G. L. Pease Odyssey

This is the ultimate English blend.Period.Not only offers the most at fresh state,but gets smoother and round over the years.I bought 5 tins of 8 oz at October 2007 (production seal August 2007) and open each of them every second year till now (2009,2011,2013 etc...).You cannot find more complex mixture nowhere.Perfect in all characteristics of a a fine blend.Similar only to the old Baalbek.Pure pleasure-no more words needed...

I returned to pipe smoking recently after 4 years of pause, and did it with locally purchased aromatic junk. Where I live, you find only that kind of tobacco. Not only in Bulgaria where I am, but in the whole Balkan peninsula at all. After a week of smoking aros, I was desperate for a Latakia hit, but USPS delivery from US takes 10 days at least. When I received a package with some nice stuff, I was jumping in the air. I just grabbed the first tin, and it happened to be the Odyssey. First puffs of the false lit and the wonderful incense like aroma of Latakia put me in the real mood. I didn't like it, I loved it. I finished the tin hungry for that wonderful Latakia and even enjoyed the aftertaste. I know this review isn't much relevant since I smoked it after a week of torture with aromatics, but anyway, too much Latakia? There isn't such thing. Full Lat smoke is always a winner. I give this 4 stars. I will order some more, and reach for it every once in a while.

Odyssey is a "Tale of Two Tobaccos", one for the first half of the bowl and another for the second. Upon lighting this tobacco you get a nice rich hit of latakia with a spice that starts to build and build until your entire mouth is on fire. Not like a tongue bite but more like you are eating a jalapeno. I actually had to put my pipe down and allow sensation to come back. Upon relighting, I went through the same experience . Then magically about halfway down this great Oriental/Va taste took over. The heat was gone, the flavor was fantastic, I wanted more. Now all I have to do is find someone who will smoke the 1st half of the bowl for me so I can enjoy this tobacco. It is interesting, when looking at the other reviews, how this tobacco can be so loved and so hated. Now I know. I'm smoking some Westminster right now and it doesn't have the heat, but it doesn't have the second half flavor either.

Update 10/24/11- My tin now has about ten months of cellaring and has shown good improvement. 80% of the heat is no longer with this blend and although I couldn't smoke this all day ( as much as I want too)I can enjoy the pipeful. Two things about GLP blends, they all seem to have a very nice smokieness ( Latakia) and they all need to age 9-12 months in order to mellow them out. I believe I like this better than Westminster because it has a higher Latakia content that is out front and is not as muted. As far as an outfront Latakia with Oriental support there are others I like better, such Dan's "Midnight Ride".

Updated 11/16/11- I've now reached the last 1/3 of the tin, another month of age and oxygen and this has turned into a masterpiece. Perfect balance between latakia and Orientals ,no heat, full flavor. This has kicked "Midnight Ride" to the back of the cellar. YOU NEED TO AGE THIS, THE END.

Updated 6/11/12- This is a great tobacco, however, it does have a spice that can be hot if you're doing multi bowls. I compared this to Nightcap and Pirate Kake and I like those better for diffrent reasons. This, still gets 4 stars but only with a tin that has a year of age, otherwise the spice is too much, this blend is HUGE.

Odyssey is a beautiful mix of red and black Virginias, a healthy dose of Cyprian Latakia, and Orientals, which, in the tin, provides a nice mottling of golds, browns, and blacks. The tin aroma is quite pleasant, with scents of the woods, leather, and sweet Virginias. Like most Pease blends, the moisture level of Odyssey is just about perfect. The charring light brings clouds of thick, luxurious smoke in which the latakia immediately asserts its presence. With the initial light, that presence remains, and mingles with the sweet tones of the fine Virginias and the delightful, woodsy spice of the Orientals. The smoke is cool, smooth, and extremely pleasant. By mid-bowl, the fullness of the flavor becomes something special. Cyprian latakia, in my opinion, provides a different flavor than the Syrian type I often prefer, and in this blend it's used to perfection. Yet it never overpowers the sweetness of the Virginias, not hides the spice of the Orientals. Rather, the three types of tobacco play together like an orchestra, playing upon one another, accenting one another, and filling in the spaces often left blank by each individual type. The end of the bowl provides a fine finish. The flavor continues to build, rather than to fade, become acrid, or just tiresome. In fact, this is a tobacco which disappoints only in that eventually the bowl will be finished. Were I to find a real complaint about the blend it would have to be that I found it somewhat difficult to keep lit, though each relight reminded me of why I was enjoying it so much. Pease creates fine blends of tobacco, and I will readily admit to being an impartial judge of them. That said, I am a Virginia smoker, and not a really huge latakia fan. But like some of his other English blends, Odyssey (really a Balkan) will continue to entice me. Coming from a Virginia smoker, I can't imagine a higher compliment for a tobacco.

