G. L. Pease Cumberland

Life is too short to have to baby your smoke. I want a tobacco that is forgiving when puffed on with regularity. Cumberland, fortunately, is one of those forgiving tobaccos that won't fire up your mouth if puffed on with aggression. A subtle bite of pecan flavor hits the tongue from the Burley and stewed prunes flavor from the pinch of Perique will tickle the cockles of many smokers.

Having tried many of the Pease blends, this remains my favorite one, with JKP a close second. I am now anxious to try C & D OJK and other American style blends. If you enjoy Burley and Kentucky based tobacco you must try this masterpiece. It's strong, sweet, hearty, and satisfying. There is the spice from the Kentucky and perique interwoven with the Virginia sweetness, resulting In a wonderfully full and delicious blend. A regular for me!

Update 1/8/09.Upgrade to 5 stars! I just recieved 10 8oz.tins, (3 of which were dated 2006)and 50 2oz. tins for the cellar. After several more bowls of this truly wonderful creamy, muli layered blend it is my single favorite tobacco....I love it! 3 years of age does make a big differance, I am comparing a new tin to a tin dated 03/06 and prefer the aged tin greatly. I am so glad I beafed up my Cumberland inventory. After decades of smoking the pipe I think this would be the tobacco I would choose if I had to pick just one. I am very glad though that I do not have to make that choice and enjoy at least one dozen other blends that I smoke regularly and will review in the months ahead as I re-visit tins.But right now I am hooked on Cumberland. Strong yet sweet/smooth/creamy with the occational hey-like aroma/taste that visits once in a while. I cant say enough about this wonderful tobacco. I have 4 pipes dedicated to it already....I dont want anything to intefere with its complexity and layers of flavor.

Just finished my first tin and find this tobacco the most unusual of all smoked. It is truly complex and delicious. I predomintly smoke virginias and vapers and this is like none other that I have ever tried. I can understand why this weed is so contriversial as well, it is not as sweet as FVF, Blakewoods, HOW, Escudo, Filmore, Embarcadaro(less sweet),Long Golden Flake,Cut Va. Plug,633 and Cairo(my favorite Va's and Vapers), it has the slightest sweetness and just a wisper of perique but wow does this blend pack a punch yet keeps it's complexity and smoothness throughout the bowl. I only purchased one tin of this tobacco dated 06, but plan to order multiple of tins for the cellar. Not a blend for the begginer or the timid, but give this blend a full tin and you too will become hooked if you can handle the above average nicotine level. I sure didnt need another tobacco in my rotation, or more tins for the cellar, but cumberland will find a spot without question. I smoked this tin going back and forth with embarcadero and find both of them truly unique and worthy of cellaring many tins.Cumberland all of the time and Embarcadero for the change of pace. Exactly what I was missing actually, great stuff if you like pure tocacco without flavoring! I forgot one word to describe this blend...creamy!!!!

I've given myself about 6-7 bowls in various pipes before doing a review here. Individually, all these tobaccos in the blend are favorites, and these are obviously quality tobaccos in and of themselves. I am smoking out of a really fresh tin, and this seems like it would need age. About the blend. I get the flavor of the burleys not playing together as the tin description states, but back and forth. Dark fired Kentucky, then a white burley/VA like flavor and then back again. A bit flat and sour. I regularly smoke quite a bit of C&D Haunted Bookshop and Cumberland when smoked in a cob will taste to me like a light version with Kentucky twang. It seems like a lighter and unbalanced Haunted Bookshop flavor profile. The Perique is very faint and can be noticed a bit half way or more into a pipeful. Overall, it just falls too flat for me. I will smoke a couple more and then let it age a year or so and come back to it. The end of the bowl gets a real ashtray and acrid taste.

EDIT: 5/5/17: Just recently cracked the jar to see if a bowl or two would show any profile changes. Really still leaves me personally wanting to just smoke some Haunted Bookshop. Something about it is just not balanced to my taste preferences.

EDIT 11/2021: As was suggested to me, this mix really did need 5 years of age minimum. With the fermentation that's taken place, my 2016 tin is now married perfectly and well balanced. The dark fired has mellowed a tad bit and married perfectly to the VA and Perique here. This is a great long term blend for aging that was a little rough around the edges fresh. Recommended to give this blend at least 4-5 years minimum age. This is now very excellent with the age and has proven to me I need to cellar several tins for just this length of minimum time.

A second EDIT 7/11/17: I've just received a 2003 sample of some well aged Cumberland. This sample has led me to believe I got a one-off slightly off balanced tin, or it just really needs years of age. I will be buying a few tins and forgetting them in the cellar for a decade or better. The 2003 was great. The Virginias had aged well and that might have been the ticket, as well as aged and subdued Kentucky I imagine. Raised my rating one star for the aged to average it out a bit. This sample also would have contained the original well aged Kentucky leaf that the tin description notes as well for such a difference to the fresh tin.

