G. L. Pease Embarcadero

The fog has settled in for the night. The S.S Pease is about to embark on her maiden voyage. The "Embarcadero" is hauntingly on fire. The ship leaves speedily into the curious unknown. It sinks. No treasures on board.

The fog has lifted. No survivors to report. The "Embarcadero" has vanished. God Rest Her Evil Soul.

Comfortable Jeans my A**.

























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This is an interesting smoke. It's a simple blend of Izmir and Red Virginia tobaccos. While I'm certain the base is mostly the Red Virginia, the Izmir leaf really shines through on this one. The Izmir provides a very spicy note to the blend and provides a very incense-like room note. To be clear, this is a straight tobacco blend with no perceivable topping I could detect. The taste is straight tobacco with a nice medium body and spicy quality. This needs to be smoked properly and slowly to preserve the delicate interplay between the two constituent tobaccos. Smoking too fast will result is a cigarette-like character that ruins the beauty of this blend. Take it slow, take your time, you will be rewarded.

I'd recommend this blend for anyone who loves straight English style blends but isn't in the mood for Latakia. Virginia lovers in the mood for something a little different would also enjoy this blend. Finally, anyone who loves spicy oriental blends will love this blend.

I just finished off a tin of this that I consider myself fortunate to land. I bought a tin of this about a year and a half ago after seeing how some of my friends overseas were singing its praises. I was anxious to try it, but since it was bought at a time after I ceased opening new containers to reduce the 200 plus open containers I had at the time, It would have to wait.

Someone in one of my forums decided he was quitting pipes and put all his tobacco up for sale. Included was a tin of Embarcadero that was already opened, but he hadn't smoked much of it, because he didn't care for it. I jumped on it and most everything else he was selling.

So with excitement I was able to try this without opening my tin. My thoughts on it were kind of "meh." It seems that in my time of smoking, I have started to actually identify Oriental grades I like and those I don't care for as much. Izmir or Smyrna, depending on what you prefer to call the same leaf, is one of the oriental grades, I am not too crazy about. I find it is a little sour/bitter for my tastes.

In the blends where I have liked its use, they are typically paired with a very sweet Virginia. The Virginia in Embarcadero does not have this type of sweetness. It is pretty bright and comes off as more earthy than sweet IMO. I don't think the pairing works well to my tastes in this blend. The good thing about the circumstances being what they are, is I can now let the unopened tin I have age out. I have a feeling this one could greatly improve with some age as it always seems to benefit Virginias by adding sweetness and that is the main thing this blend is lacking.

Two stars for now and I will revisit in 9 years.

Sour, harsh, boring and not easy to keep lit. It´s one of those good quality toacos that simply don´t have good taste (and I like strong tobaccos in general, it´s not only that). But for mixtures it can work fine.

Embarcadero was a surprise for me, moving quickly from off-the-radar to a comfortable spot on my Favorites List. For openers, it features the finest Izmir leaf I have smoked in over 40 years. The toothsome red VAs seem to be stoved, and they are a perfect pairing, and it's all processed and fermented just right. I know this because I can smell and taste the results, right from the match. The bloated, 7-year-old tin enjoyed for this review proved E ages very well, and I am buying more as you read this. The initial tin note was decidedly funky, soured peach schnapps over the sour Izmir moss and spices, over earthy, fermented VAs. There are undertones of fermented dates and apricots, as well, and it soon includes something like best-of-the-barnyard, lite. Original tin moisture is fine for smoking, or maybe dry it just a little. As others have mentioned, the "flakes" were actually re-cut into chunky "ribbons" before tinning. I like to loosely load a few of the ribbons vertically into a medium/small-ish pipe, since E is less complex from larger pipes. Wow! Again, it's been a very long time since I smoked Izmir like this, and, like I said, the earthy red VAs are the perfect underpinning for this Old School Turkish blend. Once the fragrant smoke billows up, it's hard not to sniff it all back in with each puff. Be warned, however, that despite the smoothness of the smoke, the spices are there, and your sinuses will be affected, depending on your tolerance for this spectacular weed. I find the taste and smell "envelope" to be fairly consistent, once a bowl is started, but it changes bowl to bowl, and there is also a "range" of tastes and scents that change delicately over the course of the smoke, from puff to puff, during each bowl. Complicated? Yes! And IMO, it never puts a foot wrong.