Very nice deep resonant smoke with many overtones as the bowl progresses. Latakia dominates, as it should in this blend, but the sweetness of the high quality Virginias and the spices of the Orientals are clearly evident, and play major supporting roles. On the whole a very pleasurable and satisfying Blankan blend. For Balkans I usually smoke Balkan Sasieni (both the 2 oz tin and the bulk version available from Cup-O-Joes, but now that I have become familiarized with Odyssey, Abingdon and Charing Cross, my view has swung towards the Pease blends, with Odyssey and Abingdon vying for my attention. I really have a hard time deciding which of the two I prefer more, but tend to reach for Odyssey slightly more than I do for Abingdon. This is probably due to the higher complexity of Odyssey over Abingdon. However, a note of caution: sometimes with Odyssey I get a salty leathery taste going, that I never experience with Abingdon, and in this respect I tend to favor the latter over the former. Thanks Greg for another VERY fine blend. Truly, GL Pease will go down in the history of pipelore as one of the truly great blenders of all time.

Ah at last...

Delicious dark tobaccos.

Latakia pleases your olfactory and visual senses.

Delicious spicy, smoky, sweet and nutty taste.

Delicious smooth and rich smoking experience with a decent intake of nicotine.

Silky, creamy, intoxicating, making you beg for more.

The blend that gives me faith in GL Pease. I will rebuy for sure!

This is my favorite tobacco with the Balkan Sasieni. This is a perfectly balanced English / Balkan blend.

Very highly recommended.

The main word here is balance. This tobacco is (for me) a master piece.

Thanks Mr Greg Pease !!

While I write this, please take into consideration that I am an extremely new pipe smoker of about only three months.

For me, this is a blend where I either love it, or I hate it... all from the same 8oz tin date stamped on the bottom as 9/05.

I love the smell of the actual tin itself, and I'll stick my nose there for a couple minutes just to savor the scent. Yet the smoking experience is quite different.

For me, this is one of those tobaccos that loves to bite. I have yet to smoke this once where it didn't. I've tried it in a brier, a cob, and even in a ceramic pipe. I've packed it tight, loose, and everything in between. Every single time, I get bit really hard, which then removes my ability to taste anything.

It is impossible for me to keep this lit unless I keep sucking and sucking, which results in more tongue bite.

The room aroma is quite pleasant though. It reminds me of a campfire with just a hint of spice.

So, if I despise it so much, why do I keep smoking it and why did I give it 2 stars instead of just 1? Because on the rare occasion where I can smoke it without a hard bite, I just love it!

I think the majority of my problems lay in the fact that I'm quite inexperienced. I have a hunch that to really enjoy Odyssey, you have to know what you're doing. This is not a tobacco for the new smoker.

This is my first Pease blend so expectations were pretty high, and I may have to review this again later to be fair. If you were to believe word for word the flowery tin description of this and other Pease blends you would come to the conclusion that mr Pease is god's gift to pipe smoker's. While I don't believe everything I read, I was hooked by such descriptive flourishes as - 'exotic oriental tobaccos weave in and out, dancing delicately like Dervishes in the billowy clouds of fragrant smoke' - hmmm how poetic. The problem with words is they can be very misleading.. For example, this is considered one of Pease's 'biggest blends'.. It is said on the tin to be bold and assertive yet eminently refined.. wow that really covers everything.. So excitement was running high for me, I was dying to try this delectable mixture.. My only previous Balkan experience was Sasieni and I was expecting this to blow that one out of the water with its full rich flavor.. When I finally got to light this stuff up I was surprised by how subdued it was.. There was nothing assertive about it. I was getting background notes of oriental and latakia... and if I really tried i could make out the virginia.. but this tobacco overall behaved very strangely in the bowl and was not at all as defined as I hoped it would be.. The flavors were there but there was a certain flatness to the smoke.. It was as if the tobacco was challenging me to be bold and assertive with it - and not the other way around.. Make no mistake there is a lot of good quality within this blend.. but it did not grab me the way sasieni did.. and the Dervishes were simply whispers - nothing to exciting. I really do like subtlety, but if there is not a deffinitive statement going on all the subtlety is lost.. So I will come back to this blend for sure... but for now I am not jumping for joy over the delicate nuances.

edit.. this is a fussy tobacco.. but one thing improves it greatly.. dry it out! it seems dry right out of the tin.. but somehow the extra exposure to oxygen does help it. It still doesn't live up to expectations but it is a lot better over time.

another edit.. I would just like people to take my review with a grain of salt.. as I have heard from many sources that the pease blends differ from batch to batch.. maybe i got a bad batch.. so take this review in context.. i would also like to add that I am an admirer of consistency so i probably won't take chances with buying more tins.. but hey you might want to give it a try so - so do try it.