G. L. Pease Key Largo

A well balanced English blend with the addition of cigar leaf. The Latakia, Oriental, and Virginia are blended well enough for a fine English blend and the addition of Cigar leaf may technically disqualify this as a traditional English blend, however, the Cigar leaf adds a new dimension of flavor that any English lover should surely enjoy.

Opening the tin, the creamy earthy smell is very clear and satisfying, with a hint of lemon flavours. After awhile, the cigar notes also comes to the fore.

On first light, roasted coffee is evident with faint notes of leather. Definitely less Latakia / Oriental like the previous I've reviewed (Gas light, Westminster, Charing Cross), but enough to satisfy my Latakia / Oriental crave. Unlike many other Balkan / English blends, the sweetness in this blend is so subtle, you will be forgiven to think there is none. Just enough to balance the cigar leaf's bitterness.

As you go along minding your business while smoking Key Largo, the roasted cocoa beans comes through just to remind you of the subtle yet excellent balance of this blend. Midway through the blend, the roasted cocoa becomes a bit clearer but the earthy creamy textures as described stays with you - very nice! Another winner for my from Greg Pease!

http://youtu.be/ImlsSFWdlHE

I have had two friends send me generous samples of this. I am halfway through the second sample. I have really enjoyed this.

There is a tangy Virginia and some pleasant spicy orientals dancing with smoky latakia that comes and goes. The cigar leaf gives it body and an unusual quality even for a cigar blend. There is a whiff of slightly acidic, sharp black coffee that may be this cigar leaf. It is hard to describe, but it all works. It manages to be a medium-full flavor without being a powerhouse of any one thing. It is complex and not cluttered. The components work together really well.

Thus far, I have not found the 'development' claimed by the packaging. Throughout the bowl, for me anyway, I can detect the cigar element and it seemed to get in the way of the VA and even the Latakia.

Somewhat creamy, yes. Earthy, yes. Somewhat. It just seems like the selections didn't combine to produce what GL claims. I could be wrong. But I've been through three quarters of the tin and I'm still waiting for it to round out.

Moist out of the tin, does require a good rubbing but rubs out well and is nice to work with. No gurgling and no bite and not too much moisture left over in the bowl at all.

I'll finish the tin but I won't be going back for more.

Second blend in Heirloom I've sampled-Maltese Falcon rated a 4 star based off its subtle complexity (yeah I juxtaposed those two words, proving I ain't skeered) but this tobacco has no such character. I guess if I wanted to smoke a stogie, I'd pull an aged Padron or a Drew Estates No 9. It's my fault really-I didnt ntend to ever buy pipe baccy that tasted of cigar leaf. Too harsh. Quality leaf, broken flake with good English tin note, but the leaf-obviously not wrapper-dwarfs the other components to the point of bullishness. No pleasure derived here.

Mr. Pease has genius-I intend to indulge in many of his blends-Lord willing, but this blend is not for me. Second tin of tobacco i will have chucked this week, which is sad, as I haven't a budding money tree:)

This is the best cigar leaf blend I have smoked to date. While other cigar blends out there aren't bad, they fail to capture the true essence of a cigar, not so with Key Largo. Key Largo offers a mouth full of flavor, the cigar notes are easily detected and intermingles beautifully with the oriental leaf. Latakia is used as a condiment and makes its presence well known on and off; you taste it at various points throughout the bowl but not always.

The pleasantness of the room note moght be a subject of much debate. I like strong tobacco notes and I love the smell of cigar smoke, I say that because the room note is that of a very fragrant cigar, and while pleasant to me it may likely draw criticism from those around you.

My favorite thing about this blend is the bitter taste others have mentioned, it's like drinking a strong cup of black coffee. I don't mean to say this blend tastes like coffee, it does not, it's just a poor analogy because I don't have another one.

