Tobaccos Seattle Pipe Club - Plum Pudding

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3019)	2014-09-22		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

The Cyprian Latakia is smoky, woodsy, earthy, musty sweet, and is a team player with the Orientals and Virginia even though it is the lead component. The woody, earthy, floral, herbal, vegetative, herbal, dry and lightly buttery sweet, spicy Orientals are an important supporting ingredient. The Virginias have a little grass and light tart citrus along with a bit of earth, wood, bread, and some tangy, piquant dark fruit with a touch of “barbecue” in a secondary role. The spicy, raisin, plum, earthy, figgy perique is a minor player that lurks in the background. The unsweetened black cavendish adds some smoothing brown sugar, and seems at times to hold the overall flavor together. A pinch or two of gold cavendish barely adds any toast. The nic-hit is in the center of mild to medium. The amount of strength is a slot short of the medium threshold. The taste does reach the medium mark. It won't bite or get harsh, but does sport a slight rough edge here and there. The expert blending provides a very consistent, mildly sweet, rather savory, campfire flavor from first draw to final puff. If you break it up a little, but leave it in small chunks or layers, you'll get more of what you're supposed to get in addition to a slow, cool burn, though you'll have a fair amount of relights. Regardless of how you prepare it, there won’t be much dampness in the bowl. The pleasant, smoky after taste will linger a little, and stronger room note lasts a little longer. I would not classify this as an all day smoke, but this is a blend you can repeat with ease.

-JimInks

93 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SeoulSister (37)	2014-02-15		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

After drying Plum Pudding, I break up the kake into smaller chunks being careful to not turn it to dust. At first light I get a smoky sweetness right away. Through the bowl the underlying sweetness from the Cavendish actually makes my lips sticky, which is something that I like. It balances out the Latakia nicely. I haven’t been able to pick up any of the saltiness that others have experienced. Plum Pudding is a very rich, smooth smoke that builds in strength throughout the smoke. I find the flavor remains consistent. I definitely could see Plum Pudding in my regular rotation!

80 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Perique (163)	2013-01-31		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable

An outstanding blend! Spectacular tin note promising all kinds of goodness inside. And this blend delivers.

All English smokers owe it to themselves to taste this. And non-English smokers will more than likely appreciate it just as much. A lot going on here, with the nice added touch of Perique harmoniously blended in and a bit of sweetness from the Cavendish.

While a lover of Perique, I often find myself struggling with Perique-infused English blends. The combination of Latakia and Perique seems a very difficult one to pull off, with the two distinct flavors battling each other rather than creating something new and better than each in its own. The challenge to the blender: How to combine the Virginas, Latakia, Orientals, Perique, and sometimes Cavendish and/or burley in a manner that creates harmony rather than discordance among the constituate tobaccos?

Many blenders try, some succeed. Yet I often find myself, ironically, preferring the non-Perique version. Good examples are Pipeworks & Wilke No.5 vs No.13 (with Perique). I enjoy both, but find myself preferring the non-Perique version. Similarly, Frog Morton on the Bayou - a good blend. But I find myself going back to the original Frog more often and getting my Perique fix from traditional VaPers.

Plum Pudding, however, is an English blend with Perique that doesn't just get it right -- it's a masterpiece. Harmony, balance, thick creamy smoke, just the right amount of sweetness and deeper, earthy flavors. Slow, cool burn. The slowest burning, coolest blend I have ever smoked. Don't miss this one. My only complaint would be a relatively thin mouthfeel compared to other top-notch blends of this genre. But an enthusiastic four stars nonetheless.

Edit Oct 2016: after years of consideration, I will submit this blend as my second favorite tin note of all, behind only Wilke's High Hat and among a field of fierce contenders for the Tin Note Crown.

60 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrumsAndBeer (217)	2014-04-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a superb full flavored blend that satisfies on all levels. Like C&D Pirate Kake and the Captain Earle blends, there's something gratifying about working with a firmly pressed Latakia mixture. In the realm of krumble kakes, Plum Pudding is about as densely pressed as they come. You have to really dig in and get your fingers dirty to properly prepare this for smoking. The tactile nature of the process is quite satisfying and the various crumbled bits and pieces created by the effort rewards the meticulous with an incredibly complex smoke, one that takes many twists and turns along the way and everything about it is absolutely beautiful.

From charring light to finish this blend is delicious. It starts off creamy, spicy and fragrant. It begins firing on all cylinders about a fourth of the way down the bowl. At this point it's smooth, rich, bold and flavorful, tangy, smoky, sweet and spicy. By mid bowl to end, the perique really comes into focus. The piquancy is quite a treat. Zesty and full, the smoke nips at the tongue in the most delightful way, heightening the experience of this remarkably flavorful & cool smoking-mixture. Frankly, Plum Pudding is a thrilling & luscious olfactory overload.

The only downside with this tobacco is that it can be a bit challenging to keep lit. I found that rubbing it out thoroughly, allowing it to dry for a spell and gravity filling it, while being sure to tamp lightly along the way really helped. Altogether it’s not a big deal. Plum Pudding is so good that it’s worth the effort. A must try for Latakia lovers.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Prince

32 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2011-09-14		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

This one lives up to its reputation in my book. I received a fairly fresh tin a few months ago and finally got around to opening it. Not normally a back to back Latakia smoker, I did down a couple of bowls of this in a hurry. The Perique is far in the background, the orientals smooth out any roughness and what I really found to be a terrific addition was the cavendish that gave Plum Pudding a full body.

When I first saw the name Plum Pudding, I was sure it was an aromatic. Strangest name for an English blend I've come across. It smokes evenly, burns well and does indeed leave a bit of a Latakia breath hanging around the mouth.

31 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gentleman Zombie (729)	2014-02-01		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I won't detail the frustration and experimentation I went through trying to figure out how to get the most from this smoke. I'll just say it smokes best, for me, bone dry and firmly stuffed. Not terribly complex, probably due to the marriage of the various components during the making of the cake. What I got was a smooth, smoky, spicy, sweet Latakia flavor. Quite good and appealing. Medium bodied and flavored. Consistent from the top of the bowl to the bottom. Enjoyable, but it didn't knock my socks off.

Pipe Used: Various cobs and briars.

