Tobaccos G. L. Pease - Fillmore (Fog City Selection)

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Tripjoker (65)	2009-03-30		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Before I tender this review, I have an issue that I think needs to be addressed. I will try to fall within the guidelines of this site in addressing it. If I step out of line in any way, I do humbly apologize. But for those of us with a true passion for this hobby, there is a perpetual learning curve. Anyway, here goes.

There are many fine tobaccos out there, Pease among the top tier. One of the things that I think alot of smokers do not realize is that tobacco shares alot in common with wine. The better it is, the more fussy it can be. By that I mean you can always rip open a pouch of drugstore blend and you get what you get, good or bad. The point is, it probably is as good as it's gonna get at the moment of opening.

The opposite is true with the fine blends offered by many, such as Pease and the like. I have found through careful experimentation, that fine tobacco likes to breathe just as fine wine likes to do. It becomes "dumb" in the tin. It needs oxygen to "open" correctly so that all of the nuance can be enjoyed and percieved.

It also generally comes too wet. This is a precaution for tin preservation. A fine tobacco should have a chance to rest once opened. By all means give it a try, but don't put alot of stock in that initial bowl 5 minutes after opening the tin. That kind of haste works with peanut butter, but not fine tobacco.

My general experience is that I pop the tin and leave it uncovered for an hour or so. Then I replace the lid and let it sit for about a week or two, opening the tin briefly for a few minutes every few days. After about two to three weeks, the tobacco is almost without fail, stunning! I rarely experience excess moisture and am assured of smoking nearly every bowl to the bottom dryly.

Well, that's all the preaching that I have in me today. I hope I have helped some and not offended anyone. On with the review.

Fillmore is one of my favorite Vapers. It is probably one of the most balanced between the savory/sweet deep red va, and the rich perique dried fruit/spice. The flake is broken rather finely and I prefer it that way. I am only rarely an intact flake smoker. I like the rubbed out version better. Yes, it will smoke alittle hotter, but that will give you a bit of practice for your technique. Never a bad thing.

The flavor starts of with the standard hay and grass. Developes quickly into a far deeper and rich smoke with the hints of coffee, chocolate and yeasty baking bread. A fantastic combo to be sure. Smoke it slowly and you will be rewarded with one of the greatest tobacco flavors ever available. Dried appropriately, it smokes cool and dry to the bottom of the bowl.

I have aged this tobbacco for as long 5 years to great benefit. I'm shooting for 10 years on a pound or two. Will ahve to let you know how that turns out.

Thanks for reading, and sharing.

84 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gentleman Zombie (729)	2013-12-09		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant

Wow! When I smoke this I keep saying to myself, "just right". The Virginias are some of the richest I've encountered. They need to be. For me there's a fine line between too much Perique and just the right amount. This blend walks that line like an expert tight rope walker that never falls over that line. It's just right. The richness of the Virginias doesn't allow the Perique to overwhelm them. Sweet and very spicy with notes of fruit down to the 3/4 mark. Then the spice mellows, the sweetness increases and it brings you down nice and easy. Artfully done. I'm am independent cuss and consider myself to be no one's "fan boy", but if I keep having these great experiences with Pease's blends I might have to just give up and roll with it.

Pipe Used: MM General, Peterson (05)

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Similar Blends: Stands pretty much alone, but if I had to pick something I'd say C&D's Bayou Morning on steroids..

41 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2009-02-10		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Pleasant

Obviously, the palates of true pipe smokers worldwide do the hyping of Pease blends and Filmore is just one of many examples of the blender's skill at creating blends with staying power and mass appeal. This can never be called a typical Va/Per even though the components are... well, typical for a Va/Per. Pease does something with this broken flake to make the Virginia leaf and healthy dose of Perique really shine. The flavor is more sweet than typical for this type of blend and also a little more powerful (which I thoroughly enjoyed).

Fillmore burns to a dry ash and can heat up just a tad if you get carried away with your puffing cadence. Keep the suck meter ticking at a very moderate level and the reward will be electrifying. Truly a remarkable smoke!

40 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3046)	2014-04-18		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

There's less dark fruit sweetness from the red Virginia than I would normally expect. It has some earth, wood, bread and grass notes that get a little more obvious by mid-bowl, though the tanginess is consistently evident. That's all due to how it's aged before use. It's not a complaint, just an observation. Also sports a minor floral hit. The earthy perique is very noticeable in a raisin, fig, plum and peppery way and is a tad more than a condiment. I also perceive a light undercurrent of smoke, earth and wood from the Cyprian Latakia. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is just past the center of mild to medium. No chance of bite, and has no harsh or dull moments. It does have a few small rough edges. Burns at slightly less than an average pace, cool and clean with moderately rich, fairly smooth, very consistent flavor from start to finish. Requires some relights, and leaves little dampness in the bowl. Has a lightly lingering, pleasant after taste. The room note is a little stronger. Not quite an all day smoke.

-JimInks

30 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-03-24		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

UPDATE 11/8/10

Still no love for this one. The excessive "periquey-ness" toned down a bit with the additional aging but I find this one harsh and monotone. I stated "flat and boring" below but I was referring to the other blends mentioned. This one was harsh. Additional aging tones that down a hair but I still cannot smoke this one. I'm donating what's left of this 2nd tin and my unopened 3rd tin, as I don't see this improving to the point where it is smokable. Too bad, as GLP blends are starting to come together for me. Not this one, however.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 3/24/09

After smoking a tin of several GLP blends, I'm going to do one simple review of all of them... Fillmore, Haddo's, Telegraph Hill, Embarcadero and a few others... because they all share the same issues. They all appear to be promising blends whose time has not yet come. With all the hype surrounding these blends and all the positive reviews, I couldn't help but try a bunch of them. But they all seem unrealized... flat and boring, without the complexity of taste and aroma that blends from McClellands uniformly have. There's not the balance of Dunhill Elizabethan or the pure explosion of flavor that Escudo or Davidoff Flake Medallions or some of the Rattrays blends have. There are many others too numerous to mention that seem to have in spades what these GLP blends claim to have but sorely lack.

I've decided that perhaps the tins of these I've smoked are too youthful, too insipid due to a lack of aging. Indeed, the ingredients, the cut and the color among other things make them appear to be of high quality. I'm going to cellar the rest of what I have for a couple of years and try again. GLP blends have largely let me down so far but we'll see what happens after a maturation process. Rather than write a bunch of less than flattering reviews, I'm going to wait these out and try again.

28 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2080)	2015-12-27		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant

G.L. Pease - Fillmore. A Perique lovers dream!

The broken flakes are all uniform in size. The title 'Broken Flake' can occasionally be a bit of a misnomer; sometimes the blend is hardly broken yet in other tins it can resemble ribbons. With this the flake has been broken evenly leaving long pieces all about a quarter, to half a cm wide. The tin note is stereotypical of a strong Perique blend. Slightly sour, a little figgy and somewhat sharp. The moisture of the tobacco is great so zero drying time is needed.

For me, this blend falls into the category of three L's: load it, light it, love it!

It's easy to get lit and then the burn is good for the whole journey giving a mid temperature, bite free smoke. Straight away, I feel I'm dealing with a heavy Perique blend. As I've said before, sometimes with strong Perique tobacco's I get a cool/sharp feeling on my tongue from the piquancy and this gives me that sensation. The Virginia is far from un-noticeable, it's just tamer in comparison to the Perique!

The nicotine is about medium in Fillmore. It suits me!

This is my favourite G. L. Pease blend to date. Highly recommended:

Four stars.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Toscana

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Gauntleys

19 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrumsAndBeer (217)	2015-02-19		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

The first time I smoked Fillmore I thought to myself "Wow this is heady, tangy, spicy and a bit smoky even!" When I popped my first tin I could have sworn I caught a fleeting whiff of Latakia clinging to the underside of the pull top lid. Nowhere is Latakia listed in the ingredients but I later found out that there is a bit in here, however only in trace amounts.

The thing I admire most about this blend isn't that it's tasty, well it does happen to be very tasty, but I love how substantial the taste is. Some tobaccos are great for mindless puffing, but Fillmore is too rich for that. It's one of those mixtures that has helped to shape my cadence some. That said, I file this one into the Haddo's Delight section of the VaPer phylum. Strong Virginia/Periques with a twist if you will. Like Haddo's, Fillmore has layers of flavor with each puff giving a subtle variation of the one before. Some puffs are bitter-sweet and spicy, while others are earthy, smoky & tangy. Fillmore also has a creamy fig like richness that comes through in bottom of the bowl that's reminiscent of Esoterica's Dunbar, another darker tasting VaPer that I have grown to enjoy. Typically, I prefer Virginia Perique mixtures that are sweeter and brighter but much like Dunbar, Fillmore is an exception for me.

While I wouldn't favor this as an all day/every day pipe tobacco, it's definitely one that I will sock away a few tins of for future enjoyment. To get the most flavor that Fillmore has to offer, I prefer smoking this is a wide shallow bowl. A humble pot works perfect.

Pipe Used: Briar

Age When Smoked: 3 years

16 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Wibblefishofdoom (139)	2014-04-26		Very Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Having tried Union Square, I was interested to see how other Fog City tobaccos tasted. So when the opportunity to try some of this came up, I didn't hesitate to acquire a tin.

A good whiff of the tin revealed earthy notes with hints of fruit, possibly something figgy. The flakes were nicely coloured as I've come to expect, medium and dark browns blend into each other subtly well. The flakes themselves break apart easily making packing easy. It is a little damper than I am used to with Mr Pease's stuff, but it's nothing a little drying won't solve. Even without that, the number of relights is hardly an issue. The smoke itself is where fun starts. It's rather strong from the off, so if you have a pipe with a small bowl, it's highly recommended for this stuff. It smokes a good long while too, even on a small bowlful so no worries on that score. The flavour for me was one of earth tones with a decent side order of figs and a light garnish of lemon, with occasional hints of plum. The only downside apart from the strength is that it does tend to gunk up the pipe a bit, however a little extra pipe cleaning after each smoke soon stops that being a problem.

I don't know what it is but there's something in this that reminds me of Peterson's Irish Flake, perhaps it's the fig flavour, but it lack the mustiness that I found in IF and is nice straight off the bat instead of having to rub out and leave for a couple of months that I found IF benefited from. The strength , the dampness and the gunk of this do slightly take the sheen off this but they are so easy to get round they don't detract from what is, for me, an excellent tobacco.

Pipe Used: Butz Choquin Belami Sablee 110

Age When Smoked: 10 months

Purchased From: Gauntley's of Nottingham

Similar Blends: Irish Flake.

15 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	cajomu (80)	2015-01-08		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Fillmore is a deliciously rich pipe tobacco. The tin aroma is fairly smokey. The taste of Fillmore is pleasantly sweet (but not cloying) and spicy. The Virginias and Perique are well balanced throughout the smoke, neither predominating but both present from start to finish. At the beginning of the smoke, the Perique is a bit more prevalent but, by the finish, the Virginias come to the fore. The overall flavor is that of citrus, raisins, cinnamon, coffee, chocolate and leather.

The broken flakes benefit from a bit of drying out but are easy to pack and light even straight out of a fresh tin and burn completely to a dark ash. The taste is a bit stronger if not rubbed out and the tobacco burns slower, making for a longer, richer and more enjoyable smoke. However, even if rubbed out and smoked rather fast, there is no bite.

I would have to say that Fillmore one of the best GL Pease tobaccos that I have tried.

Pipe Used: Various briars

Age When Smoked: 1 year old

Purchased From: Pipes & Cigars

11 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	oldcodger (74)	2016-04-06		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable

Fillmore, one of the G.L. Pease Fog City Selections, is a strong entry in the Virginia/Perique sweepstakes that has now been available for a decade. The Fog City series included eight mixtures, generally those that could be considered Virginia dominant.

Open the tin and you discover a brown broken flake mottled with some lighter colored flecks. The aroma is spicy and fermented, although the fermented note comes more from the perique than the vinegary tang that some fermented Virginias exhibit. The broken flake is a bit more moist than is typical for Pease blends.

Fillmore lights easily enough, even when not allowed to dry out a bit, but I do normally require a couple of relights in the course of smoking the full load. The Virginias, apparently both stoved and unstoved, exhibit the sweetness of red Virginia, although I suspect there are several varieties of this leaf present.The perique is obviously present, not strong enough to obscure the Virginia sweetness, and not in the quantity to qualify as a perique bomb. To my palate the perique taste is more present here than in Pease's Haddo's Delight and Cumberland, but those two blends have a more complex mixture of constituent tobaccos, a factor that tones down the taste of the perique element a bit.

Fillmore has a wisp of latakia, strictly a condimental amount, which does not offer an obvious latakia note to the taste but nevertheless gives a subtle darkening to the flavor. The nicotine content ranks somewhat above medium. This is not a nicotine bomb, but it will affect those sensitive to Vitamin N.

The taste of the smoke meanders between the sweetness of the Virginia and the rancid fig of the perique. Fillmore shares a strength common to Pease blends in that there is a complexity of flavor. The taste varies puff to puff as the bowl is consumed, sometimes creamy, sometimes raisiny, sometimes tangy.

I smoke Fillmore in the pipes that I normally use for Virginia and Virginia/perique blends, but on occasion I will use one that normally gets only aromatic blends, which works for me OK. The room note is pleasant, the Virginia base predominating.

Smokers who have not tried Fillmore but who like perique will find this offering a delight. Differing tastes determine which blends make the regular rotation, but I cannot imagine a perique lover who will not greatly enjoy Fillmore. Fillmore is also recommended for those who puff on perique blends only occasionally. Again I emphasize the variety of flavors offered in the course of smoking the full pipe load.

For the segment of pipe smokers who do not like perique: Fuggedaboutit!

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Beer (345)	2007-12-19		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Much has already been said, from the cut to the composition of this blend, so I won't spend further words on this.

I am a fan of GLPease latakia-based tobaccos, but his Virginia offerings rarely have clicked for me: I am fond of Barbary Coast and Montgomery, I like Stratford very much, and I find the rest either good, OK or too strong for my taste.

Fillmore is no exception. While I like the flake cut, as it packs well and burns exquisitely, and I love the tin smell (fruity, deep, nutty)... I haven't been stunned by the actual smoking experience.

Mind you, this is a tobacco with a lot of personality, and quite different from most other Va/Perique flakes around. It doesn't fall in the category of "vary tasteful but plain sweet and sour, and bitey" (McClelland), or in the category of florally scented flakes (some Lakeland district stuff), or in the category of "very delicate, honeyed but wimpy". It is a strong experience in terms of flavour, and different from all the categories above although it has something in common, of course, with some of them.

Personally I find the taste of Fillmore nicely alternating between a dark nutty and caramelly sweetness, a citric sourness, and a hint of smokiness. So far, so good. What I don't particularly like is that in the second half of the bowl it becomes earthy and grassier, with some bitterish notes that I am not very fond of. Towards the end, it gets a slightly ashy and dirty character that covers some of the nice flavours I had experienced before.

Overall, it's not a bad tobacco, and if you are looking for a "different" Va/Perique flake (with a stout flavour and a strongish dose of nicotine, perhaps a bit too much for me) definitely give it a try. I have a couple of tins stored away, and I will check if aging helps in solving the minor issues I have had with my first fresh one. So far, I would say that it's an OK smoke but that I'd not be eager to reach out for another tin for a while.

2011 Update: Smoking a four year old tin now, and I can confirm my review. It has become smoother, less grassy, but all the rest still applies. Not a bad tobacco at all, quite tasty. However, I must point out a thing that I had not said in my previous review: I find this tobacco a bit too strong in the nicotine department, a thing which all other GLPease Va+Perique blends have in common. Unless I sip this one very carefully, and in a small bowl, it always hits me a bit in the stomach. Not as strongly as Haddo's or some Lakeland blends, sure... but still a bit too much. Give it a try if you want a nicotine heavy tobacco, because the flavour is actually quite good and it's very different from other Fog City offerings.

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jacinto Cupboard (209)	2014-04-24		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant

A flake that has been neatly sliced into thick ribbon like pieces. It is fairly dark in colour with golden highlights.

The tin note is dried fruits and pepper.

The pepper continues on after lighting. This tobacco burns well and produces pillows of creamy smoke. It is sweet, tangy and fragrant all at the same time.

GLP describes this as an elegant and leisurely smoke. I have to disagree. While there is plenty going on at the top end, this is no 'hay and lemon with a hint of pepper' type vaper. There is a Phil Spector type Wall of Sound happening with the mature virginias that defies a leisurely experience. This is to my mind, a serious tobacco. The perique is at the limits of my comfort level, and I like perique. I found it a tremendously focusing smoke that concentrated my mind, rather than soothed it. I'm reserving this tobacco for the beginning of those roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to something you don't want to do days.

9 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Perique (163)	2013-01-17		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Visually, the dark, broken flakes are very attractive. Just the right moisture level. Fantastic tin note is reminiscent of McClelland Virginias, but more dry and less tangy on the nose. To my taste the Virginias used in this blend are even better, and very different than what you get with some other GL Pease VaPers and hybrids. Takes a match well and burns straight through. Age only enhances the experience. But I've found this to be a blend I can smoke right out of the tin.

Fillmore is simply a fantastic VaPer. The Virginias here, again, are superb: smokey, vinegar flavors with a very full taste and mouth feel. There is a tang here that suggests some Kentucky, but may just be the stoved Virginias. I really think Greg Pease out McClellands McClelland with this one: a tangy Virginia that doesn't overpower with the ketchup/BBQ flavors. By mid-bowl, the tang has mellowed and the Virginias smoothen out to perfection. Fillmore is musty, spicy, and stout without ever being abrasive. That said, this is a tobacco for the experienced smoker - strong, heavy, and robust. The Perique here is applied generously and is on the peppery side of the flavor spectrum. This isn't a stewed-plum style VaPer.