One thing I noticed is that the blend needs some dry time. I hardly ever leave tobacco to dry before smoking it, I normally find most tinned tobacco to be at the perfect smoking stage. While this blend is not extremely moist, leaving out to dry for about an hour or so helps the flavors come through a little better and aids the lighning process.

I would recommend this blend to those who like strong tobacco, but you might find it too strong if you are used to the lighter balkans or stoved virginias.

Really enjoyed this tobacco - I'm not a big cigar fan, but this has just enough cigar leaf to give the blend a little bit of "bite" (that's good bite, not bad bite...). There is also a bitter taste, which (as a black coffee drinker) I enjoy. Smoked most of a tin during a vacation at the beach in Florida while it was **hot**, and it was very pleasant. Purchased two more tins as soon as I returned - one to smoke, and one for the shelf.

Back when I began smoking a pipe I ordered Robusto, for the curiosity factor. I didn't have much experience with pipe tobacco, or cigars, for that matter. To me, it tasted like a straight English, and I admit to having a hard time understanding why blenders would add Latakia to a cigar mix. It seems that the Latakia would overpower the cigar leaf, which should be the showcase. But most cigar blends have Latakia, and I supposed the blenders had their reasons.

Revisiting the genre, I decided to sample Key Largo largely because it was a flake and thought I might have somehow missed the subtlety in those early years. Popping the tin of Key Largo yields a beautiful line of thick, dark slices, a scent deep with smokey notes, yet strangely sweet. The tobacco has a kind of silky-textured composition--soft, fragile flakes that fall apart as you pull them from the tin.

Since my earlier trial, I've smoked a few bundles of cigars in the mean while, and felt confident that I could place the leaf this time around. And yes, it comes through, loud and harmonious, but in no way competes with the Latakia, instead building on one another to create a different kind of English...perhaps this is the reason blenders have paired the two so frequently.

The addition of cigar leaf in Key Largo is much smoother than my own experimentation, which has always turned out very harsh smokes. Thinking I'd know better, my attempts would always begin by carefully lifting the wrapper from cuttings, and mix it in, sometimes with an English, but often with VaPers or Virginia/Oriental blends in such a way that the cigar leaf would stick out. I could never get the combinations to work, and began to suspect that the Latakia had a way of masking the leaf's harsher qualities, a conviction of which I'm now almost certain (this is why blenders dedicate their entire time to ridding the rest of us of our more ignorant inclinations).

Perhaps owing to the strength of the cigar leaf, Key Largo is rather strong, and smoking a No. 5 bowl will tend to muddle one's senses. Your experience may also play differently depending on one's mood and choices of previous blends smoked. A balanced English immediately before Key Largo may make the blend appear rough, accentuating the cigar leaf. This plays out with other blends as well, as Key Largo can be finicky with some combinations of smokes (try sipping the blend with an espresso--the two compliment one another beautifully).

In short, there is a rare skill in rendering a workable pipe tobacco blend with cigar leaf. It's a matter of finesse and subtlety that are difficult to quantify, as evidenced by the mass of failed attempts. As many have said, pipers shouldn't approach these mixes with the expectation of a cigar replacement, but rather, a reminder or glimpse of their allure. In my estimation, no other blend provides that experience better than Key Largo.

This for me is a very interesting smoke, I am still working through a couple ounces of it, and I really enjoy it. I first tried this blend after having smoked through a tin of McClelland's Honeydew from the 221b series, and I found it to be an excellent follow up as for me I detected some similar flavors but with a bit more boldness. As a somewhat frequent cigar smoker, I found that the cigar leaf while definitely represented in this blend did not comprise the main entity nor did the latakia. For me this blend is very evenly balanced and delivers a wonderful interplay of flavors, I get a very peaty, mossy sort of taste out of it, and mostly pick up on the VA and burley that is present, while the Perique, Latakia and Cigar leaves for me take turns making appearances but only in hints and do not dominate the blend. This continues to be an intriguing blend to me and I recommend it over a book especially during the spring or early summer.