Age When Smoked: fresh bulk

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

24 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SteelCowboy (685)	2011-10-21		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

I have been smoking this on and off for the past year and a half and I find that it is the Krumble Kake that I keep going back to most often. I prefer it fully rubbed out and on the dry side. Although I like Penzance, IMHO Plum Pudding is simply better. It has a broader range of flavor and its easy to come by. The small amount of Cavendish lends just a slight sweetness to the blend along with some fullness. I find the Latakia, the Orientals and the Cavendish carry the day here with the Virginia'a and Perique in a distant support roll. I enjoy is best in a smaller bowl and sipped slowly to extract all of the wonderful flavors. Recommended.

Similar Blends: Nor' Easter by Watch City Cigar.

24 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2075)	2016-04-30		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Seattle Pipe Club - Plum Pudding.

At first, I didn't care whether or not 'Plum Pudding' indicated this was an aromatic, I just loved the name! So, because of my fairly vacuous reason for being endeared to it, I requested trading some with Gentleman Zombie. As accommodating as ever, he sent me a two ounce tin recently. I wanted to wait until I'd burned the Mississippi River he sent me before cracking this one open, and decided today would be the day; well, I blooming love it!

The first thing I find agreeable about the S.P.C. krumble kakes I've had, is unlike a lot of others, the tin contains a decent amount of tobacco that's smokeable straight away, it doesn't ALL need to be crumbled. This tin was also of a good moistness, so I filled and lit, asap!

I find the smoke very satisfying, that's satisfying without having many flavours that jump out; I'd expected a Lat-Bomb but that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Latakia offers only a semblance of piquancy; it seems to me, a mild Balkan taste. In that respect, it's similar to Mississippi River.

For a Balkan, I find it a bit bizarre the way I get actual sweetness from the Cavendish. The word Balkan normally conjures up thoughts of wood, smoke, and an occasional bitterness: instead, I get woodiness, smokiness, and a nice sweetness, with nothing harsh, nor bitter.

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: nice.

This is one of the best blends I've filled with: satisfying, very cool burning, thick smoke, and the ultimate in luxury.

Franck, thank you so much buddy!

Highly recommended.

Pipe Used: Chacom Robusto #193

Age When Smoked: One month

Purchased From: Traded with Gentleman Zombie

21 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2014-05-31		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant

Based on a sample of about one ounce. Crumble cake of mottled color, focusing on the dark. Nice snootful of latakia in the tin with a hint of perique and oriental. I appreciate Seoul Sister's review because for my first bowl I did just what she said not to do - I rubbed it out too much. And since I couldn't correct it, I went ahead and filled the pipe and smoked it. I got a lot of dust in my mouth, had to empty and refill the pipe to fix blockage and had a less than stellar smoke. I should have just tossed that bowl immediately but I hate throwing away good tobacco!

Overall, and based on my limited sample, this one promised more than it delivered. It was a decent smoke that I can certainly recommend, but it seemed fairly ordinary in a crowded field of this type of blend. The latakia was to the forefront but only slightly. The orientals took a backseat and the perique was there but only occasionally, at least in the taste. I got a very slight sweetness from the Cavendish but I got the impression that it was there more for added body and fullness. The taste was on the salty side and rather bitter. That's not a negative - GLP's Charing Cross has a strong bitter note and I enjoy that one immensely. But I would have preferred a stronger oriental component here.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 but I could have just as easily rounded down to 2. Recommended but not destined for my cellar, nor did it justify an occasional tin. But certainly a worthy blend for those that prefer English-type blends over strong Balkans.

Pipe Used: meerschaum

Age When Smoked: 1 year

20 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	tabaco (112)	2014-04-19		Medium	Extremely Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Well this stuff is right up my alley, just like a Peaty Scotch. I prefer to leave it a bit chunky not fully rubbing it out, gravity pack with a very gentle tamp. A bit more time to get it combusting fully and well worth it in my view. I really like pressed and flaked blends for their long smouldering burns, this one goes for a long time and never hot at least for me. The moisture content is perfect.

It's not a huge Latakia bomb and actually quite gentle on the palate with a nice full/round creaminess for me that's the pudding part. The Perique is there and melds-in just right.

This one does change a fair bit down through the bowl and for the better, deeper and more savoury, showing balance all the way down and does not stumble at all. Slowing down even more it really sings, combusting to a powder white ash with nothing left at all. Something extra is a gentle topping not sure what it is, kind of reminds me of black Cardamon, ever so slight and works well.

If you enjoy Boswell's Northwoods or Compton's York or their No. 10 you'll like this one too . . . a most comforting blend on a snowy evening.

18 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TallPuffO'Burley (632)	2015-10-19		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

ORIGINAL REVIEW 10-19-2015

I received a sample of this at the past Chicago Show and wasn't expecting much after being disappointed by Mississippi River. I did, however enjoy Deception Pass and was telling the guys from Seattle Pipe club this and they insisted I tried Plum Pudding.

Well, was I wrong. I not only liked this blend, I loved it. So it is a cake that is heavy in Latakia, but it is extremely well balanced and smooth. Smoky and exotic are words that come to mind. I actually think I can add another name of lat blends that I prefer over Penzance. The sample I had was a decent size, I think I got around 10 bowls out of it. Normally, I would not put four stars on something like this, but all 10 bowls were incredible.

This screams four stars to me, so I will leave it at that and will change if necessary after getting through a tin. This could be a while for me as I am just trying to clear out samples and open tins right now in an attempt to make my cellar more manageable.

This one is a winner. I highly recommend all lat lovers try this one out.

UPDATE 7/1/2019

I just wanted to return to this one after finishing a tin I purchased shortly after the above review. I was spot on in giving this one four stars. It really is a special blend with the seemingly perfect amount of each component as the flavors often shift between good and great.

As a bonus, this one will also leave you nice and sated as it does give a good bit of nicotine, particularly for what is essentially a lat blend. So it shall stay at 4 stars and I look forward to smoking the remaining tins in the cellar.

Purchased From: sample

Similar Blends: Balkan Blue (mountain).

