G. L. Pease Odyssey

I have been smoking this blend since it came out, so thats about 9-10 tins. It is wonderful. It does not have the acrid flavor that turned me off of Caravan, but instead rewards one with a beautiful "Wagnerian" symphony of flavor. Smoky Latakia, its there, sweet and fragrant oriental, its there, virginia, its there. All in one can! My only warning is that the flavor is so rich that I can only smoke one or two bowls per day, otherwise I can not taste anything else. Not that it is hot, no not at all, but rather it is full in complexity of flavor. Update: 07-22-04 Since the introduction of the "classic series" by Greg, this blend has been overshadowed by "Charing Cross" and "Abingdon" IMO and therefore, after my cellar stash is gone, I doubt I will purchase any more. I recently opened a tin that was about 2 1/2 years old and it was delicious, but the later blends still outshine this one. The draw backs of improving your craft...hmm

Rating 4 out of 5 Points.

Interesting comments about this blend in this section. First, if you don't like latakia blends or balkans, you aren't going to like Odyssey. No chance. I get a kick out of the reviewers who essentially know they aren't going to like a style of tobacco, and then say it might be good if YOU like that style, but it's nothing they would like...one star. I would never review an aromatic because it's not my cup of tea, and would not really feel qualified to give a proper evaluation of an aromatic blend. Each to their own, but it's just something that I had to get off my chest.

There is nothing surprising or controversial about Odyssey. It is exactly how Greg describes it on the label. A big, full Balkan blend, that reminds me of the full English tobacco blends of the past.

This is a dark tobacco in the tin, but a wonderful, round tasting tobacco in the pipe. It is rare indeed to find a blend that is this big, but doesn't bite or overwhelm your senses at some point. Odyssey is indeed very refined.

Some of Greg's blends are exceedingly bland to my taste. Odyssey is full of flavor, yet subtle. The latakia is the star here, but the supporting cast props it up dutifully.

If you enjoy exhaling your smoke through your nose, Odyssey won't disappoint if you enjoy this style of tobacco. I get a magnificent display of cocoa, leather, a light cinammon quality...almost as if freshly baked goods were in the house.

I think this is a wonderful blend, and highly recommend it to you if you enjoy this genre.

I?ve been smoking pipes off and on since 1979, and I?ve tried many an English/Balkan blend in that time. I?ve had occasion to smoke Balkan Sobranie #759 from the generosity of friends. My own conclusion is the GLP Odyssey is simple the best Balkan mixture available today. Oh yes, you can spend hundreds of dollars per tin acquiring Balkan Sobranie #759, and it is a wonderful tobacco, however, it is not ?readily available? and is in my opinion no better than Odyssey anyway.

Odyssey has become the ?standard? by which I judge all other Balkans, and there are so many great ones from which to choose (many of them GLP).

Appearance: A very appealing mixture of light dark browns and nearly black tobaccos in a rough ribbon cut.

Tin aroma: WOW! This blend has everything in prefect balance and yet very ?full? tin aroma. The Orientals are sharp in the nose, the Latakia is rich, deep and smoky and the Virginias are sweet and deep. This tobacco is very satisfying just smelling the tin. I detect leather and smoke, and deep sour cherry/fig/date fruitiness from the stoved Virginias. I don?t detect any Cavendish or other ?extender tobaccos? and everything smells exactly as it should.

Odyssey is absolutely perfect moisture for me straight from the tin (or bag, as I purchase it in 8 ounce bags now) requiring only my careful un-divided attention in packing. This is not because it is difficult to pack (it isn?t) rather, that it deserves my full attention. I find that I need to use a lighter hand (even employing the ?Frank method?) than I do with other blends while packing. This lighter hand seems to bring out even more of this blend?s astonishing subtleties.

Upon lighting, I?m greeted with everything at once, bold in every detail, yet not assaulted. I don?t have to think much about identifying the individual components, they stand out willingly. The Latakia yielding its smoky leathery presence, the Orientals granting the familiar tingle in the throat and nose, and the deep Virginias carrying the other two along in high and low pallet sensations and granting them a sweetness in perfect proportion to the ends of the flavor spectrum. Odyssey lights very easily and I can often finish a bowl with a single light.

