G. L. Pease Bohemian Scandal

I have to highly recommend this blend. It has been quite a while since I tried some and I opened a tin over the new year looking to check up on how things are coming along. Well things are coming along just fine I must say. The tin aroma is just incredible! Very complex smoke. Every tin that I have opened of this stuff has been stuffed to the gills and this tin was no exception which creates finely ground tobacco that can make it a pain to pack. Takes nothing away from the wonderfull smoke though. i would smoke this stuff every day if I could. I love good Syrian and this blend has good stuff in it. I don't think it's worth the 100+ $$ price tag but I will buy it in the two figure price tag and might decide 100+ was worth it if I totally ran out and needed a fix of this and only this would do. The best balkan of the bunch IMO. MMMMMMM!! Big GLP fan here and getting worse year by year so take it for what it's worth.

I was gifted some BS after losing auction after auction for a tin on eBay. I had been so excited about finally getting to try this coveted blend.

This is a delicious blend that smokes wonderfully. It's a shame that we probably won't see any of this in the future. I can't highly recommend this blend to anyone because it's unavailable and I don't think it's worth the price (over $100 for 2oz.) on eBay.

It couldn?t be said better, yes, this blend promises a taste, and delivers a feast! The Syrian is wine-like, possessing subtlety and nuances that would be easily lost to a heavy hand at the blending table. Bright and red Virginias are used, and rare oriental tobaccos to compliment the spice of the Latakia; hints of cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon are present, along with a gentle smokiness. A soft, slightly tangy sweetness continues throughout the bowl, with the complex, earthy notes from the oriental tobaccos providing depth. The flavor is bold enough for casual smoking, but sufficiently refined to be engaging during more contemplative moods. Wonderfully balanced, it is excellent in its youth, yet sturdy enough for long aging. Enjoy it now, and be sure to cellar plenty for future adventures! Truly a 4 star!

Yummy. Good rich orientals and syrian latakia. I have many tins of this. The complexity and richness of this blend is amazing. Its aroma is exotic and intoxicating. I pick up notes of frankincense, myrrh, the smokiness of latakia, and a pleasant toastiness. Age works wonders with this blend. Tis most unfortunate that Mr. Pease can no longer get Syrian Latakia.

As a lover of English/Balkan blends, I had BoScan on my short list. I ran around and paid a lot of green for a tin via a nice ebay seller. After about 10 bowls, I've come to the conclusion I'm not enough of a connoisseur. I'll just throw out a few observations and be done with it. I rated it three stars, so as not to change the average.

Packs and lights nicely. Burns super fast! Not hot, just quickly. Somewhat like an English blend -- is this what they USED to be like? Plenty of peppery notes and, yup, some wine-like flavoring. The oriental component seems to be top notch. There's so much going on in the flavor department, I just can't keep up. This must be for the pipester who sits around with friends and describes things. It's more of a distraction for me.

Maybe I'll get smarter . . . yuh, right.

I got ten ounces of Bohemian Scandal in January 2005. I smoked two ounces immediately, but did not find the blend living up to the expectations that had been generated.

Coming back to it after a gap of two years I find that the colours are largely brown with some darker shades. The tin aroma is muted. In the pipe it reminds me of one of Sullivan Powell mixtures - but a thirty year old memory of taste could very well be at fault. It has a kind of subdued richness of taste which is very appealing for its somewhat faded elegance. I think Bohemian Scandal is to Odyssey as Durbar is to Nightcap. It is good. It is very good.

Well here it is the famed Bohemian Scandal! And -- wosh -- now its gone!

If all you did was smell a pipe tobacco this would be the best Pipe Tobacco ever. Period. It has the smokiness of Latakia but none of the darkness and mustiness associated with the Cyprian variety. The smell also contains hints of clove, cinnamon and most of all, it is powerfull and pungent! What a delight.

In the bowl, however this blend is a major disappointment. First the Virginias can smoke hot, which is sadly almost habitual in most of Pease's blends: the virginias are too raw in need aging; no wonder they keep badgering us to stock up and cellar his blends (though we really shouldn't have to). Another letdown is the fact that the Syrian does not deliver in the smoke its olfactory promise --too bad. Of course, none of this jives with the almost reflexive and sycophantic praise of some in the internet community of pipe smokers regarding any and all of Pease's blends (usually the latest product gets the louder praise). I mean comparing it with a controled substance is a little much wouldn't you say so? Truth be told, some of the praise may be generated by what could be called a precious form of nostlalgia since though just released, this blend is now unavailable due to a fire!

This second Syrian Latakia shortage (for Pease belnds) in 4 years has created quite the frenzy on asp and ebay, since apparently Syrian Latakia will, once again, never be available!

However, I clearly remember reading that the suppliers wanted to insure there was going to be a constant demand of Syrian Latakia. Some have said that creating a demand for Syrian was part of the impetuous for the creation of Bohemian Scandal. So let me get this right: now that there is a demand, the suppliers bail? This is all almost too strange to be true my dear Watson. Perhaps overrating isn't the only thing that makes B.S. so scandalous...

In the final analysis, this blend needs a lot aging. It might be that in four or five years it will be worthy of all the fuss. Right now it isn't.

After visual examination of the mixture, I have found this one uses Two different Oriental tobaccos as a "base", one for sweetness, the other for a naturally aromatic "spice". A small quantity of Virginia leaf, and the small leaf Latakia in a larger proportion to the Virginia. This blend is a full flavored one. The mystery presented, comes from the Orientals, with the Latakia leaf being a less sweet variety compared to mixtures using a sweeter Cyprian latakia. Most latakia we know of today is made from the Smyrna(Izmir)leaf variety. The Smyrna is the most naturally aromatic of the Orientals, prior to fire-curing with the smoke of Asaitic oak wood and herbs. The advertised Syrian condiment latakia is a pleasantly less sweet component to this blend--the base Orientals compensating. To my taste, to harmonize a blend of this sort--"panning" of the mixture, after blending, with heat, tends to make a harmonized end product, as the people of Rattray's of Perth, Scotland, have done, in years past. For a further study of the differences of Oriental tobaccos, Milton Sherman's "ALL ABOUT TOBACCO" is useful. This blend was a nice surprise, and pleasant to smoke, but a bit overrated because of the shortage. If you really like Syrian latakia, McClellands has some to offer, readily available, in the style of Balkan mixtures.

Wow, exquisite stuff this is. To me, what sets Greg's blends apart from the pack is his mastery of the interplay between different types of tobaccos. Bohemian Scandal is one of the best examples of this fine art that I've come across in a long time. It offers up a new and intriguing experience each time it is smoked. There is just so much going on in this blend. The closest summarization I can offer is a most enjoyable mingling of spiciness and sweetness. Often, a woody, almost cedarlike note is what I notice. Other times, it is the smooth, sweet undertones that catch my attention. The flavor alternates between these and other aspects throughout the duration of the smoke. Very smooth yet very complex, this stuff is just superbly blended. I can't wait to see how Mr. Pease manages to follow up on this masterpiece in subsequent Heirloom Series offerings.