15 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CornCob (94)	2014-03-10		Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong

I remember when this blend came out on the market, what a stir it caused. I bought one of those little overpriced tins as soon as I got the chance in fear this blend would disappear.........several years later its still here, and I see the majority of online retailers are now carrying it. I finally popped the can to see what the hype was about and boy was I disappointed, I'm not going to say this stuff is junk as I fear I might offend the majority of the world's pipe smokers but it is certainly over rated and over priced. Once I got passed the wet dog smell in the tin, I had a hard time keeping it lit, taste was nowhere near the "Nirvana" level and it certainly left me unsatisfied. I don't regret buying it as this isn't the first or last blend that I didn't think was that great, I respect the opinion and tastes of others so I recommend asking for a sample with your next tobacco order and see for yourself. One star from me on the smoking experience, 4 stars to Joe Lankford for making his dream blend a commercial success, even if I don't like it.

Pipe Used: Largo Oom Paul

Age When Smoked: Current production

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

12 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	MJG (17)	2015-05-05		Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Leaf: A crumble cake of Cavendish, Virginia, Latakia, Perique and Oriental. Mottled dark browns with a good bit of dark Latakia scattered throughout.

Tin Aroma: Slightly sweet with a hint of dried fruit, which disappears behind a glorious nose full of smokey campfire goodness from the latakia. There is a very slight spiciness that may be the perique, or the 'little something extra' the label hints at.

Taste: The taste greatly mirrors the smell, an underlying sweetness, an almost dried dark fruit flavor, followed by a rich, creamy, smokey campfirey latakia hit, which really shines but doesn't overpower the other components. Towards the end I got a nice hint of the orientals hiding in there, with a little more sweetness coming out on the exhale. It is a very smooth and rich smoke, which only improves as you get further down the bowl. Very easy smoking and approachable, but still sufficiently complex, this could easily be an all day smoke for me, although the Nicotine can sneak up on you with a decent kick after a long bowl if you aren't careful.

Smokability: Rubbed out and dried a little, it packed well, lit easily and only required one relight. It burns slowly, and stays cool and dry. It is very friendly and won't bite unless you really tease it. My bowls burn down to a fine white ash, this stuff is very easy to clean up after.

Summary: This is a great blend, the tin note is very appetising, and fortunately everything you pick up with the nose reaches the mouth without anything being lost. The slow burning nature makes for nice long smokes, which only get better the longer they go on. Everything you look for in an English/Balkan is here, yet the flavor and experience remain unique for Plum Pudding. It is definitely it's own blend which is a great thing, well worth a try if you can get your hands on it. Full flavoured, rich, creamy and velvet smooth

11 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	doc'spipe (241)	2009-09-29		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Pleasant

I have been wanting to sample this blend for a good while now as Sillem's Black is one of my favorite smokes of all time and I have been searching for a rotation partner with similar qualities. I do enjoy Latakia blends that are sweeter than those of traditional English origins. This is where Sillem's Black fits the bill, and I was hoping to find another that was similar.

Mine was a 2 ounce sample tin that was tinned on 9-22-09. I have never seen a crumble cake as well put together as this one is. Actually, they should call it "brick cake" or something like that as it did not crumble in a fashion that I have experienced with other crumble cakes. I actually prefer the harder version that Plum Pudding presented as. The tin aroma was of Latakia and a mild smelling earthiness - like peat moss. The earthiness I attributed to the Perique. No sweetness in the tin note and very little in the taste department. For me, I would have preferred more sweetness to balance the dryness to the palate I always find with Latakia.

After preparing a portion of this brick for my pipe, the lighting was very easy. One char, a tamp, and a re-light was all it took to keep this glowing. My sample was not dry by any means, nor was it sticky. Actually, the tobacco is so compressed that it is hard to actually comment on its moisture level by appearance and feel alone. It must have been just right since I had one of the most effortless smokes ever. This just kept going even after putting the pipe down for a minute every now and then. I could not actually define any aromatic casing or top dressing while smoking. The sweetness was too mild in what I expected to find, and there was a salty component as well. I don't know what the "something extra" was since I could not detect its presence; unless it was meant to be the ever present taste of salt! A bit of gurgle, but nothing major with that.

I smoked this in a Hardcastle bent billiard. It burned very consistently and slowly. It did not burn hot nor was there any bite - even with fast puffing. I'm assuming the Perique added the mild saltiness which thankfully was not too overbearing. The biggest problem was the lack of flavor - or I should say "generic" flavor that was way too bland. The Latakia was subdued, but that is fine by me. Salt I'd rather taste on my food, not in my smoke.

This was but a mild Balkan. Nothing fancy nor special to rave about. I prefer Sillem's Black over Plum Pudding since the tobacco has a very nice sweetness added and no saltiness. Needless to say, Plum Pudding doesn't compare with Sillem's Black and my search for the Black's partner continues. Perhaps a good introduction for those not familiar with Latakia. I can not give it higher than 2 stars since it lacked that "something extra" for me.

11 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	manno (50)	2014-02-21		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A delicious tobacco that I struggle to describe, perhaps because its attraction to me is its chameleon-like behavior within the same bowl and between bowls as well. If I tell myself that I'm smoking a nice oriental-forward blend, I am. If I say that it's a light latakia-forward English with some oriental thrown in, it is. And if I want it to be a rich unflavored cavendish/virginia with a dash of latakia, it presents itself as such. The composition is very nice -- great moisture level on arrival, nice kake chunks that easily break up into small flakes for easy loading and smoking, but not powder as is often the case with kakes. Lights well, volumes of smoke, VERY mellow on the mouth but rich and round in taste. An absolute winner, and a great bulk buy when available as it has kept its integrity in a full 24 ounce mason-type container for a year or so now. I'd have to stretch and lie to find anything meaningfully negative about this tobacco.

Pipe Used: various billiards and KS dublins

Age When Smoked: about a year

Purchased From: pipesandcigars

Similar Blends: Only thing similar would be blending the best characteristics of London Mixture, EMP, Red Rapparee, Skiff, Squadron Leader, all the Froggies and God knows what else.

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Glorfindel (86)	2017-10-04		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Tolerable to Strong

Ok folks,, forget Penzance, Plum Pudding is everything that Penzance is (or was) and so much better. In My opinion, the several types of tobacco in this blend are not meant to be "detected" individually, they marry together to create an incense-like sum greater than the parts. If you wish to search for individual notes of oriental, VA, Perique, latakia etc. please do so but I think that misses the point. The unique way these components work together and compliment each other creates a pipe tobacco that becomes like it's own new variety of taste and aroma.