Mid Bowl: Somewhere in the middle of the middle, it happens; the complexity of flavors changes and builds. The assertiveness of each component begins to show, and nearly every blessed mouthful of smoke tastes slightly different than the last. At this point I have to pay closer attention to my technique, because it is very easy to begin chugging like a freight train and ruin everything. Generally I opt for a much slower pace and draw in as I?m exhaling the last puff nasally, then rest for sometimes fully 10 long seconds before drawing again. By doing so, I experience this tobacco in two pallet regions simultaneously, adding to its complexity. The slip stream smoke is also wonderful to inhale nasally, where the Orientals live.

Home Stretch: These flavors are all HUGE and just how Mr. Pease does all this while keeping things so refined is beyond my understanding. This blend is like a fine aged Merlot, bold, scintillating even, without ever being harsh. When compared with every other Balkan blend I?ve ever tasted, Odyssey beats them all in depth, fullness, richness and complexity without ever overstating any single aspect. The final third develops along the same lines as initially tasted upon lighting, building on every puff so far. Odyssey just continues to build until suddenly, almost without warning it goes out. I often tamp it all down fairly firmly and strike another match; there is no blast of ashy flavor as with many others, just a very strong smoky ?bonus smoke? that is not to be missed for anything in this world.

Supplemental Notes: I have yet to be able to age this tobacco beyond 18 months, I can?t resist the temptation to open and smoke it. Odyssey is my favorite Balkan blend without reservation, and my second favorite tobacco blend of all time. It is my opinion that Mr. Greg Pease is today?s greatest living blender. Rating for those interested in numbers ****

Tin Aroma: Deep and sweet, the earthy tones are what I immediately notice, but following closely on their heels is a natural sweet, syrupy aroma that can only come from stoved Virginia tobacco.

Physical Characteristics: Does Greg Pease make an ugly tobacco? Every blend of his that I have tried (that's all of them for those of you keeping score), have been visually stunning. Odyssey is no exception; being a study in contrasts. The short, light leaf, the longer jet black ribbons, the dusky earthy Latakia, and sweet, syrupy Virginias, all held together by the Oriental varietals. Odyssey fairly pours itself into the pipe, and does not fight packing in the least. It lights immediately and pleasantly, burning eveny and slowly away to a fine white ash.

Notes: Sweet and smoky all at once, there are depths to this tobacco that my meager smoking sample (1lb so far) cannot suffice to plumb it. Immediately I was taken by the earthy warmth of the Latakia, and was content to marvel at the skillful way it was the star, without overpowering. Then, a tin or two later, I noticed that without the sweet, caramel Virginias, the Latakia would simply have been too much, and the blend would have been monochromatic. Another tin brought the realisation that a simple Latakia/Virginia blend could never be like this, no matter what the skill of the blender, and I mavelled at the selection of precisely the right Orientals to fill in the cracks and round off the edges. I smoked another tin and marvelled at the way that these elements did not compete, as they do in so many blends, first one shining, then the next, but instead worked together, to provide, in my opinion, a smoke bigger than the sum of it's parts.

Verdict: Stop the presses, we have a winner! Ashton's Celebrated Sovereign has been dethroned as my all time favorite tobacco. Buy it!

Ever since Balkan Sobranie #759 mixture left I have felt something was missing. Now it has returned for me in the form of Odyssey. When I opened the tin the aroma was immediatly familiar. The color and texture were also reminiscent of my old favorite. When I packed my pipe I wondered if this could finally be the one to replace The Black and Gold Tin. I lit, charred, and relit. It was unmistakable. It was 1977, I was lighting my first Dunhill LB and smoking #759 again, or at least that was how it felt. For those who never had the pleasure, the flavor is strong Latakia, but with fine highlights from the Virginias. Full bodied, you smoke it slowly, or the heat on the tongue will be too much. The nicotene is high for an English, so not too much of it for the uninitiated. Once familiar with this blend it can be alternated with Caravan for the complete Balkan Sobranie (the white tin)experience. Now, if I can just convince Greg to put Odyssey in a black wrapper whith gold lettering this blend will always be on my shelf. Actually, even if Greg won't grant me this bit of nostalgia, Odyssey will always be on my shelf anyway. This is one of the two or three best English blends available.

