Hearth & Home Ten to Midnight

The deeply rich, smoky, woody Cyprian latakia is the star component. The Turkish and Orientals are also smoky, woody and floral with some spice and earth, a hint of salt and butter, and some dry sourness in an important support role as you’ll notice these aspects in every intake. Sometimes, they recess just a little, but not enough to disappear from any puff you take. In the background, the matured Carolina and Virginias offer some grass, citrus, fruit with a very light fermented sweetness, and a touch of earth. They may also be responsible for the continual barbecue note. The nic-hit is dead center between mild and medium. Won’t bite, and has no harsh or dull moments. The krumble kake has a little denseness, but breaks apart easily enough. Burns a little slow with a cool, clean, and mostly consistent flavor. Requires a fair amount of relights and you may have to stir up the tobacco in the last quarter of the bowl just a mite. Leaves little moisture in the bowl. The rich, fragrant after taste lingers as does the room note. Not an all day smoke, but one that you’ll come back to if it fits your flavor profile.

-JimInks

I didn't have any trouble rubbing out this blend at all, and it lit and burned just fine for me. I can taste more than latakia easily when smoking at a liesurely pace. Reminds me more of 965 than Penzance. I like the taste, very good sipping tobacco, it is sort of light on nicotine, but that might not be a bad thing if you smoke it at night before bed. Recommended...3 stars

UPDATE: I have let this age for a while, and the oriental is far more pronounced than the other components. I actually think of it as an oriental blend now, and it's still very good, smooth and slow burninng.

I really like the appearance of this krumble kake, hard as a rock, but contrary to other reviews I find it simple to break up and load. This is a very fragrant kake that takes me back to the old country (Croatia) remanisant of the winter fires and smokehouses curing hams and sausages.

Nice and dry it lights up easily and burns well straight to the bottom of the bowl. The pungant flavors reveal all of its componants, smokey, slightly sweet and somewhat floral, but the latakia is always at the forfront. As is so often the case with me, when the rich flavors really begin to develope I tend to puff harder and faster wanting more, thus ruining what I had. When puffed to hard those smokey sweet flavors quickly turn into an acrid insence type of wretch.

Bottom line, sit back, smoke slowly and enjoy !

It's fun to encounter tobacco in an unusual form, and I'm glad to see that the crumble cake is still alive and kicking. As for what really counts -- taste and aroma -- this one can be recommended.

Despite its aroma in the tin and in the smoke, the flavors are actually quite mild. You can smoke this for 90 minutes and not taste it when you set down your pipe. (For some, that's a benefit. For me? Not so much.)

This constantly gets compared to Penzance. The comparison is apt; this is as close to Penzance-without-being-Penzance that I've encountered. But for me, a lover of that Esoterica blend, it lacks the spice and effervescence that you'll find in a fresh tin of Penzance. With some time in the tin, Penzance's spice and effervescence fades away. (It's one of the few blends I've tried that is much better fresh than aged.) But it's the "aged Penzance" profile that you get here. In Ten to Midnight, the latakia dominates against what tastes like a soft cavendish foundation, only occasionally allowing waves of orientals to poke through. This seems to have more latakia, less orientals, and significantly more cavendish in it than Penzance. It's a softer smoke as a result, without the distinctive qualities that keep me returning to Penzance.

But let's set direct comparisons aside.

As a Balkan, Ten to Midnight succeeds somewhat, although the cavendish mutes things for me. (I don't believe cavendish belongs in a true Balkan, and I'm convinced it's here in good portion.) In addition, too many puffs seemed to consist of nothing but latakia. I believe a good Balkan blends the latakia and orientals in sufficient proportions to create layers of richness that neither tobacco could manage on its own. This never reached that level for me.

I don't think the Virginias surfaced at all during the smoke, making this much less successful if smoked as a straight English. It's perhaps more successful as a Scottish blend (because of my belief that there's unsweetened cavendish present), with an emphasis on the latakia.

Ten to Midnight is certainly enjoyable no matter what you call it or how you categorize it. But it's certainly not a Penzance replacement for me, and it won't make any of Pease's Balkans quake in their boots. (Except for Kensington, the only Pease Balkan that fails, in my opinion.) I'm glad I tried this, but I won't be buying any more.

