G. L. Pease Telegraph Hill

Not bad if one likes Virginian blends. I took this as a break from my usual latakia smoke. Asked for a mild Va with a bit of perique and this is what my tobacconist at Barclay and Rex recommended. If I go for a Va. preferred Solani VA in the yellow tim (flakes) or a McClelland especially the Xmas blend. It is what it is and if one likes a mild Va, then this could be a nice smoke. Will update as I work through the tin...second pipe was better than the first so maybe before I am done, will really like it and have to change the score from a two star.

Update: Starting to enjoy the Va tang as a break from full latakia blends. Changed the recommendation to a 3 star if put into the context of a Va/Perique blend

A halfway smokable VA/Per blend but not the best I've ever had. There are better ones available. Mildly sweet virginia with a peppery tone provided by the perique. Certainly but not something I would go out of my way to purchase again. Rather harsh and unrefined for a Pease blend.

Update 6-24-06 I am definitely upgrading to four stars. Sometimes tobaccos grow on you, sometimes not. Not sure what happened here, but going from two to four stars is a leap. I am obviously enjoying TH much more now. The amount of perique seems just right now and I detect hints of berries, fruit, and faint citrus. A wonderful smoke when your palate is clear. TH is starting to resemble more of a toned-down Haddos rather than Bayou Morning. Enjoy.

aj



Old:

The tobaccos used by Greg are high quality and Telegraph Hill is no exception. However, Telegraph Hill did not quite do it for for me. This is rather odd since I enjoy many of the C&D offerings, especially Briar Fox and Bayou Morning. Telegraph Hill is not Bayou Morning, nor does it attempt to be. However, there are similarities. Anyway, the perique is far too weak for my liking and there is a dry ashy taste about mid-bowl. However, there is a short lived creaminess which is nice. Adding some blending perique helps Telegraph Hill, but I still find it a little boring.

My first minutes with this tobacco were not very promising: it seemed flat, with very little taste, too delicate and grassy.

After 5 minutes of "warming up", this tobacco turned out a real beauty. The great thing of this blend is its continuous evolution of flavour, which becomes very rich and ever changing (usually in better) until the end of the bowl.

For several reasons the blend reminds me of Montgomery, with its great Virginia base: delicate, but flavorful. Of course here there isn't that "coffee and milk" impression, but rather a delicate sourness, at times almost metallis. Some hay, some fruity acidity and sweetness, some slight and pleasant grassiness.

The Perique content is quite moderate (I don't like it in big percentages), but its presence is clearly felt taste-wise. The result is a supremely smooth blend.

Give this tobacco some time to evolve in the bowl, and you will be rewarded by a very nice smoking experience.

Another winning Virginia+condiments from Greg Pease: I had always preferred his Latakia blends, but it seems he has started a successful streak (at least for my taste) with this Fog City Selection.

*Revised* 29 May 2005 - I got tired of a friend going on and on about how good TH was. Since our tastes are very similar, I had to wonder why he liked it so much. He brought his tin over one night and it was a whole different experience for me than the first tin I got. I guess the first tin I purchased had something strange going on with it, so I purchased another tin the next day myself.

With the tin my friend had and this tin, I experienced a very rich and fragrant blend that when sipped slowly had layers of subtle flavors. Very, very unlike the first tin I purchased that was tasteless. From past experience with peace blends this should also age wonderfully If I can leave it alone long enough.

Challenging, but rewarding. Very subtle, but savory notes. Small sips give you blasts of flavor. Great first bowl of the day smoke. Highly recommended. -Spiral Out

Appearance of the tobacco: I had a 2 ounce tin with the date "April 3, 2020." In addition I got about 20 grams of the same tobacco, but with the date "July 2015. So I had the opportunity to compare two-year-old tobacco with seven-year-old tobacco. In both cases, the blend was cut in fine short ribbon, Virginia of several varieties, from lemon to red, with orange predominating. I suspect that there are two varieties of perique involved here: one dark brown, the other almost black, which is extremely fragmentary. Of course, the colors of the aged blend are somewhat darker than those of the fresh blend. The tobacco is perfectly packed into the pipe, and its moisture content is almost perfect.

