G. L. Pease Piccadilly

The prototype was Benson & Hedges Finest Smoking Mixture, by Greg's own admission

Appearance: the half-pound tin has a production date of "December 29, 2015." After almost seven years in a tin, the blend has darkened quite a bit. Most of the Virginia has turned a shade of milk chocolate, but some of the lighter varieties still have a dark straw color. Perique and latakia are also distinguishable, and both are relatively few.

Flavor: I transferred the tobacco into a glass jar over a month ago, but when I opened it, I was quite surprised. If, say, during this time Charing Cross lost a lot of acidity and the main note was an excellent dry stout, shaded by a tart smoky note, here led sour notes of yeast dough and dressed leather, pleasing to few. However, a little rested in the air tobacco loses a lot in acidity, moreover - raisin and herbal tones appear, drowning out the notes of dressed leather. The woody component is also much lighter due to the large amount of light Virginia in the blend. I did not manage to catch the citrus note, and the subtle cinnamon flavor I felt only after a couple of minutes. It also takes a while for the perique to emerge, and it is not too voluminous. As for latakia, which is relatively little in the blend, its notes of tar and leather rejects any chance to classify the blend as "Virginia Perique". Unlike in the case of Fillmore, latakia is quite a full-fledged player. After all, I can give you one piece of advice: if you want to smell Piccadilly, do not sniff it right out of the tin, but scoop out the necessary amount beforehand and air it out.

Taste: Moderately sweet Virginia is definitely the main player in this blend. But the latakia, with its smokiness and dense woody component, being, albeit in the background, holds up quite tightly. As a result, the hay-grassy notes of light Virginia are hardly felt in the overall flavor, leaving only a fruity sweetness from it - and there's no citrus to speak of. Nevertheless, the plum-fig component of the perique is present in the flavor, although initially it was impossible to catch it. On the contrary, the woody note supported by the latakia is a bit stronger. Initially somewhat dissonant, notes of latakia and Virginia as you smoke weave into a single flavor - smokiness is smoothed out, woody note and sweetness increase a little more, affecting the aftertaste. Around the middle of the pipe, a slight spice of perique begins to show more clearly, and a slight cinnamon note appears in the taste. Interestingly, the latakia in bents is slightly less bright than in straight pipes. The strength of the tobacco is below average. The tobacco smokes smoothly and coolly, only at the beginning you can feel some roughness in the flavor. During the smoking process the pipe is almost not warm. The blend burns completely into a dusty light gray ash. There is no moisture left in the pipe. The aftertaste is sweetish-woody, with a slight smokiness, not persistent.

The tobacco smoke has a light, woody smell, with almost no smokiness of the latakia. Additional, it wears off quite easily.

The bottom line is that this is a rather odd tobacco, but still a fine morning blend that totally lives up to its intended purpose. It's a light morning blend for English flavors lovers who don't want to be bothered with complex flavor nuances at this time of day. Is perique suitable for replacing orientals in a classic English blend? It's hard to say.