Simply put, this will go down as one of the greatest English blends of ALL TIME, It is instant Zen without the years of soul-searching :)

Also, I must add that in reference to Penzance, G. F. Germain/Esoterica Tobaccos has demoted itself to irrelevance and insignificance by keeping a stranglehold on the the market for its products and not keeping production level with demand.

Essentially, Esoterica blends are a fiction, they don't exist anymore, no one has any for sale and I suggest they remove them from their websites - they all say the same thing,,, "Out of Stock"..... :(

Customers (like me) feel gouged and abused for our loyal fandom. Thus I suggest all you lovers of Penzance, never buy it again. Buy Plum Pudding instead and send the message you are tired of being gouged and abused by Esoterica's lack of concern for its customers.

Thank you to the folks at Seattle Pipe Club, you care about your customers and have created a modern classic masterpiece that will be hailed and praised and enjoyed for years to come...

Cheers All,,,,,, Glorfindel

Pipe Used: Butz-Choquin

Age When Smoked: New tin

Purchased From: Pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: Penzance (which really doesn't exist anymore,,, LOL).

8 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2015-10-22		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant

Plum Pudding is a nice tobacco with a nice touch of périque. The slices of crumble kake are sure nice to look at and they are also very easy to break when preparing a pipeful. PP is mostly medium brown in colour with some lighters shades of golden and dark brown. I believe the "something extra" mentionned in the description is a light topping as there's some sweetened Black Cavendish. The topping reminds me, I don't know why, of Spillmann Mixture. And I certainly have not been able to identify it. Based on my tin content, I would say PP is not heavy with Latakia (confirmed by my wife's reaction when she entered my study: she did not say a word). The virginias and orientals seem to be up front as much as the latakia. Smoking reveals a nice combination of some spiciness, smokiness, and sweetness from the topping (it is very much percievable) and peppery notes from the périque, which becomes present to affirm itself past mid-bowl. I can't say I do get the virginias' flavours, though as I can't detect hay flavours or the sweetness of stoved virginias. As for the nicotine, it's mild to medium: mild the first half, and medium afterwads. It's very hard to keep lit, it requires multiple relights; it just won't stay lit. It's its biggest downside as it becomes almost frustrating after a while to fight with a tobacco that just won't stay lit. It almost removes part of the capacity to enjoy the smoke and generates some tongue bite. Overall, PP is not bad but has not raised my enthousiasm. I think it's a nice change of pace for when I seek a Latakia with a lower latakia content. But I definitively think it's not worth to pay $12 or chase it around. Unless something unexpected happens while I work my way through my tin, I would be very surprised if I buy more in the future.

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	oldcodger (74)	2018-11-09		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable

Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding is an excellent name for an aromatic pipe tobacco. Only Plum Pudding is not an aromatic blend. Instead it is an example of what is often called in the United States an English blend. The term is erroneous. It refers to a blend latakia or latakia/oriental forward, and if it has a significant burley component is often labelled American English. Tobaccos currently or historically produced in the British isles do not generally meet that description. But nevertheless utilizing the term English blend, Plum Pudding is a first class offering.

Seattle Pipe Club blender Joe Lankford is a wizard at concocting blends with numerous components which do not degenerate into fuzzy tasting messes. Plum Pudding has latakia, oriental, Virginia, cavendish, and perique tobaccos. It comes in a crumble cake form, and if not well rubbed out it is hard to light or to keep lit. If not well dried out it still requires more than normal relights.

The latakia provides the dominant flavor. The tangy orientals are present to extend to flavor into what is often termed a Balkan blend, the term Balkan denoting a significant oriental presence. The citrus flavored Virginia is there in enough abundance to round out and sweeten the flavor. The cavendish (burley?) provides a slight additional sweetness. The rancid pear note of perique is enough to be noted, but not enough to become overwhelming.

The nicotine strength is relatively mild for a mixture in which latakia is the prominent flavor. It comes in a little less than medium. The room note is also less prominent than many latakia blends. It is not overwhelming, but still it will prove enticing only to lataphiles.

When all is said and done the result is for me an English blend (using the suspect term) as good as any I have smoked. I predict that only latakia haters will find Plum Pudding unpleasant.

Joe Lankford has produced a real winner here, one which has reached a cult status among small batch tobaccos.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	puro66 (73)	2014-01-12		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Plum Pudding is the perfect example of how one person's feast is another's famine. Simply read a sampling of the reviews for proof of this and the fact that reviews are...entertainment at best. I will not linger for long and offer up uninspiring analysis. I love the stuff and thank Joe for dreaming it up. I discovered it a couple of years ago when like many I began a useless quest to replace Penzance. It's not that venerable tobacco and I don't care. It's rich, tasty and satisfying. Whatever the "something extra" is is yummy!

Yes, I know that Penzance is allegedly still produced but it's lack of availability and Loch Ness sighting status means it's off my radar.

Try some Plum Pudding, it's worth it. You might like it, you might not but that's all part of the fun of our hobby. One thing is certain, the speed with which it gets sold means there is at least one or two of us that enjoys the Pudd!

Pipe Used: Ashton Panel LX

Age When Smoked: varies

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	thomasanswered (11)	2012-12-09		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

I have longed for a creamy latakia, a salty, smokey, creamy sort of tobacco, a tobacco malt, if you will, to contrast the salty, leathery latakias I love so well. Here it is.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CPT/VSG (72)	2010-05-01		Mild	Medium	Mild	Pleasant

PP is a tobacco I thought I would like much more than I did.

The tin note does have a mild perique scent to it-- and it smells great. I love the pressed bricks which break up like a crumble cake. The down side to the brick, though, is moisture. Unless PP is allowed to dry out pretty thoroughly it will smoke wet, which in addition to giving it a bitey quality, depresses the flavor.

As to flavor, I struggled throughout the 2 oz. tin to find much. It improved with dryness as I smoked through the tin. Still, the blend just never jumped out at me with either big flavor or subtle nuance. My tin was dated April 2009, so perhaps aging would help. In all, I'd try a second tin in the future but PP just seemed somewhat off the mark to me.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	J. Ward (69)	2015-11-09		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is another blend that truly opened the door for me to English blends(or kicked it down, rather). When I first smoked this blend I didn’t know what to make of it, being only a few months into the pipe smoking pastime, but in retrospect I can definitely say that in the back of my mind I was experiencing complexity in a pipe tobacco for the first time.

