G. L. Pease Key Largo

I received a sample of this from a friend. Definitely a strong smokey flavor throughout from the Latakia. A lat bomb? No. Strong English? More like. The cigar wrapping adds the smoothness and cocoa qualities, which support the smokiness. I don’t get much from the orientals, but the red virginias do add some soft sweetness. Overall, a strong but easy going enjoyable smoke full of tobacco flavor, perhaps too full for some.

A very nice lat flake showcasing the added cigar leaf. Smokes cool and creamy and is very easy to get along with. Maybe a bit flat, but a nice change of pace smoke.

This is an English blend with cigar leaf added on in broken flake cut, the tin description provided by the blender is accurate, the aroma from the tin is marvelous, while smoking, the taste is bitter, rich and very dark, the cigar flavor is detected mainly in the tin aroma and in the after taste realm.

Try this blend If you enjoy a hint of cigar flavor in the background of your English blend, however, to get a true Maduro cigar taste in your pipe I would recommend you to try S.G 1792 flake.

I may upgrade to four stars, but for now, it's three. I found the start of the bowl to have a wonderful creaminess, with toasty flavors, in some ways similar to BBF but with more flavor and way way more creamy. Mid bowl the latakia started to take over and there was just a lot of flavor, heavy bodied smoke, still creamy, a bit of spice too. Frankly, I never got to the end of the bowl, the nicotine crept up on me, and I had to put it out. I'm a bit sensitive that way, and had smoked a bowl of Maltese Falcon right before, so it could have been either of those... but I also have a suspicion that the cigar leaf is amping up the nicotine. From my end, as someone who has smoked cigars for 15+ years, this blend has some of the attributes of a great cigar, but also many attributes of a great pipe blend. Nice cut too. A real masterwork. I must smoke more, and will.

UPDATE I tried letting it dry more, rubbing it out quite a bit, and smoking it earlier in the day. The result was a better burn with less perceived strength, but also less flavor. Still a three star smoke.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed with Key Largo when I first opened the tin and smoked a couple bowls. It was hard to keep burning, and seemed almost flavorless for most of the bowl.

Now, I absolutely LOVE Robusto (another cigar blend by Pease) so I was expecting something similar to that blend, I suppose. What I learned was, this tobacco benefits greatly from some air time before lighting up. After airing out a portion of the tobacco for about an hour, the level of flavor was markedly increased and the tobacco stayed lit very well. The difference from moist to dry is "key" when smoking Key Largo!

The tobacco burns slowly and won't bite even the most aggressive puffer! The first half of the bowl is creamy and tasty, but not a mind-blowing experience. The second half of the bowl is where the real fun begins. Suddenly the smoke becomes deeply rich and earthy with just a tickle of sweetness. A lot like the midway point of a dark cigar, though NOT exactly like a cigar. My only complaint is that the flavor can be somewhat one-dimensional (like a cigar), which leaves me searching for just a little more complexity. Key Largo has body and some strength which will leave you satisfied.

Hello,

I have been smoking this for a while now and at first I didn't know what to think. I have been looking for a blend that tastes like a cigar. This I have not found yet, but over time this has turned out to be a good tobacco. Well blended, many flavors, and stays lit easily. I highly recommend smoking this slow and in a pipe with a big bowl. That was my initial mistake. Once I shifted up it made all the difference. It doens't taste like a cigar, but the aftertaste does. Room note is ok.

I would say give it a try. I will review it again in a couple of months to see if anything changes.

Enjoy! Z

This is another one of those easy reviews. Read the tin description, it's spot on! This blend tastes great, it's rich and creamy, beautifully balanced with richly textured flavors, dark rich earthy flavors with a long lingering finish.

And that's why I will never buy another tin. That damn long lingering finish is impervious to food, brushing, mouthwash and time, just forget about it, it will be with you at least until the next day.

SOAP BOX TIME, Even though I will never buy another tin, I gave it a strong three+ stars, why, because it tastes good and it delivers! It delivers what the tin says it delivers, including that long finish that I didn't like. I point this out because I see many aromatics get one or two stars because the reviewer will buy a blend that claims to be aromatic, or mild & sweet, states it on the tin, and then, that same reviewer will give it one star and claim " I smoke Latakia blends, I don't like aromatics" or "This blend is mild and sweet, it's for little girls"

Well, we now know it's not for RETARDS !!! Why did you buy it !

I'm Sorry. All I'm trying to say(IMHO)is, judge an aromatic as an aromatic, judge a Balkan blend as a Balkan blend, an English as an English.

It's the Right thing to do!

P.S. Oh ya, I forgot the best one of all, no no really, someone wrote this, "I really liked this blend, it tasted great. But I could never give an aromatic more than two or three stars". What in the hell does that mean? Who are these people? There are all types of quality blends out there, and there are bad blends in every genre from english to aromatic. Judge them for what they are.

OK, I'm done. I'm sorry.

I enjoy VA, VAPer. and English blends as well as cigars from the likes of Rocky Patel, Arturo Fuente, and Don Tomas. I was very excited about smoking this blend as the tobacco combination with cigar leaf sounded like a very rich smoking experience. I smoked this tobacco in a Lorenzo medium bent pipe and the tobacco was at an OK moisture level out of the tin. The tin aroma was very earthy, slightly fermented virginia with just a hint of latakia. This carried on exactly the same throughout the smoke with the occasional hint of cigar leaf if I exhaled the smoke through my nostrils(is that wrong to do?) The latakia comes out as more sweet than spicy and, along with the cigar leaf, is very subdued as the virginias and orientals dominate the blend with a pleasing spicy, earthy sweet interplay. Definitely has the complexity and noticeable nicotine content that is key for my enjoyment of most blends. The only complaint I have that causes me to reserve the fourth star is that no matter what time of day or what pipe I choose, this blend has an annoying licorice-like aftertaste about 2/3rds into the bowl. Wonder if anyone else noticed this or if its just my personal taste. Will try more Pease blends as this has been my first and I was very impressed with the quality of tobaccos used.

First review! G.L. Pease is generally a good English blend supplier. Key Largo (recomended to my by my tobaccanist) was an experiment that I enjoyed. When I had first tried this, I had not switched to English blends completely yet. The strength is pretty controled and the taste is wonderful. I would recomend, however, that you sip on this blend. The taste kicks too much when it is pushed. All in all, this blend would be recomended to any English blend lover to be put in a rotation. I would not recomend this as an all day tobacco, but that really depends on your own taste.