Hearth & Home Beverwyck

Well, I?ve been reading reviews on this site for a while and have decided to jump into the fray with my first review. I see from this board that Hearth and Home: Beverwyck hasn?t had much written about it of late. Well, I?m jumping in to say that this is quite good stuff indeed.

Beverwyck is a step along my search for the perfect all-day, everyday tobacco. This is part of an order of 4 Hearth and Home blends from Pipesandcigars.com. I have smoked this in a number of pipes.

The cut of the tobacco was kind of strange to me at first. This is a cube cut tobacco, or as other reviewers have noted, granular. The cubes are about 1/8? on a side. It took a while to get the hang of packing it into a pipe but I have learned to just pour/sprinkle, or scoop tobacco into the pipe until the bowl is full, tap the side a few times to settle it, perhaps top it off some, and tamp it down ever so slightly. If done properly, it doesn?t need much tamping during the smoke except to settle the ash as it burns.

The burn is clean, no goop or gunk is left in the bottom of the pipe, just ash and a tiny bit of charcoal-like tobacco bits (a dry dottle). This stuff produces copious amounts of creamy smoke. There is an alternation between the creamy Burley and a slightly sweet poking through of the Virginia and Perique. At the same time there is the steady but not overpowering Latakia. (Think of Pachelbel?s canon.) The Burley and Latakia provide the bass line, the Virginia and hybrid cubes provide the melody. Others have commented on a tea taste. Well, I haven?t exactly tasted that but I have tasted something else. At this point I cannot quite put my finger on what it is.

As other esteemed reviewers have noted, there does seem to be some variability from pipe to pipe and from bowl to bowl. I believe that this is a result of the cube cut of this blend. The flavor which one gets is dependant on the proportional mix of cubes you get in that particular pipe. To be honest, I think that this is what keeps the blend from becoming boring. Not only does this affect the change of tastes within a particular bowl but also provides a nice variation as the day goes along?if you are smoking multiple bowls of this very nice stuff.

My personal qualm is that there is, to me, a certain peppery quality to this blend which I am not particularly fond of. I believe that this is caused by the Perique contained therein as I notice it in other blends containing that choice tobacco from Louisiana. I wonder what this would taste like with Turkish instead of Perique?

All in all this is a wonderful blend which burns slowly, coolly and has a good supply of vitamin N. If you like the combination of sweet-ish and Latakia, like I do, you owe it to yourself to give this stuff a whirl.

****

The Dutch predecessor appellation to New York's capitol, Albany, yet no Dutch Reformed tobacco this! I've never been to Albany, but even if it amounts to the dullest of places, it's been made infinitely brighter by the largesse of this incredible blend. The pebble cut makes for easy packing, and like Russ Ouellette's wonderful Count Pulaski and Old Tartan, this is a truly old style, full flavored masterpiece. Just the right admixture of burley, va, latakia and perique, this ought to be tinned and made available to more smokers throughout the country to enjoy. Soon to be in my regular rotation and definitely unique in the PipesandCigars tobacco triumverate.

Five of five stars.

When I opened the pouch I kind got goosebumps and decided to pack this blend in my hand made churchwarden. To begin I notice the leaves had lots of color from yellows to dark browns. The smell is maybe a light english or who knows I just go with the gut on this. At first puff I notice latakia and the perque play its notes of smoke in the back ground while the hybrid in my opinion gave a brassy taste that might have enhanced the latakia. The virginia and burley gave a silky nutty smoke toward the mid bowl then it finished off nutty before I had to dump the ash. What an experience.

I don't see the comparison to the House of Windsor tobaccos. Maybe as they used to be, I never smoked the previous incarnations. This is a really tasty medium English blend. I have trouble distinguishing the other tobaccos once Latikia is added to a mix. So to me this is a slightly sweet, a little smokey, and full-bodied tobac. Not a great deal different from other nice English blends but the price is right and the tobaccos are first-rate! Very satisfying as well. Well worth a try unless you dislike Latakia.

Wow! I just smoked some more of this in my Paja and it is something else! The hybrid has a distinct tea flavor; it really tastes like tea, not just smelling like it or acting like a casing. I did not taste the Latakia nearly as much as the Va's and the hybrid (... well you can ask Russ what it is, but it sure is wonderful).

Perhaps I am just amazed at the unique flavor, but I really get a mild to sweet flavor more than a regular English flavor regardless of what is in there. The Latakia seems to just gives it some body, which it does very well with the Perique in the nose and adding some lovely fruit to the body as well.

Beverwyck lights and burns like a dream, requiring only light tamping. The smoke flows from the first puffs to the dry smooth completely tobaccoless ending all in one great smoke.... so I shall not be giving a middle and ending. That is not to say it is a one-note smoke, that is to say it takes you on a journey and you go with it. The flavors evolve, they do not transition, so it would be impossible to say, "here is the middle of the bowl".

Beverwyck is one great smoke for a meer or cob, but I can tell you that my briar loved it. Complex, medium, flavorful, & unique but easy on the palate all at the same time? a real masterpiece.

This will become a regular smoke for me. 9 out-of 10. Namaste?

Gorgeous cube cut's of burley, Virginia and a Hybrid intermix with dark latakia and perique into a visual representation of golden tans, medium to dark browns and blacks. Very asthetically pleasing, easy to pack and light, this blend burns clean and even to a fine medium gray ash.

At first match, the creamy sweet nuttiness of the Va and Burley wafts upwards. After just a few more sips, the latakia and perique comes through adding a thick smooth smokiness and soft spicey flavor that quickly developes into a well balanced combination of flavors and unique body.

By middle bowl the flavors deepen, none of the varitiels dominating, instead, the complexity tantilizes the pallate with thick smokey sweet creamy nuttiness rounded off with a soft spicey edge.

The final third deepens in body, smoothness and flavors with smoke so thick you can cut it with a knife. When the last sip is consumed, the aftertaste lingers in a most pleasent way and your already thinking about smoking another bowl...maybe two, or three...