Now, I’ve heard others express that this is a blend that hasn’t had a track record of being consistent in its production, varying slightly in flavor from batch to batch. Personally, I can say that I would agree, although I’ve never had a tin of Plum Pudding that I didn’t fully enjoy. So, let’s get on with it…

The tin note is a slightly musty, earthy latakia smell. The broken flake does take some work to break up, but don’t pulverize it(as others here have already written). Minimal drying time, and gravity packing, lightly tamping as you fill it, works best. I typically smoke this blend in a wide bowl. The charring light immediately gives me the latakia up front, smoky sweetness, and a somewhat(very slight) salty nature to it that becomes more noticeable as you go. It builds into a robust blend with lots of creamy, full flavored smoke; an earthy smokiness, sweet leather, incense(slightly floral in the first version I purchased last year), and, somehow, salty. I don’t detect any perique until the last quarter of the bowl, where it’s more of an earthy smoke with an almost imperceptible bit of spice.

This blend is good from beginning to end and is, without a doubt, one of my favorites. I absolutely love this blend. This falls into an English/Balkan category, for me, and some have compared it to MacBaren’s HH Latakia Flake(a blend that many enjoy, but I can’t just seem to find anything extraordinary in it). If you like Larry’s Blend(another favorite), this one is right up your alley.

Cheers!

Pipe Used: Various

Age When Smoked: 6 months

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: Some have compared it to MacBaren's HH Latakia Flake.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-11-29		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable

Not bad. Flavor is quite consistent. Very strong and strange plastic smell from the mid bowl. Not as gunky as Mississippi River brings to the bowl. Though looks like heavily cased, there is no improper aromatic smell. I always disagree to put any perique into an English blend. It makes the flavor younger. And i always agree that a great amount of Oriental brings English more matured, old, and lathery flavor. In this case, Oriental is either hardly tasted or disturbed by Perique. Strange thing to put Perique into English. Overall I think the recipe makes the blend younger, a little bit too young. Although the sugar casing (i guess) makes the blend mellow and sweet, it tastes just not matured and deep enough. It is not going to compete with Penzance in anyway, and definitely not as good as Margate or Pembroke. Two key issues: recipe and aging. There is nothing to complain spending 62 dollars to buy 16oz of tobacco tasted nicer than 965, but I hate the blend wasting me so much time to buy it. I checked online for almost 30 days to see it available. It does not deserve this. Artisan blend is even better. I am an old school English smoker? Maybe.

Pipe Used: Tsuge Blowfish

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Dr. Scott (82)	2013-02-04		Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Full	Tolerable

This "krumble kake" comes in densely pressed pieces that sometimes are quite hard to break up. Rather than try to rub it out, I break it into small chunks and fill the bowl by gravity, topping off with finer, well-rubbed ribbons. Think of it more like a very dense flake in terms of how it behaves. Good for a breezy day.

The Latakia is the dominant flavor. The Orientals provide a floral scent. If I focus, I can taste the Perique. It has a flavor profile that reminds me of Penzance, not that it tastes like Penzance, just a close cousin or sibling. There is no sweetness at all. This is strictly a savory and smoky blend with a floral bouquet from the Orientals.

Not as much nicotine as the Mississippi River blend by SPC.

The big negative is that it burns very hot. That could just be the casing. Puff very slowly or you will have a scalded tongue!

Recommended only for Latakia-loving English blend smokers.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-03-03		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

A dissapointment for me after all the glowing reviews. To me the flavor was monochromatic and it just slightly disagreed with my sinuses and throat. Certainly an adequate krumble kake, but not on my must have list.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Honest&Simple (25)	2021-10-16		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

Tin note is musty smoky tobacco. The presentation is nice.

Dont get me wrong this is a good well made blend. But I just cant blow it the way others do. Its a solid English with the latakia being very well complemented by the orientals.

This one does not behave well in my pipe. I have tried various drying and preparations. Regardless of what I do it inevitably requires alot of relights.

For the price, i just dont get the accolades for this one. There are scores of other blends that are as good or better for FAR less money.

To each his own tho, just not my thing.

Will not rebuy.

Pipe Used: Briars and cobs

Age When Smoked: Fresh to 6 months

Purchased From: P&C

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Novaki (41)	2020-04-20		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

There are few things I hate more than contributing to bandwagons. I finally caved to the pressure and decided to pick this up. I thought, surely there isn’t a tobacco on earth that could possibly live up to the amount of hype and praise that Plum Pudding has received. After all, it is JUST tobacco, right? ...

So I cracked’r open to see what all the fuss was about. I was greeted by gorgeous thick slabs of pressed tobacco that smelled like a wonderfully peppery campfire. Ok, I thought, a Latakia forward with a generous amount of perique. If I tried, I could make out the woodsy orientals hiding in the background. Ok, so we have a beautiful and great smelling English, but about the taste?

I crumbled up some of the flake and put that and some loose leaf in my pipe. I usually put some ribbon on the bottom and the crumble, then I sprinkle some more loose thin bits of ribbon around and on top of the crumble to give it some support while burning and for proper airflow. I lit’r up and was prepared to see for myself if this was as good as people say.

And it...wasn’t? The tobacco burned hot, the perique was overwhelmingly distracting and all I could taste was pepper. Geez, was this it? That can’t be right. Then I remembered, in my excitement to try it I didn’t dry the blamed tobacco out. facepalm So I set some aside to dry in a coffee filter and decided to wait. Normally, I would have canned the tobacco in a ball jar but I decided this didn’t need it since it came pretty moist.

This seemed to be the right call. On my second attempt with the dry leaf, it went better this time. I was getting a ton of flavor and smoke without the bite from before. I still found the perique to be a bit too dominant for my taste but this time I at least could finish the bowl. I was concerned that the nicotine might be too much for me due to the strength of the perique, but I find it to be surprisingly middling - which is a good thing for me as I don’t smoke for the nicotine.

