G. L. Pease Stratford

Stratford has been compared to Elizabethan but Stratford has more red Virginias and a just touch less perique IMO. This is a great all day smoke. It is very balanced and nuanced like all of the G.L. Pease blends I have smoked. Telegraph Hill has more bright Virginias and Fillmore has more perique. Stratford is my favorite of the Pease Va/Per trio because I prefer red Virginias and the perique content in Fillmore is a bit much for me. In terms of taste is has a peppery cherry taste with wonderful moments of mushroom earthiness that keep me coming back for more. I also get a bit of cranberry at times. I prefer the taste of flakes but this ribbon is a nice break and very easy to deal with and burns very nicely especially for breaking in pipes.

G.L. Pease, Stratford: A Solid Bright and Crisp VaPer

The lighter Virginias make up the basis of this blend, though there are some red and darker leafs present. In the smoke, they are primarily bright with a grassy-crispiness and some tanginess from the reds. The perique is moderately applied and is pleasantly spicy with some fruit undertones.

In comparison to Telegraph Hill, Stratford is less earthy with fewer fruit undertones from the perique.

This is one of the closest blends I've found to the old Elizabethan Mixture. I really enjoy this one, the peppery Va/Per taste for me is just perfect for a nice cool spring afternoon or mildly warm summer day with a slight breeze, a cup of iced coffee and a book! I love that some of my paperbacks have assumed the smell of this blend.

I will start this off by saying that I have been on a latakia kick for a while, syrian specifically. Most of my cellar contains latakia of either variety and I felt I needed to find something lighter to stock.

Enter Stratford. There isn't anything fancy about it and it is not complex by any means. Perfect, because that is what i was looking for.

I have had the tin open for about a week and have found I can smoke several bowls throughout the day without issue. The virginias give a nice sweetness that really shines if you dry it out a bit. The perique is there, but only as a spicy background note. I noticed very little of the fig/raisin notes I have gotten from other Va/pers.

To me, all of this is great. I can smoke this while driving and still enjoy it without feeling that I'm missing something by not being able to devote my full attention to it.

Tasty all day smoke, imo.

I found this blend to be easy to light and it burns very well. To my taste buds the Virginia Base is got too many of the harsh notes yet from the red Virginia, but probably reflects the fact that my tin is relatively young At 6 months. I would expect there to be much improvement in the blend as it ages. While I find the flavored enjoyable, it clearly needs more age. I find it somewhat difficult to give it 4 stars, but as a Virginia perique, it offers a long-term good VaPer blend. Three stars, with a solid hope that'll improve as it ages as I'm sure it will.

G. L. Pease - Stratford (Classic Blends).

It's mostly a blend comprised of light brown and yellow ribbons with only a smaller amount of darker/medium brown pieces. The moisture of this tin looked brilliant when the lid was first removed, and because the ribbons are slim in build filling a bowl's easy.

Stratford ignites with ease, and gives a smoke flavoured with just enough Perique to add some life, without causing the smoke to be cartelized and ruled by it completely; albeit, it tastes a little vinegary at times. The Virginia gives a clear and unambiguous taste, being a little citrus-esc, and not allowing the Perique to dominate. The burn's consistent enough, but one of the few negatives is the speed of it: not ridiculously fast, but it's a better smoke in a larger bowl.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not great.

Stratford: in my opinion it's the archetypal three star blend:

Recommended.

This is good stuff but I'm only giving it 3 stars because I like Embarcadero and Fillmore so much better. I thought I'd never say this, but I think this could use a touch more Perique. I bought a couple of tins and I'm going to squirrel one away for a year or so and then try it again. A little age on the Virginias might improve the way it tastes to me. As it is, the Virginias have the sweetness I've come to expect, and it burns cool and all the way down to a white ash, usually with no relights. If you're a fan of Virginia/Perique blends a little light to Perique, I think you'll love this.

I was in Iwan Ries looking for new things to try, and saw an old tall-style GLPease tin of this. The date said 7/15/03, almost four years at the time, so I bought it blindly. I had never heard much about this particular blend, even though most of my tobacco has Pease's name on it.

I cracked it on my 20th birthday and shared with my pipe friends. The first few bowls smoked too hot, but I kept changing pipes and found a good packing technique.

My three favorite pipes to smoke this with are: s Peterson System 303; a Stanwell Bishop freehand; and a small Wilkes apple turned from Algerian briar sometime in the 50s. The common theme here is a small bowl - even the Stanwell is probably only a small group 4, and the other two are group 3.

Then, proceed to mash as much tobacco as you can into the bowl, about like it is in the tin. If packed with a light hand, this stuff burns in about ten minutes, cinging the tounge the whole time. But packed tightly, the tobacco seems to burn much more slowly, letting out the flavors within.

And while this contains a hint of perique, the main attraction here is a Virginia taste that can only be described as midwestern. It tastes to me like being on a prairie in September.

This is a beautiful summertime tobacco. I can't see it working well in the winter, and it isn't an all day smoke. But for sitting in the grass on a summer afternoon, nothing beats Stratford.

Stratford is even lighter in the can than Piccadilly. Mostly very light brown, with a fair amount of yellow, and the occasional medium brown fleck.

The note in the tin is really mild, almost neutral. But you can detect a bit of the grassy Va aroma if you pay attention.

Lighting Stratford is easy, and it is low-maintenance from there. Nice steady burn rate, a bit faster than I really expected. There was never a hint of biting.

The Perique in this mixture is mild, to say the least. It could almost be a straight Virginia.

What really surprised me was the flavor. From the faintness of the tin note, I didn?t expect much. The flavor wasn?t full, but it was very pleasant. Stratford is a pretty straightforward tobacco. It doesn?t possess the complexity that Greg Pease is so well known for, but the overall quality is what you would expect.

The last third of the bowl does seem to have a bit more of a smoky quality and a hint of bitter-sweetness to the taste if you let it go out and re-light. If you just smoke straight to the bottom without a re-light (something that is very easy to do with Stratford), the sweet-grassy flavor will make a gradual increase without any real deviation.

Considering that this is a fast-burning, light Va mixture, I expected it to be poised to bite every second of the way. Much to my delight, it was nothing of the sort. Never a gurgle, burned down to a powdery ash.

If I smoked straight Va?s with any regularity, I think the hint of Perique here would be a welcome (subtle) change. I smoke heavy English blends, but I think I might just keep Stratford in mind for those hot, humid summer days when I want something light and refreshing. For that reason I feel that I can only give this one a 3-star rating. The Va/Perique fans will no doubt give it a solid 4-star rating.