G. L. Pease Westminster

Lat flavor early, sun-cured flavor late. The Virginias never provide that creamy sweet foundation that I would expect from a good medium English blend.

Pease called London Mixture the classic English, so I can assume he was aiming for something like that when he made this. Except that he seems to think there's hardly any Virginia in London Mixture, which is probably why this attempted match goes from Latakia flavor to Oriental flavor without the unifying presence of good Virginia to tie it all together.

I don't know what people were smoking when they described Westminster as ribbon-cut, but it's got small chunks of broken Virginia flake, smaller chunks of Latakia, some stuff that looks loosely tumbled out, and some ribbon in it ... along with plenty of stems and shop floor sweepings. It's cut as a Mixture or coarse cut, not a ribbon. A kindergartener would make a more uniform ribbon cut.

Get some Butera Latakia No. 1 instead, and smoke a well-blended classic English.

My favorite English to date. Complex and varying with a solid punch of nicotine. Each tobacco adds great complexities and the Latakia is used perfectly. Each time I smoke this I get nuances that I didn't get before. It will remain in my English rotation and has made me a true fan of GL Pease. Thick rich smoke with great flavor.

I totally agree with Tantric, this mixture it’s fantastic! Like it very much since the beginning. It has a full taste but not to strong and the latakia is superb, very nice combination of virginias and oriental.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Pease's English blends as many are. I'm very fond of this blend. To me, this is what I go to when I want something less big compared to Charing Cross or Abington, but still very satisfying. The key word here is balance- - just enough Latakia and Oriental to satisfy, but to me this blend has a very refined taste. It reminds me very much of Dunhill's London Mixture-- the way it used to be years ago. This is more of an afternoon with a good coffee or three kind of pipe-- in a fairly good sized bowl. It reminds me why I love pipe-smoking.

Westminster has good balance of taste through the entire bowl. It smokes down very nicely and stays lit. I would attribute this to the uniformity of the cut and the just about perfect dryness right out of the tin. The so called ribbon cut is not as ribbony if you will, as other ribbon cuts, but it is quite consistent. I think the key is that the Latakia is not as hard and chunky as I have seen in other blends. No big nicotine hit, so I really like it, definitely a go to tin. I will be buying a bigger can in the future.

Update 2014-1-29: I smoked through some different tobaccos, Maltese Falcon, Abington, Odyssey, and Navigator, so I only recently ordered more Westminster. It is exactly like I remember it and I still prefer Westminster to the aforementioned tobaccos. Odyssey is the closest relative in my opinion, but Westminster is still my favorite.

CONFUSED! First, this is not a ribbon cut. I have some short ribbon but most of it is chucks. Some of which are 1.5 inches long and over 1/2 inch wide. Some look like cub cuts too.

Second. This blend is heavily topped with something. Nothing in the description indicates that this is an aromatic English blend but that is what it is. When I opened the tin I could see a sugary substance all over the tobacco.

Third, although I find toppings generally forgivable this is too much when looking for a straight English blend. It does complement the tobacco but more like cream in a cup of medium bodied coffee.

Taste is not too bad. The Lat. is there, the VA's and oriental's are muted because of the topping however. The base flavor reminds me of a butter milk like creaminess (think of a good traditional lemon butter milk pie with a proper butter crust). I have never tasted a straight tobacco that could provide this type of creaminess and with such over the top flavor and sweetness that I think this is the topping coming through.

I would suggest Pease add a note about whatever this is topped with. I will not finish the tin.

I will also say that this is my first experience with the Pease blends I hope that others are properly described I hate throwing out tobacco and I would hate to have to stop exploring what many consider a great American blenders tobaccos. I will give another blend of his a try before I discontinue altogether but this really does not set well with me.

2 stars because the flavor is good it would be a great way for the aromatic lover to get a first taste of Lat. for me however, the flavor of the topping is just too much to find it enjoyable enough to continue to smoke.