Fillmore produces rich, creamy and voluminous smoke even when sipped slowly, with one of the best burns of any VaPer. The finish is dry, and Fillmore leaves nothing in the pipe but dark grey ash and memories. Highly recommended for both the Virginia and Perique lover. In my top-five VaPers. Outstanding.

9 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Duke (41)	2013-06-28		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

I recently stumbled onto Fillmore the other day. I'm at a point in my pipe smoking that I don't search for the next greatest tobacco. There's some beauty in being satisfied with your “go to blends”. So, for whatever reason, I bought a tin Fillmore on a lark. The tin aroma is wonderfully earthy. A woman friend thought it smelled vile, that in itself suggested promise. It appears not to be topped in the hope of making the tin note more appealing. Flakes and broken flakes can be, for me, a nuisance by the inconsistency of the burn, but not Fillmore. The tobacco's tinned moisture level was more than I care for, so I packed a little looser. Well it smoked like a dream (effortlessly). It isn't as sweet as my favored Royal Yacht, but it has this spicy note that I find irresistible. The slip stream smoke from the bowl is an added benefit, and a stubby pipe I would recommend. It has ample nicotine without overwhelming me like twists. Like RY it allows me to control the nicotine throttle. It really is different than other VaPers. I wouldn't be surprised if it had other varietals in the mix, but I'm beyond trying to dissect a tobacco blend. I know what I like and I like Fillmore.

I've been frequently smoking Fillmore and want to edit my opinion of its strength- It is just medium in strength. Regardless, it's really quite a fine tobacco. If an aromatic smoker was looking for a natural flavored tobacco this blend is perfect. I can smoke this blend all day.

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-03-09		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Warning: you MUST love the fermented, peppery PER if you want to try this tobacco.

If you are not a PER lover, do not attempt trying Fillmore.

The tin I opened was 9 months old. When it comes to GL Pease and C & D blends, one should wait at least 9 -12 months before opening.

Fillmore displays some sweet, savory, raisin and home made bread taste notes from the Red VAs that are complemented by the peppery and sometimes fig notes from the PER.

Fillmore is interesting from the beginning and builds richer and stronger, but not overwhelmingly, as I work my way down the bowl.

Right now, I like it a bot more than Escudo. The Red VAs can work some good magic at times!

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	cm1648 (108)	2020-04-07		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Many Va/Pers have dark fruit notes as the main note with slight bread notes. I find this one balanced between the two. The Red Virginias bring a fermented fruit notes, which may be heightened by the addition of the Perique. The quality Virginias steal the show. Though the pepperiness of the Perique is always evident, I find its flavor more in a back seat position, which isn’t necessarily a negative. Nicotine- Right above medium To be honest, I didn’t know there was any Latakia until I reread the description. But once I did, I noticed the smokiness in the background, which really gives this blend extra body. I really, really, like its minor role, which it seems Pease rarely does in his blends with Latakia. One of the most balanced Va/Pers I have tried. My favorite Va/Per? Possibly. Either way, it is highly recommended.

Age When Smoked: 6 months

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gr8tefuldawg (87)	2020-02-03		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

G.L Pease- Fillmore

I have to admit I’ve been quite enthralled with VaPers if recent and although I’ve come to the realization that most aren’t just those two blends, as is the case with this one I love this blend.

The broken flake upon opening a tin dated April19 was somewhat moist, but not unbearable, it breaks apart easily and is easy to smoke. This needs little drying time.

Fillmore presents with a buttery toast on a plate of sourdough with a figgy jam spread on top, I do get some musty odor of fall in this blend but it adds to the finer nuances of this flavor profile. The Latakia is here but more for depth and appears ever so slightly on occasion. I read it’s about 3% per Pease’s blog.

I recommend this highly, with age it will only improve. I bought this because it was on sale at tobaccopipes.com and glad I bought two tins.

Pipe Used: H.i.s churchwarden

Age When Smoked: 10 months

Purchased From: Tobaccopipes.com

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	troyniss (38)	2020-01-10		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Presentation: A flake that is well broken up, but still offers some larger pieces to be separated even further. Similar in regards to Union Square as a broken flake but a tad more thin. Rich dark brown and red colored tobacco layered with a few shiny spots of oily and dark perique. I suspect this blend only consists of red Virginia and perique. If there is any bright, it's either applied very lightly or someone accidentally knocked some in.

Palette: Upon first olfactory experience, the tin note is of wholemeal sourdough bread with no butter. An aroma of ripe prune and fig compliment the bread/sour note. It vaguely reminds me of MacBaren Navy Flake, but upon further investigation, my nose is playing tricks on me. Either way, it had a very reminiscent smell of another blend, I just can't put my finger on it. The taste is superb. If I could translate the flavor into a projection, it would be smiles upon smiles. The red Virginia is actually pretty sweet considering it's the the base of the blend, and without any (suspected) brights it retains it's natural taste quite well. Definitely some 'Grade- A' Virginias used in this blend, or they have been aged quite a bit before being added. As with most Va/Pers I've tried, the perique is noticeable upon the first third of the bowl and tapers off, usually mixing in with the Virginia's more elegantly. Not this one. It's present throughout and I love it. The perique is applied heavily, if you consider that most Va/Pers are more tame other than C&D Bayou Morning. Offers a silky mouth feel. Even though the perique is consistent, the black pepper essence is still not dominant to overpower the main ingredient, but it reminds you that it's not going away anytime soon.It's a bold blend and if you don't like strong perique stay away. It has also been noted that Latakia made it's way into the blend too, but I can't find any trace of it.

Performance: Slightly moist out of the tin, once might want to dry it a bit. I have tried both fresh from the tin and dried for 30 minutes, yet both produced the same experience. One false light and one true light and away we went. It maintains its composure until the last embers die out. Can leave a little moisture in the heel but it smoked effortlessly and without any bite whatsoever. The flake format makes it easy to customize your smoking experience. Nice thick clouds of smoke that never dulled and kept going. Only required one more light towards the end of the bowl. Nicotine is a tick past medium. Not an all day smoke but can probably smoke a few in the day for the Va/Per aficionados.

Conclusions: Well, I've finally finished the 'Va/Per Trio' (Stratford/TH/Fillmore) of Gregs blends. You may be thinking "Why not Haddos Delight, Cumberland or Penny Farthing,etc?" Well, if we are talking strictly about a Virginia and Perique blend, those wouldn't make the cut, as they have some other constituents that would take away from the pure flavor of what a Va/Per truly is. They are Va/Per based, but some have added toppings or leaf. Therefore, if Stratford is the freshly graduated highschool senior going through bootcamp who just got word that tomorrow is the gas chamber experience and Telegraph Hill is the more sophisticated Second Lieutenant who passed his exam from West Pointe that decided a mustache was a good look for his newly appointed position, Fillmore is the guy who dropped out of his first semester at the small town community college after his girlfriend broke up with him, joined the Marines, has been on 7 tours in two different wars, received two purple hearts for non life-threatening wounds, has a slightly crooked smile from a broken lower jaw due to a bar fight back in '93 and has killed a handful of men along with a few livestock animals from a grenade that "accidentally" went off. He's now 47 years old as an E-9, has no desire to become an CO and it's not that society doesn't want him, it's that he doesn't want society anymore and knows nothing other than the military life. Unrefined but badass. Not the smartest but wise. Won't pick a fight but will bust a lip just by giving him a wrong glance. Oh yea, I recommend stocking up on this if you know what's good for you, because Master Gunnery Sgt. Fillmore says so.

Pipe Used: Morgan Bones Thick Bulldog

Age When Smoked: 11 months

Purchased From: SP

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Cleonides (21)	2019-10-29		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant

A full flavored virginia and perique blend with a pinch of latakia. It only has a light sugar casing according to a very reliable source.

The virginias are rich and earthy with a touch of bread. It is just slightly sweet. There is a good amount of perique which is more obvious in the first half of the bowl. The touch of latakia adds some depth of flavor and a hint of smoke. Medium/strong nicotine.

Pease admits in his blog that the latakia is present... "Yes, Virginia, there is a little of the smoky stuff in that one, too." http://www.glpease.com/BriarAndLeaf/?p=40

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BlackDawg (3)	2016-06-08		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

While Fillmore is a fine blend right off the shelf, this review concerns a special tin dated 2007. I wish I could report that I had the foresight and self-control required to allow this tin to age. The truth is, however, that I had simply forgotten about it and discovered it at the back of my cabinet. If you are wondering whether it is worth cellaring tins, and Fillmore in particular, I can assure you that it is. The tin was bulging slightly when discovered and offered great promise. What would I find inside? The slices remain intact and rub out quite nicely. The moisture level is just right if you rub it and let it breathe for a few minutes before packing; The aroma has ripened past the usual raisin scent to a darker fig or date nose. At this age, Fillmore has a rich, full-mouth feel with plenty of smoke. Few lights are required, and you cannot make this baby bite. The Virginia remains lovely and has greater depth. The Perique has melded into the mix. Like an older violin, the timbre has become incredibly rich and sweet with the passage of time. I've now worked my way through my Danish (Tonni, Hedegaard, Heeschen, J. Larsen) and my Italians (Castellos and Regina Scarlatta) . The Fillmore is singing sweetly in each -- indoors and out. My cousin favors me with a vintage tin of Capstan from time to time; this is quite close but perhaps even more flavorful. I'm ordering more and will report back in 2025.

Pipe Used: See above

Age When Smoked: 2007

Purchased From: smokingpipes, I think

Similar Blends: Capstan Blue.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	L'Italiano (233)	2016-06-03		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

This blend is very tasty and it is ideal for Perique lovers. Indeed this mixture contains a considerable amount of Perique and I think it is the only mixture in the market with so much Perique. Without any doubt a high quality mixture and really a great puff, but in my opinion and in my taste too much Perique is contained. For this reason in my personal system rating (from 1 to 10) my score is 9 and 3,5 stars.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SteelCowboy (685)	2016-03-01		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Most tobaccos IMHO improve with age and for me, this is especially true with Pease/ C&D Virginia blends. I have several that I struggled with that I am revisiting and Fillmore is one of four of them. So for the “What it’s worth” department, this is based on a five and a half year old tin (9/09). The tin scent is a mixture of sweet and sour with some raison and fig. The sliced cake has darkened with age. In the pipe, the perique can’t be missed as it’s there to be fully noticed. The sweetness and tanginess of the red Virginias are there too, although not overly sweet. The sharpness has somewhat subsided with age, a good thing. One of the things that I like about this tobacco is that it is very slow burning. I have smoked it dry, my preference, and very dry, it either way it burns slowly although a touch of moisture more than I normally prefer makes for a better smoke. I tend to be a bit of a puffer and have a pipe in my mouth most of the day, but Fillmore offers too much perique for me (and I like perique) as a regular smoke. I find this to be especially true if I push it and I have to be conscience of this each time that I smoke it. All in all, age has improved this blend considerably. I didn’t like it at all early on, but time has served Fillmore well.

Age When Smoked: 5 years

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	quantumboy (130)	2010-02-27		Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Pease Pilgrimage Reviews (a tasting journey through every GLPease blend) Tin date: 11/06/06

Aroma: The tin was swelling when I popped it, and oooohhhh such a sweet delicious experience! That waft of delight reminded me of a sweet, malty ale from Coopersmith's microbrew in Fort Collins, CO. Or maybe Fat Tire fresh from the tap at Old Belgium Brewery on Linden Street. I've smelled this same something in sweet dessert wines too, perhaps something like a Muscat. Add in the sweet aroma of dried fruit and sugared ginger, with just a hint of hay and grassiness, and you've got Fillmore, one of the best smelling tobaccos I've experienced to date. Literally, my mouth waters just smelling this stuff! Who needs to smoke it? But I will sacrifice my time and energy to smoke some of this just for my brothers and sisters at SF.

Appearance: A beautiful broken flake, thickly sliced and soft, easily broken apart, medium brown with lighter striations.

(Did I mention the tin note is amazing? I open the jar and whiff it like every 30 seconds or so…can't help myself…)

Flavor: This tin has had four years to discover its identity so it ought to know who it is by now. Here's what the Pease website has to say: “A thick-sliced broken flake in the Scottish tradition. Ripe red Virginia tobaccos are combined with a generous measure of fine Louisiana perique, and then pressed to marry the components and deepen the flavors. The cakes are sliced and gently broken before tinning. Fillmore presents an elegant sweetness and delightful piquancy, enhanced by a creamy richness that develops throughout the bowl. Sit back, and enjoy a lovely, leisurely smoke.”

So let's talk about this. “An elegant sweetness…” Yes, that's certainly present in the tin aroma. I imagine that this amazing smell (I did mention that the tin note is amazing, right?) has been enhanced by its four years in the tin. I may have to buy a new tin just to compare (hopefully you experienced Fillmore users can chime in here on the differences). This elegant sweetness is also somewhat present in the room note which is actually rather nice. But it comes across least emphatically in the smoke, since the Perique is up front trying to steal the show. I would not call this a sweet Virginia blend. Which bring us to the…

“Delightful piquancy…” I don't know how much Perique constitutes a “generous measure” but that in-my-nose Perique tang is certainly there. The tang abates a bit as the pipe progresses. I would like to know the percentage of Perique in this blend just so I can get a handle on it. Some blends put just enough in to feel it as a spice, but here you really can taste the pungence and earthiness, which provide an excellent contrast against the Virginia sweetness (which I think is precisely why the sweetness does not come through as strongly in the smoke as in the aroma – it's very effectively counterbalanced by the “delightful piquancy”). The balance is good – any less and it would be just another VA with a little Perique thrown in. Any more and my nose would sting to the point where it just isn't enjoyable.

“Creamy richness…” Problem here is I want to huff and puff and lose myself in the flavors, but with too much heat it gets harsh and ashy like any obedient Virginia leaf, so self-restraint and good VA-smoking technique will keep the tang subdued and release some of that cream. But it's not the creamiest by a long shot, and I'm not sure I would have used that word. That quintessential sweet richness present in any quality VA (like Union Square) is here, but it's not nearly as accessible as in US. I had to be very careful of technique to draw the flavors out and prevent that ashy harshness from manifesting. I think the Perique acts like a grumpy schoolmarm, making sure you obey the rules or pay the consequences.

“Lovely and leisurely smoke…” It can definitely provide that, although it's got some strength behind it. Should you choose to obey the schoolmarm, then you will be rewarded with what is a very typical and pleasing VAPER experience: rich slightly sweet Virginias with tangy and earthy Perique, combining to create that synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It performed for me exactly the same in the briar and in the Meer, meaning it is very consistent, a good quality. Fillmore is a very good VAPER but not one of the best I've had. I would place it at three stars just because it seems a bit too finicky to me, like a high-maintenance girlfriend (or boyfriend, for you lady pipers). I've had that experience before. Bittersweet to say the least.

(Oh and by the way, the tin note is amazing!)

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrAcula (62)	2020-12-29		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Presentation: All labels in the Fog City Selection look the same. A gold stripe across the bottom, a white background, with a gray sketching of the streets of San Francisco.

Cut: A thick cut broken flake. Perfect moisture and rubs out so easily.

Tin note: Rich, sweet fruit.

Tasting notes: Sweet, toasty, slightly tangy on light up with a slightly tart, figgy finish. Mildly fruity (obviously present, just not super strong), still toasty, with a grassy turning earthy finish. A minute amount of spice on some finishes. Deeper into the bowl the toastiness diminished and breadiness and earth stepped forward. Becomes more smoky near the end of the bowl.

Mechanics: N/A—A well behaved blend.

Extra Remarks: Smoke it without thought and it is still a good VaPer, but if you pay attention to the blend you should have a similar experience to me with flavors. I am wowed by this blends complexity. It is around medium, maybe a touch below that in flavor intensty, but that does not mean it is lacking in flavor in the slightest. My favorite VaPer is a more rambunctious blend, Gawith St. James Flake, but I think this is just as good in its own way. Outstanding blend. 4 stars.

Pipe Used: IMP Straight Billiard Meer

Age When Smoked: 1 year 8 months

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	fr_tom (393)	2018-08-11		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I got a 45 g sample from a friend. It was of uncertain vintage and came sealed in a mylar bag. The tobacco came at a good state of hydration - "maybe" just barely on the moist side of ideal. I smoked it as delivered. Pouch note is earth with a little hay. The tobacco came as mostly rubbed out flake and looks like a lighter red Virginia with some darker streaks from perique in the pieces of flake.

I tried smoking this as delivered, and I tried rubbing it out. I found the rubbed out tobacco burned a little better and I did not notice any difference in taste. Pipes used were various pots.

Smoked this is mostly the grassy/hay of a yellow Virginia with just a little of the tart of red Virginia. The perique presents as a slight plum in the flavor with a spiciness on the snork. I did not perceive any latakia in the blend, but everyone seems to think there is some. It is on the very light side of condimental if there is any.

This lit and smoked easily enough. It did not have problems staying lit, and it did not leave me with a damp heel. It was tasty and smoked cool for me. As a point of interest, I found it smoker "slower" than most of the things I smoke. The pressing process may have left it a little denser than your average ribbon or "fish food." It seemed to become more sweet as the bowl progressed.

This is easy to recommend. This is not a "buy 10 tins" blend for me, but I could happy have it as a mainstay of my pipe smoking. It is a solid 3 on the scale.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2014-05-01		Strong	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This tobacco had 3+ year of age on it and was opened for that time when this review was done.

The tin aroma is slightly sweet and very tangy with a hint of plums. There is also a note of darkness to it that I can't quite describe. There is a very small amount of Latakia in this blend (2% I think). I didn't smell it at first and I had to keep looking for it. After a few minutes, I picked up on a very faint hint of it.

At the start of the smoke the sweetness jumped right to the front and was accompanied by a light spice. The body of the smoke is a little fuller than most other VA/Per's that I have smoked. This could be due to the small amount of Latakia in the blend, which I do not taste or smell.

