G. L. Pease Odyssey

Oh my God, it is like smoking pure Latakia. Above all I want to say that I appreciate Pease and I like his mixtures. Always high quality tobacco. Pease blends are a guarantee. But in this case Latakia taste is really strong, overwhelming and for me it’s impossible to detect the different nuances of Virginia and Oriental tobaccos. If you like an English mixture with a very very high Latakia content this is certainly your tobacco. But in my opinion the Latakia content is really excessive. In my personal system rating (from 1 to 10) my score is 7 and two stars.

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.

Presentation: Very dark ribbons with a few of the lighter orientals within. Nice jet black and a few red VA's in the mix and of course, latakia. A rather chunky ribbon cut, like Abingdon. I found a few chunks of un-rubbed ribbon and they were more on the side of little flakes. My five year old tin came slightly dry, but it seems to me that all of the English blends I have tried by Greg have been a tad on the parched side. However, I don't find this to be a fault that carries over into the smoke. If anything, it's a good thing.

Palette: Sometimes I have to smell my other Balkan blends to distinguish the difference between them. One doesn't need to sniff too deep to know that this is a heavy handed latakia blend. It's supremely rich with the usual suspect of musty campfire and your grandfathers den with his leather bound Encyclopedias that have never been touched. What differs with this blend is the addition of stoved Va's. In the bouquet I can smell them right away. On light up, I can immediately taste the semi-sweet brown sugar like, caramel stoved red and black Va's, which is I think quite unique. I haven't found another Balkan/English that has done this. One might liken it to cavendish. The latakia is persistent throughout the smoke. Smokey, but super smooth. I had a hard time finding the orientals in this and they only showed up within the last 1/3 and amplifying until the end with the incense like taste. I got notes of chestnut, cream, brown sugar, a light caramel and a very small wisp of black cherry throughout the smoke.

Performance: Burns very cool. I felt no heat on my bowl or in the smoke. By far the smoothest smoke I have had to date. I had a hard time distinguishing how much nicotine was in this, but I'd put it at a solid mild-medium. Leaves some moisture in the bottom but hardly any dottle. Smokes down relatively with ease and only needed a few relights. Not an all day smoke.

Conclusions: Well, as much of a high praise this blend gets, I find that it falls a little flat. Odyssey doesn't change too much while smoking. The Va's fade a little towards the end and the orientals pick up a tad, but even then, for a Balkan blend, I expected more funk and pizzazz from the latter. It's a one dimensional smoke and there isn't really that much complexity and while it smokes well, it just doesn't have the oomph I'm looking for. Sorry Greg, but this one isn't for me.

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.

I first encountered this blend about two years ago. I was looking for something similar to the Balkan Sasieni I had smoked a few years earlier (The newer version of Sasieni was nothing like the first I had). The tobacconist recommended Odyssey. I purchased a 2oz. tin and tore it open as soon as I got in my car. He was right. Though the flavor didn't seem as consistent from puff to puff as the Sasieni, it still delivered some of the "salty" flavor that I was craving. In the following days as I returned to the blend I noticed it was becoming more consistent and providing more of the saltiness. I soon purchased another 2oz. tin and it was good also. Fast forward. About six months ago, I got the urge to revisit Odyssey and decided to get a large tin this time as I felt I already knew what to expect. Wrong. No saltiness and pretty much no flavor. I was disappointed but kept the tin and have retried it from time to time since then hoping age would improve it. No such luck. Maybe I just got a bad tin or maybe their is a difference in the small and large tins. I don't know. I plan to buy one more 2oz. tin. If it doesn't satisfy, I will be writing this blend off.

Got about half an ounce from a friend. Great room note. Light up was fine. Taste is interesting. Lots of different flavors to me....nutty....sweet hay....earthy....little bit of leather. Just a very nice blend. I really like a blend that gives you many different flavors and this blend does it. Room note was not real popular with the wife "that smells like crap"! I kind of liked it but it is a bit strong. Now this stuff will bite you if you don't keep it slow and enjoy it. I doubt if I would go out and buy some but it is worth recommending.

Odyssey is truly huge exactly as described. To me it is huge in an overwhelming way. The Latakia is the star of the show to the point where its very difficult to discern the other ingredients.

To me the taste is monochrome and doesn't develop beyond an overwhelming Latakia presence. I like Latakia, but this blend uses Latakia in a way that I didn't taste before. The other players in the blend take such a backseat that I wonder if they exist at all.

Obviously I can see how heavy Latakia lovers would rate this very highly and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! Just not for me.

It did have an aftertaste to me because of its fullness of latakia flavour. It left my mouth dry but had no real bite to it (its actually a very smooth smoke that produces heavy thick Latakia laden smoke) Ghosting is guaranteed because of the heaviness of the smokey leaf.

I had a lot of trouble keeping it lit until I dumped the tin into my food processor and chopped it finely. It then took to the light and stayed lit.

I couldn't finish the tin because its just not my cup of tea so I began mixing it with other unidimensional blends I had that failed to grab my attention. So far mixing Odyssey with Solani Aged Burley gave me a very interesting smoke so I'll be enjoying the rest of my tin mixed in with straight Burley.

The Good: Pouch has a smell of rich sweet latakia. Tobacco is a combination of ribbon and partially rubbed out broken flake, with some sticks. Some tobacco shows sugar crystals. Light up and you get a clean smoke. Flavors separate out (latakia, oriental) wonderfully. The stoved black virginia helps to make this a very smooth and creamy smoke, devoid of harshness or oriental sharpness. The sweetness detected in the pouch translates to the smoke. Delightful through nose. Quality tobacco. The Bad: Cannot keep it lit for love or money. This balkan is way too moist and my attempts to dry it out resulted in the loss of that wonderful initial smoking experience and flavor. Fighting through it between relights and dry outs will leave you frustrated and with a tongue coated with an unappealing muddy latakia aftertaste. What a shame.