Stone Pine Tobacco Company Seven Veils

I approached this one with a bit of trepidation, having recently tried "Diogenes", and having barely escaped with my Bear Carcass intact. It claims to be made from a single varietal of Oriental "long absent from the American Market", and judging from the uniformity of green brown color, it is indeed one type of tobacco. Ok, it looks a bit like hemp, a little like a pouchong tea, unfurled after steeping (except there would be much greater uniformity of leaf size in any respectable tea). Leaf size ranges from a huge oolong leaf to bits to fannings (unusual, given that it is quite moist). Tin note: Good Tobacco fragrance with some high winey notes, mixed with a bit of wood on the lower registers. Moisture is dead on, for my tastes, let's Rock! Flame hits weed releasing an interesting soft smoke. Hints of lime, salt, and Creosote (warning, don't inhale!) Room note is that of a good oriental, very little bite. As the smoke develops hints of a pleasant mustiness abounds, with an occasional surprise citrus note sneaking in. Not terribly complex by any means, but could be a good occasional smoke for when concentrating on the weed in your pipes isn't a priority (for me, about 95% of the time ). Stays bite free all the way down, with the end bowl becoming just a tad too earthy for me. Conclusion: Decent tobacco, and the producers should be credited with bringing something way different into the market place. I wouldn't smoke a ton of the stuff, but for a change, not bad. Not bad at all. Rating: Worth a try, if for the novelty alone. 6 out of 10 Bearclaws.

-- Bear Graves

Seven Veils is the most unusual tobaccos I have ever tried or seen for that matter. The tobacco comes in a mason jar, not in a can. The look of the tobacco is of slightly greenish flakes that look like oregano or parsley. The smell reminds me of tea. This is not a blend, but just one tobacco.

Like one of the other reviews above, I must applaud Stone Pine for bringing something quite different to the market. I suspect there are not many pipe smokers who would fall in love with this immediately, but rather that one would have to acquire a taste for this. For me, I just found it to be very monochromatic as one might expect from a single leaf tobacco.

Short of having a revelation as I try another couple of bowls later, this tobacco has little chance of finding a place in my cabinet. One recommendation I do have is that Seven Veils is good to use as a blending tobacco. I put a pinch into several bowls of some of my English blends and it does add a distinctive flavor.

This is my first venture into StonePine tobacco. I must say this is something very different than anything else I have ever tried. It is said to come from a single oriental varietal and fire cured. A varietal that has not been available in the US market of recent. I am puffing on it as I write this. It has a very decent flavor with alot of earthiness to it and the aroma has a pleasant mustiness to it that reminds me of when I visited the middle east. Almost a cross between camel dung and turkish tobacco. The tobacco is of uniform color and small pieces, that I initially questioned whether this was really tobacco or some other herb. The aroma is sweet and pleasant with some wine notes. I am enjoying this quite a bit but don't think I can smoke this all the time, but I am not sure as this is just my first bowl. I probably will come back to edit this in the future after several more bowls of this. Three and half stars.