This is a good blend and I like it. It smoked slow, cool, dry, and didn't bite. It has a great, complex flavor profile that keeps it interesting. The finish is very pleasant and leaves a nice, clean sweetness. The smoke is full and creamy. It won't win over my favorite Dunbar by any means, but it's a good VA/PER blend none the less.

Pipe Used: Dunhill billiard gr. 2; Bari dublin gr. 2

Purchased From: 2010

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-07-24		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Strong

Beautiful, thick broken flakes.

However, too peppery in taste for my liking and rather on the harsh side. Probably the need for aging.

This is one downside of Peases's blends. Often, they are not sufficiently aged when tinned.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	HabaneroHardy (401)	2022-04-20		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Unnoticeable

I will have to start out as saying I have never met a finer bunch of gentlemen as I have at the pipe club I attend. One particular individual whom I will call “M” gave me some pipe tobacco tins of blends he did not particularly care for. Most of them were full. I felt guilty receiving such a nice gift as I wish he would have given these blends more of a chance before giving up. I did let him know if he changed his mind, no problem whatsoever returning these to the original owner. With that being said, I will give my two cents worth reviewing this gift. The tin was dated 122920 which gives it around 15 months of age. Still a youngster. This is somewhat a medium-thick broken flake that packs easily into my Meerschaum. The tin note is hard for me to describe but let’s go with musty, spicy. Lights easily and man does this one produces a lot of smoke, more so than other blends I have tried recently. There is a touch of Latakia in this blend but I cannot tell by smoking it. Maybe that is why this one produces a ton of smoke? The Perique stands out quite a bit and the smoke to borrow from another reviewer is like a dry sherry, not very sweet. I have been smoking this for two days and will go for a third. All in all, a good VaPer, even with the Latakia in it. I do not love this one as many do nor do I dislike it as some reviewers. So, I guess a good solid 3 stars. Free tobacco always tastes better, 😊.

Pipe Used: Altinay Poker Meerschaum

Age When Smoked: 15 months

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pipesINpairs (19)	2021-07-07		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

There are already plenty of fine reviews here, so I will not repeat any of their insights, but I WILL add something not mentioned much: how much this blend transforms with age.

At about 10 years, this becomes an entirely different animal. A metamorphosis that would make Kafka proud. The best thing I can equate it to is an overripe banana - in the best sense. It gets very dark, very sweet, very floral, very fermented, with still an enigmatic vegetal quality. It's really quite remarkable. I smoke Fillmore fresh regularly - almost an all day smoke for me. However, it becomes almost like a dessert when aged, rich and sweet, but also savory - perhaps like a dessert wine glaze over something tart. Really exceptional.

Sit on it for a few years, if you can, and enjoy.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hrhf (38)	2021-01-22		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

This is a pleasant enough smoke I suppose. But when I reach for a VaPer, I don’t expect to be greeted with Latakia. And, to my unsophisticated palate, the lat is front and center, right where I DON’T want it.

If you’re perfectly fine with latakia stomping all over your picnic, you’ll probably love this.

I mean it’s an otherwise perfectly serviceable smoke. But I’ve steered clear of latakia ever since moving on from a brief, torrid affair with English blends early in my pipe smoking journey. Since I’ve moved on, I’ve come to consider latakia pretty much unbearable.

So this is a one-star blend for me. But I’m giving it two stars because I’m sure it has its fans.

But I caution those seeking straight up VaPer bliss to look elsewhere... unless you really like the lat.

Pipe Used: Various

Age When Smoked: Fresh from tin

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	moniker (220)	2019-05-13		Strong	Very Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Wow!

IMO, GLP’s Fillmore is a masterpiece that well rewards a patient approach. The scent from a popped, 3 month old tin was bluff, brooding and impenetrable, and my first smoke, right from the tin, followed suit. With rest, it’s become quite deep for a VA/Per, still somewhat brooding but also fragrant, with dry earth and sweet, woody, wild grasses, some fermenting plum, and intense bakery spices, with a mildly “proof-y” overtone, rather like a fine, dry Sherry. Sturdy, broken flakes are medium-dark reddish brown. It handles, packs and loads easily. It lights with patience then smokes down with no problems, providing a leisurely, contemplative smoke from top to bottom. The VAs and the Perique are very well melded, also well balanced, with plenty and more of each, yielding a rich, deep, complex, fragrant smoke. It “blooms” like a champ as it’s smoked, offering myriad secondary scents and tastes that augment its basic traits. The air cured and stoved red VAs are ample, and they need to be for all the Perique, which – somehow – smells and tastes like well fermented Burley, adding a whole new dimension to “sweet and sour”. This is one blend I strive to smoke clear down to the bottom of the bowl, because it keeps getting better, right to nubs. I find this blend to be plain old "strong". In fact, it kicks my butt; but I guess I like it... Tastes are full. Room note is better than tolerable. Aftertaste is a sweeter trailing off of the best of the smoke.

For some time I have ranked GLP’s Telegraph Hill as a favorite. Well, call me fickle, but Fillmore is my new favorite VA/Per. No doubt, it will age beautifully, and don’t forget to rest freshly opened Filmore before smoking it, as well. 4 stars, easy. Fellow geezers may share invoked memories of The Fillmore (district and auditorium) in the mid sixties.

Update, 01-03-21: Just smoked a bowl of Fillmore that was jarred at the time of my original review, and, sure enough, it's fantastic! The Perique has ripened to the stage where the spices are now of the sort used on fancy Middle Eastern pastries. Spectacular! I'll be smoking little else for a while, for fear it will get worse rather than better; but I will save some, just for research.

Pipe Used: #4 - 5 briar VA/Per pots

Age When Smoked: 3 mos. in tin; 3 weeks jarred

Purchased From: Cup O' Joe's

Similar Blends: compare/contrast to GLP Telegraph Hill, or any Class A VA/Per of your choice.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Skando (203)	2018-11-27		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Well, Fillmore is again one of the US blends bought 7 years ago.

The similarity to the Bayou Morning Flake is undisputable to me. Fillmore is a bit more refined, and a wee bit sweeter and milder. But the whole structure is the same: red virginia and perique (the good quality one).

I've appreciated the quality of the smoke, which is cool and unbitey, with a correct N level. But it was far from making me sing of miracles. The flavour I'm looking for in a VaPer is not in this one. That's my concern, no reason to give it less than three stars.

Pipe Used: Castello and Radice

Age When Smoked: 7 years

Purchased From: Switzerland

Similar Blends: CD's Bayou Morning Flake.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SunriseBoy (21)	2017-10-18		Medium	Extra Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable

Well, after reading carefully the reviews here I bit the bullet and got two 8oz. tins. The reviewers are just over the moon about this blend. After a couple of bowls my lips, mouth, tongue and upper palate are still burning from the pepper heat. Just way over the top. The worst smoke I've ever had.

Pipe Used: Cob and Tobago

Age When Smoked: Out of the bag

Purchased From: CupOJoes

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	tabaco (112)	2014-02-18		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Another Pease blend with considerable bite (pH out of whack).

The Good: burns well and packs well.

The Bad: insipid flavour, bland, and tends to shut-down as it combusts.

The Ugly: pH out of whack.

The Better-Half: rarely does my beloved commented on the post combustion room note and I especially enjoy the heaviest of Latakia/Oriental blends. The comments were alluding to excrement from sheep and the like. Dare I say somewhat accurate, not a pleasant room-note and the briar afterwards is quite infused a stubborn nasty ghost.

There are far better blends in this genre, Samuel Gawith St. James flake comes to mind.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TallPuffO'Burley (633)	2013-11-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

I received about a three-bowl sample of this one from a forum buddy and I was very impressed. I normally don't review a tobacco after three bowls, but I so thoroughly enjoyed each bowl, that I felt it adequate to hang three stars on it at this time.

To start with, I echo all below that this has a lot of perique, so if you don't like a lot of perique, then pass this one by. If you are not sure how much Perique you like, then this is a nice one to test your limits with. If you find it too strong just cut it down with some Virginia. I had a little left and combined it with some OGS and it was better than the OGS was straight, to my tastes anyway.

I think that this is the most perique I have encountered in a Va/Per blend, so I clearly am in the camp that loves this leaf. The tobacco smokes great. Nice, cool and did not require many relights. The nicotine is ample as can be expected with a high perique content. It is a really satisfying smoke. I had all three bowls in my Altinok Talon Churchwarden and the combination was great.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-03-13		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Very Strong

Update 03/12/08: My initial tin was fresh. I am smoking a tin from the Fall of 2006, so with about 18 months of age. This is aging in a way that is even finer than my already high-expectations anticipated. This is so deep, smooth, cigar-like and creamy as to be beyond belief. However, I must change the Room Note rating to Very Strong. The residual smell in my vehicle after smoking Fillmore is reminiscient of burning horse hair. I am also notching up the strength rating, as this is more potent than I remember initially. Easily in my top five blends of all time.

Update 06/07: Had to edit my disparaging remarks about Escudo in comparison to Fillmore once I realized that my first Escudo tin was rancid. Both Escudo and Fillmore are my top VAPER flake choices above all my other flake favorites (e.g. Three Nuns, St. James Woods, 633, LGF). Escudo is the sweeter of the two, Fillmore the more earthy.

Initial review from 10/06:

This is a review after smoking a tin dated 10/04/06. Fillmore is truly one of the most enjoyable, luxurious and wonderful blends I could have hoped to find.

Mostly medium and dark colors dominate this broken flake pipe tobacco. The slices are mottled, with specks and strands here and there of medium-light browns & tans. The flake thickness is an improvement over Bayou Morning Flake or McClelland's typically chunky offerings, despite the tin description of "thick-sliced." Perhaps I am simply reacting to Fillmore being more pliable than either BMF or McC's. I didn't get out the calipers.

The tin aroma is earthy, giving off the impression of fermented leaf akin to that of McClelland's matured Virginias, but not nearly so pronounced. This fermented aroma vacated once the tin was opened a few days, as did some unnecessary moisture. Fillmore has such gustatory appeal, I am tempted to chew it.

I did hit the ?jackpot? for stems, finding five (really, near twigs), the shortest being 1? and the longest over 1.5?.

I had the most satisfaction with lightly, uniformly rubbed-out pieces, gently pushed into group 4 up to ODA capacity pipes. The flavor increased substantially over smaller bowls or keeping the pieces whole. Burning characteristics also improved, though I will kept trying whole pieces as I do with other flake tobaccos. Not close to a one vesta light, once lit, Fillmore is a fairly easy smoke. There is enough flavor that gentle puffing helps keeps Fillmore cool, abounding in thick, smoky clouds.

This is a blend practically absent of high notes, like one gets with blends containing unstoved bright or lemon Virginias. There is but an apparition of sweetness haunting somewhat meaty, earthy tastes with leather, juniper berry, butterscotch, honey, dried stone fruit, musty and menthol under-flavors.

Now, as to the perique. Yes, this is masterful use of this blending condiment. Fillmore neither treads lightly nor douses with the mysterious leaf. This is as much perique as can be used without my feeling pepper-sprayed. Still, perique is more here than a seasoning. Fillmore may indeed have more perique in quantity than Haddo?s, Bayou Morning Flake or Escudo, but not in effect, and this is what matters most.

Fillmore is complex (I expect a bit more complexity with aging), and astoundingly rich. It is already nearly all pleasure. That said, my prediction is that age probably will do its magic with Fillmore and bring out extra sweetness and more migration of flavor.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stah (151)	2022-06-06		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I had a "love affair by letter" with this tobacco: after reading its ingredients, I bought two large tins. Then I read the reviews, had a thought - and in the next purchase I ordered three more, having picked out the leftovers in the store. But I postponed exploring it until the summer, as I almost don't smoke Virginia-perique blends during the cold season.

The 227-gram tin had a production date of "January 20, 2016," so the tobacco has matured in it for more than six years and over the years has turned into an almost mono-colored broken flake the color of bitter chocolate. It splits easily into individual fibers, but you can take a pinch of it and fill the pipe as you would a whole flake. The tobacco is a little moist, despite the years spent in the tin. Somebody might want to dry it out.

Flavor: dominated by very dense and bright notes of prunes and figs, overlaid with the aroma of freshly baked bread, supported by a faint scent of stale hay. There is also a slight saltiness, as from the brine of the olives. I do not know if you can tell by the smell the presence of such a small amount of latakia - at least I was not able to.

Taste: in the basis - dense, sweet, but not harsh notes of figs and muffin bread, offset by a soft spice and mild overtones inherent in the perique. The tobacco is exceptionally smooth on the palate, initially adds a little spice, but in the middle there is only a slight tanginess that underlines the main notes. In bents, this spiciness is more tangible than in straight-shaped pipes. Towards the end of the pipe, the woody notes come in and the overall bouquet becomes a little drier. I never felt the latakia notes: 0.5% of the blend is too small a value for me. However, perhaps that's the reason why the tobacco has a good density of flavor. The tobacco smokes extremely slowly and cool, doesn't fade - three grams of the blend can easily be smoked for a couple of hours, doing your thing. Due to the duration of smoking it seems that its strength is lower than the advertised average, but this impression is deceptive - the tobacco is filling well, and the rapid smoking and a very large pipe can "treat" the pipe smoker with a noticeable nicotine hit. I smoked tobacco both broken and whole - the strength is the same, but, of course, in the second case it smokes even slower. The tobacco burns into a light gray dusty ash, with quite a bit of moisture released in the bents, and straight pipes smoke much drier. The aftertaste is sweet and slightly astringent, similar to the taste of prunes.

The lightly diffusing smoke has a sweetly woody aroma.

What's the bottom line? First of all, I didn't go wrong with the choice: the quality of the blend is very high, and the taste, in my opinion, is what you need from a good vape. I like my blends a little bit sweeter, but this is an attempt to find some flaws in a great tobacco. Unlike the previously released Stratford, the Fillmore is slightly stronger, much more vibrant, and tastes more nicely. I haven't tried the blend in fresh form, but if it comes on sale I'll definitely buy more.

Pipe Used: Peterson 69, 106, 306, Mark Twain

Age When Smoked: 2016

Purchased From: Online

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Antonius Blok (192)	2021-05-28		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

A broken flake that exudes its aroma from a distance when the vinegar and spicy tin is uncovered. The "possible" added of Latakia makes it a different va / per. It burns very well and at a rate that leans to the slow side. The intensity of the flavor is medium and the nicotinic strength as well. Latakia is very slightly noticeable, especially in the retronasal exhalation, giving it that dark note. My throat has been scratched a little at times, similar to what sometimes happens with some blends containing burley, although in theory Fillmore does not include this ingredient. I usually smoke it at night, replacing my usual English blends, although it is an all-day tobacco.

I would recommend trying it because it is a different va / per, although in my point of view it may deviate a bit from that category, as it is nothing like any other virginia and perique mixture that I have tried.

2021/06/09: Reviewing this mixture again with an aged tin I give it a star, since it works very well in all aspects and three stars I do not think it is what it deserves. What I'm wondering now is if I should put it on my favorites list. Call me fickle if you want...

Age When Smoked: 1 and 16 years

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	rturrubi (6)	2020-09-28		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This tobacco is, in my opinion, a very delicate tobacco and therefore, although it is not difficult to smoke and enjoy, it is on deed extremely easy to spoil the smoke without the possibility of recomposing it, causing a very bad experience and causing an erroneous opinion about this fantastic tobacco.

In cold:

Smelling it in a can, it immediately gives off smells of fermented citrus, to my sense of smell, recalls the smell of "tepache" (Mexican beberage made from fermented pineapple peel), tamarind, wet wood, these are smells that I normally perceive in red Virginias and that fermented smell that It causes a certain itching in the nostrils that I identify in Perique.

First fire:

The first ignition can be strong and for some somewhat unpleasant since to ignite it you have to take good puffs with a medium to fast rhythm, this particular mixture I prefer to ignite with wooden matches since I have noticed that with a lighter, the first Bitterness is more aggressive when gas is used.

Immediately after lighting, the rhythm of the smoke must be lowered until a slow rhythm is reached, that is when the smoke begins to be enjoyed, in this way, the tobacco begins to release the sweetness of the virgin, to my palate it is a sweetness similar to burnt sugar, this flavor is preserved if we keep the rhythm of the smoke slow, in this way it also makes the perique feel pleasant, fresh, refreshing on the nose and in the mouth, giving a sensation similar to the freshness of mint (I mean the refreshing sensation, not the mint flavor), if you increase the rhythm of the smoke, it becomes bitter and the perique begins to be very aggressive in the nostrils doing both the smoking and the aftertaste a very unpleasant experience. When the smoke begins to cause humidity, the ember begins to pay and that is when we instinctively increase the rhythm of the smoke, in this case I recommend continuing with the slow smoke until the pipe goes out, once this happens, the best thing is let the pipe rest for about 5 or 10 min.

Second fire:

Once the pipe has rested, we will light it again trying not to put the flame into the bowl, instead, leave the flame above the bowl and allow the tobacco to heat up with each puff until it is lighted again, with this we will avoid the bitterness produced by the ignition, once the pipe is re-lighted, lower the rhythm again to slow to recover the sweetness of the virginia and the freshness and itchiness of the perique.

This mixture offers a dense, creamy, white and very fresh smoke on the nose. The delicate balance between sweetness and freshness are a pleasure in the mouth and nose, but you must be careful with the rhythm, since if you rush it, the tongue and palate will pay dearly for the price.

For me, this is one of the best and most complex Vaper blends I've ever smoked.

Pipe Used: Stanwell Antigua , Missouri Meerschaum

Age When Smoked: 4 Years

Purchased From: tobaccopipes.com

Similar Blends: Telegraph Hill, Dark Flake.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2019-07-26		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Disclaimer: I really dislike latakia.

