G. L. Pease Telegraph Hill

The sample that I got was a bit too dry for my tastes so I put the sample in a bowl and put a wet towel over the top of it for about 4 hours. After that I pulled some out and started loading my pipe. This stuff was really easy to load and tamped down really easily.

Upon lighting this blend up I was greeted with very, very mild Virginias. I didn?t taste any Perique in there yet but since I have experienced this before with other blends I wasn?t too worried about it. This blend burns very cleanly and doesn?t require any relights.

Okay, getting near the middle of the bowl and I am still waiting for any kind of appearance from the Perique. I get subtle whiffs of it as I?m smoking but nothing that ever tastes like it in my draw. Now I had read some of the reviews on tobaccoreviews.com and knew ahead of time that this blend was pretty light on the Perique but I certainly wasn?t expecting this.

Down at the bottom of the bowl now and there has been the vague appearance of Perique right near the end of the smoke.

Overall, I didn?t like the blend as a VaPer blend. As a Virginia it was pretty good. It was very mild and never presented a problem either to my tongue or to the burn of the blend. This blend would probably serve as a good bridge for a straight Virginia smoker to start down the VaPer road but I think that anyone who is a VaPer smoker will find this blend way too plain.

Tin: Date stamped on bottom: 100906(09OCT06). Lightly musty, tangy wheat-straw aroma. Mostly red, some light tan. The Perique is supple, not a hard flake, and comprises ~5%. The tobacco is supple, springy and moist. A week later, I would say it has fruity tone; this may be due to the tin being opened for a week, or a change in perception.

Packing & Lighting: Some of the tobacco is long and stringy. Took several matches to get this stuff to stay lit, and then a lot of frantic puffing to keep it that way, partly due to the way it was packed. In another pipe, it behaved better. When smoked outdoors on a cool day, it produced the usual moisture in the stem.

Taste & Aroma: Rather unremarkable, stale, particularly compared to other Fog City Selections. No bite.

Smoked in another briar a week later, it is vaguely pungent woodsy.

Nicotine: mild to medium. The Perique does not contribute much.

Room Note: Somewhat sharp, smoky, tolerable.

Overall: Maybe I got a bad batch. A few flecks looked molded. The perique presence seemed to be perceptible only after the tin had been opened for a few days. Compared to other FCS blends, 2 stars.

The tin aroma of the long-cut wide ribbon is dominated by the tang of perique layered over the clean, earthy scents of good quality, natural virginias. Though cut for wide gauge chambers, this performed best when chopped to varying degrees in order to pair with the narrower chambers for which this blend seems suited.

The grain and toast character of gold leaf plays well of the richness of the orange and red varieties. The perique is pronounced, yet not overbearing. There is a nutty richness to the favor that builds throughout the bowl.

Telegraph Hill is rich and flavorsome. It is elegant and refined, and will undoubtedly gain dignity with age. This seemed best in narrow to medium gauge chambers.

I am only beginning to explore VAs, but this was a treat. Sugary (not syrupy, but a pleasant 'lightly dusted' type of sweetness) in the beginning and a very good smoke to the bottom of the bowl with the flavors changing pleasantly throughout. Very little bite detected even though I maybe should've dried it a little bit more before smoking and so puffed a bit harder than normal. Very nice.

Telegraph Hill.06/03/07. In a nutshell,just read the description on the tin! "It's totally correct" Highly recommended.

I don?t know a thing about G.L. Pease, and I?m not that interested, but this blend seemed to have a very west coast notion on what a virginia/perique blend ought to be-- as others here have said, Telegraph Hill is muted in its flavors, probably somewhat pedestrian, but being pedestrian isn?t that terrible and muted flavors can be a good thing. Not everything has to grab you by the horns-- I think there are other tins in my collection that can wow me every single time I light my pipe. What I mean to say is that this tobacco smokes well and is a fine blend on its own merits. It?s like the Chet Baker of my tobaccos. I don?t always need the Miles Davis of blends to please the palate and the nose. I find it a welcome and relaxing smoke.

I have nine of the Dark Lord's blends in my top tier rotation which will say something of what I feel about his work.

Unfortunately, Telegraph Hill is not among those. Clearly, it has everything going for it as far as quality, burning characteristics and so on. I just don't find it all that flavorful. But it might be just my taste in which case, add a star or even two if you like Vaper's.

On the other hand, Mr. Pease has produced what might be the best Vaper anywhere. My suggesstion...Try Fillmore first. You may very well have no need to even try another.

Recommended with reservation.

I could have written Noorrmm's review. Montgomery and now Telegraph Hill, the first of the FCS I have smoked. Both are big yawns. Even with a taste for the subtle, there must be a subtle something there to taste. A year in the tin unopened apparently was not enough to settle this down.

I thought I would love TH because the side stream aroma is delightful and there are a few, very few, moments of life. Yet, it is harsh on the tongue and throat, thin on flavor and just really disappointing. Group 3 to Group 5 pipes were used to discover TH, Smaller was better, as was a most judicious puffing.

The style of this blend is something akin to McClelland Blakeney's Best Acadian Ribbon, though the latter is much tastier, cooler and complex. If you are looking for that experience of swirling luminance of Virginia/Perique blends, such as Three Nuns, Elizabethan Mixture, Solani 633, don't spend your gold Eagles on TH.

You have no idea how it pains me to admit this, but I mostly agree with PIPESTUD on this mixture.

It's a nice fine ribbon cut, mostly orange and red shades with some small amounts of lemon and dark brown.

The aroma is just another medium Virginia with a trace of Perique.

When first lit, it doesn't pack the flavor of Cumberland, nor does it have the light grassy delicate taste of Stratford. It does have a good mouth feel, but the flavors seem muted. The can I opened was about one year old. Since it was introduced in 2005, nobody knows how well it will age, but this one just didn't bloom for me the way other GLP blends do. It smokes well all the way down the bowl, and leaves a clean ash in a dry pipe, but that's it.