Hearth & Home Marble Kake

PROS: It is a crumble cake, nice red and bright tobacs,good and sweet. packs nicely lights alright, good price, smokes to a nice ash.ahhhhhh=).

CONS:had to wait a week for this beauty,should of tryed sooner.

This is my first crumble cake and I love the stuff ,After breaking apart the needed tobac for my pipe it just payed off well,the aroma in my smoke gave of a nutty-hay like bliss. After the first bowl it got a little milder and then poof I was done.

This is a bit sweeter than Veermaster, which isn't a bad thing.

I was a bit lazy in the rubbing and loaded a few small chunks into my bowl. It was difficult to light and keep lit at first.

The taste is wonderful - a great virginia blend with an excellent interplay between VA flavors.

Recommendation: made.

Images granted: of being under dire obligations by the Sicilian mob to play a game of snooker for the life of a certain individual. Knowing I am terrible at the game, I still experience grand elation with the hidden knowledge that this bastard of contention was unduly flirtatious with my mistress some weeks previous.

This blend is in the form of ~ 4"x1/2"x1/2" slabs that were compressed so hard, that I found it difficult to break or strip. It was also on the dry side so the prep work to load a bowl was not worth the effort. How can they call it a crumble cake when you have to cut it? Uneven loading/packing resulted in hot spots or multiple relights but this could have been from my technique. Although the taste was enjoyable on those occasions where I obtained an even burn, the strength was less than my normal choices that usually include Perique.

I'm two for three on RO blends. Marble Kake is another masterpiece from Russ. Other reviewers have covered MK at length. Just let me add that, in addition to being very good, it is also not prone to bite. This is my first exposure to a krumble kake preparation and I must say that I like it. It holds moisture longer in a travel pouch and also provides multiple smoking options. Good stuff!

12-21-2005 I have been doing a side-by-side comparison between Marble Kake and Louisiana Red, also by Pipes and Cigars. My fondness for Marble Kake is growing. I have had no tongue bite. It lights and burns well. And the taste is very nice. To my taste, it is the better of the two above. A very well behaved and thoroughly enjoyable tobacco.

Marbel Kake is is my first experience with a crumble cake. It looks for all the world like particle board, or an organic nutrition bar one would find at a health food store. My four ounce "cake" glistened with a lovely sheen (natural oils?).

The cake breaks up into pieces that easily fill the bowl. The moisture is on the money. I really like the taste, a nice, full, smooth taste of good Virginia tobaccos. I took a little extra time to get this blend burning well, and I think I needed one relight. I will buy this tobacco again.

This is another "Home and Hearth" blend from Russ Ouellette of pipesandcigars.com. Described as a crumble cake of Virginias, both bright and red.

The appearance is a beautiful rectangular bar of moist dark brown to light leaves. It almost looks like a freshly-baked brownie. The scent is subtly sweet and intriguing. The bits break off easily and it is moist enough to be able to cut into perfectly square pieces.

Upon the initial light I am greeting with a sweet and tangy flavor of a good Virginia. I do not detect any casing, just pure tobacco. After the first third of the bowl, the smoke seems to become hot and difficult to keep lit. The flavor seems to transform to steam instead of smoke. The only way to get any flavor is to get a big cloud of smoke going and then even that only makes it harsh. Further down the bowl I occasionally get a very slight cinnamon-like sweetness but it seems few and far between. The rest of the bowl seems to be flavorless and that I am just "going through the motions" of smoking.

To summarize, this blend seems to lack any flavor or satisfaction. It takes more effort to smoke this than it is worth. I smoked two ounces of this in various pipes. I smoked it in virgin cob and briars as well as well-established pipes that have smoked Virginias...all of which returned the same results. Perhaps it is my body chemistry, my sense of smell/taste or perhaps I am just missing something but this is not something I will be ordering again.

This is another fine blend from Russ at P&C. For me, MK delivered a ?toasty-roasty? mild and mellow taste/flavor with a subdued sweetness that was pure delight. I did not find it overly complex but it does weave a subtle tapestry between the red and bright VAs, i.e., nicely balanced. Its burning qualities are excellent and relights few. I am rapidly becoming a big fan of P&C blends. They are not to be missed!

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this tobacco 9.6 out of 10.

A Viginia blend in a pressed format. It does resemble partical board. My sample came a little on the moist side. No problem though as it fired right up after a little attention and smoked smoothly all the way down. Handle with care however, it seems to crumble very readily. It wouldn't take much to end up too dry and broken into small particles from being hauled around in a pouch. A very tasty Virginia without much bite but plenty of flavor. One note of negativity is the aroma. It smells pretty good while smoking, but the after odor on the clothes reminds me of stale cigarette smoke. Well recommended.

I received my sample of Marble Kake through a tobacco trade with pipemaker Lannes Johnson (thanks, Lannes!). It arrived rubbed out and very dry, and this is the way I smoked it. Marble Kake is an attractive tobacco in the pouch, with equal parts bright and red Virginia leaf. I used two pipes for the test, a fully bent Peterson and a 1/4 bent Stanwell. My tastes in tobacco normally run first and foremost to burley blends, but I also enjoy other types, too. MK loaded easily in both pipes and was lit with two charring lights. It's burn qualities were better than average, as was its' relighting rate.

The real treat comes when you begin puffing on this delightfully complex blend. The flavor starts off with a rich sweetness from the red leaf, then progresses to a zesty tang from the bright Virginias. As the smoke progresses, these two tastes intertwine in a wonderful tribute to the blender's art. Towards the bottom of the bowl, the tangy notes take over and the smoke finishes with a peppery tingle on your palatte. The tobacco burns down to a medium ash with no dottle.

The last treat with MK is its' very reasonable price. There are many high priced bulk blend Virginias that cannot compare to MK, in fact there are a lot of tinned blends not nearly this good. And the folks at Pipes and Cigars give fast, first-rate service.

I am revising my rating system because I've decided taste should always be the most important factor in the selection of any tobacco. My top taste rating is now 20 points, and I'm giving 18 to MK. Lighting and burn rate score 8 out of 10, and price is a perfect 10 of 10. That makes a total of 36 points out of a possible 40. Marble Kake is a big four star blend and a permanent addition to my tobacco cabinet.