Complexity notwithstanding, Embarcadero is no-nonsense, and it is indeed an easy and "comfortable" smoke, a tasty, interesting blend of well selected, treated, matched and aged tobaccos, and I can't imagine it being any better. Strength is mild to medium; taste is medium (or full, depending on how you take to the Turkish leaf...); room note is... Turkish, albeit a most pleasant iteration of the genre. It's a little sweet and fairly sour, and the fragrance is (fragrances are)... singular, in an "up-dated, bygone" way, if that makes any sense. The enduring aftertaste is the best of the smoke, and if you are like me, you will have trouble not smoking it. I recommend Embarcadero to VA/Per and Turkish lovers, alike, and anyone who enjoys complex, natural VAs might give it a go. 4 Stars and a spot on my Favorites List, for sure. BTW, IMO, Embarcadero is an interesting counterpoint to GLP's Telegraph Hill.

I have just finished my 3rd tin of Embacadero and it has earned a 92 point score. As predomintaly a virginia/vaper smoker the Izmir leaf was a question mark. In fact if I did not know I was smoking virginia/izmir, I would have guessed I was smoking an excellent virginia with a bit of perique. This is a beautiful full bodied smoke. Mildly sweet, quite rich and complex. I have a dozen tins in the cellar and plan to add many more to my stash believing this will age nicely for years to come. I just finished a bowl after several single malts and prime aged fillet.....what a treat! Greg Pease sure makes some wonderful tobacco..... right up there with Filmore!

The first thing I noticed with this flake was its softness - it was tender to the touch, easily rubbed out. This is a mark of quality indicating a lack of glycerin or humeectants and sugar additives. If one looks in the bottom of the tin you do not find broken leaf, tobacco dust or other "drek", another sign of absolute quality.

The aroma on opening the tin is what I would expect from a Virginia/Turkish blend. The description on the label described my smoking experience to a 'T', another rare experience in tobaccodom and comment on the care taken to produce this flake. Embarcadero is "top shelf".

1 December 08 update: Smoked a bowl in a favorite canadian last night. This tobacco has a subtle sweetness and what I call the "high notes" (taste) of Turkish leaf. It is smooth, but agree with the reviews after mine that it can heat the bowl if puffed too vigorously. It does not bite. However I prefer a flake with some "deeper notes" - tates in the nutty range. Still, this will be in my rotation.

I was imagining well before I ordered this blend that I would fall in love with it. It sounded so simple and delicious on paper. There was a pungent fruity vinegar aroma that poked my nostrils upon cracking the tin.

As an aside, this was the most vinegary smelling blend ( that wears it well anyway) I have smoked since McClelland. I don’t know if the strong vinegar scent is unique to this blend or a response to mold issues; whether this has been done for years or if it is a new technique.

After the tin breathes for a few days, the acetic note gives way to raisins, chocolate, and the scent of dried hay. This is a loose flake mixture of red Virginia and Izmir, I’m guessing at a 70/30 ratio. The Izmir is drab but varied in coloration. Colors ranged from yellow tan, olive green, to gold. The first several bowls really fried my tongue, and after 10 to 15 bowls of progressively slower smoking, this tobacco and I finally agreed. Even when I smoked this so painfully slow that innumerable relights were needed, the smoke retained a sort of astringency on the palate. If I slipped up and puffed unwittingly hard, this can and did bite.

The smoke gives faint notes of briny green olive early on in the bowl. Coffee bean richness gives way to toasted tobacco. I didn’t find quite the range or depth of nuance that Mr Pease indicated on the label, and not for lack of trying. Despite the visual suggestion of a decent amount oriental leaf, I didn’t note nearly the amount of spiciness and aromaticity (not in a cased or topped sense…think fragrant) that I would have expected. I do think the Izmir may have contributed an unusual but pleasant mild nuttiness to the smoke. There was certainly more of a learning curve with this tobacco than anything else I have ever smoked. That being said, it’s worth the effort.

The perfect Oriental/Virginia blend. This is my smoke when I've just gotten home from work and don't have to immediately run back out and can sit and ponder over my smoking experience. The Virginias are readily apparent upon lighting, with an orange taste predominating the initial smoke. As the smoke progresses, the Izmir takes hold, and one can taste hot chocolate with spiced rum with a generous dollop of marshmallow on the top.

On the practical side, take some of the loose tobacco and lay it out on a saucer as kindling. As is, the tobacco is moist and might take several relights if one rubs it out or practices the "fold and stuff" method. I prefer "fold and stuff" to fill 3/4 of a bowl with the loose tobacco let out to dry a day before sprinkled on the top. It loses none of the flavor and ensures that any halfway decent cadence keeps the bowl smoking from light until the bottom of the bowl.

Don't smoke this blend as an all day tobacco. Don't smoke this blend when riding around in a car. Don't smoke this blend while distracted by the cares of the world.

Smoke this blend when you have ample time to sit and appreciate the changing complexities. Pair it with some good classical music, a favorite drink, and a much read book that one enjoys but doesn't take all one's mental load.

In short- a great smoke when you have time focus entirely on the smoking experience.