Charles Fairmorn Lancer's Slices

To my palate, Lancer's Slices is very similar to Penzance in taste. I would consider it a poor man's Penzance, and, for those who don't have the scratch or the patience for some of that stuff to come along (at a reasonable price), Lancer's Slices makes a good substitute. I find the flavor profile between the two to be nearly identical—Lancer's just a bit more rough around the edges than Penzance. Still, Lancer's a class smoke, though I find it both a tad bit strong and harsh. Back in the day, I used to smoke Bengal Slices, and Lancer's does have some of its qualities, but Bengal was no Penzance. So, in the end, I'd rather be smoking Penzance, therefore Lancer's gets only three stars from me. Is that unfair of me? Perhaps.

Quite frankly, one of the best tasting latakia blends I've ever smoked. Simple latakia and virginia blend - no orientals, no perique. I've never smoked Old Ironsides but this is reminiscent of Bengal Slices, a tin of which I smoked last year. The difference is this has better flavor but the Bengal was smoother. This is a spicy and semi-sweet blast of flavor without a hard-to-take blast of strength. The latakia was pungent but had excellent presence and flavor. Beautiful broken flake cut, and very dark in color.

As good as this stuff tastes, I can't give it a 4th star. Smoking it made my tongue feel grainy... like it had a fine layer of grit on it after finishing the bowl. I don't know if I attribute that to latakia of less quality or what, but it was consistently there. And after smoking this, the taste of latakia was in my mouth for quite awhile! I found this an excellent counterpart to a fine scotch. But it misses my regular rotation due to the cotton mouth I got after each bowl. Try this if you love the taste of latakia and don't want it subdued by too many other tobaccos.

In the Old Ironsides class of tobacco, providing the beef jerky and shoe leather smokiness that the other does, the shoe leather predominating here. Yet the Slicer's leather has a tanginess that is lacking in the former. It brings a fullness to the smoke.

Lancer’s Slices is for smokers who want some Virginia with their Latakia, rather than vice versa. The tobacco is dark, dark brown broken flakes with some black bits. Bag note is smoky Latakia well melded with and dominating the stoved, earthy, slightly piquant, red VAs. Liquid Smoke and “incense” scent have been added, but with more restraint than usual these days. LS can be stuffed and puffed straightaway, or I prefer to dry it some, to dissipate the Liquid Smoke and facilitate burning. I tear some rough “ribbons” to length and loosely load them “vertically” into a group 4 pipe reserved for Lat blends. It lights easily enough and smokes down slowly with some poking. There’s plenty of smoke. Tastes stay much like a more fragrant version of the bag note from top to bottom, except the VA sugars and piquancy build and the Lat sours as LS is smoked down. A particular, earthy, fragrant, woodsy quality makes me think there is some air cured brown VA in this blend, as well. Though the Latakia stays at the wheel, the tempered VAs are good backseat drivers. Strength is mild. Tastes are medium. Aftertaste can start out acrid if LS is smoked down too far, so the bowl ends that way, but in any case it winds up a sweet, lingering best-of-the-smoke.

IMO, Lancer’s Slices is an easy 3, and it might be a 4 for those who pine for this sort of Lat-forward blend.

I first smoked this seven or so years ago. What I am about to state breaks with a lot of commentary but this is afterall about the highly subjective state of personal tatse. During no bowl of this have I ever been reminded of Penzance, it completely lacks that tobacco's depth and smoothness(Please note that my reference to Penzance which I smoked a lot of over the years has nothing to do with whatever it's production of the past two years may taste like because I've stopped looking for it.). It also gets some play as reminiscent of Bengal's which I also don't get.

What it is to my taste is a pretty straight forward heavy latakia and virginia tobacco which delivers a fairly full and consistent smoke. I have sense found other tobaccos I prefer but this is a solid offering. I even bought a pound or so of this at a time when it was truly inexpensive and I still have most of that pound left.

If you like heavy latakias with a background of virginias then you will not be dissappointed.

My experience was somewhere between taking a walk in a forest on a wet Autumn afternoon and having a Tom Yum soup in South-East Asia 🙂

I wouldn't give a strong opinion on the appearance of the tobacco as this was my first bulk tobacco purchase. The leaves are nice but it's not totally consistent. It was easy to load my pipe nevertheless. The tobacco was a bit too humid fresh out of the pouch. It required some re-lights, but burned to a fine white/grey ash anyway.

The smell in the package is rich, woodsy, leathery, smoky with a touch of paprika and maybe ginger and garlic as well.

It is not overly complex on the palate but it does have a nice and consistent taste throughout the bowl. It has a smoky, wet-woodsy taste with citrusy sour-bitterness. Burning wet Autumn leaves and twigs, fresh earth, cypress tree. In the SE-Asian bitter-sour department: lemongrass, lemon leaves, Galangal root. Also some Kalamata olive, at times even dill. The taste is rich and pleasant most of the time, but every once in a while it's a bit too intense - like biting into Galangal root. The smoke does deliver some infrequent nutty notes as well. I even noticed cocoa to my surprise. Throughout the bowl 3-4 times I felt that the taste became muddy for only one sip but then it returned to that savoury smokey-soury taste.

Nicotine-wise it has a nice punch but it's not overwhelming.

I really enjoyed smoking this tobacco. It has an excellent price/value ratio. My only cause for sadness is that Lancer's Slices is a tobacco not available in Hungary 🙂

When first opening this bulk offering I assumed it would be a lat bomb. It has the strong smell of latakia and not much else. The deep dark broken flakes are realy nice looking and easy enough to work with. I found a little(10-20 minutes) drying time seemed to be perfect. I choose to fully rub this tobacco out. The flakes remind me of how mcclelland broken flakes usually come. Be careful to not pack too tightly, being as some of the chunks are quite long I tend to have this problem sometimes. This baccy took a little work to get going but after several relights it settles in to a cool enjoyable smoke.

The first portion of the bowl is mostly dominated by the leathery,smoky latakia. I get thick clouds of salty with hints of coffee flavor. As the bowl progresses the sweetness of the Virginias make themselves known. About halfway through thing seem to come together in harmony. Not too sweet but not too bitter. Not too much change from here on out. Not that that's a bad thing.

I have only ever gotten moisture in my pipe when either not allowed to dry enough or just pushing it too hard. It usually burns to a nice clean white ash.

There are better Englishish offerings out there but this one is solid and at a great bulk price. Go get yourself some. Enjoy.

only 2+ years experience

A decent enough english blend. I am not a huge fan of latakia at the moment, but I like to have some on hand for when I want something different. Lancer's Slices is in the category of "like to keep some around". A good blend for someone who wants to try english.

I don't know about room note - I can't smell what I am smoking! For a bulk, I really love this blend! Along with Peter Stokeby's English Luxury, this is one of my two mainstays right now. Nice, flavorful, but not overpowering. I don't understand everything about blends, but I know I prefer non-aromatics, but not too strong. This is a really good blend for me!