One Note: Although this can require an extraordinary amount of finger strength to break up, I found that the long bars of tobacco actually have a kind of "grain" to them; try breaking this up from every angle, and you'll find that one direction works better than all the others. (And breaking this up as much as possible is essential if you want the mixture to remain lit in the bowl.)

Bob

For the most part, I have been a fan of Russ’ blends, but my first contact with 10 to Midnight wasn’t all that great. I didn’t mind the dryness of kake, but it seemed a bit rough, similar to some of the way some C&D blends hit me. (I have wondered if C&D sourced the components of this blend). But with some time put away, it really mellows out. The kake breaks pretty easily, although if allowed to dry anymore, the Latakia can get “dusty.” I have only smoked TTM in bulk form so it may be a little moister in the tinned version. It burns clean and as another reviewer mentioned, the Oriental shows itself quite a bit, although I found that when TTM isn’t aged, the Latakia can dominate more than I would prefer and drowns out the Orientals a bit. I like this on our cold New England winter evenings more so than as a daytime or hot weather smoke so it’s not an everyday smoke for me, but a nice change of pace.

Hearth & Home - Ten to Midnight (Signature Series).

Ten to Midnight's appearance isn't how I thought it would be; I expected to remove the lid and find one, or two kakes, similar to Black Frigate or Kajun Kake by Cornell & Diehl. Instead, the only comparison I can think of is Bengal Slices: thin slices of kake/VERY thick flakes. Even though they're easy to rub, about a third of the blend's already crumbled inside the tin.

The smoke's mainly Latakia, with the Oriental's a fair way behind. I can't really taste the Virginia, it seems smothered by the others. Now, something which I expected to loathe was the room-note, but I actually think it's quite nice. And something that's even better, my wife doesn't mind me smoking this in the lounge with her! This burns very well, and gives a fairly cool, bite free, smoke. The nicotine, to me, is a little below medium; a nic-lover may want something that has more to offer.

I knew this was a four star blend when I took my first puff:

Highly recommended.

One of the H&H more popular blends with a lot of flavor that is full, rich and screams of quality Latakia. I would compare this favorably to Dunhill's Nightcap and do believe it is a heavy, palate lovin' tobacco for English fans.

I wanted to be angry about comparisons to penzance, believing penzance to be a unique and superior blend unparalleled and alone in its greatness. I purchased a sampler pack along with a pipe recently, including ten to midnight and Larry?s blend, based mainly on the reviews here. The two ounces of ten to midnight came in a single brick, moist enough to crumble easily, dry enough to smoke immediately. Except that Penzance comes in moist rectangle flakes, ten to midnight could fool me in a blind taste test, very similar, and after experimenting with a few bowls it might even be a bit more versatile and interesting than Penzance (e.g. crumble some to dust some in small chunks and it burns differently, the flavors change). I continue to be impressed by the folks at pipesandcigars, with their customer service and with Russ O?s blending genius. Next time I visit my folks in Mid Michigan I?m taking a day trip to their brick and mortar store.

This is a pressed cake in the Balkan style. The flavor profile is pretty typical for this type of blend, only I find it to be a bit sweeter and less one-dimensional than some have found. Despite the high proportion of latakia, the latakia in no way overwhelms the virginias or orientals (it's not Pirake Kake, in other words) although it lacks the evolving complexity of a GLP Balkan. There were points where it made me think of a kicked-up version of Frog Morton on the Town, which is a good thing. The only drawbacks to this tobacco are that it seems to have a little trouble burning at points and is rougher on my mouth than I'd like. I think some aging might help the latter characteristic, so I'm giving this 3 stars right now but may revise upward if a year in a jar improves it.

I was given a sample of this from my nephew and probably had the pleasure of about five bowls of it. Every one was fantastic. It is smoky and smooth. Everything you would want from a latakia heavy blend. So if you are not a big latakia fan you will definitely want to steer clear of this one.

As the name suggests it is a crumble cake which is always fun and usually adds points to a blend for me. I am up in the air about how to rate this one as my bowls I have had lead me to believe this is a four star blend, but I just feel I will need to delve into a full tin before I can put it that high. So three stars for now.