After revisiting this mixture at five years of age it has shown well worth the wait. It really requires the patience and age. Delicious starting at this age and very well married.

Some tobaccos are not meant to be gourmet complex evening smokes ( I consider some of the gawith Hogarth flakes that way, and I guess St James Flake by sam gawith, or even some of those great mcclelland virginia flakes and Reiner's Long Golden Flake) but are also not exactly all day smokes. They are something in between -- but there is another niche (IMHO) that I think of as partly all day smokes, particularly suited to long drives (which my work imposes on me). Cumberland is the perfect car on a long highway drive smoke. Old joe Krantz is another. You want some nicotine and you want a no fuss easy to handle smoke. Now I prefer flakes and plugs, but they can be demanding. Cumberland is a burley blend, really, with a fair amount of Virginia (a lot of red it tastes like) and a bit of Perique. There might be a subtle casing in there, too, though not very strong (not as strong as Haddo's). Its more complex than one might think, but still a pretty straight forward working mans blend. Easy to light and burns pretty cool (there can be a bit of flavor loss toward the end of the bowl, but not a lot). It has punch, and a great burley nut flavor enhanced with virginias. The Perique isnt very prominent, but its there. It gives what complexity t here is. I give it a 3 and a half star rating. Close to four, but then I dont think its meant to be that kind of masterpiece. All i know is I keep a couple tins on hand.

This blend is for the Red Va lovers. I'm revisiting this blend after a year of age, hoping that it had sweetened up a bit. Though this blend did not develop the way I had hoped, I can tell that age does great things for C&D Virginias. To me the Red Virginias add a very earthy, vinegary taste, while the Kentucky provides this baseline flavor that reminds me of unsweetened bran cereal. The Perique plays in the background adding complexity to this blend; this was actually my favorite part. This blend was not for me, but if you like McClelland 5100 or HH Anniversary Kake, this blend is a much more earthy, less sweet comparison to those.

Think Old school, ( OJK). "N" is med. strong., good for that 'N" hit. Reminds me of a blend made up of 50% Union Square , 45% mature Kentucky and 5% Perique . Relatively smooth, if you don't push it, but this isn't one that says "Wow" to me, satisfying, savory, yet boring.

Side comment: The description says the Kentucky is from 25 year old bales ( with a clarifier that this ran out in about mid 2012 ) !!!! Who ages Kentucky for 25 years ???? I think I can hear the conversation at the blenders, "Hey, Greg, can you come up with a blend that we can unload these 25 year old bales that have been just sitting here?" Anyway, it's hard to find less than a 4 star rating prior to early 2014 ( older Kentucky) more lower ratings now , so buyer beware !

I'm a very lucky guy, my friend give this blend after he keep it for 1 year and half and he give it to me at last 2014 January and now after 6 months I keep it on my desk tonight I open it and I start to smoke this stuff on my pipe. The tin note is good, with a scent of dried raisin follows with baked bread.

The cut and moisture is great, in coarse cut is very easy to make layers pack on my pipe and I'm using Comoy Tradition 36 which is deep narrow bowl but I don't have any trouble to pack it well. Easy to light and keep it on my pipe so I can enjoy well long time smoking with this blend. The burn is well and quite cool with a great smoke so I start it with a heavy great smokes that made me cought because it follows with baked bread taste that is new for me.

After I get usual with the baked bread taste, a little bit peppery taste came with a small amount. I'm a Telegraph Hill fans so I think this stuff is contains less perique, the dominant taste is baked bread with less fruity taste and follows with similar taste of american cigars and it consistant until I finish the whole bowl.

The strength is increasing from medium to strong, so this stuff is really good to enjoy at late before go to bed. With a cup of tea or green tea this blend is so nice to smoke and feels so well on my palate. No intense to bite but with enough strength to enjoy a little bit heavy smokes.

Tin: Fairly uniform mahogany with the occasional black fleck of perique, transitioning to brown hues after the tin had been opened for a week. Sweet fragrant aroma, yet stale leafy scent, like fragrant boiled peanuts. Short to medium ribbon cut with an infrequent stiff ribbon. Almost dry but supple. Date stamp on bottom of tin, 030306, 03MAR2006.

Lighting: Burned with one match

Taste: Musty crawlspace, stale. Once in a while, multiple bowls, in a pipe uncleaned inbetween, tastes just like a rancid cigarette.

Aroma & Room Note: The smoke aroma is akin to the tin, not leaving much of a signature behind.

Nicotine: Strong and heady

Overall: Not quite my flavor of tobacco. Not even close to the standard nutty burley taste. Try McCranie's Old Master for typically flavored burley or McClelland's Mixture X-10 Burley, or C&D 108: Pegasus.