I normally smoke a pretty eclectic rotation that goes all over the place from OTCs to bulk to fancy tins. I’m not to picky and good tobacco is good tobacco. I might smoke Maltese Falcon and Sir Walter Raleigh in the same day. It’s all based on mood, whims, peeves and that kind of assholery. But I kept coming back to Plum Pudding. Something about the blend kept demanding my attention. There was something here I liked, but I could put my finger on what it was.

As the tobacco decanted in the closed tin, I smoked it throughout the week. I wasn’t interested in smoking anything else. The strong perique really grew on me and I began to not just tolerate it, but love it. I think decanting really mellowed the perique out just a tad, but I’m not sure. I typically am not the biggest fan of the stuff, but here I was loving it. The flavor was full and the smoke was cool. It burned slow so I got to really sit back and enjoy every bowl. It was a meaty, strong and full smoke but the nicotine never set me on me arse, and I consider myself a lightweight. This was definitely an English, and I guess technically it is a Balkan, but there was just something so quintessentially American about Plum Pudding. Sure it’s an English, but I’ve never had an English like this before. It’s kind of in a league of its own. Bold and unique, without being overpowering. There’s also a really pleasant salt/vinegar note that occasionally touches the tongue (not the nose tongue here but your actual tongue). I assume this might be the “something extra” referred to on the old tins, but I’m not sure. It could just be a product of the oils being so finely pressed. Either way, I find it really enjoyable. Also the flavor has a tendency to drift in and out, so one minute you’ll lull into a relaxing smoke, fidgeting what’s in your pipe, and then a minute or two later the flavor will come on strong again, bringing itself to the forefront of your attention. It even has a slight rough edge that isn’t unpleasant. I wish I could describe this blend in all my usual vocabulary of campfire, shoe leather, peppery, earthy, woodsy, grassy, etc.. and while all that is here - that doesn’t seem like the right way to describe it.

I guess the best way to describe it is that it’s just damn good tobacco, some of the best I’ve ever had. For once, the herd was right on the money. This is as close to perfection as I’ve ever smoked. I can’t think of a tobacco that’s been this enjoyable. I’ve only had it for about a week and I’m getting pretty low. My next order of this might be the first 8oz tin in my collection.

If you haven’t, do you and your pipe a favor and pick this up. This could easily be your “nirvana” smoke. Thanks for reading and happy piping.

Pipe Used: Cobs, Briars

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: P&C

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	robsm2013 (9)	2019-11-18		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Wonderful tobacco, great quality and although everyone's palate is different - even mine picks up different nuances every time I smoke this - the smokiness from the latakia marries so well and is almost tamed by the orientals, unflavored cavandish and virginia's. Although every individual component of this tobacco comes through and is identifiable yet subdued, all the components working together make for a very rich and complex smoke -

very pleasant and always puts me in a very relaxed, trance-like state - enjoy!

Pipe Used: Boswell

Age When Smoked: 5 years

Purchased From: 4 noggins

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Country Bladesmith (18)	2019-05-11		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

To me, this blend tasted very different in a cob vs a briar. I preferred it in the cob, which is opposite of my usual preference. For some reason the blend was far “smoother” in a cob. The review is for how it smoked in the corn cob pipe:

At first light, the Latakia was the main tobacco I tasted, which mainly came through as a gentle smokiness, like a freshly-doused campfire. Immediately following was a slight salty and tangy note, I assume from the orientals. These notes rose and fell in intensity, but were ever-present, sometimes accompanied by some slight piquancy from the Perique. The greatest supporting player here was the Cavendish, though. Although it never took center stage, and some people mightn’t even notice its presence, it is to me what pulled this busy cast of characters into a smooth and entertaining experience. There’s just enough there to smooth any rough edges and bring it all together.

This is not for the sweet-tooth, and in a lot of ways reminded me of a nice maduro cigar in terms of the base-note, but with more complexity.

Very nice blend.

Edit: I originally thought that it was the type of pipe making the difference in taste, but after letting the tobacco dry a little more, I tried it again in a briar and it was even better. Give this one a little time to dry out a bit and the Latakia will really gain some more dimension. It went from simple smokiness to having that resinous cedar-like quality. It really opened up with a little airing out.

Pipe Used: Self-carved briar, MM Country Gentleman

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipes & Cigars

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	porshcigar (44)	2018-10-14		Strong	None Detected	Full	Pleasant

This is a very fine tobacco for experienced pipe smokers. The crumble cake format adds a delightful challenge and opportunity to "play" with the tobacco and use larger chunks and/or grind to finer particles. I prefer a mix of smaller chunks and finer ground. After a little drying, this blend burns well from first light to the bottom of the bowl. As a lover of Latakia, I find the taste of this blend to be delicious. Thanks for this great blend to Joe Lankford and the Seattle Club.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	gladi8tor96 (143)	2018-02-08		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Opening the tin you get the direct smell of woodsy smokey goodness with hints of tang and spice that make your nose tickle. Very strong latakia and oriental content can you discerned just from the smell. The broken up cake or cake flakes, were a bit on the dry side for me, but that made it easy to rub out and load.

Lights easy and stays lit with firm tamping. Keeping this tobacco medium to tight in your pipe will help keep it lit.

I was extremely delighted by this tobacco. It has been awhile since I've delved into 'new to me' english blends/balkans. I find this one very refreshing. It is more flavorful, robust, less sweet, and deeper than it's brother Mississippi Rivier, which I also enjoy. The latakia and orientals take center stage will loads of smokey, woodsy, a bit of spice (not hot or peppery though)...just loads of flavor that all rest on a slight base of sweetness provided by the VAs and the cavendish. The perique isn't readily apparent, at least not to me, but it could help support by providing a bit of dark fruit flavors that seem to just lightly peek their heads from time to time. Produces large amounts of smoke that are very flavorful. I find this is a highly enjoyable smoke that I am returning to again and again. I am having a hard time finding a difference between the special reserve version, though I've only smoked a small bit of that. I'll have to crack a tin of it and do a comparison at some point.

Pipe Used: Poker (Dragon Briars)

Age When Smoked: 2 years

Purchased From: Pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: Peter Stokkebye - Proper English (No.52).

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2015-10-29		Medium	Extremely Mild	Full	Overwhelming

It rains a lot in Seattle, maybe I need gloomier weather for this stuff. It makes my cellar smell like gym socks even when sealed in canning jars. Also, why no burley? There's every other kind of leaf in here.

