure the delicate aroma of fine orientals was there; sour-sweet, slightly leathery and with a woodsy overtone. The tin aroma is completely deceptive tho.

On the plus side, I must say that packs easily, lights well and keeps lit even when smoked at a quite slow pace. It's also one of the gentlest blends on the tongue that I've smoked and fills the palate with flavor.

My gripe with it ist that it's basically monodimensional. There'snone of the complexity you generally associate with a good balkan. Boring is the word that defines it for me. Nothing like Charing Cross or Odyssey. You keep expecting something else as the bowl goes down and it's just not there.

These comments are from a VA flake smoker. My tin was dated 04/29/02. This is a nicely prepared mixture of short, wide ribbon cut tobaccos ranging from golden thru brown to dark black. Moisture content is ideal right from the tin and results in easy packing, lighting and an even burn rate. The taste is uniform thru the bowl and dominated by the Turkish and Latakia. These also contribute to the room aroma that is unacceptable to most of my non-smoking friends and family. My initial trials for a quick smoke in small bowled pipes resulted in condensation, a hot smoke and bitter taste ~ 1/2 way into the smoke. Large bowls and a slower pace cured this totally. However, I missed the natural sweetness of my favorite VAs and again confirmed that English blends are just not my preferred all-day smoke. If you enjoy them, give this blend a try.

Upon opening my first tin of Caravan, I was FLOORED by the aroma! Surely, this would be the very tobacco I was looking for; the tobacco of my dreams! I was in heaven!

It smelled like a burnt building, the day after the fire. Surely, it was the deep, musty, rich latakia! I couldn't wait to smoke it!

Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. The tin note was in no way indicative of what this tobacco would taste like.

Methinks the orientals overpower this blend. I like orientals; I like ketchup....but when there's more ketchup than beef on your hamburger bun, it's not so good.

You get a decent volume of smoke from Caravan, but it has little body. It is "light"- more like the consistency of steam, rather than smoke.[Much the same way as aros, which I dislike]

As for taste: It is WAY too peppery and "minty"[for lack of a better word]- reminiscent of a menthol cigarette- without the menthol flavoring...but leaving the same sharp, mouth-washy taste in your mouth. My tongue says "No sign of the virginias, anywhere!".

You can tell that it is made from the very highest quality tobaccos- but the blend just doesn't work. This is the only tobacco I've purchased thus far, which I just can not finish the tin. It's not just "not good"- it's bad. Yet, I keep the half-full tin around, just to sniff it occasionally!

I've come to surmise that when blending tobacco, you must either choose to blend for flavor, or aroma. You can't have both. I'd say Mr. Pease is going for aroma (which, is probably what sells the baccie, 99% of the time)- but I smoke for TASTE!

I had very high hopes for Caravan and all of the GLP blends I have tried....but for some reason, the GLP blends just don't seem to click for me- but of course, as with food or wine, it's largely a matter of personal taste. Me? I find the GLP blends to be ostentatious. Not enough tobacco taste/body...too much on the mixing of too many flavors. I think tobacco blending is similar to cooking, in that to achieve the best results, you need to use the recipe that accomplishes what you want to achieve with fewest ingredients- because once you add too many vying flavors, they compete with each other rather than enhancing each other.

UPDATE: Well, my tin of Caravan is over 6 months old now- Thought I'd give it another try, as many reviewers have stated that many of these GLP tobaccies improve dramatically with age- and sure enough, I could actually enjoy this baccie now! It has actually started to taste like it smells- but, it still has a disagreeable bowl note which ruins the enjoyment of what you exhale; Not much in the way of nicotine- so still, nothing to write home about- there are better tobaccos out there- and for the price you pay for this stuff, it should arrive ready to smoke, as opposed to needing to be aged. But at least i don't have to throw it out now.

I got it on the trip to Tel Aviv as a commemorative. I walked into a shop where they had several G.L. PEASE CORNELL and the lady that worked there gave them to me even cheaper, because they had them for more than 2 years and had unsold. An experienced seller if I may add… Includes red and yellow Virginia, Oriental, but the Cyprus Latakia is what gives it a harshness in taste. Medium nicotine power. The scent that it leaves in the room…. tragic. In general I did not like this mixture. It just raised the number of tobaccos that I have smoked–tried.

I got this from C & D along with the two Pease samplers they have going. I'm a huge Balkan fan, and heard this was one of the best.

This stuff bit my tongue like mad. What, the great Pease? So I tried again, small pipes, large pipes, normal pack, Frank Method pack, filters... I couldn't get through half a bowl. Correction, half a bowl meant no pipes tomorrow while my tongue recovers. (And I'm usually 2-3 bowls a day)

The flavor, while I could still taste it, was luscious. The wife even thought it wasn't disgusting. I really wanted to get through a bowl of this. But, alas, Caravan and I were not meant to be. *SNIFF*

I had great expectations before smoking this, yet I couldn't enjoy the blend as much as I hoped. I had a terrible time keeping this lit in any size bowl. The taste was somewhat bland for me, and this was in spite of the great smell in the tin. Even after putting this away and coming back to try it months later, I wasn't satisfied. I wouldn't purchase this again.