From the moment I opened the tin I knew what was afoot. Someone had tossed a few healthy pinches of latakia into my va-per. Upon inspection my fears were confirmed. Several rather chunky bits of this black oily leaf....... After a sigh of disappointment, and a few hours dry time I packed up a pipe and the next morning I stepped outside for my morning ritual of a cup of my favorite dark roast and a smoke.

Latakia right out of the gate. Not overwhelming, but it's there hand in hand with the Virginia. After cursing under my breath and a sip of coffee to clear my palate. I give it a second light..... more of that oily leaf....I bear through about half the bowl... enjoying a moment or 2. At about mid-bowl I was over it. So I went and packed a bowl of Bayou morning flake to counter balance the taste and had to start my morning all over again.

I can see this being a winter vaper for some. I might even tolerate it on a colder night. But for my morning smoke, and even my rotation. Not going to happen. If you are like myself, someone who cant stand latakia, try some of Pease's other blends. Six Pence, Navigator, Telegraph Hill, Union Square, these blends I high recommend to any Virginia lover and hater of the dark oily leaf. As for the rest of you who don't mind it, give this blend a try. It does put a twist on the flavor profile that I can see why some would love. Top quality blend for a Top Notch blending house, just not my flavor. Hope you enjoy your tin more than I think Im going to. I will update maybe in a year when I've forgotten about this first experience and give it another try.... Errr on second thought... Anybody got some six pence for trade?

Pipe Used: Dunhill 5101 Cumberland Horn Army Mount

Age When Smoked: 10 months

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Ash Ryan (7)	2019-06-27		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a great blend of red VA’s and a hefty dose of Perique. It does have a smokey quality that some have said is a bit of Latakia, though i’m not sure about that, and it does dissipate with age. This blend was a bit too strong in nicotine for me at first, and still is despite a year in a jar, unfortunately. It’s definitely on the savory/peppery side without much sweetness, and feels on the strong end of medium to me.

Pipe Used: Italian briars, Tekin meerschaum

Age When Smoked: Fresh to 1yr.

Purchased From: Smokingpipes

Similar Blends: Bayou Morning, Red Carpet.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LannarkGent (145)	2018-08-19		Mild	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

VaPer? Scottish? I don't know where to exactly classify this blend, but it is very tasty. The red Virginias are superb, with a full bodied richness that is quite pleasant, There seems to be some mild topping to my taste, but is supplements, rather than overpowers the fine balance of flavors The Perique is just there, with just the right interplay with the high quality and well aged Virginias, to give it a fine all around flavor. The pressing married the flavors perfectly ,with, sweetness, an elusive oriental tang that comes and goes. The "wife note" is fine also. The blend has not needed any relights, although I have smoked it in a high quality Cayuga that often smokes very very well.. I merely packed and smoked. The flavor stays complex to the end of the bowl, with a finale that includes some nut flavored notes for me. This will become one of my favorites and is highly recommended. Red Virginia enthusiasts will find this to be a blend that is not to be missed. In my book, this is very close to the perfect Virginia blend

Pipe Used: Cayuga

Age When Smoked: 3 months

Purchased From: Indian River Tobacco Traders Grand Rapids Michigan

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Goose55 (33)	2018-05-11		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I had smoked a tin of three Fog City Selection blends back in the fall of 2016, when we all thought McClelland was a forever company. I have revisited Fillmore again and am totally wowed by it. I am not adept at describing all the nuances of a tobacco so I will just honestly say that it is a scrumptious, delicious VA/Per.

Sept 2018: Since writing the above I've gotten my grubby hands on an 8 ounce tin of 2006 Fillmore. The inside of the can is rusted, the leaf has turned almost black but oh my gosh. What flavor and creamy smoothness. Looking forward to smoking it again this evening in a favorite Meer, with my happy hour libation. I always get the greatest pleasure from a pipe at that time. I will report back and give you my findings.

Sept 26, '18; As promised I am reporting back after having had the most blissful, sublime evening bowl full of 12-year-old Fillmore. They say Pease blends have long legs and it ain't no lie. I would go as far as to say what I experienced last evening was on par with most of McClelland's finest Virginia-Perique blends and in some ways even surpassing. The only difference was the Fillmore did not have as much of the sweet/ sour tang as McCl. It was just Virginia sweet and w/ fruity Perique. No pepper but some spice.

Tripjoker wrote in his review that he found Filmore harsh and monotone. My hunch is he wrote that soon after smoking his 1st bowl from a newly cracked aged tin. Any aged Virginia or Virginia Perique is going to be bland and dumb out of the tin because it is still fermenting. If you wait a week or so, popping the lid every other day for 5 - 10 minutes, to stop the fermentation process, your experience will be different.

Pipe Used: Bent Scoop

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: 4Noggins

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	bangalbhuut (7)	2018-02-16		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

never bites and stays lit very easily. but too spicy and too dry. went through an 8 ounce tin. don't think i will be getting any more of this.

Pipe Used: dublins, apples and brandies

Age When Smoked: new

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Geronimo Von Klaus (76)	2015-12-10		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Hmmm. Let me preface this by saying that I don't know if me or the blend was the problem.

This stuff dried out super quick. I took some out and it was damp, and left in on a sheet of paper for about an hour before filling. In that time, it went very dry and was hard to pack and it was flaking.

Lit up quick and easy, and there is the issue, I don't know if the hot and bitter taste was that I dried it out too long, or that is just how it is. Regardless, it was hot and had a bit of a bitter and unpleasant stingy taste on my palate.

It calmed down though, and I found that sipping was best as any amount of quick puffs made it go very hot.

The smoke was thick and dense of good quality VA and a hefty dose of Perique. It was fairly mono the whole way, but I noticed it needed a lot of tamping and attention. The ash was clean and white, and down near the end it got a bit more interesting with some heavier flavors coming through.

All in all, a bit disappointed. Again, it could have been too dried out, but it was just a fairly heavy VaPer which needed a lot of fiddling with to get it to behave with a big tendency to burn hot.

Pretty hefty Nic hit too.

Pipe Used: Bent Cherry

Age When Smoked: 2 years

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hedgehog (8)	2014-12-05		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Strong

Short version: clear, strong, refined, warming, peppery, in short, this tobacco is made out of vodka.

Longer version: I will try to say what I mean when I say that this tobacco is made out of vodka. I do not mean that it has been cased with spirits. I do not mean that it tastes like potatoes, or that it will make you drunk. I do not mean that it is useful for cleaning pipes.

What I mean is that Fillmore has become for me the tobacco equivalent of vodka. It is so thoroughly refined, so purified of any excess or extraneous element, and in that sense so perfectly transparent, that it delivers an effect similar to that of a neutral grain spirit. A part of this effect is its strength. The perique powers through the whole bowl, and while kept in perfect equipoise with the mellowing virginias, it creates (especially on the retrohale) a fiery warmth, a warmth which like vodka's has nothing at all to do with heat. Lately I've been smoking it outdoors in the cold early-winter months, and I've had no trouble convincing myself, as I look out over the glacial till of my rust-belt state, that I'm actually staring out over the wastes of the Russian steppes, covered in furs, accompanied by my Borzoi hounds, waiting for the wolves or Napoleon's armies to arrive.

Do I love Fillmore? Yes. Sometimes. Just like I (used to) love vodka. Sometimes. I don't recommend drinking vodka or smoking Fillmore all day long, though some Russians or Pease aficionados might take issue with that.

I've found that with Va/Pers, one really tends to like what one likes and to stick with that, whereas with Vas, VaOs, Balkan's etc, its easier to have eclectic tastes. For me, all VaPers aspire to Escudo, and Escudo is what I smoke. Where Fillmore is clean and sleek, Escudo has a little more texture, a little more opacity, and feels to me a little woolier. If I were sticking with the booze metaphor (and I seem to be) then I would be more inclined to compare Escudo with a lovely light Scotch, such as I remember Lagavullin to be. When I smoke Fillmore, I feel that I am being ritually purified. When I smoke Escudo, I feel refreshed and invigorated.

Is this a superbly conceived and executed tobacco? Yes. (It's not nothing to find a way to make a tobacco out of vodka, without using any vodka.) Is this my favorite Va/Per? No, but I do recommend it.

Pipe Used: Narrow U-shaped bowls. Brebbia 8311 is ideal.

Age When Smoked: 2 years.

Similar Blends: Escudo.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-03-19		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Deep, rich, creamy, full & tasty. What more can you want from a quality vaper?? My tin was very young and so far I've only had two bowls, enough to know that this is going to be one of my all-time favorite vaper blends. I can't wait to age this a bit and see how it evolves. Tons of potential!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Dr. Scott (82)	2010-08-27		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Pleasant

Lots of Perique.

This is a very good blend, and for some it will be their Holy Grail, their desert island tobacco, their every day, all day smoke. For the lover of Perique, this may be it.

The Latakia is barely there, not even noticeable at times, just the way I like it. The Virginias are sweet but somewhat subdued by the Perique. There is no tongue bite, even when abused or puffed hard and fast. But smoke it as slowly as possible to get the sweetness of the Virginias and the flavor of the Perique. Nicotine dose is medium.

Tin note is wonderful. I love to take the lid off and inhale deeply. Like some of the other Greg Pease flakes, it comes quite wet.

A unique VaPer blend, ideal for those who want the emphasis on the Perique. A strong three stars.

Excellent with an ice cold root beer.

Update 25 September 2010: I can't resist comparing it to my other VaPers. After a head-to-head with Escudo, alternating days with each tobacco, the Fillmore is bigger, sweeter, slightly heavier on the Perique, more full in general. The Escudo is milder, easier and more forgiving, more of an all-day smoke for me. The Escudo also is easier to pack and keep lit than the Fillmore flakes. I definitely have a place for both tobaccos in my rotation.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipemanuk (76)	2009-06-02		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This broken flake comes in 2 tin sizes....2 ounce and 8 ounce tins. I have a couple of the 8 ounce tins and so my review is from one of them. Not sure how old the tin is as the date stamps are blurred but it's companion has a paper sticker dated September 08 on the base. Once the lid is popped one is greeted by the sight of a broken flake set in layers between paper dividers...which I dumped straightaway. The flakes are medium dark brown with lighter flecks and the smell is pleasantly sour spicey with a citrus undertone, very clean and fresh. It smells young and therein lies it's weakness.... To put it simply...as far as I am concerned this tobacco is marketed far too quickly to live up to the hype written on the label. It's not a bad tobacco by any means but it's far short of it's well known competitors, at least smoked as young as it is. I found it very one dimensional; there was no depth, no richness, no spicy suprises. Greg is a master at either marketing his products or tobacco blending. I completely agree with the first but the jury is still out with the second.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	jankoez (69)	2009-04-20		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Hahhh... This is nor good nor bad tobacco. To me it does not give much pleasure in smoking.

My rate: 2,3

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DoctorThoss (146)	2008-12-04		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

At the risk of sounding pretentious, this blend is exquisite.

Semi-sweet, deep Virginias blended with just the right amount of perique. The latakia is very muted and only makes itself known once or twice a bowl, kind of a faint hint of burning woodchips that fades away as soon as you notice it. The flavor is unique, and somehow manages to balance sweetness with an imposing sense of depth. Like most good VAs, there is complexity here -- a little cinnamon, a little ginger, and a little citrus all seem to come through at times. But the star here is the perique, which adds plenty of the stewed-fruit flavor that it's famous for while curbing the tendency of the Vas to burn your tongue.

This is a remarkably SMOOTH smoke with very, very little bite. Unlike other VAs, however, I find it works best in a large, deep bowl that gives it plenty of time to smoulder. The broken flakes rub out easily and burn very slowly -- I can get two hours out of a medium sized bowl.

An easy four stars, and easily my favorite VA/PER.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WmZiggy (81)	2008-10-05		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Pleasant

I purchased Fillmore over a year ago, as the date stamp on the bottom indicates. So this is a lightly aged tin of the tobacco. Prompted by the review in the Fall 2008 issue of Pipes and Tobacco, I opened it and smoked a bowl. Their review is "dead on". However,unlike the P&T review, my bowl never heated-up staying cool the entire smoke. I believe this is because I rubbed the broken flakes out.

Smoked in a group 4 well seasoned Charatan bulldog Canadian, I rubbed the tobacco out before packing. On the charing light it was earthy and spicy. As the smoked progressed it was a fine balance of sweet, spicy, and earthy flavors. The tobacco burned well, stayed lit and was a great smoking experience. I enjoy Perique/Virginia mixtures, and this one is top shelf.

September 19, 2010: My tin of Fillmore is now 3 years aged, and the bowl I smoked today better than ever. I rotate among many different tobaccos and I am only getting back to another bowl from this tin. It was a GREAT smoke. Aging has improved this broken flake.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-12-20		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

The tin aroma of these rather thickly cut flakes is sweet and rich, with a significant note of perique.

The dominant flavor is of quality, nuanced red virginias. There is a goodly amount of perique, behind which the latakia is barely noticeable, and if I wasn't told it was in this blend, it would have probably taken me a while to detect it.

Fillmore is superb and is yet another elegant offering in the Fog City series. Aging is recommended. This seemed best in narrow to medium gauge chambers.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	NEWMAN (305)	2007-10-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

GLP should get the award for truth in advertising based on his accurate tin description. The high quality dark tobaccos, inviting tin aroma and nicely prepared broken flakes greet you when the tin is opened. Moisture content was ideal for me and packing without further rubout was easy. An effortless, cool smoke resulted with no condesation, bite or relights. I felt that the Perique influence was greater than my preference from the initial light to the last puff and left too much of an aftertaste. Perhaps OK after a meal but not an all day blend. I'll stick with Solani 633 or McClelland 2015 for that where I feel the sweeter VAs are more evident.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-07-13		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Ahhh Fillmore, for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee;

Your tins are filled with exquisite majesty

And opened by trembling and anxious hands

Are soon emptied by my desirous smoking demands.

In tobacco the gods locked their greatest mysteries

But are now confounded by the unveiling from this GLPease.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-03-23		Mild	None Detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable to Strong

Fillmore seemed to be very well balanced, so much so, that nothing really jumped out at me. It reminded me of a wine I once enjoyed with friends where when asked what I thought of the wine, I replied: "It's so well balanced it tastes like nothing." Of course, I am exagerating in order to make a point, please read-on....

Perhaps this is due to the "pressing" process, as I understand this causes flavors to marry. The broken flake resulted in a cool smoke that lasted longer than a fully rubbed blend and this was appreciated.

Earlier reviewers commented on the earthy tones and creaminess of the smoke as one works through the bowl, I'm in agreement with these observations. Nonetheless I found this to be rather monotonic in nature (uncomplicated, of a consistent tone).

I liked the room note, leathery, earthy, but found that it remained in the room through the next day with a noticeable presence.

It's a good smoke when one is looking for these characteristics, and I believe it to be a good choice when the moment calls for a change of pace. Aside from the room note Fillmore is easy to forget.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mr. Dottle (162)	2007-02-15		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

Fillmore is a delightful, well-balanced VAPER where the perique and VA harmonize nicely with each other. This blend evolved with a welcome richness and deepness without becoming outright bold or stout. It also had a distinct, earthy edge to it. These latter qualities make this blend unique and stand out from many other VAPERs I have smoked. That?s about it?????now I gotta go fill more Fillmore in my pipe!

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

I rate this blend 9.85 out of 10.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Ranger (79)	2007-01-24		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant

Well, this is my first Pease outside of the original mixtures that I rate 4 stars. An outstanding Va/Per flake that smells delicious, burns well, and most of all, the taste matches the presentation. A balanced blend of sweet and spicey that I look for in a Va/Per flake. I could smoke this anytime. I burned through my tin quickly and can't wait to buy more for consumption and storage. Hurray for the change to flakes on this one!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-01-12		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

In one word - EXCELLENT!

The tin aroma was different from the overtones of figs and raisins that I have experienced with other Vapers. It had a different but delicious smoky and alluring earthy aroma. Furthermore, the medium and dark brown flakes were slightly drier than most others, which I found exciting. I find most flakes too moist.

It rubbed out easily and effortlessly packed into my Will Purdy Garlic, which makes it an easy tobacco to smoke.

The first light revealed loads of flavor and smooth draws of smoking produced ample clouds of cool, thick smoke. The entire bowl presented a luxurious sweetness from the Virginias and a scrumptious spice of an ideal degree from the perique. The two tobaccos produced a creamy richness that unfolds as you progress through the bowl. It is a wonderful smoke!

This offering from Mr. Pease was very satisfying and was very gentle on the tongue. I believe this tobacco will age wonderfully. You can rest assured that I will be "cellaring" some! Pipe smokers of every experience level will love and appreciate this new creation of GL Pease.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-11-13		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Upon opening this tin, I get a nice typical Va aroma with a bit of the fermented undertones from the Perique. I can?t say that it smells of anything other than a deep, rich, earthy tobacco with none of the vinegar/catsup smell associated with some nice Va?s I have smoked.

The tobacco?s appearance in the tin is of a slightly broken flake, rather a dark brown with a few golden strands speckled throughout. For my purposes it seems to be just about the right moisture right out of the tin.

I have smoked this in all degrees of rubbing out, from folding the flake pieces directly into my pipe to thoroughly rubbing them out. I seem to get the best results when I rub them out rather coarsely. (I seldom smoke whole flakes)

Upon initial light, the Perique makes its presence known immediately. However it quickly settles down and the first flavors that emerge from the pipe are somewhat like citrus. Not a bright citrus like lemons, but a deeper, rounder citrus flavor slightly bitter like a grapefruit, but not quite as bitter. As the bowl progresses the citrus flavor deepens even more with the Perique flavor wafting its way in and out, but not in an obtrusive way. A bit past the halfway mark, the citrus starts to fade leaving a slightly creamy note to the tobacco. This creaminess rounds out and deepens to the bottom of the bowl and the Perique intensifies giving the smoke an almost malt-like flavor (I know GLP describes another blend in this way, but it is the only way I can describe it). This final taste that the tobacco leaves on your palate after the bowl is finished is creaminess with just a hint of that deep citrus flavor remaining behind.

