G. L. Pease Stratford

The percentage of bright Virginias in this blend is overwhelming, creating a very nice visual impression of light, vivid gold. This choice of leaf, less sugary than red Virginia, and the presence of a discreet quantity of Perique help in building the characteristic taste of this blend: extremely dry and sour, though absolutely not in an unpleasant way. I was immediately struck by the similarity to another blend I like, that is Three Friars by Cornell & Diehl. And of course, considering that the maker is Craig Tarler for both products, it's clear that the two blends are close relatives! Personally I think that Stratford is a bit more delicate and lemony and has less nicotine, while Three Friars is a bit stronger and sweeter. Both are good products, though, which burn extremely well, dry and regularly (I might also be tempted to say it burns a bit too fast), and with bootloads of taste... at least at first. As a matter of fact, after a few days from opening the tin, the taste of the tobacco becomes much blander, at times even tasteless (while Three Friars stays tasty). The main problem for me, though, is that I am not a great fan of Perique, and I can't stand smoking it regularly. On top of that, I prefer red virginias and their fruity notes to the grassy and astringent bright virginias... but this is just a personal preference and doesn't imply that it isn't a good blend... actually it must be quite exceptional if I enjoy it on occasion in spite of my opposite tastes! I think I'll cellar a few tins of this, as it can't help but improve even more with age. It's sooo smooth (in spite of the lemony sourness) and smokable (the opposite of Haddo's which I find less tasty and overwhelmingly strong) right now, but it still has great potential.

First, let me say how enthusiastic I generally am about C&D / Pease VaPers : A LOT. I wont review them all here, but I’ll say that Stratford is the one I like the least. I do not relate to “Toned down Telegraph Hill” at all, as TH is a great VaPer where Stratford is a straight virginia barely seasoned with perique. I may appreciate a gentle morning bowl of it when I get tired of Montgomery or Briar Fox, as an alternative choice. It lacks personality. Ok I am a Bayou maniac and I adore blends like Chenet’s Cake, Bluegrass or Red Carpet, but still… Even as a seasoned Virginia … Nah.

Presentation: I love the labels on the Classic Series. All the labels have the same coloring and artstyle, being a drawing of a pipe but they each have a different pipe. That's so cool to me.

Cut: C&D style ribbon cut, perfect moisture level.

Tin note: Has a nice fruit and grassy scent.

Tasting notes: Exclusively grassy on light up. Once the blend gets going I taste a slight fruit, grassiness, and barely a presence of spice. More spice is present on retrohales. Some earth on the finish later into the bowl.

Mechanics: N/A -- A well behaved blend.

Extra Remarks: This blend to me is just rather unremarkable. A pleasant smoke for sure if you tend to like more mild blends but I am no fan. I must be up front and say, I only like grassy/hay flavor as a condimental addition. Blends that are mainly grassy/hay tasting are boring to me, as is this blend. 2 stars.

A wonderful, tasty VaPer, perhaps a calmer version of Haddo's Delight, packing a noteworthy interplay and imposition of the perique. But alas, more of the classic Pease-ian tongue bite leaves my crying "no mas, no mas". I can see that Mr Pease and I simply aren't going to be good roommates due to this recurring characteristic of his, across his blends. Spoils every smoke.

Tried this tobacco for the first time ever - this review follows smoking 5 bowls in various style pipes - Ben Wade freehand (1972), Savanelli Autograph (1974), Barling tanshell (1974), Peterson bent (1984) and a Caminetto egg(1972).

Overall this tobacco has an excellent aroma in the can and the room. Is is very light on the perique side and burns somewhat fast due to the ribbon cut.It is very moist straight from the can and I let it sit out for 3 days to dry before smoking - any less and it is a wet and hot smoke.

To maintain this as a cool smoke I find it does best in a tall narrow bowled pipe like my old Barling tanshell (1974), packed fairly tight and with slow, regular and deep draws.

To me it paired really well with GlenDronach Revival (15 year old single malt, neat) and not so well with coffee (Columbian or Sumatra) or wine (Merlot or Malbec).

Overall it is an OK smoke for early or mid-day, but I prefer something with a more pronounced perique taste in the evening like Escudo (#1 all time favorite) and Bayou Morning Flake (#2).

After finishing this 2 oz. tin I most likely will not purchase again - only because it is too light for my taste.