Age When Smoked: 2 years

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Backwoods Piper (70)	2013-11-27		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Please read the reviews for this carefully. This blend is simply AMAZING! One reviewer likend this blend the the old Dunhill blend Nightcap. I truly agree and think this tobacco a bit better. Absolutely hooked and can't get enough! Try it if you like a good Balkan/English blend.

Pipe Used: Briars dedicated to this tobacco style.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	OSR (78)	2009-06-13		Mild	Mild	Mild	Tolerable

Joe is one heck of a nice guy. This tobacco smokes ok and reminds me of Frog Morton. If you want to introduce an aromatic smoker to an english type blend then this may be a great cross-over. I prefer non-aromatic/non-cased mixtures with my latakia.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	GeoffS (26)	2022-06-06		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Strong

The world does not need another Plum Pudding review. I was ready for this to be overrated. But honestly it's like nothing I've ever tasted before, and just left me wanting more. So much going on, but in a perfectly balanced way that just works. Maybe someday I'll get bored of it. As for now it's my go-to when I want a special, complex tobacco.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Adam B (4)	2020-11-25		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Strong

Not my cup of tea. I was not a fan of this one at all. I originally bought this because of the good reviews, so I figured I would give it a try. Once, I cracked the tin open, I had my reserve about the smell of it. Wasn't a fan at that time but thought it might taste different and maybe give a good room note, nope. All around just was not a fan, couldn't even make it through the whole bowl.

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: smokingpipes

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WorkingClassChap (192)	2020-11-14		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

Smoking now.

Finally getting into Balkan, English, and Latakia blends. So I had to give this a try. If you’re an aromatic smoker or a cross over smoker I wouldn’t hesitate to give this a try. Nic hit is below a medium.

Tin note had a dried fruit sweetness that I wasn’t expecting from a Balkan blend. I see why they named it so.

Thick slices, moisture seems right and it broke apart into crumbly pieces. Lighting and packing this is as easy as it comes.

The taste... there’s a lot going on and I don’t feel like I could give it justice being a novice English/Balkan smoker. There’s a definite dried fruit from the perique and a tiny bit of spice. Grassy, hay, bread notes as well. I get some nice floral notes on the retrohale with a balanced smokey taste. Retrohale is smooth. The whole thing has a natural sweetness to it that makes it absolutely delightful. It’s not a heavy smokey leather campfire but a mellow creamy yet full of flavor smoke and with all the elements of a Balkan blend. The smokey, floral, herbal, spice, hay, bread, dried fruit all comes together perfectly.

No bite, no mouth tingle, tingles the nose a bit but it’s nice. Short pleasant after taste. Burns very slow and clean. Just a delightful smoke. Maybe perfect.

Will keep this in stock on my shelf.

update

Having smoked more Balkan and English blends the thing that sets this apart for me is the slight tart almost vinegar like taste from this. It makes this tobacco absolutely one of my favorites.

Pipe Used: Cob

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	thechristophershow (2)	2020-07-19		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I've smoked probably ten bowls per year over the past eight years, so I don't have a very developed or refined palette. Take this, my first review, with a pinch of the pepper everyone says they taste in perique.

Disclaimer out of the way, I love this stuff.

I got it for Christmas in 2018, along with a free sample of John Bull Royal English (which I loved). The Plum Pudding, however, was mediocre, so I only had half a tin of it before throwing it in a jar and not touching it again until today, a year and a half later.

A note on the packaging, by the way: I've seen videos of this stuff coming as thick flakes, but mine came already crumbled. I was disappointed because one of the main reasons I wanted to try this is because I wanted to try my first cake tobacco and crumble it up myself. I guess this is how the package it now?

Anyway, something must be wrong with the jar I kept it in; the other jars (the exact same kind) for my other tobaccos keep the moisture level consistent, but this one ended up drying out the Plum Pudding when I opened it after a year and half. I mean dry as in it was pretty crispy. Not entirely, but very nearly so. As such, I fully rubbed out the chunks, sprinkled them into a quarter of the bowl, lightly tamped, then the next quarter, medium tamping, and the third quarter, more medium tamping. I left the remaining quarter of the howl empty because I'm a weakling when it comes to nicotine. I had doubts about my packing, but apparently I did it right because I had no trouble keeping it lit, and it burned evenly. Only had to relight two or three times before reaching that troublesome bottom portion that's 50% ash and 50% charred tobacco.

This review here is not going to mention the 28 different flavors people say they pick up when they smoke. If I did get 28 flavors, I couldn't differentiate one from the other. All I know is this stuff tasted gooood. I do know what latakia tastes like, and I do like it, but that was most noticeable in the initial lighting and lasted for maybe a minute. I don't get any perique no matter how many VaPers I try, I still can't detect any pepper or spice, so I'm saying that here as well: no pepper, no spice. I did taste the Virginias, but whether they were citrus-like or hay-like or woodsy or whatever, I have no idea. It was just good. The flavor changed halfway through, but to what, I don't know. The final third was the same flavor I get in all my final thirds: charred tobacco. Not quite ass, but approaching it. Still, I enjoyed it.

As for nicotine, I don't know what's up with this. I recently tried Lane 1-Q for the first time, which I'm told is very mild in nicotine, but of the three or four bowls I've had of it, I have needed to eat a sugar packet or two halfway through. Plum Pudding is supposed to be stronger than 1-Q, yet I didn't start getting dizzy in the head till two-thirds were already smoked. It came somewhat suddenly, but I didn't get nauseous. (I'm sure I would have gotten nauseous by the end, but after two-thirds, I decided to pop open a sugar packet.) I also had eaten a sandwich beforehand, and I drank plenty of water throughout the smoke. So I gotta wrap this up because I have to pee like crazy.

In 2018 I figured I'd never buy this again. (Oh, also, maybe that had to do with the pipe I used then. It had no cake on it. The one I used today was an estate pipe with a cake already established, so maybe that helped? I don't know what cake does besides insulate, to be honest, but I'm learning.) Now, after drying it out and crumbling it up thoroughly, I can say this is a favorite of mine and will be purchased again in the future. But not before I try out the other hundred tobaccos on my wish list.

Gotta pee.