This is a tobacco that really sings when you take the time to smoke it slowly and carefully.

The room note, per my wife is "light, not overpowering like some of that tobacco you smoke."

This tobacco has a medium dose of nicotine.

GLP Fillmore is going to be in my regular rotation from now on.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-11-09		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I smoke a lot of Virginia's and Fillmore is nothing like a typical Vaper. Unlike some of the reviewer's here, I don't find any comparison with it to anything else available today.

My tin arrived with more moisture than usual for a Pease tobacco. Even so, it required only one relight. As my practice with Pease blends, I pop the tin, close the lid and let it stand for a day or two. After the initial light, I let the pipe rest for a few minutes before proceeding. I generally use DGT for most tobaccos; and Fillmore seems to benefit greatly from the technique. Fillmore smoked well in the first two pipes I use for Virginia's. In the third, a group 4 or 5 bulldog, it was magic! Excellent burning right down to the bottom, no gurgle, and no bite. Just a wonderful naturally sweet and spicy blend with a melange of flavors all the way through.

I'm not ready to declare Fillmore the best of the Dark Lord's blends, but it will bring up the number to seven of his blends in my rotation. Frankly, I've given up trying to identify the "best" blend. Suffice to say that is doesn't get better than this.

Many blender's descriptions of their tobaccos amount to little more that a marketing effort for the reader to purchase the product. Not so with GL Pease. Read what he writes and believe what he says.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-10-22		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

I'm about a third of a way through a 2 oz. tin of GLP Fillmore which I was able to allow to age a full three and a half months before finally succumbing and opening the tin. The sweet red Virginia tobacco is apparent on immediate light-up while the perique remains, at this point, somewhat subdued. This tobacco starts to come into its element about a third of the way down the bowl, at which time the perique ramps up and makes its presence known, complimenting the ever sweetening red Virginia. This is a fine tobacco and one which I believe will become infinitely better as it ages. Thus far I have not noticed a character I've experienced with GLP's Haddos Delight, Cairo, Laurel Heights or Odyssey, and that is that the flavor seems to become a bit more rich and a bit more mellow once the tin has been opened and has breathed for a few days (that doesn't mean I leave the tin open, but have simply pulled its top and whatever was going on previously in the sealed tin has been altered). The last two thirds of the bowl are exquisite; it is a very very relaxing blend and one which usually makes me sleepy as I near the end of the bowl. Thus it has become, like Haddos Delight, a late evening smoke. I have been smoking it exclusively in a Cavicchi 1C, about a large group 5 in size, and a pipe which allows me approximately an hour and a half of smoking. I believe Fillmore is among the best Va/Per blends I've ever enjoyed. Highly recommended - I intend to stock up as I can afford it and then cellar as many tins as possible.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	flaminbill' (57)	2006-10-22		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I am sampling a tin of Fillmore that is only a month old, but I can tell already that it is keeper. I have a few tins aging, and I suspect it well get even better. Initially it remins me somewhat of Gawith's Full Virginia Flake with its depth and creaminess. I have not tried one G.L. Pease blend to date that I did not like.

flaminbill' with a Savinelli Luxor

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-09-13		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Fillmore changed my tastes in tobacco. Before this, I thought that Haddo's Delight was one of my favorites. Now, Haddo's is hardly even enjoyable. Smelling this in the tin I immediately thought of a freshly cut pumpkin. Very natural, intriguing. It's hard to actually pack the pipe sometimes, because that means pulling the tin away from my nose.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-09-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

The Spring & Summer of 2006 has seen my exploration into something other than my mainstay English/Balkan blends. I've tried some two dozen samplings of Virginias, Perique & Burley offerings in varying forms and compositions. Escudo, several Rattrays, Reiners, McClellands, Samuel Gawith and GL Pease are some that I've tried. I have rarely found a Pease blend I didn't like, with quality and moisture level perfect right out of the tin. Odyssey is in my top rotation of Latakia smokes, next to Penzance, Lancer's Slices and Squadron Leader.

In my search amongst these VAs, with and without Perique, I was often wanting more flavor and fullness, and with less bite, than the VAs delivered, and did not enjoy the peppery quality of the Perique. It is a mystery to me the attraction some have for Escudo and McClelland VAs. I sampled a tin of Fillmore off and on with a tin of Pease's Haddo's Delight; both are excellent.

Fillmore is cut in a way I've not seen in other tobaccos; similar to some broken flakes, but shorter and finer, which makes it easy to pack. The tin aroma is somewhat like dried figs and raisins, and with none of the Ketchup smell as in some other VAs. The moisture level is typical of Pease; slightly dry. The blend packs and lights easily, smokes nice and dry and burns to a gray ash with very few relights. As for the flavor and aroma, it is sweet, full, round and spicy all at once, and stays that way from start to finish. All the aromas and flavors integrate and balance very well. I experienced no bite from the VAs, nor excessive pepper from the Perique.

I have found myself going to this blend, frequently passing over others, regardless of the time of day. Four stars!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	kylepoet (18)	2006-08-28		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

I've smoked my first and second tins of Fillmore over the past month and a half, just to give this blend its due. When I haven't been able to decide what I want, I reach for Fillmore, it has yet to disapoint. Fillmore is an exquisite smoke. Peppery and sweet, it keeps me interested thoughout the bowl. The broken flake is a perfect presentation. This flake starts off grabbing your attention, then mellows and sweetens all the way down to a fine white-gray ash at the bottom.

As good as it is now, I'm stocking up to cellar. In a year, two years, or five years time, I think this is going to be a classic, and many VA/P's are going to be judged in comparison to this one.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-08-21		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Glad to see GLP add a flake tobak to the Fog City Series and a vaper at that!! As primarily a latakia fan, I was excited upon opening the tin (less than a month old) and the aroma that followed. It is tobacco that can be packed as is or fully rubbed out.I tried smoking it both moist and very dry with the same results. A very pleasant smoking experience to say the least! I could not find any negative write ups on this blend and will recommend this for an upgrade...to one of the best vaper blends made today,IMO. Can only imagine how good this will be down the road with some age as it is truely delicious now! Stock the cargo bin full, I am looking for that deserted island on my Jepps!!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	tacoeatingzebra (37)	2006-08-15		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is the first Pease tobacco I've tried, and so the question I must ask myself is, "why have i waited so long?"

I am primarily a smoker of English/Balkan blends. I worship at the feet of the first person to burn camel dung to flavor tobacco (joke, folks...), but my second great love in the world of tobacco are VA/perique blends.

Upon opening the tin, I noticed the beautiful cut of this tobacco. The moisture looked a little high, but I took a chance and smoked it without letting it air out. unbelievably, it is consistantly one of the driest smokes I've had.

The tin aroma is something akin to a higher quality fig newton. IT burns quite cool and has a sweet, but spicy flavor.

Update 2/23/13: smoking a little Tsuge nosewarmer full of this stuff from a tin marked 10/17/06. Age has turned this into one of the most gentle, smooth, sweet, but peppery tobaccos I've ever smoked. The tin was opened in 2007 and about 1/3 was gone. No jarring or sealing, just the little white plastic lid. The moisture level remains high. Still smells so damn good. The room note is sweet and a tad boozy. Can't wait to smoke more. Nice. Nice. Nice job, Mr. Pease. A genuine masterpiece.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-08-12		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

a slight cinnamon taste with vaughsugar and leather notes, i have had three consecutive bowls that only required one light per smoke. Mmmmmm, i'll let you know how an aged tin works, if any last long enough. oh and this is a sipping blend, every last ember in the bowl will burn for your delight, and is biteless.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-08-05		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I?d like a go at reviewing Fillmore. So, I?ll begin by saying I purchased two 2 oz. tins of Fillmore at the Chicago Pipe and Tobacco show in May of this year. If I?m not mistaken, GL Pease released this blend at the show for its introduction. In fact, the tins were inconspicuously packaged, no labeling. Normally, one would suspect such an offering, but Pease rarely insults a pipe smoker with inferior weed.

That same day, I purchased a hand-carved Neerup pipe from the master Peder Jeppesen himself. Little did I know, Fillmore and the hand-craved Neerup was a smoking marriage made in heaven. After arriving at home and without hesitation, I cracked open one of the tins and was surprised by the packaging. The wad of flake was tightly wrapped in tissue paper. I carefully cut the scotch tape, which secured the wad, with a pocketknife. This revealed a thick-cut, broken-flake with a rich oily deep-red Virginian appearance. The aroma had the unmistakable sent of Perique, and my initial reaction was Pease likely went over-the-top with this blend.

After rubbing a generous amount, I noted my fingertips were slightly coated with the oily residue from the blend, this lead to my second reaction, this stuff is going to need some dry time. Not one to be too annoyed by several re-lights, I loaded the Neerup, poured a glass of claret and made my way for one of the lawn chairs I?d recently pulled from winter storage a few weeks earlier. After lighting, I was surprised that Fillmore needed only one re-light. Now came the third reaction, this is a lot like Escudo. Where Escudo is little nuttier in flavor, Fillmore is sweeter but accurately balanced by the pungency of Perique, good VAPER by anyone?s standard. That first tin lasted about 4 or 5 days, I was hooked on Fillmore at this point.

The second tin was opened three months later, actually this past week. The only reason it wasn?t consumed sooner is that I smoke fewer bowls during warmer months, plus I already had an 8 oz. can of Haddo?s open (as well as two Balkan Blends) and that need some reducing, otherwise I?d have too many tobaccos in the fire. Nevertheless, my fourth and final reaction about Fillmore is that it?s simply a solid VAPER. I haven?t decided which one reigns supreme (compared with Escudo). I?m once again perplexed how two blends, obviously pressed and aged with differing techniques, can be so much alike. Fillmore deserves 4 stars too.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stan (179)	2006-07-26		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

A beautiful blend to behold in tin or hand. Pease's first flake, and ready rubbed for easy packing. Tinned the thick ribbons look like soldiers ready to march.

Tin aroma is lucious and inviting.

It burns steady, dry and cool. A richness develops down the bowl. It has a mellow, light fruity (not aromatic) taste.

The perique plays its part giving the blend a little zip in the last half. Not a heavy perique blend to me, and I don't believe it is suppose to be.

The red Virginia must be similar to that in Laurel Heights, but being pressed n flake form here before final cutting and tinning, the flavor is spread out more. The perique also subdues the sweetness a little more here than the dash of latakia does to Laurel heights. The latter is a bit heavier with more of a nicotine hit too. Fillmore by comparison is milder.

I smoked a full tin with attention over several weeks -- about 25 bowls to more than break in a 50 plus years old small algerian Genod briar and still had about 5 bowls left to try in a small Barling transition and a Wiley horn for comparison. She smoked a little sweeter in the Barling and Wiley but I think the last 10 or so bowls in the algerian was a truer test.

The main taste is definitely of a fruit-like, sweet red virginia, but due to the pressing the sweetness is softer than Laurel Heights, or perhaps shall I say creamier. For that reason, I still prefer Laurel Heights more (or a McCranie Red Cake), but I think with added months of aging the red virginia sweetness will come through more in Fillmore. It may surpass the pack of red virginias at that point.

Mr. Pease's website compares Fillmore to say Escudo, at least in flavor (no coins here). This is a fair comparison. New Escudo also needs some extra time to age in the tin to bring out the sweetness of the red Virginias in my opinion.

But again this in just my critical opinion. Others have told me they find the sweetness and perique touch just the right thing in this blend from the get go. I have to agree that, more aging or not, the taste of the tabak out of a new tin seems mature enough. I just have been jaded by the majestry of some of Mr. pease's fine tobaccos (Montogmery, Laurel heights, Haddo's, etc.) to expect more than I deserve. My three stars here to my four for Laurel Heights is like comparing one masterpiece to another. A star in this high grade category may be worth five in lesser categories.

Buy this and age some tins. This is destined to become one of the best tobaccos in the world. I have a half dozen tins aging with others in the Fog City series. I like it, but no stories this time. The genie in the mirror will have to wait (see my Montgomery review).

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	mainspring (27)	2006-07-25		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Mr. Pease has outdone himself with Fillmore! This is a new look and taste for the masses. It packs very nicely into any size pipe. The burn quality is, in a word, effortless. It has been trained not to bite - even when I try to make it misbehave! Taste - exquisite! It burns clean to a grey ash. An absolute MUST for any vaper enthusiast. My tins were only tinned last month. If it is this good now, it scares me to think of what aging might do. This is a "being alone on a deserted island" smoke for me. It is quite possibly my favorite tobacco in my 32 years of smoking a pipe! I really don't know what else to say. My highest recommendation!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	topdogue (13)	2006-07-25		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This mixture is apparently the last one of Mr. Pease' Fog City collection. The theme was to be Virginia. All but Fillmore are ribbon cut. I am a self-professed fast puffer, so flakes in their various forms are typically my favourites as they allow me to puff away without scorching my tongue. Fillmore is a flake that appears to be what some European blenders call ready-rubbed. It requires little preparation before loading into you pipe. I have smoked Fillmore in both regular Italian-made pipes and Italian 9mm filter pipes. The activated charcoal in German 9mm filters will tame the edges of many young blends, but Fillmore does not require "taming" straight out of the tin. It is medium brown and fairly monochromatic in the tin and has a wonderful aroma. Spend some time just smelling the tin before you get into smoking it. Good stuff that smell. It packs easily if you are familiar with flakes and starts up without much fuss. Fillmore burns down to a grey ash very evenly and will not require relights. It has that peculiar characteristic of all GLP blends to burning to a sudden stop without warning at the bottom. No gloop at the bottom either. The flavour builds to a fairly complex, interesting Periquey flavoured smoke that will keep you interested throughout the smoke. With a littel age, this tobacco will have some great richness. Fillmore does not have a high-octane kick of nicotine, but for VA/Perique flake lovers, this is one fabulous mixture. Buy several tins and store them and every six months open one to experience the change in the VA. I love this stuff.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	b7q (54)	2023-01-15		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant

Some people like Latakia, the more the better, and for me, a supporting role can only ever be a supporting role, just as no one goes to sip Perique and Kentucky alone.

It's very complex and spicy, and if anything needs lifting, like a viola or cello, I've added 5% Stoved Virginia #507-S (chopped) and the violin comes in.

Life is a constant toss, so is the pipe!

2023/5/29

I still can't accept latakia. Unfortunately, the taste experience is different for everyone. When it is lit, I can always smell the smell of burning wires.

And all that smelly sock stuff. Am I a little stubborn?

Cavendish, Burley, Cigar Leaf, Virginia, Perique, they would have been enough for me without those strange smells.

Pipe Used: Clay&Briar

Age When Smoked: new

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Deckard Cain (39)	2022-06-12		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a very authentic tobacco that takes me back to olden times. A solid vapor. The perique is very pronounced. It makes this blend very lively and one that you need to stay on top of less it bite you. It stays lit well. Absolutely best enjoyed with micro puffs. Now it is not uncommon for vapors to leave wretched tongue burn. But it's a real art learning to smoke tobaccos like this. It's not an all day smoke. You want to keep the temperature low, and almost let it go out. Season vapor smokers have nothing to worry about. Now some tobacco's that can burn your tongue, do it in a sneaky way. They fool you, but not this one. It is very straightforward. It also feels like a very dry smoke in the back of your throat. This is not one of those "smooth as chocolate milk" blends.

Rustic Virginia taste and real, authentic perique. There isn't much else detectable here. This blend seems like tobacco in a very pure form, without much polishing. But if you keep the temperature low and let it smolder a little a very nice old flavor begins to come out of it. I hate to use the term woody or earthy, because everyone says it. But this one really puts you in mind of some good old tobacco smoked in the south in the mid 1800s. Took me a few bowls to really figure it out. But the third bowl I'm really enjoying. None the less I won't be buying more of this. It's just a little bit too harsh for me.

Not a great tobacco for the novice. Not an all day smoke. But the vapor purist may love this.

Pipe Used: Old cob

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipes and cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Kokinhenik (93)	2019-05-26		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

G.L. Pease's Fillmore. Good stuff! This VaPer is big and bold. Opening my first tin I was very pleased at the fresh quality of the leaf and the wonderful tin aroma of rich bready Virginia and fragrant raisin Perique. The flake was moist and looked to be heavily loaded with Perique. This tin was going to need some airing out and drying. Prior to lighting up my first bowl, I left a bowl of the blend laying on my desk for 72 hours. When I came back to it, I found it was mostly dehydrated. I mixed it back in the tin and left it for 8 hours. That was just right as it seemed to balance the whole tin out.

The first bowl I packed, lit right up on the char and didn't need a second light until I had smoked 2/3 of it. Fillmore rewarded me with a wonderful smoke of rich red virginia, nutty, grassy, sweet and wrapped up in a peppery, earthy, plummy perique. The perique was very forward... and peppery... right on the line but never overwhelming. I literally found myself exclaiming "wow, peppery" after many a puff. I could not tease out the Latakia. I didn't seem to present at any point. I didn't have a problem with bite, even when puffed hard. Smoke this slow to enjoy the richness of the flavor profile. When dried properly it will burn down to a fine ash with low level of moisture. All in all it was a very fine smoke. Trance inducing with the richness of each puff. It left a nice aftertaste that quickly dissipated and left me craving my next bowl. I was also smoking a jar of aged Escudo during the same time that I smoked this tin of Fillmore. I preferred the richness of Fillmore! Very satisfying! The aged Escudo was nice and smooth but had a wicked long aftertaste (days long). If you're a VaPer fan, I recommend this blend!