I agree with Marshall Laws description of Chelsea Morning and would use it here:

It seems nothing like the description, despite the pipe I use. I simply cannot mesh with this blend. Pungent and heavy with the smell of damp hay and dried grass. Lights up bitter and strong, and keeps going in that direction for the short span I can endure it. Sharp, harsh, and hot on the tongue, I found greater pleasure discarding the remnants of the tin, a bitter and disagreeable weed.

This is a poor blend of cheap tobacco. Better look into your blender and supplier, Pease, I suggest you are getting outbid at the tobacco auctions.

Glad I tried a Green Little Peas blend, but I will stick with Gawith, at least they know how to blend quality tobacco, which is why it is hard to get, and has been around for a few hundred years.

Good stuff.

I came to pipes from the world of cigars, where cigar buffs write flowery, overly serious reviews of subtle aromas and flavors in snobby tones.

For wine snobs or Scotch buffs who can taste subtle hints of this and that by swishing liquid in the mouth, this might be a tobacco for you.

I read somewhere that this was G.L. Pease's effort at re-creating the old pre- Murray's version of Dunhill London Mixture. I don't know if he succeeded, as I never had the pleasure of trying the tobacco that inspired him. Whatever it is, this is really good tobacco.

I suspect that the quality of the Latakia in this blend is of better quality than some other Englishes I've tried. The figgy, rasiny Virginia taste so prominent in some Englishes are balanced nicely against the smoky Latakia, yielding a full, round richness.

Hearty and deeply satisfying, Westminster is soft, briny, savory, smoky, creamy, round and smooth all at once. Perhaps a shade less sweet than Old Dublin or Squadron Leader, less citrusy than Black Mallory. No flavor dominates, but all meld harmoniously. While this has a nice full body, the flavors are subtle and invite attention. The flavors change and evolve as the bowl warms, so that it imparts a taste of bitter licorice by bowl's end. To my uneducated palate, it was a beautiful smoke.

This one is supposed to be inspired by the original Dunhill London Mixture. 3 weeks ago I found a solitary tin of Dunhill London Mixture at a reputable tobacco place that moves lots of high end pipe tobacco (I put it into my own stocking as a stuffer for Xmas morning). While this tin of London Mixture seems to be Orlick made (Murrays tin top, Orlick Tin bottom with Made in EU on bottom but made in UK top that is painted). This must be a well aged, all Dunhill tins are now a few years past importing now. I compared Westminster to the London Mixture which I really like. Two bowls and I really like this blend **** REST DELETED, SEE UPDATE

*** UPDATE *** I smoked about 5 bowls off the top of the tin when I opened it up in 2009 and loved it. I then put it away in an airtight mason jar to age as I had other tobaccos to open and enjoy from my online order. A few months later and many other tobaccos smoked, I had another bowl and HATED it then put it away to sort out later. Here it is 5 years later in the fall of 2013 and I hate it more. Perhaps I have had the chance to enjoy many more good tobaccos (I was a newbie pipe smoker in 2009). One big problem I have is this tobacco seems like my can was from leftovers, stems and dust. The light colored tobacco is tiny, cubed to dust like. One black stem is about 2 inches long with just a little bit of leaf on it. I have chunk like slices, one of which I opened up and found a ragged 45 x 20 mm whole brown leaf. Any blender who allows his packer to pack up the stuff picked up by a dust broom or thrown into the trash should be ashamed. I counted this off as just a bad tin, sold as premium tobacco. However, I read more reviews and find so many other people commenting about the rough cut. This lack of care in the cut effects the consistency of the smoke, taste and enjoyment. One bowl may be mostly of gold dust and the other of stems and big leaves of a different type of tobacco. This is the only tin I have ever purchased from GL Pease and it will be my last. He should be embarrassed. If I hadn't purchased this tin online, I would have brought it back to the tobacconist who sold it to me rather than wasting a good mason jar. I read the review by PIPESTUD and he reports this being cut like shag tobacco. WHAT?!? He must have smoked specially hand made stuff selected just for the Chicago Pipe show. this stuff the rest of us get is TRASH. Unless GL Pease somehow finds a way to get me to try his tobacco again, I will spend my money on better product blended by true master blenders.