Wilke Pipe Tobacco Pipemaker's Choice

This is a lightly aromatic and slightly sweet and spicy English containing just a flavor enhancing level of Latakia. The Virginias and the cavendish mix, primarily Royal Scot, are the dominate players. (The Royal Scot provides a modestly sweet, creamy, butter-like, almost toffee quality.) The strength is just above the center of mild-to-medium at the start of the smoke and builds gradually. The flavor intensity approaches medium.

I prefer to look at a blend in its "all together--the sum of its parts". I will avoid confusing and superfluous adjectives. This is very well-blended and tasty blend. There should be some appeal here for the aromatic smokers. Worthwhile.

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This blend is spicey and sweet, with a delicate compliment of Latakia. Indeed, the Cavendish plays the lead, with other types of leaf for support. This one can burn hot when it is fresh, so let it dry a bit. This intensifies the flavor as well. Even after drying, this one was a bit bitey for me. I strongly discourage getting too greedy with this stuff.

This is a rather unusual blend, but I feel it would make a nice change of pace for the open minded. Die hard English fans will probably hate it.

This one nips me a little too often to keep it around, but it's probably a personal problem! Flavor wise, this is quite good. It's certainly worth a sample.

I like this blend a lot. It is a smooth, cool and slightly sweet change of pace. I guess I would call it a light aro with a touch of Latakia. I tend to smoke a lot of this type of blend. If you like Frog Morton, you might also like this as a lighter occasional smoke. I can smoke several bowls of this in a row, which I can't do with Frog Morton. I think it is always worth trying a couple of ounces of any Wilke blend, as they are all quality blends. It may or may not be for you, but I doubt that you will really dislike it. I smoke it about once a month, but I smoke a wide variety of blends. This is one that I always want on hand. Note that the nic-hit kicks up noticeably in the last 20% of the bowl. Smokes to ash in this pipe with little moisture.

Presentation is typical Wilke ribbon. A mixture of light, medium, and dark browns. Jar note is slightly sweet, with a touch of smokey Latakia.  Will benefit from some drying time before lighting.  This blend produces plenty of smoke and will definitely nip, but not quite bite, if rushed. 

The charring light brings a very sweet flavor to the tip of the tongue. While Royal Scot is not listed as an ingredient, I strongly suspect it is the Cavendish listed here. After the true light, some citrusy Virginias poke through as well. Latakia is applied here with a very gentle hand and, in the first third of the bowl it's a light, condiment touch but nothing more.  

By mid-bowl the lemony citrus settles down a bit but the smokey notes of Latakia are still struggling to shine through. This flavor profile remains fairly consistent through to the end.  There is a touch of smokiness in the background but the sweet Virginias and Cavendish are the stars of this show. By the final third of the bowl, I found myself wanting something more in order to ground this blend - perhaps some burley, or a touch more Latakia. 

In this regard, it's tough to consider this a "medium English", and I think true English smokers may be disappointed. This is definitely an aromatic English and in Pipeworks & Wilke's line-up I would rate it as more similar to No.5 and No.13 than, say, Bestmake, which is less sweet. To my taste, this blend could use some burley to balance out the sweetness from the lemon Virginias and Cavendish. But then it would basically be No.5. 

That doesn't make this a bad tobacco, far from it. I don't want to suggest that this is anything other than a good blend from one of my favorite blenders. But Carole has several better blends in this category.  Those who like a pinch of Latakia in their aromatic blend should definitely try this. Smokers of HGL will find this a dryer, higher quality blend. 

I was given a sample recently of a friends stash of Pipemaker's Choice and through the bag I could tell this would be an interesting taste. Latakia blends that have a topping are one of those love it or hate it genre's since traditional English smokers tend to scoff at a topped English and Aromatic smokers might not enjoy the smokiness. I enjoyed the full mouth feel and strength of PC and my family were pleased with the room note so it's a win-win. To me PC is a light to medium English with a decent amount of Latakia but nowhere near bomb territory and the supporting Virginia's were of course the best quality being as Carole uses nothing but the finest leaf. I do not believe the blend is topped but rather an Aromatic Cavendish is added to the English blend which keeps the goopyness and moisture at a perfect level. At $60 + per pound, this is a bit steep for what Is essentially an Aromatic English, or is it an English Aromatic... But either way if this is your thing then PC is the best rendition of the genre I have found.