Pipe Used: Bjarne apple

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

Similar Blends: Haddos Delight.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	2piper (14)	2019-03-31		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Unnoticeable

I like this one. It's a VaPer. Yet, to me, it's more bold and contemplative. It definitely keeps you thinking about the flavors/aromas that are occurring as you smoke it. They say the pepperiness mellows as this ages. It is peppery. But, it's also deep, rich and has an enyoyable sweetness too. I recommend puffing slowly and softly. Should you do so, Fillmore will reward you with a lengthy, memorable experience.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Hurcules

Age When Smoked: 15 month old tin.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BingCrosby (162)	2018-06-16		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

As much as I hate semantics I am deducting a star from this wonderful blend... ummm just a little latakia unadvertised.. thing is.. it works. Perfect Smokey compliment... just something I would tone down about 10 years before I introduce it to a Virginia dedicated pipe.. and by that time it will be so delicious it doesn't matter.. Nice rich tobacco.. the Virginia is nice and full and the perique is delightfully present.. nice alternative to the much lighter telegraph hill (sometimes you feel like a nut).. another wonderful pease blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	p4p4 (59)	2017-11-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Strong

I think this is the best flake from Pease. Red virginia (winey-like) and perique (chily) So this is like smoke cheap red wine with pepper. I dont like red virginia (american tradition), so if you like red winey virginia, try it. If you prefer european virginia (grassy,citrous,leafy ones) stay away. Good quality, just boring for me do to the boring souced-winey red virginia. Winey : like red wine, but cheap one, drugstore wine, poored with water.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Muchogum (7)	2017-07-10		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

My first Virginia/Perique blend, so while not a newbie at pipe tobaccos, I am definitely "newbieish" at this blend. However, I like Virginia flakes and Virginia Burley blends best!

While Fillmore is obviously a very well-made blend, it's principal adherents will be those who like a peppery mouth feel and a bit of sand in the back of the throat! I find the blend to be much like cigars that have a peppery component to the smoking experience, which I can happily do without.

That said, the blend is a pleasant interlude, albeit in shortish bouts with a pipe. De gustibus non disputandum est! Into the personal blend on the back of the stove it will go!

Pipe Used: Dunhill Billiard

Age When Smoked: 2-3 years

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	anglocatholicpiper (34)	2016-11-28		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Whoever said this blend was a darker, creamier VaPer is absolutely right. It's nice to have a Pease VaPer- a change from Mcclelland's Virginia/Ketchup vibe. It doesn't taste like any other VaPer I can remember. Really like it. And love the thick broken flake cut.

Pipe Used: Altinok meerschaum

Age When Smoked: Fresh tin

Purchased From: Smokingpipes

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	natibo (169)	2016-10-28		Strong	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

This was a good Virginia Perique blend. Very Periquey. It had a nice nic hit. I would not place it on my list of all-time Va-Per blends. Nor would I put it on my all tim favorite G. L. Pease blends. But it hits the spot and is decent.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Swiss-smoker (87)	2016-02-20		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Neatly arranged broken flakes that look like little sticks (or thick toothpicks). Perfect moisture. I do not rub it out, I directly stuff these flake sticks into the pipe for best results. Excellent smoking conditions. Pleasurable slow and cool burning. Even if you draw at a higher pace, you never get tongue-bites, it only raises the temperature slightly, never up to a problem.

The blend is composed of Virginia and Perique exclusively; no casing, no flavouring. The Perique is much more peppery than fruity, and this pepper often dominates the smoke. The Virginia mainly releases bread notes and almost no sweetness. It irritates me that every bowl is quite different. Some may find this interesting. Personally I would prefer considerably less pepper out of the Perique here, and a wider palette of Virginia flavours.

Age When Smoked: New, out of the tin.

Purchased From: Internet, www.smokingpipes.com, USA.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	bklynpipe (13)	2014-02-11		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The description of the component tobaccos seems to refer to some blend other than Filmore. The slices are indeed soft and of a dark to medium color. Most surprising is the tin aroma. There's no hint of Perique that I can detect, and it was a bit reminiscient of Plumcake in a distant way. I thought there were perhaps some Orientals here. Then the Beggin Strip commercial came to mind - bacon, bacon bacon, IT'S BACON! Anyway, that's how it smells to me. The taste is sharp from the start and doesn't vary much. No sweetness from the Virginias either. Fillmore is a stout blend and if that's your thing, you'll like this. Interesting blend, but I don't predict buying this again.

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes.Com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mr. Big (321)	2013-12-14		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

An ok blend, no bite, but I found it tended to burn hot. The Perique is medium but not interesting, if you sip this , you can get a nice sweetness. What you won't get, is a lot of flavor, it's very one dimensional and very subdued. I also don't find this strong enough in the "N" department for me.

Another strange feature , is when lighting; the tobacco " rises" excessively with just the slightest touch of the match and falls all over the floor. I find myself needing 5 charring lights , retamping the tobacco back after each time, not to ignite it, but to keep it in the bowl. The result is a 1/4 of a bowl left on the table or floor after a light. "Caution", don't try using this tobacco while driving or refueling your lawnmower!!!

PS.- I really liked " Tripjoker(64) 2009-03-30" review and agree. My review was based on just what he said NOT to do, my tin had only about one week of breathing and no aging. I'm sealing the remainder of my tin and will revisit in a year.

Updated 2016/02/16- I still feel this on burns hot and just doesn't do much for me

Pipe Used: Cob

Age When Smoked: 2 month , one week open and 2 years

Similar Blends: hotter burning and stronger H&H " Louisianan Red" or Anniversary Kake.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	mdnyc71 (22)	2013-09-20		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Strong

Dark Virginias with plenty of Perique. I couldn't smoke this every day but when I want a strong, full-bodied smoke, I reach for Fillmore. You've got to take your time with this one or the flavor and nicotine can be overwhelming.

I'm upgrading my rating on this tobacco because I reach for it so often. It burns well right out of the tin (needs no drying time) and is complex enough to never get boring. A lot of reviewers state that they "don't smoke a pipe for the nicotine". Well, I do! Nicotine is part of the smoking experience. Fillmore delivers in the taste and nicotine departments - there is no trade off whatsoever.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-09-16		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This smelled strongly of ripened bleu cheese upon opening the tin. Getting a little closer and it smelled sweetish and fruit-like fermented. Promising. This came at the perfect moisture level and packed well. This lit up after several lights and produced a moderate amount of smoke. The problem I found with this blend was that there was too much perique for this mixture. The spice over-shawdowed the Vas. plain and simple. There was no sweet and no savory, there was just the sour pepperiness of the perique stealing the show.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-07-03		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I got a decent order of tobacco yesterday, including 4 GLP blends. For the last year or so I've been quite restricted in the choices offered by local real-world so-called specialists, so my palate has become used to Dunhill's latakia-based blends and FVF. It was time to get something a bit different sent in the mail. McV's HHODF was an instant hit as my review shows, but the GLP blends I've been working through have taken some adjustment. I think it might be because they are so clean, natural and unadulterated. I have no doubt that Mr Pease is a connoisseur of tobacco- I can taste the quality of this leaf- and given the fact that I ordered Fillmore (Va/Per), Union Square (Va) and Cumberland (Ky/Va/Per) it is hardly surprising that they are similar, but I feel some sympathy with those reviewers who were not instantly blown away by the work of our newest Master Blender. The curiosest thing about Fillmore et al is the mouthfeel of the smoke- it seems utterly pure. I am extremely pleased that I bought these new, lovely tobaccos and look forward to learning from them, but be warned, after years of smoking more processed leaf, some of us will have to put in the effort to understand what he is doing.

Addendum: After smoking this and DNR back to back, I have to give the edge to Fillmore. While it is a touch brighter than ideal due to it's newness, the DNR tastes a little constricted in comparison. Definite thumbs up for Fillmore.

Addendum 2: The more I smoke this, the more I like it. Upgraded to four stars. :-)

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	haredawg (47)	2013-02-26		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I know this blend doesn't need another review and no particular reason not to give it four stars. Smoking my first bowl in mid sized, narrow, ashton billiard that has had, I believe, only VA? pers smoked in it (It's a memory thing, I bought the pipe new). Opening the tin you get the figgy VA/PER scent you expect from a quality VA/PER a little drying, a little breaking up the bigger pieces, and it's a fine smoke. There's a tendency to compare it to other VA/Pers, like, say, escudo. I have one open can of escudo and several cellared --- yet we all continue to explore just the same. This compares favorably and if I ever run out of escudo I won't complain about smoking this. I'll let y'all take or add a star when you try it, you know you will. I haven't smoked many Pease blends. He seems to use high quality tobacco. UPDATE You know I've been smoking cigarettes for forty years, cigars for twenty, and pipes for ten. Name a heavy hitter and I've smoked it, from those damn blue French cigs I can't pronounce, Cuban Partagas, every black stoved Virginian and heavy Balkan blend you can name. Yet this fairly normal partially rubbed out Va/per makes me dizzy with nicotine. The first time I thought it was the drugs (they're legal, messed up back'll get you buttloads of pain killers) but no, I've gone through a tin of this, from narrow group 3 Dunhill to a broad geppeto stack, to a beautiful Becker apple that's never steered me wrong. Still feel like I drank a pint of whiskey afterwards. Same figgy smell when opening the tin you expect from a good va/per, packs well whether you rub it the rest of way out or not, burns cool for a va/per, nice white ash. I don't know, maybe I got the tin they put all the nicotine in, I'm telling you though, I have a high tolerance for nicotine and this stuff, at least this tin, knocks me on my ass. That's why I'm giving it four stars. That and it's as good as any va/per on the market. I have a sentimental attachment to Escudo and Reiner's long golden flake is in its own class altogether, but still, compare all day long if you want, Fillmore may not exceed but it'll pace your best. Plus, if it's not a fluke, this stuff'll get you high.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	derlict311 (71)	2012-11-22		Strong	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Tin date 6/16/2006

My first thoughts on Fillmore was that it was borderline overwhelming. After a little tweak in my intensity of puffing, I found Fillmore to be quite sweet and savory. I don't think I'll confuse it with an all-day smoke. After Thanksgiving turkey or any big meal, it is a nice way to unwind and reload on the N. One of the knocks is that it is so high in nicotine that one really doesn't want another pipe for a while. Maybe that's a good thing?

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	samcoffeeman (33)	2012-11-02		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

I'm beginning to think Va/pers aren't my thing. I've really enjoyed perique in other blends such as nightcap and haddo's delight. Maybe some like it in good measure, but presently I seem to prefer it in small doses, where it is a supporting character. I am going to try to smoke it more slowly next time. The smoke can be a little harsh and on the spicy peppery side. Perhaps with some age it will mellow a bit and then I will find it more enjoyable. Rating: less enjoyable. I was hoping for more, I really wanted to like it. Like I said though, perhaps Va/pers aren't my thing...at this time.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-06-09		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Strong

UPDATE: You know? I've had this baccy on my mind a lot lastely, as I've been desiring VaPer. I may just give it another try- and I'm thinking it's worth a revisit just by the fact that of all tobaccos I tried early-on (this was one of my very first) this is the one I remember and am wanting to try again.

Hmmmm....I don't know what to make of this one. I'm not buying it again, but yet, it wasn't bad. I would classify it as medium in the nicotine department [I like a lot of nic]. Taste? Overall, nothing great- but there are subtleties that emerge now and then which are quite nice.

My biggest problem with this tobacco, is that the smoke can be rather harsh and acrid- which seems odd, as many of the much stronger tobaccos I smoke are not so.

Basically, it's a middle-of-the-road tobacco. Produces only a medium amount of smoke- i.e. not rich, heavy creamy smoke. But between there not being a lot of flavor and the fact that it's rather harsh and acrid, and not at all appealing as it wafts past your nostrils [This is the ONE tobacco I've encountered, where I find myself actually waving the exhaled smoke away from my face; whereas I normally savor that exhaled smoke from other tobaccos]

Yet, there was something nice about this- and, as seems to be the case with most GLP blends, it gets much better with age. All-in-all, I'd take it over drug store tobacco anytime...but otherwise, not enough here to make me buy it again. It was O-K to try though...not a total loss.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Darth Vader (110)	2012-02-18		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

What great stuff. I could smoke this all day. I'm not half way through the tin yet, and yet, i know i'll order some more. Classic full bodied smoke but not at all overpowering. As always, first rate tobacco is used and i really like the combination of the different virginia's. Americans should be proud you have the finest living tobacco blender serving your smoking needs.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Kaziwazee (8)	2011-09-27		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Fillmore is a tobacco that has to be approached with a bit of respect. If you smoke it hard, it will rebel. Smoke it gently, and you will get moments of bliss - I've had my share of both.

The first time I smoked Fillmore, I thought I was going to be knocked out for a few hours -and I was! It appeared to be much too strong for me. I actually had to resort to smoking half of a bowl. Then, I began to smoke it slowly and the taste was amazing. Right now, I'm smoking a full bowl of this everyday, and it's just great. When I'm done smoking Fillmore, I don't need a second bowl of anything. It fills you up.

This is becoming a favourite of mine -and it is my first VaPer mixture. Quite an enjoyable smoke. Give it a chance, you may like it.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	chgo.piper (37)	2010-09-27		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

First quarter of the bowl is a heavy per. After that, the remaining bowl is of top quality,semi-sweet virginia that has been beautifully flavored by the remaining per. this will age to perfection... I can't wait... The best Va/Per on the market(IMO)and taste great in a corn cob.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hufflepuff (8)	2010-03-25		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I popped a tin from 2006 and the aroma was a beautiful thing. Raisins, tangy and earthy smelling. Another well balanced Pease blend. Upon lighting I get a nice muted sweetness from the virginias. The perique it there but is not overpowering by any means. The 2% latakia, per GLP, is was really makes this blend stand out. It adds to the earthy flavors of the perique with a subtle smokey tanginess. Overall I found this to be an interesting twist on the traditional VA/Perique and will be buying more.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Davetopay (43)	2010-03-11		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I will start by saying I haven't spent much time with this blend....yet. In fact this is the first Pease tobac I have ever tried. I have been working on broadening the spectrum of my experience with VaPers, and this blend is in fact an exerience to behold. It's very well packaged and is a delight to look at and smell upon opening. An easy way to describe the tin aroma would be, "fermentation". There is a definite sweet smell happening here, but it is firmly backed up by a touch of vinegar and a firm foundation of earthy leather. Looking into the tin you are greeted by dark red/brown chunks of broken red VA flake, which displays great brindle thanks to the Perique with which it has been liberally dosed. Tobacco Reviews has latakia listed as an ingredient, but I can not find it here and it is not mentioned by the tin description Mr. Pease has provided us. I had popped the can open a week or two back just out of curiosity. I was surprised at how soft, supple and velvety the feel of the leaf was between my fingers. The moisture content was noticeable, but it didn't seem soggy or gooey. I did not leave the tin sitting open to the air for any real amount of time, but did pop the plastic cap once in a while to take a big whiff and finger the bits of tobacco so as to check its humidity. Seeming stable in condition, I figured I should smoke this blend next.

Filmore packed easily, without fuss, and was easy to control as far as arrangement of the leaf and control of the density in the bowl. I have taken to a method where upon I place unrubbed pieces of broken flakes in a generally vertical fashion at the base of the bowl. These are not really packed in firmly at all. Then with the next pinch, I will take a similar bit of tobacco and place them in the bowl laying sideways on top of the flake from the first step. Next, take a generous portion of leaf from the can and roll it into a ball which is just slightly larger than the diameter of the bowl chamber, and press it down on the first two layers. In my case this results in about 5/8 of the bowl being filled. I will then add another layer of flake laying on its side, another "plug", and then sprinkle the top with some finely rubbed shreds of leaf. I find this makes for pipe that lights easily, needs only minimal attention with the tamper, allows for tobaccos which like to expand great deal(this one), and maintains an easy draw. Another benefit to this method is the different way each of the layers in the bowl will burn. The light fluffy bits on the top take to flame very quickly like kindling in a campfire so as to get things moving. The "plug layer" burns even and steady creating a broad cherry on top of the whole bits of flake which will burn in a slow, cool fashion to release the goodness flakes are known for. The lighting procedure was simple and took two matches. Char, puff once or twice, tamp, light....and we're off to the races.The only way to really describe the overall result with this method is a "cacophony of flavors". I get cocoa, leather, chili pepper essence(not the heat), sweet -tart red Virginia, a deeeeeeep earthy flavor that comes and goes which I can only describe as slow roasted mushrooms. That great buttery pastry flavor is in there(which is one of my favorites) when you snork or retrohale. The complexity and ever evolving nature of this weed makes it great as meditative tool, but it is also such an easy, pleasant, comforting smoke that it could be a more than once a day blend for the care free puffer. This baccy smokes cool, and mild, with no bite. It only gurgled once, but the pipe I have been smoking it in is known for that, and always at the same point about midbowl, no matter the blend. The nic hit was there, but it didn't seem to beat me up, but I think I am bit more tolerant of the vitamin N than some others. Some have mentioned bitter ashy flavors coming through, but I don't think it is a problem with the tobacco. It is mostly user error. I noticed this once or twice when I over tamped the bowl at mid smoke. Dumping the ash resolved the issue entirely. The leavings in the bowl are the classic salt and pepper ash granules that a good VA is known for. The tiny bit of dottle doesn't seem overly soggy and dumps easily. As much as I have enjoyed this so far, I may go for a bigger 8oz can to keep around. I do wish the number of stars one could give was more refined. This is a 3.75/4

Happy puffing!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Fumatore (49)	2010-03-03		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I smoke English blends most of the time but I can't stay away from this blend. It has been taking over my idea of what I want in a "go to" blend. It's that good. You have a sweet creamy Vaper here with an earthy flavor. It's very close to what I remember of my old morning smoke "Murray's Dunhill Elizabethan ". However this is a slightly sweeter smoke, and a tad better. And yes you are reading a review from a man who found the old Murray Dunhill tobaccos superior to all others. I am so very happy that this one can be smoked without bite or getting too hot. This one gives me a little nicotine buzz, so pace yourself. Be aware that this is not your typical sweet Vaper, but it is outstanding in its own way

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	don1688 (27)	2010-01-08		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I am reviewing a tin from 3/2007 which was opened late 2007. I found this in my "cellar" and it's still moist and smells great- earthy, spicy and a touch of sweetness. This reviewed tin has obviously been opened greater than 12 months as it is Jan 2010. The reason I like more moist tobacco is that it can sit and naturally breath without rehydration.

