Wilke Pipe Tobacco Surbrug's Best Make

Another fine blend from a fine tobacconist. Bestmake is rich and smooth, without being heavy. Don't let the word cavendish fool you. It really is unsweetened, and takes any astringency out of the blend. The burley gives body, and lends a nutty quality to the smoke. There is just enough Virginia to keep the burley and Latakia from being harsh, but adds no detectable sweetness. The Latakia lends a mildly salty quality to the blend. There is a goodly portion of it, but it is far from overbearing. The aroma is very much like wood smoke. I love it, but others may not!

I don't think of this as a British style, more like a good American-English. The cut is mostly small cubes and ribbons. It loads beautifully, lights with one match, and burns down to a powder dry ash.

Fortunately, a good rain cooled things off a bit this evening, allowing me to sample this without suffering in the north Florida heat. This isn't a complex blend, rather, it is smooth, mellow, and satisfying. It would make a wonderful outdoor smoke on a brisk, autumn, day.

Not my P&W first choice, but surely a good one. At a glance, you see a rough, mostly cube cut with a little presence of ribbons; it has a nice spicy smell, with some liquorice notes. It lights easily and burn steadily and cool, mostly due to the burley presence. The burley is really the first note that comes out, and dominates for the first half of the bowl, though you can taste the notes smelled before surrounding and supporting the smoke. Halfway down all the tobacco notes mix together and you can finally taste the latakia. A great blend.

The sample of Wilke Best Make that I received was at a good moisture level. It was a little dry but still springy. The tin note was sweet, with an evident topping present that I couldn’t make out. I could smell the campfire smokiness from the Latakia. I picked up on woody notes and brown sugar as well.

Upon lighting the topping is quite noticeable. It’s sweet and creamy, and melds well with the flavors of the tobacco. It sublimates the tobaccos to a degree at the beginning of the smoke, however it slowly fades a little revealing more of the tobacco flavors. That being said it never disappears and is present in ever puff of the smoke. The Latakia is Smokey, woody, and sports an incense note. This isn’t a Lat-bomb however the Latakia is the lead player. The VAs are a little bright and grassy that can sport a sharp edge if aggressively puffed. The burley has bit of molasses and earthy notes and help round the blend and bring the flavors together. The cavendish offers brown sugar throughout the whole smoke and sweetens the blend as well as helps balance it.

Best Make smokes dry and cool, and didn’t bite. As previously mentioned, it could sport a light rough edge if puffed aggressively. It stayed lit well with just a couple relights. This isn’t a strong English, It was fairly light in nicotine and could be smoked all day. 3.25 out of 4 stars.

Once again, I can only parrot what other reviews have said in the past.. A mild, pushed closer toward medium latakia blend with an anise/licorice sweet flavoring. The burley tames the Virginia with a walk through the earthy forest. packs easily, lights well and burns to the bottom. Not a Wilke best choice for me, but a company every pipe smoker should try for their varieties.