Flavor: right out of the tin, you can smell figs, accompanied by salty olives and pungent pepper. There is almost no herbs and hay, instead there is a woody note, and the aroma of bread is not pronounced, and has a slight yeasty undertone. If you let the tobacco rest a bit in the air and open up, these Virginia notes increase, and a slight citrus aroma close to orange appears together in the tobacco. But this only applies to fresh tobacco. With aging, there are serious changes in flavor. Tobacco at the age of seven years has a much more monolithic flavor in which the individual notes are quite difficult to make out. The note of pungent pepper recedes into the background, the salty olives slightly increase, with the distinct note of plum. The woody notes and bread notes mix with all of this, and the resulting blend smells like plum cake.

The taste of tobacco immediately gives the notion that perique is not just mentioned here, but is present in a measurable quantity. However, its amount is still lower than in Fillmore, and significantly lower than in Triple Play. Nevertheless, having tasted Telegraph Hill of different ages, I can firmly state: in a fresh tin perique has more of a spicy taste, and with age the spiciness goes away, and the spiciness and fruit and berry notes increase. The Virginia blend from a fresh tin brings to the palate only what is easily discernible and simple: a dry woody taste and some herbaceous note. But the aged tobacco gets the necessary sweetness, and its taste becomes more whole and unchanged than that of the fresher tobacco. However, in both cases the tobacco is smoked quite cool and slowly, though in the fresh form you should be careful about the pace of smoking at the beginning. The tobacco burns evenly into a light gray dusty ash, with little moisture from the fresher blend, and the aged tobacco leaves almost no moisture. The strength of the tobacco is slightly below average, the nicotine hit is not a threat to the pipe grower. The aftertaste is not persistent, sweet and woody, similar to birch sap.

The smoke is loose and has a woody smell. It dissipates easily.

What is the result? First of all - if you buy this tobacco, you need to put the tin away on a shelf and forget it ever existed for five years or more! It changes a lot in flavor and taste, going from a fairly ordinary tobacco to a very high quality blend that can compete with the best representatives of its type. Nevertheless, the amount of perique in it is relatively small, although, in my opinion, more than in Pease's other blend, Stratford. Next is pure taste from me as the reviewer. I like Fillmore better - a little fuller taste, a little more perique, a little sweeter Virginia, a little higher strength. But Telegraph Hill is well worth recommending as a very good virginia-perique type blend. And in general, it's great that Pease made sure that he has a great lineup of classic vapers where everyone can find their own - Stratford, Telegraph Hill, Six Pense, Fillmore, Triple Play... And for fans of vapers with orientals there is Regent's Flake and its half brother, Temple Bar, as well as Cairo.

I smoked this blend side by side with Stratford, another ribbon cut VAPer by GLP. Both cans were of similar age, tinned just days apart. This blend contains darker leaf than Stratford. There is definitely more Perique and it is long cut. I’d estimate 6-9% of Louisiana leaf by visual inspection. The tin aroma is sweet, funky, acetic plum. This was drier than any other C&D produced blend I’ve ever smoked. The leaf, however did not turn to dust, and was pliable. It burns uncannily well. There are dark, earthy dry hay notes. I also enjoyed some pleasant hints of crisp, fresh autumn leaves. This is spicier than Stratford. I question chili, black, or possibly white pepper on the palate. There are some nice yeasty baked bread notes when smoked in a wide bowl.

To summarize, the smoke was earthy, woodsy, and savory. I did get some fatigue and frank tongue bite after multiple bowls. I also found that the Virginias had the same sort of rough mouthfeel that I have suffered with some (not all) other C&D products. This is not a bad blend, just not for me.

Everything that needs to be said about this blend has already been said. It is a smooth and solid blend that sets its own bar when it comes to VaPers. Nothing else (IMO) comes close.

The description that G.L. Pease uses to promote this blend says it all: “A sturdy foundation of Virginia tobaccos, each chosen for its particular character, is enhanced with fine flakes of perique for a refined smoking experience. Telegraph Hill is rich and flavorful, with a satisfying, lingering finish. Each sip builds upon the last, creating a marvelous edifice of taste and aroma.”

Enough said. Buy yourself a tin (or tub) and enjoy. 4 Stars