Wilke Pipe Tobacco High Hat

I am a shameless shill for Wilkes old Latakia blends. This one is flavorful and extremely mellow. It delivers a full measure of smokey Latakia complemented by a nutty burley. Brought this one to the Tuesday rump session of our pipe club and it was a big hit. Thank you John for continuing the tradition. These blends deserve more recognition.

Delightfully full, round, and rich. Reminds me a little of Tree Mixture, but with a dimension of dark chocolate sweetness alongside the spiced, smoky, Latakia. Very enjoyable

Yes, it's all true.  What you've read in reviews dating back to 2002 - it's all here.

Wilke High Hat is a barn-burner: an extraordinary tobacco.  The jar note hints at what's to come: musty, smokey, piney, savory, and subtly sweet with a hint of cinnamon and clove on the nose.  While the blenders description does not include Orientals, the complexity of aromas from the jar certainly suggest their presence.  The jar aroma of this blend has no equal. 

From the moment of the charring light, High Hat delivers what the jar note promises: deep, musty Latakia wrapped in smooth, succulent Virginias and buffered by that famous Wilke burley. Perique is a light condiment touch in this delicious, full blend, adding a mere suggestion of pepper that asserts itself slightly after mid-bowl.  The old Wilke recipes seem to have grasped the secret of making rich, full-tasting, flavorful blends that are medium in body and incredibly easy-smoking. That cinnamon and clove on the nose does not, thank God, translate into the taste. High Hat has only just enough natural sweetness, that tiny bit, to balance perfectly with what is an otherwise earthy, leathery, musty smoke: a masterpiece. It's no wonder this blend has been around for over 140 years. 

The mouth-feel in this blend is world-class: rich, thick, and creamy while never overwhelming the palate. High Hat burns smoothly, with absolutely no bite, and provides copious amounts of thick, creamy smoke. This is an arm chair tobacco, an evening tobacco: a tobacco blend of substance. The flavor stays with you a long, long time after the bowl is finished. You'll want to sit back in that chair and just revel in it.

This is a masterpiece of a proprietary blend that leaves other, mass-produced tinned blends in its wake.  

Edit/update 2021: I’ve been smoking quite a bit of the new version of this tobacco: John Brandt’s blend. So I thought I owed it to whomever may be perusing these aging halls to update my review accordingly. So here goes:

First, I do not know John. But I appreciate him keeping the venerable Wilke blending house alive. That this blend may differ from the original, or, if not “original” per se, from the Burns version of the Gilded original, can hardly be his fault. After all, so many of the original, and not-quite-original, tobaccos are simply unavailable, “unavailable” being the kind variant of “gone forever”. So what do we have here? A passable approximation of the “original” jar note, though no longer the “barn-burner” of yore. BurPer elements are good, though sadly not great - simply not as pronounced, the spice somewhat muted by.... new-school Latakia, a damp and dank recently put-out campfire, wet forest and mushroom, with a touch of Royal Scot cavendish noticeable in each sip, right down to the last.

Is this update a criticism? Hardly. High Hat remains a masterpiece of American-English blending, and while the flavor profiles have changed over the years with the available tobaccos, I salute Mr. Brandt for keeping this classic blend alive.

A very good blend, solid 3.5 stars & I enjoy it more than Magic #13. I'm tightening up on my ratings and only give 4 stars to my top 5 blends that are in my core rotation of tobaccos. Those at this date are Escudo, Penzance, University Flake, Churchill & still deciding what the 5th will be.

Wilke does a superb job of sourcing good quality ingredients for their blends, but also at combining a variety of leaf types in the right proportions to make a balanced smoke. The combination of pepper from the Perique and the sweet and smoky Latakia sits upon burley and Virginia. It's a strong flavor, but with no rough edges. It's not an all day smoke for me, but it's very enjoyable. I like this English blend second only to Crystal Palace.

since im a pro drummer, i am very familiar with HIGH HAT as used in music on the drums . this blend i first tried circa 1992 when i was in NYC playing at the BLUE NOTE jazz club. it has a very full flavor and for me its on the stronger side of my flavor profile. an end of the day smoke, and goes well with adult beverages .

High Hat has an impression of a 50-50 split between the spicy barbecue sauce of No. 400 and the rich, silky, full-bodied smoke of No. 524. Nevertheless, there are aromas that cannot be explained by these two blends, woody, earthy, grassy, and slightly sweet. Each different type of burning tobacco leaf gives a different impression of the flavor. In my case, the first one was mainly barbecue sauce, and the next one had the aroma and sweetness of freshly baked bread. Such a beautiful blend that will delight pipe smokers in the aroma circus. I smoked High Hat without eating breakfast and it did not give me a stomach ache. The aroma is complex, the taste is full-bodied and the nicotine hit is light. The ribbon-cut tobacco leaf is as fine as a 524, so it was easy to pack. This is a blend that you want to take your time to get a complex aromatic experience.

2020/12/15 - I am amazed at the complexity of this blend. Sometimes it is sour, sometimes salty, sometimes sweet, sometimes leathery, sometimes milky, sometimes woody, sometimes earthy... I try to understand the taste and aroma at one moment, and the next puff it is transformed into another taste and aroma. A very good blend for a change in tobacco rotation. Of course, you can also make a love pact with this blend.

This is an excellent smoke. What I enjoy most about it is the way the Latakia predominates but does not overpower the smoke. After aging for a year, I find that the woodsy, mustiness of the latakia blends really nicely with the other tobaccos. Smoked slowly, the sweetness of the burley comes through, along with occasional hits of spicy plumness from the Pirique. I don't taste the Virginia. This is a great smoke if you want the flavor of Latakia, without getting hit with a Latakia bomb.

This is the best English on the market, from my standpoint. Very complex and rich with abundant Turkish and Latakia. The pouch odor has a depth and balance of flavor that are unmatched. The quality of the smoke is smooth and non-biting from top to bottom of every bowl. I first found this blend in Nachtwalter's pipe shop on 56th Street and 5th Avenue back in the 1980s, and I knew my search for the perfect English had come to an end. When Carol Burns went out of business, I felt bereft and hopeless, but then Tom Somebody started blending High Hat and other Wilke blends and selling them over the web. Now I'm enjoying that aroma in my house again... very satisfying.