Wilke Pipe Tobacco High Hat

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 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.

An elegant example of the blender's art. Very high quality. If you like delicious smokey English just slightly on the sweet side (e.g. much less sweet than Black House, which is delightful in its own right), you owe it to yourself to at least try a little High Hat.

This is my favorite blend to date. I've tried several Latakia Blends, but none have had the full rich flavor and smokey full bodied taste of Wilke High Hat. I have not had any tongue bite from this blend even when puffing pretty steadily. Really enjoy smoking it on the way to work with a good cup of coffee and a window rolled down slightly on the passenger side. The blend might be a little moist, so best to let it dry a bit before smoking, unless you don't mind lighting it a couple of times during your smoke. I will fill a Savinelli 111EX or 814EX and leave it overnight, then grab it in the morning and enjoy it while driving to work. A fantastic way to start the day. I highly recommend High Hat for your smoking pleasure! 4 Stars!

High Hat is one of the few tobaccos that I can honestly call "delicious". It's a wonderful blend of high quality tobaccos, expertly balanced, and delivered ready to smoke.

The various tobaccos share the stage throughout the bowl, coming forth and then receding in a wonderfully flavorful dance. The burley always takes the stage first, but after that it's impossible to know which tobacco will come forward next. Individual tobaccos, and various combinations of tobaccos, move to the forefront as the bowl progresses. None of the flavors ever becomes overpowering, but they all spend some time in the spotlight. This is a great blend for "breath smoking". The flavor seems to change with each cycle.

I've found that High Hat smokes well in almost any pipe, from small to large. It's a slow smoking tobacco for me, so a medium bowl is my usual weapon of choice for High Hat.

It requires very few relights (often none at all); other than tamping occasionally, High Hat requires no attention. At the end of the bowl you're left with some mottled gray ash, and nothing else.

High Hat is one of the very best blends I've ever tried. It truly is delicious, and well worth a try by anyone who enjoys English blends.

High Hat's taste is very nearly full. The Virginias and Burleys bulwark the main players, Latakia and Perique. There is just a subtle and welcome sweetness. The components dance, taking turns leading. This is courtly frolic, not slamming in a mosh pit.

I detect some scented tobak that makes this mildly aromatic, yet not the cased and cloying type or in the black Cavendish manner of introducing aromatic agendas to blends (though P&W does the latter well, too, ala Bestmake). HH burns to a salt and pepper ash with no dottle, leaving the pipe dry for reloading more High Hat.

If you desire to smoke fuller blends all day, High Hat will not make you any worse for the wear. However, the DGT technique (?Delayed Gratification Technique? of lighting a blend, smoking it a bit then letting sit ?curing? a while, then returning to finish the smoke) seems to detract from P&W blends.

What I like most about P&W blends is that the tobacco is so well-aged, smooth and the blends are so flavorful that the easiest puffing produces copious volumes of smoke. This extends the smoking pleasure, is economical and reduces just about any chance for a sore mouth. P&W proves that quality does not necessarily require a tin

A rich, spicy, delicious American English, made with P&W's usual high standards. An old classic that I highly recommend.

With the exception of C&D's Yale Mixture, this is the best English blend I've ever smoked.

This is another terrific offering, hand blended by Pipeworks and Wilke, and has replaced Dunhill's 965 in my afternoon routine. I find this a somewhat complex blend in that the flavors change during the course of the bowl from the perique to VA, to the Latakia during the second and third portion of the bowel, and back again. The Latakia is not overpowering to the other tobaccos at any time. This blend smokes cool, and dry, is very flavorful wtihout a heavy nicotine punch that I find (and tolerate well) in some of the Dunhills, and can be smoked all day. I love the taste of this old recipe, and do not tire of its offering. The best way I can describe it as a very tasty English.

Another delicious English blend by John Brandt...smokes cool....Latakia leads the way.....I alternate with #78 which is a fuller smoke...minimal relights if any....I often smoke 3-4 bowls a day...try it if you enjoy English blend