Finally, this tobacco is best enjoyed indoors ; outdoors the taste and aroma change to that "grassy" state so common with light virginias.

i just finished my tin, i don't think i'll be getting anymore.. it's ok but it's just too boring. not as much flavor as fillmore or the perique/nic hit as haddo's.

if you don't mind a rather muted tasting VaPer, maybe this is for you.

Tin: Varied hues of mahogany,with the occasional flicker of something dark, which must be the Perique; ripe, fruity, hay scent, fairly distinct. Tin date: Jan. 06. The aroma mellows a bit, after the tin has been unsealed for a few days. Supple but on the dry side.

Taste & Aroma: Fairly bland and unremarkable, not smooth or creamy, a slight pepper feel perhaps due to the Perique, with a mild VA hay aroma.

Nicotine: Strong, rodenticide strong.

Room Note: Pleasant but a sharp, clinging,oily, fruity note due to the Perique, on my person, but the room was more so a mild VA.

Overall: Nothing stands out, unremarkable, excepting the nicotine sweats after two bowls, back-to-back. Nothing could seem to shine through the Perique pepper blite. 2.4 stars.

One reviewer noted the “Pease-ian tongue bite’ which is very present in Stratford. I have a very easy, slow cadence. And I like good Va/Pers! Like for instance GLP’s Windjammer. Or Chenet’s Cake or Escudo or Haddo’s Delight. Yum especially to Windjammer.

Not so with this baby. We are all different so your mileage will vary but this is too rough and un-integrated for my tastes.

The 100 gram tin I got in my hands had the date of production in the summer of 2011 and was purchased by me as a "vintage" tobacco.

Appearance: after over 10 years of maturing in a tin the tobacco became almost an even mix of three close shades: bright virginia became light oak, and red virginia and perique became a bit darker. Occasionally, among the fairly even ribbon cuts, you can find pieces of very light straw-colored Virginia. In addition, I have also come across pressed pieces of perique, as from a broken flake. Overall, there is very little perique. Despite the fact that the blend was in a hundred-gram tin, which had enough complaints, this time there was no seam depressurization, the tobacco only slightly dried out over the years. It reminded me of Russ Ouellette's Golden Triangle series. And the scent turned out to be simple and quite similar.

Flavor: a typical old-fashioned bouquet from the Virginia-perique blend, dominated by light Virginia and very little perique - hay from the meadows with a floral nuance, a bread note with some malt woven in, barely noticeable citrus, figs, some pepper and a bit of dark plum. The ensemble of notes, on the whole, is very simple. If you rub the tobacco in your fingers and sniff a little, you get a slight smell of brine to the overall bouquet.

Taste: the sweetness of dark steamed fruit, a little lemon in sugar, barely noticeable spice, just a little earthy mushroom note - a little less perique, and the blend could be considered pure Virginia. Already quite smooth (if not " subdued ") in flavor, the blend is also quite dependent on the pipe shape and bowl size: in bents, the individual flavor notes are even more indistinct and dominated by the fruity red virginia note, while bright virginia and perique are barely perceptible. By the middle of the pipe, the flavor becomes even milder and therefore completely loses character. Like any blend in which Virginia is an absolute majority, the tobacco is very demanding in terms of smoking tempo and temperature, the consequences of intensive puffs - disappearance of tobacco flavor and bitterness in the mouth, a slight burning on the tongue and a hot pipe in the hands - immediately let you know that you are in a hurry. Given that the taste of the blend is unexpressive, tasting it was a real challenge for me. Add to this the fact that the strength of the blend is well below average. In a very large pipe, you can smoke it for hours on end without worrying about the consequences in the form of nicotine hit. It slowly burns into an almost white ash, leaving no moisture in the pipe and giving an aftertaste similar to what is left in the mouth after chewing a sweetish weed.

The sweetish smoke from the blend is barely noticeable in the room.

What's the bottom line? The Classic Collection series is based on old recipes, and it appears that Pease wanted to present this blend as a kind of Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture vision. My opinion - I'm not sure he succeeded. The Germans with their Robert McConnell Heritage Regent Street achieved more. If we talk about Pease's own creations, the result is also mixed. On the one hand, Stratford is pressed by the much more interesting Laurel Heights, where the absence of perique with a light touch of latakia gave the Virginian the opportunity to unfold at full force. On the other hand, a little more perique and, again, the addition of a negligible amount of latakia gave a truly great result - Fillmore. Stratford, on the other hand, was a bit lackluster, not too memorable. Some people may like it. But not me. I admit that it is more interesting in its fresh form, but I haven't seen fresh cans of this blend on sale for a long time.