Tasting is so subjective but to me the entire smoke was mostly a very nice creamy, rich and earthy VA with the added spiciness from the perique. Not the sweeter VA of McClelland (which I very much enjoy) and this makes this blend different and enjoyable.

Overall I'm glad I have some aging because I will revisit this often.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	babysinister (55)	2009-12-07		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant

My top of the bowl, initial impression from this blend was of a Virginia-dominant flavor which was certainly not assertive. A bit sweet, and the nicotine is there even at the beginning, but nothing that stands up to demand your attention in the first third of the bowlful.

A bit past the middle of the bowl, I felt the tingle of the Perique as it melded with the Virginia. Personally, I felt that the blending of the Va and the Per is acceptably balanced. This is the point when I started experiencing a more distinguishably tobacco taste, which was welcome. After that, it remained smooth and pleasant to the end of the bowl.

Pleasant is the term that keeps suggesting itself to me. I do not particularly appreciate strong tobacco, so I tend to be comfortable with a mild to medium blend, although I found that the nicotine content, for which I have a low threshold, was definitely present, particularly by the second half of the bowl. For me this could be a choice for a relatively sedate, relaxed Va/Per option when I'm avoiding a jolt and want something that I can handle better at my age. It is not an all-day smoke for me, although it came close. IMO, letting it air and "breathe" for a couple of days does not take the place of actual aging in the tin. This blend needs that aging, probably one year at least. I've continued to smoke a bowlful here and there. I experienced some improvement and deepening of the richness and taste. So I bought another tin to age for a good year.

Conclusion: a pleasant enough smoke, especially when you want a quiet one that won't distract you too much or grab you by the throat. A solid three star blend with some potential for a better rating, particularly after some aging in the tin.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-11-06		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Wow! I may have found my regular smoke, and I have to admit that it puzzles me. The only thing I can think is that our tastes change over time, sometimes quite drastically. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I thought English and Balkan style blends were the only way to go. I tried Virginia blends and Virginia mixed with Orientals and they just didn't resonate with me. Now that I'm returning to pipe smoking in my 60s, I started with the English and Balkan blends and they just didn't do for me what they used to. When I lit my first bowl of Fillmore, however, it was like Eureka.

When I opened the tin, I got an aroma that I love: very fruity and ripe. The aroma is of dried fruits, however, like figs and raisins rather than fresh fruits like apples or peaches. When I first lit the pipe, the aroma was kind of like new mown hay, which is a mature smell rather than the green smell of new mown grass. But by a third of the way into the bowl, the aroma I noticed when I opened the tin was coming through in the smoke. This is a phenomenon I have never noticed before.

Fillmore is a long, slow smoke that burns to completely dry ash with no gurgling. There was no tongue bite and the pipe stayed very cool to the touch.

This is great stuff. I think I'm going to quit worrying about finding an English or Balkan blend that I like and get really acquainted with this tobacco. I may also do a little exploring in other Virginia, Virginia/Perique or Oriental blends.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-11-03		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This broken flake is so lovely it makes my mouth water upon popping the tin. Do yourself a favor and don't rub this out (good advice for any flake in my opinion), you will be treated to some of the creamiest, smoothest tobacco there is. A nice VA sweetness develops right away and stays throughout as the flake burns down to a tight white ash. Not much nicotine in this, but makes up in spades in flavor and fullness. I can't seem to find a lot of perique in here, but I don't miss it in this particular offering.

Highly recommended!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BigWhiteWilly (10)	2009-08-11		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Very Mild	Unnoticeable

Where's the perique? Very flat aroma. It started off spicy and changed to just another dark virginia blend with no depth and little character. Honestly, where's the perique? Just the right amount of it does magical things to virginia, but it is just barely present here. With more age and more perique this might be a good one, but with so many blends and so little time, I won't finish this tin.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Fofo (81)	2009-06-26		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Very nice virginia blend, lots of body and flavor. It burns slow and cool, lights easily, and I have no problems keeping it lit. This is what I think virginia blends should be, pungent, balanced, full flavored and smooth with flavors ranging from earthy/grassy to sweet and slightly bitter at the same time.

The perique, although noticeable, doesn't interfere with the virginia delivering its goods. The room note is "tolerable" and let me explain why: My wife doesn't mind the latakia note, but she actually complained about this one and said it smelled somewhat like a cigar with a hint of something else. I liked the room note though, and I have to agree this blend has a slightly "cigarish" feel. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying this tastes just like a cigar, it just somewhat captures a slight hint of that feel.

The packaging is kinda weird with the layering thing they have going on. Now, let me address a few complaints some people have made about this blend. I did not experience ANY bite at all, it was not harsh, it was very easy to keep lit and I personally thought the moisture content was good. You have to keep in mind that pipe smoking presents a wide range of flavors and experiences and since our tastebuds are different you are likely to enjoy this blend different from how I did.

Me? well, I think tobacco has to have a certain level of moisture, you may wish to dry it a bit before smoking it but I thought it was good the way it came. Aging it? well, I think the truly important aging of tobacco takes place before it is packaged, I have tried the cellaring thing and after 5 or 6 years the blends I've aged have improved very very little (almost unnoticeable). Last, I personally think fine blends such as this come the way the manufacturer intended them to be enjoyed, you can disagree with me and age it for 100 years if you like, my tastebuds say this blend has been properly aged and is ready to be enjoyed.

Definetely recommended.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	joeljcj2 (13)	2009-05-01		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Very Full	Pleasant

this is a very pleasant va-per. just enough perique to add a bit of spice, rich va depth and flavor. burns okay--like a good flake. gl pease seems allways to make a high qual tobacco-not much stem, fairly uniform. i agree that it drmatically improves with age. thus is a medium strength tobacco, no caseing noticeable, just a rich tobacco flavor. i also enjoy st james, and several other va-per blends, but i think this delivers a uniformly high quality smoke. it does require a discipline puffing-it can get hot if oversmoked. pricey but excellent

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Eric Cioe (37)	2009-04-11		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Original review: This is a great blend but a bit finicky. Sometimes I have difficulty in getting it to burn to the bottom of the bowl. I've experimented some and I think the best option is to rub it out pretty well. Often with these broken flakes I just stick them in the pipe as-is, for example, with Embarcadero. With this, some rubbing is I think better.

Fillmore is probably my favorite VA-per. It's not heavy on the perique, but has enough to keep it from being bland. I've had fresh stuff, but like most Pease blends I find this better with a few years. I celebrated one of my tin's 3rd birthday by opening it, and it's been very good so far.

I like this blend so much that I could stock this and Kensington and be just fine for 90% of the pipes I smoke in a year.

EDIT I've smoked a good deal of this by now and I think that the more time I spend with it, the more I enjoy it. It was already rated four stars for me but I enjoy it more now than I did before. Sometimes I feel I can get a bit of the 2% latakia, but it's one of those things that you'd probably notice it more if it were gone.

I've also experimented with smoking this with the air pocket method, and find that to be very good way to smoke this.

Highly recommended once again.

EDIT 2 This has been a summer standby for me for years, but the 2 oz I smoked this summer seemed too much for me. I don't know if my taste for perique blends as a whole is fading, or if I prefer less perique in blends, but the perique hammer that is Fillmore just seemed over the top to me this year. I'm knocking it down to 3 stars.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-03-14		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This is my second attempt at GL Pease, after trying Haddo's Delight. I don't understand the general positive consensus on their products.

This mixture is a very beautiful assortment of thick, partially broken flakes. Tin aroma is of pure tobacco and rather neutral.

Unfortunately, the beauty stops there. Lighting up reveals a very harsh tobacco that dried up my mouth within a couple minutes. Past the first third of the bowl, not only was it still harsh, but it also became kind of hot. I did not finish my bowl.

I would recommend McConnell's Scottish Flake which is definitively more enjoyable and refined than this "scottish tradition" broken flake.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-03-13		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

I usually do not like straight VaPer's but Fillmore was an exception. I find that with the Vaper's I have tried they tend to be really sweet then spicy, and they alternate flavors like that. Fillmore melds very well and the flavors mingle rather than compete for attention. The virginias are very good in fillmore and have that natural fruity sweetness that we all love so much. The perique is used in very good quantitites and as with most Pease blends the quality of the leaf is top knotch. I found this to be leaps and bounds above St. James Flake, in fact after smoking both I can't believe anyone would actually choose St. James over this. Great blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Brakepipe (7)	2009-03-13		Strong	Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I tried very hard to like this blend through three tins, but it is impossible to light. I tried everything - rubbing and drying, taking pieces and trying to smoke as a true flake, combinations - it was always a battle and one that I quit. It seems to me this blend would fare much better as a true, unbroken flake, aged for a year or two, rather than this "neither/nor" mishmash. That's a shame, because it's got some rich, deep virginia character in the 2 minutes when it burns.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-02-10		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I didn't find this to be any better than numerous other VA/Per blends out there that cost less. The more I smoke of this particular series, the more I'm convinced that the main ingredient in GLP blends is hype in large portions and not much else.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	butman (50)	2009-01-07		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is just a wonderful natural blend. The virginias are arranged in just the right harmony and then the melody is added.That strange weed from Louisiana is introduced and the overture is complete.

I have smoked it new and old and truly enjoyed it. I now age a can every year. I would age more, but Mr. Pease makes a lot of fine products to share the cellar shelf and Telegraph Hill is a kinder and gentler, but noteworthy blend.

Pairing suggestion: This just goes quite well with scotch whisky or irish whiskey or a mid-range ale. Slainte.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-01-06		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

I don't think you can go wrong with any G.L. Pease blend, and Fillmore is no exception. I am very fond of SG's St. James Flake, and I found Fillmore to be similar but with a note of Perique that is more dominant - which I liked. I also found Fillmore to be an especially pleasant smoking experience following a pipeful of a Latakia-heavy English and/or Balkan mixture. Furthermore it sets you up for the purer Virginia taste of a blend like SG's Best Brown Flake. Fillmore has found a permanent home in my tobacco rotation.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-11-24		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

I've tried a lot of Vapers. This is hands down the best I've tried so far. It is complex and wonderful to the bottom of the bowl. Heck I have to be careful not to scorch my pipe getting the last of it... I tend to smoke anything Perique in a narrow chamber, maybe a bigger bowl? Who knows.

I just finished my fifth tin of this stuff, with four tins cellared and four more on the way. So I guess it is established as a staple on my tobacco table.

For you puffers who have graduated to real tobacco, don't pass up Fillmore while searching for your staple blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-11-15		Mild	Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Once again, I'm not sure I'm qualified to rate this smoke but I gotta tell ya it's a lot of fun. I particularly like the way it burns down to the bottom of the bowl with the lasr few puffs still providing a smooth hearty mouthful. If you happen to like it's taste it'll work well in your favorite pipe(s), and not damage them irrepably against future tobaccos.

As always.....be gentle, take your time and enjoy.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-11-06		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

One of the finest Vapers out there. A blend you can smoke every day and not grow tired of. Consistent quality and reasonable price. I don't like to go into how it tastes to me since everyones tastes are different but this blend is what pipe smoking is all about IMHO. Try it if you want to see what a true vaper is all about.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-10-02		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Tolerable to Strong

A heavy, earthy aroma in the tin. Broken flakes offer a range of options for rubbing out and packing; in a medium-sized bent bulldog I rubbed out lightly in the bottom of the pack and more aggressively at the top. Plenty of smoke. A solid Virginia experience with more Perique than just a touch. The effect comes just short of perfumey, in the best sense. I found myself trapping smoke in my hand so I could enjoy the sensation a second time. There is little of the high end in Fillmore, but the low and middle ranges are spectacular. Of the GLP tobaccos I've tried, I like this one best.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Xeneize (275)	2008-08-18		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

Fillmore is a very well made, classic VaPer that will surely please most VaPer fans most of the times. The only drawback is its lack of character. This is not a Haddo's style love-it-or-leave-it blend made for specific moments: this is a regular like-it, all day good smoke. Very good in fact, but not exceptional.

Will buy a tin from time to time, but it won't make it into my regular rotation.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-07-17		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A nice sweet VAPER - nothing mindblowing but still very good. The perique amount is just right. The smell in the tin reminds me of...I know this will sound weird, but...peanut butter - it has this certain sweet, nutty and somewhat salty smell.

It is worth repeating: Like pretty much all of GLP's stuff, it's is a pleasant smoke but only if you dry it out A LOT. Otherwise I found I will scorch my mouth no matter how slowly I smoke it.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jaybee (77)	2008-04-27		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I like this GLP offering quite a bit. Drying time is required and slow puffing is the order of the day in order to enjoy this one. It reminds me of a cleaner tasting version of 2015.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-04-19		Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

I chose this rock candy flake to break in a remarkable GBD colonial from that I recently obtained from that Chicago pipe stalwart Iwan Reis. I must admit that the first time that I smoked this blend, I shuddered and swore to toss the whole lot. It was young and sour. Alas, a little age and the proper pipe found it to be the one of the best blends that I have found. Please give this tobacco a chance to age and the VaPer will not disappoint. It will entice even the most jaded pipe smoker. There is true heaven in the finish.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Slow Triathlete (62)	2008-04-08		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

After I got it dried out and aired out a bit I lit up the first of five bowls before I wrote this review. If there is anything to be said about GL Pease I will say that his tobacco is consistent. Every bowl was exactly like the other and there were never any hidden surprises or let downs. This blend comes in what I would call a broken flake. There were still some pretty big pieces in there that I rubbed out so that the whole tin was pretty consistent size-wise. The appearance is mostly dark brown with some lighter or darker spots here and there. This is listed as being a Red Virginia with a ?generous? amount of Louisiana Perique mixed in.

This blend packs really well. So well that I had to dump it a few times because I felt that I had packed it too tight. Upon lighting this blend up I was greeted with great billowing white clouds of some of the creamiest tobacco I have ever tasted. It lasted through the first five or six puffs and then the perique joined in it created a mix of both creamy and spicy, peppery and chocolaty that I haven?t encountered in any other blends so far.

About halfway through the bowl I also started to detect some hints of caramel but very faint and somewhat muted in the background. Something that I also found is that this is a very slooooooowwwwww burning blend. It will keep you around for awhile but it is worth the extra time.

The end of the bowl was more of the same but I was finally realizing just how much nicotine is in this blend. It?s not bad but it is definitely noticeable.

Now this blend is definitely not a sweet Virginia blend as are most of the others so far. This one I can only classify by saying that it is mellow. Mellow in a good way. Mellow like waking up after an afternoon nap or going to a jazz bar to drink and hang out. That?s what this blend is like. No bite, no hassle, pure enjoyment.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-03-09		Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I tried this at the Chicago pipe show last year and liked it, so I bought a tin. Less than a year later I opened the tin and started smoking it. At first (the first two or three weeks) it seemed a bit overpowering, flavor wise, and wet, so I thought that it needed some mellowing like other GLPease blends (such as Odyssey). But after 4 1/2 weeks (when I finally recovered enough from a cold to smoke), it seemed to be dry enough but still the flavor was just like hot, bitter air. The sidestream/room note was intriguing and pleasant, however. There are three possibilities for the disparity. First, perhaps this tobacco has a very short "sweet spot," where it tastes just right, somewhere between 3 and 4 1/2 weeks after popping the tin. Second, maybe you don't need to mellow it, but just dry it out extensively right when you open the tin. Or third, maybe my bad experience with this means I bought a bad tin. Only the second possibility means this was just my fault and the tobacco is better than my experience of it. Otherwise, even though I know this can be better at times, it's too tempermental or the quality-control is bad, and so 2 stars is all it deserves. Maybe I'll revisit it later, but for now I can't see buying more. Too bad; I was excited about Pease's first flake.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Indian (14)	2007-12-13		Very Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

The tin - Upon opening the tin a strong delicious smell resonated from the tobacco. Spicy and tangy scent with a little smokey background. NUMMY STUFF that made me run to my pipe!

The prep - I love to rub this stuff out. It leaves my hands smelling great and really built the anticpation. I used the Frank method to load this and drew on the pipe to get the taste before the light. Again NUMMY STUFF!

The char light - WOW! what a combination of flavor and spice and everything nice. I didn't want to continue because I knew that it would come to an end.

The top 1/3rd - It is hard to pin point all of the flavors going on here. Spicy and sweet but mostly spicy. Smokey like jerky, and creamy like......well......cream. There are some other things going on that I cant even describe except to say its NUMMY STUFF.

The middle of the bowl - It is balancing out now with the dominating flavors being peppery, buttery and creamy, but the others are close behind with so many operating in the background, kinda of leathery or eathy, still that it is just delightful and complex.

The bottom 1/3rd - It is really creamy and smooth and mild with the Perique hanging out just enough to please the Per. lover. Damn is this giving me a head rush from the nicotine. Wow. The bowl is done and I WANT MORE, if I wasn't so dizzy.:-)

Summary - This is an excellent tobacco, I love it. It is everything it says it is AND MORE. Very clean burning but a little dottle left. (of course I got out the torch to get that burning too) Wow. talk about depth. If you have ever wondered what people are talking about when they talk about the complexity of blends then try this and you'll wonder no more. definetely a 4+ star for me. One of the only 4 stars I have given. Did I say it's NUMMY STUFF???