In 40 years of pipe smoking this is the first time I have felt the need to do a review. I have only had a chance to smoke 1 bowl of this, but wanted to get my first impressions out. This may be the BEST blend, of any kind, I have ever smoked. The first impression upon opening was just as expected for a heavily latakia blend. Mostly dark with some medium brown cut thrown in. Not too different from some other oriental blends (FMOTT, Caravan, Bombay Extra). The odor from the tin was also heavily latakia. I loaded up a Ser Jacopo Hawkbill I have dedicated to orientals. It packed easily & I lit up. Stop the presses!! This stuff is not like any other blend I have ever tried. It starts off immediately with the expected latakia hit, but also has a subtle sweetness to go along. The latakia does not overpower the Virginias or oriental leaf blended in. I find that smoking this cool, as if it were all Virginia, gives an unbelievable number of layers to the flavor. Half way down it is still showing additional layers of flavor while "mellowing" out a bit more. The last 1/3 of the bowl is still as interesting as the first. My LSW reports a "that's nice" room note. I am not used to writing reviews of tobacco blends, but hope I have conveyed my delight with this blend. If latakia blends have any interest, at all, for you I highly recommend you give this a try. Greg has hit one out of the park with Odyssey.

No sense dragging this out, GLP’s Odyssey is a mixed bag and a mild disappointment for me. The biggest problem for me is “enhancements” to the Latakia that bother me when I smoke them, even after blanket tossing and resting this tobacco. There is little Liquid Smoke, but there are perfumes and incense aplenty that smell cheap and “soapy” and taste like “chemicals” to me. Although I quite like some dark VA, this batch only seems to muddle this blend. Spices from the semi-dusty, woody, savory Orientals are present, but they are pretty well swamped by the Latakia and the black VA. Strength is strong-ish, although the nic is not. Tastes build to full. Room note is tolerable, I suppose. Aftertaste is sweet, sour, smoky, and briny, with the sweetness rising enough that I wonder if they snuck some Cav into this blend, as well.

As ever, YMMV on this, of course. Two stars from me means I can see where others might like it but I’m done.

I bought this one last week while attending “The Club”. It has a really deep rich, earthy, smoky Latakia smell with mostly black ribbons interspersed with some light brown throughout the tin. This blend has been around for some time with the oldest review dating back to 2002 and seems to be very popular. Mr. Pease is correct about this description for when I struck the first match I was greeted with large puffy clouds of smoke. Some have stated the nicotine is strong in this one but for me I did not notice it. I could go on with the adjectives and verbs about how great it is but all I can say is it is an excellent well blended tobacco of the English/Balkan genre and is definitely worth trying. G.L. Pease has four blends that have hit the 200 plus reviews and this is one of them and that should say a lot. Highly recommended. Tin date: 122018.

This was a large sample sent to me by a friend. It was dated 2012 - so 6 years of age on it. I have not tasted it fresh, so my comments are only for the aged sample.

The tobacco is dark. There are blacks and browns in there. There are few tans - 5% maybe. It is a short chopped medium-wide ribbon with a few pieces of mostly rubbed out flake and a few bits of torn "fish food." It came on the dry end of what I would consider ideal, and I smoked it as delivered.

The flavor is good. It is primarily the smoky latakia, with a little spice from the Orientals every now and then. The stoved Virginia forms the foundation. It is slightly sweet with no hay or fruit. I get a few earthy notes every now and then. The "mouth feel" is creamy and very smooth.

It burned without incident and required an average number of relights.

This was very enjoyable. If you are looking for a med->full flavored latakia blend, this would be one to try.