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Lochinvar (78)	2007-12-02		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This blend is DEEP. Great earthy, dark, slightly sweet, its like dark chocolate. If you enjoy the sacarine sweet and lemon sour of run of the mill VA/Per's, uhh...don't smoke this. This is in the same realm as Peter Heinrich's Curly and Three Nun's. It starts with some of the hay flavor I associate with the Rattrays Virginias, and it drops low and mellow, stopping just short of being "cigarlike". This has the nictine freight train too. If this was a beer it would be a Scottish Wee Heavy. And as far as the previous reviewers who have made note of its latakia content, they either got one of the tainted tins described on GLP's website, or they are mistaken about what latakia tastes like.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	churchwarden398 (19)	2007-09-29		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Another reviewer mentioned Christmas in August. My experience was similar. Do you remember Christmases of your youth - maybe a few of them when you wanted some special gift and you saw a package that was the right size, so it was hard to go to sleep and wait for Christmas morning? Well, that happened to me this Thursday. UPS did not deliver an anticipated package from smoking pipes.com until 8:30p.m. or after. They also did not ring the doorbell - so I did not find the package until 10:15p.m. That was after my last smoke of the day. Still, I could not help myself and I checked out the tins that had arrived. What greeted me upon the opening of Fillmore was this almost intoxicating aroma. It was what I would imagine it to be like if one were transported to the fields of Scotland.

I am learning the value of cellaring from those of you on this site. However, I just HAD to have a bowl the next day. It was creamy,smooth and yes there was some peppery perique. Enough perique to keep one wanting more of this wonderful blend. Years ago, my then local tobacconist had a blend similar to this and it was good. However, only four of us bought it on a consistant basis - so it was discontinued. Fillmore far exceeds that blend in terms of enjoyment. I will keep looking, from time to time, but this will probably be my favorite VA/Per. This deserves at least five stars.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-09-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Update: Latakia Lover was correct about the errant batch, and about Mr Pease wanting to make it right when he learned of the mistake.

I may have been a little harsh in my origional review due to frustration so I will summarise it here with less grump in it. My Fillmore dated late May of 2007 were nothing like my origional experience with fillmore tins from several months earlier.

My origional "normal" tins of Fillmore were awesome. My favorite VaPer I have experienced so far. It reminds me in flavor of Bjarne Flake De Luxe, but fuller flavor, less sweet (more natural) while still maintaining a delicate buttery sweetness especialy towards the last half of the bowl. Superb.

The new "mistake" tins of fillmore smelled of latakia and were very dark. Turns out, acording to Pease's site, some fillmore had been over processed and not like it was suposed to be. This "messed up" fillmore, in my opinion, was yucky and tasted like a light english blend to me and had latakia in the room note.

So my recomendation of Fillmore for now will be 1 star because of my personal experience so far. If my replacement tins are like my first delicious tins, then I'll raise my recomendations a couple stars. And if later purchases prove to be consistant than Fillmore will easily move back to the top of my VaPer list. I'll update later.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	flyrod6057 (18)	2007-09-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Read the other reviews; they cover it. I'll save a bit of space by not spouting about what's been said. A smallish tin of dark, broken flake that lights well and stays lit fine. No surprises. I like this tobacco. It's a good VAPER, sweet and rich. Not overpowering. I think it tastes like what the beginning of fall would taste like if it were a tobacco... A good smoke, one I'd recommend to anyone who likes Virginia. Kind of a little brother to 2015 I guess. Recommended. 3.5 stars.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-09-13		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Unlike the people who avoid blends containing latakia, I seek them out. (With a board name like mine, that should come as no surprise. LOL ) I DON'T tend to like Perique, however. Going back as far as I can remember, its taste is one I never cared for, so VaPers never appealed to me. Knowing Greg Pease's reputation for excellence, coupled with the hue and cry that this VaPer variant contained latakia, though, made me curious enough to give it a shot. Strange result---I couldn't taste the latakia (I suppose given the dosages I'm accustomed to, I'm not sensitive to its presence), but I DID like the blend. Very much. The ferocious P-taste I expected was actually quite muted, and the balance and butteryness of the total flavor "package" was quite pleasant. Middle range body, no palate fatigue, nice room note, easy to prep, light, and keep burning, and all-in-all good enough to be my current "reach for" change of pace blend. I gave it four stars not because I consider myself qualified to have such an opinion about an unfamiliar style, but because I thought anything tasty enough in its own right to change 30 years of habit deserved some special recognition. :-) For what it's worth regarding Uncle Jay's review, I think he has more of a complaint with the quality control of this blend than the blend itself. One batch does not a mixture make (or break). It goes without saying that Greg is ultimately responsible for everything that's sold with his name on it, but it is also true that the realities of boutique production mean that Fortune 500-style quality assurance protocols aren't possible. As far as I know he's never failed to make things right when something goes sideways. UPDATE: Sure enough, GLP is on the job. ;-) It's been less than a day, and there's an announcement in the News section of his website about this situation: http://www.glpease.com/News/

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-07-05		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

To my uneducated palate, this tobacco reminds me a bit of some of the SG & GH brown ropes, although less intense and without the nicotine kick, with some VA sweetness and Perique spiciness in there too. I know that it's a pressed vaper, but to me it tastes a bit like one of the good natural ropes with some additions. Anyway, I found this to be an enjoyable smoke; not incredible or phenomenal, but very nice though. I could not tell whether it was the Perique spice or a VA bite, but something annoyed my tongue a bit at times, although not enough to not smoke the rest of this tin and maybe buy another.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-06-22		Strong	None Detected	Full	Unnoticeable

I bought 3 tins of Fillmore, but never finished the first one. I gave out the two other ones to someone related to my wife that lives in Newfoundland and most probably smoked only Amphora or Captain Black or Sail or Borkum Riff all his life ( poor devil!)... For some reason, I can't say I liked it...

The aroma in the tin is smokey, as in hickory smoked kind of smell; I couldn't pick up any other smell. The leaf is medium brown, with some redness and just a bit of dark leaf here and there; the flake is ticker than usual, and needs to be fully rubbed before packing.

There is no question about the quality of the tobacco; it's very high. But smoking it was not really a pleasure, I found it a bit too strong and dry, because it misses some dark leaf in there to smooth it out. I think I don't like it because there is too much Périque for my own liking, which makes it too peppery in taste.

The room note, on the other hand, was surprisingly neutral; after walking around several times out in the living room/hallway, I could barely pick up the room note of that tobacco. Indoor smokers, be advised!

A very high quality smoke, but not for me. Somewhat recommended, because it misses something, IMHO.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-06-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

A fine blend with a good zing of Perique. I'm not flocking to the stores to buy more but I'd certainly not say no if someone offered me a bowl. In the right pipe it can sing, in the wrong one the perique can really zing a bit much, and I tend to like perique.

At the end of the bowl the perique settles down and it is really, really good, the sidestream smell is quite pleasant, the VAs become more pronounced, and it's almost creamy. If this were the main flavor that existed throughout the bowl I think this could become a regular but as it is I have other blends I like more.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Captain Pete (83)	2007-05-31		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

You know, I just did not care too much for this tobacco. And I do not believe it is a matter of my personal taste, but rather something weird going on with quality and assurance over at Pease. I have heard so much good about Fillmore, even tried it on Greg's recommendation. So this was a much anticipated blend for me.

Tin aroma was peppery, dark, and not at all sweet as I expected. The tobacco was extremely damp in this year old tin. It smelled of tobacco, predominately perique. Lacking were the nice oaty va. aromas. Absent also was the nice haylike aroma of a young va, as well as any sweet/spicy aroma of a stoved va. I honestly did not know what the hell this was supposed to be.

Undaunted, I packed and lit up. Yup, peppery; tangy, but not like a stoved va. I know not where the perique in this flake came from, but the tang was borderline rancid. Halfway through the bowl, the sweetness of the va. seemed to not be developing at all. And the really weird thing is, I was detecting undertones of oriental tobacco, bordering on hints of latakia. What the hell was going on? I double checked the tin; GL Pease Fillmore. I double checked the description of the tobacco inside. Something is not right.

Now, it is possible, in this case probable, that I got a rancid tin. But, this is the third tin of one of Mr. Pease's tobacco I have opened to find it either too dry to smoke; completely lacking in flavor within days of opening; or rancid. And I have bought them all at different retailers at different times. Therefore, I feel it my sad duty to rate this blend low simply due to what appears to be a lack of quality assurance at the manufacturing end.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-05-03		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I was extremely PEASED with this tobacco. Yes, all the characteristics of a quality and interesting smoke this will appeal to the VaPer crowd. Like most of the GLP range it is expertly blended, an absolute pleasure to smoke and comes with the pease trademark: "More to a tobacco than just a tobacco".

I point on the downside however is that it leaves me with a rough throat. i don't appreciate this and therefore this won't make it into my rotation.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-04-16		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a pretty good broken Virginia flake with Perique. It's really no more bitey than any other Virginia/Perique, has a nice flavor and burns pretty slow. Not something I would smoke all day due to the potential bite factor, but overall a good tobacco. Very enjoyable for the occasional venture into Virginia/Perique blends.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-03-21		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I like this blend but I dry it quite a bit before smoking it. The virginia are reddish brown broken flakes and the perique is subtle. This is not Escudo!

However, for me, the effect of this tobacco is similar to that of Mclleland Virginias. It smokes well for a virginia tobacco but my mouth is always a bit scorched the next day, and I eventually get sick of these types of blends and give up on them. This is similar to McConnels Scottish Cake another medium strength virginia with light perique spice that I think, is a little more interesting than this. Not sure if I will continue smoking this,although it is a good Va/Per blend. I much prefer Solani 633 although it's an expensive tobacco and has more spice than this one.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-02-20		Very Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

the tin aroma of fillmore is vey enticing. makes me want to eat it. i tried fillmore in four different pipes with small bowls. at the start of bowl i found it to be spicy to the point that it made my head sweat. it settled down for the rest of the smoke but never lost it's power. although the percentage of perique is much too high for me, i keep coming back for more. hopefully this stuff will mellow with age. i put the rest of the tin in a mason jar and will keep trying it as time passes. very good blend with great va/per flavor and cool burning characteristics. i wish i could get greg pease to make me a tin of this with half the perique. i smoked some escudo after trying this for comparison , and i found escudo to be much milder, but lacking the upfront and complex flavors of fillmore. definitely recommended. should be smoked slow in a smaller bowl though......

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2007-02-17		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

This one will be easy - Fillmore is the best VaPer I've ever tried. Rich, subtle, complex, eminiently satisfying. Very little bite, and it smokes cool and dry. The flakes rub out very easily, or, it can just be stuffed if you prefer. Either way, it's wonderful. Greg Pease has another fantastic blend here. For some reason, I prefer this in a smaller bowl, but gosh - it's fantastic in any and every pipe I've tried. A definite 9.8 out of 10, and it will only get better as it ages. A must-try for everyone. It's different from Haddo's, yet just as satisfying in its own right. Earthy and grand. Where reviewer Ajij found latakia in this blend, I have no idea... None is listed, and I've never tasted one ribbon of it. This is an awesome VaPer. Period. (And I love - and usually prefer - latakias)

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JB (44)	2007-02-08		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Pleasant

I find it humorous to read the reviews that compare this blend to Haddo's, either positively or negatively. Yes, both blends have Virginias and Perique. They are both made by Greg Pease. They both come in cans. That's about it, folks. If you buy Fillmore hoping to find "Haddo's, the Sequel", you will be disappointed. However, to my taste, Fillmore is so much more refined and classic than Haddo's. Fillmore is an excellent example of refinement and power. I may upgrade to four stars after more experience with this blend, but it's still to young in the tin for now.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-12-17		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong

OK, you might as well look at my review of Laurel Heights to see how I feel about this tobac. For me, the latakia dominates this blend and I cannot tolerate any latakia. I know it must be used sparingly, however, I had to gift the whole tin after just one bowl. In my opinion, this would have been a wonderful vaper without that bastard weed latakia.

aj

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JaWiBr (557)	2022-11-25		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Tin note of Rasins, sweet-stewed figs, and spiced wine. Tobacco cut is broken flake, its moist and reddish brown. Rubs out easily, no drying needed. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of earth, very woody, spiced bread, lemon grass, floral, raisin, mildly sweet-dried fruit, spicy, tangy stewed plums, and a peppery retro. Virginia is leading with perique supporting. Latakia is absent. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Pipe Used: Peterson Bard Rusticated 221 Fishtail

Age When Smoked: 4 years

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Williamj056 (2)	2021-03-31		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Tolerable to Strong

Favorite blend so far! This is truly a masterpiece and will always have a permanent seat in my top 5. Very complex, the blend is savory and sweet, develops over time while smoking as well as aging. Take your time, age some tins and enjoy.

Pipe Used: Briar and Corn Cobs

Age When Smoked: Fresh and 3 year aged

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Similar Blends: Nothing I’ve yet to find..

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-03-08		Medium to Strong	Medium	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I had some vintage Fillmore at a dinner with none other than Greg Pease. Very mellow but with a definite nicotine kick. Some of the spiciness of Perique was still there, but the age brought out the sweet notes. I will definitely buy some and cellar it for a few years to replicate the experience.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-08-05		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

I loved the broken flakes, and the latakia makes for a nice juxtaposition. Great perique spiciness too, but not as interesting as TH or Haddo's.

Update 6/15/12: Forgot to mention that the date on this tin was 3/01/11. Revisited the tin after 10 months from first smoke described above, only to find some mold growth. I simply swirled the flakes around, filled a bowl, and what do you know: it was sweeter and richer than ever!! Remains a wonderful blend.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-04-13		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Fillmore is a beautiful broken flake, thick and yummy smelling.

Despite too much perique to my liking, this is the best offering from Pease in my mind.

I find his english/Balkan blends to be inferior than the other blends he offers.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-05-05		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

When you first open the tin, it smells quite fruity and sweet, very much like a handful of sweet raisins. The tobacco is actually quite moist and may require a bit of airing out before smoking.

The first light impressions lead with the perique more than the virginia. Although GLPease says himself that this blend contains latakia, I must say that I am part of the population that doesn't detect any, neither in the tin nor in the smoke.

I think this is a blend where the VAs get better as the tin is opened longer, either from oxidation or gradual drying. At the bottom of the tin, the VAs got sweeter and the smoking experience more flavorful.

I recommend those who pick up this blend (and don't like it), smoke it all the way down to the bottom of the tin. The VAs will start to shine through as the tin is exposed to air and become a nice, sweet and tasty smoke.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-04-30		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

A nicely-blended, high-quality, tasty VaPer. Lights and smokes easily. Good stuff.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-04-25		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I like VAPers, and I like GL Pease blends. I have not smoked this enough to know if it's a top five VAPer, but it's certainly a top ten VAPer, and well worth trying if you like Greg's blends and VAPers. Tasty, lovely stuff, obviously top quality tobacco. I am not giving it four stars as I don't have enough experience with the blend to feel comfortable with that rating, that's the only reason I'm going for three at this point.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-06-30		Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Rich, earthy, full flavored and complex. Take the smooth harmony of a good VaPer like Escudo and add some dark and delightful BBQ flavor and you have Fillmore. Smokes like a meal! Another winner from GLP.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-06-01		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A fine blend of quality tobaccos that has behaved well for me in a group 4 sized pipe.

Like the 3 previous GLP blends I've tried I really wanted to love it instead of just like it. Needless to say I give it a solid 3 stars & will update after I finish this tin.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-02-18		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Smooth and creamy with just enough perique to tickle the nose. The burley gives this blend a full mouth feel, (like a thick pudding), and helps bridge the perique across the spectrum of tobaccos used. No hype here my friends, Mr. Pease is indeed a master blender.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-02-17		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

This is a very tasty treat from GL Pease. It has a healthy dose of perique which I love and some very nice sweet virginia.

4 stars

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-12-26		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This was a highly anticipated tin that did not quite live up to expectations. It's a very nice unoffensive VaPer that struck me as a slightly toned down version of Luxury Bullseye Flake or maybe St. James. The taste is similar to either of those, it's just a wee bit less volume on the flavor knob. This blend needs just a little something to kick it up to the top level.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-07-15		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

A most refreshing Virginia Perique flake, perfect for a Summer afternoon sweating your huevos off while cruising the bayou for gators. Goes perfectly with Lynchburg Lemonade...hold the lemonade. Pack it straight from the tin with a light hand, fire it up and hold on to the gunwhales...you're in for a great ride. Try it in a corncob.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-02-12		Mild	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Tin: Red VA, auburn, with black pressed into the flake. The odor is like cheddar and extremely sharp ripe, fermented fruit; the smell stayed in my nose for several minutes after closing the tin; with an almost imperceptible underlying hay note. A couple of days after opening the tin, the smell has mellowed way out. It is now sweet fruit with a faint underlying hay scent.

Between moist and dry, the flakes are still quite pliable. Date stamped on the bottom of the tin: 061306 (13JUN06).

Packing & Lighting: Fillmore packs as easily as any ribbon. It was smoked without being rubbed out, not breaking the flakes into smaller pieces. All other things being equal, some flakes tend to be more of a challenge to get them lit, as compared to ribbon-cut blends, but flakes tend to burn slower. A bowl of Fillmore, loosely packed and puffed vigorously, lasts 1 1/2 hours. The bowl stays cool, with very little condensation when smoked indoors.

Taste & Aroma: The top is bland but gets richer and deeper as the bowl is smoked. It is creamy and a tad sweet, but in a piquant cigar fashion. The bottom third should be thought of as approaching a cigar-like quality. A couple of days after opening the tin, Fillmore has become much more mellow and consistent from the top of the bowl to the bottom.

Nicotine: The batch I'm smoking is lacking the large dose of nicotine expected from perique.

Room Note: Pleasant leather, spicy, tangy scent that is still present in the room or car the next day.

Overall: I wouldn't call it a great VAPER or a typical one, but, in the FCS series, it is better than TH or Lombard; not nearly as enjoyable as Mont. or LH. Ashbury is quite stronger in nicotine effect. Mont. is the one FCS blend that I will definitely try again, although there may be a revisit to some of the other FCS tobaccos. 3.4 stars.

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