Pipe Used: Mastercraft pigskin straight billiard (estate)

Age When Smoked: 1.5 years

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Indianapolis (49)	2020-03-07		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

I'm baffled by the reviews that describe this as "balkan" or "oriental forward." This blend has as much in common with sobranie as it does with 1Q, lol. Yes, I can taste the orientals, there is a little sour buttery note and a nice mellowness throughout. But they are the condiment, not the highlight.

Given that the orientals aren't forward, what is? I'd answer the latakia, but not by leaps and bounds. It's a nice latakia -- smoky not charred, pleasantly rich and cool. Its backed up by the Cavendish secondarily, and then the orientals third in line.

This is much less intense than I expected, actually a very mellow smoke. I'd call it a mild-to-medium english blend. Burns slow and cool, not overwhelming in any sense. The sweetness is restrained and a nice change of pace from many over-sweet englishes.

It's not bad! Nothing particularly exceptional, but then I have another bowl and appreciate the quiet middle-ground nature of a balanced, milder blend. It's got its place, and I could easily imagine it as an all day smoke for someone.

But seriously ... it's not a balkan.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	crapgame1967 (61)	2018-07-24		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Pleasant

I bought this as part of the battle of the blends deal from P&C and I am very glad that I did!Smooth. Mild. This is the tobacco daydreams are for. You light the bowl after picking a few chunks to break apart and you are rewarded with smoky goodness. Not anything harsh in this tin except the empty bottom after a week of smoking it. This is another wife approved blend!

Pipe Used: MM Diplomat. various meers

Age When Smoked: 3 months

Purchased From: P&C

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	RonR (85)	2018-01-23		Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild	Tolerable to Strong

Beautiful flake and fantastic tin note. Too much work to get going. I have worked with this blend numerous times. Ton of relights. Decent smoke once it agreed but then I did not care for the follow through. One of the few blends I consistently had gurgle with. I am in the minority so you will likely have better results but I like my Lat's....and this is not one of them.

Pipe Used: meers. cobs. 2 briars.

Age When Smoked: 8 months

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pryhosm (248)	2017-11-01		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Plum Pudding is a great name, but it could easily have been called Kitchen Sink. There has a bunch of good leaf in them thar tins! I really enjoy smoking this tobacco but I have found that it is one that you really have to concentrate on in order to fully appreciate it. The tin note is very subdued compared to what is inside. I can get Latakia and some figgy perique and the Virginias give it a grassy hay scent. Not strong at all, which surprises me each time I open my mason jar. The crumble cake comes in what look like slabs of beef jerky. I like crumble cakes and this one in particular I found that if you carefully cube it out, either by hand or with a knife. Rubbing it out can turn it to dust which ends up in your mouth and takes away the fun. When you pack this right, cube it up and gravity fill it. After a good first light, not really your typical charring light it loosens up, I then tamp it down good once to get that "soda through a straw" draw and then it burns to ash with no relights, repeated this a dozen times. Now the taste: Like I said earlier, this is one to contemplate. I get the orientals as the lead; spicy, woody and dry. Right behind that are the Virginia's and perique. The Virgina's and fruity, not sure if they are but they seem to be stoved that mellow and round them out. The perique is peppery and not very heavy but you know it is there throughout the bowl, especially on the "out through the nose" exhale. I am not really sure if this is a truism ( a word?) but in blends like this the Cavendish acts like a flavor glue that brings all of these great leaves together and harmonizes them, rounds the other flavors out and brings them together. It also adds body to the mouth feel. This to me is a 4 star smoke but I am only giving it 3 because I have found that if you don't sit and think about the flavors and really contemplate the smoking experience, it is missed and becomes a MM 965 like blend. You miss all of the beautiful nuances. I have smoked a few bowls of this while working in Excel and when milling out some lowers. It is still a great smoke but the real beauty is missed.

Pipe Used: briar's & Meerschaum

Age When Smoked: 1 year

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	r (34)	2016-09-02		Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Lovers of English blends owe it to themselves to add this gem to their cellar. With stellar smoke production and playful spice, this Balkan will keep you entertained bowl after bowl.

Unlike its famous cousin Mississippi River, this kake will make you exercise your fingers. It's worth the extra work and the wait.

Purchased From: Seattle Pipe Club

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Padre603 (7)	2016-04-20		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant

I hate plums!

This tobacco makes me think I should've moved to Seattle and joined this club's ranks, ages ago. Just to be one of the first to have tasted this remarkable treat.

I am a Latakia freak currently, and have fallen in love with a few strong, well behaved English's.

I ordered a tin of this as it's mention keeps popping up and I feel as though I'd missed something. Man, oh man, did I!

This is a wonderfully twisting ride of a sweet, full, and luxurious smoke. Lush, soothing, comfort filled mouth feel, that has a constant pleasant room note.

I have to agree with some other reviewers, the activity, the feel of rubbing this smoke out, breaking it down, getting it ready, the anticipation, and my outright giddy, munchies-like hunger waiting for it to dry was almost too much. A lot like Christmas Eve, sleeping away the time till it was just right, just ready to smoke, while visions of Plumb Pudding danced in my head. And pay dirt!

It loads a little different then my usual flakes and shags. Definitely manageable, however. It was easily lit and not a single relight was needed for a solid 45 minute roller-coaster pipe ride. Delightful.

There is a hint of topping that is not overpowering nor distracting for me. It is welcomed as it adds a certain extra something to the incredibly well balanced Latakia show. There is the Cavendish sweetness and a Perique spice that lurks towards the back, waiting to hit the jukebox for another free tune like Fonzy.

I tried it simply to satisfy my curiosity, but now I am awaiting a pound for the cellar. I try not to smoke too much of one thing. I really love the idea of a simple, solid rotation, but this stuff has taken over my senses as well as my brain.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2016-01-21		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

It's fun to break this stuff up and try to identify all the different components. There's bits of pressed flake & all sorts of ribbons and chunks, in every color that tobacco has ever come in. Lots of components here, it says something about how much work had to go into making this blend.

The flavor is balanced. Unlike other blenders who need to throw one condiment or the other in your face while the rest of the smoke limps along in the background, Plum Pudding smokes like a careful tightrope act. The Lat is always there, the sun cured is always there and never too harsh or perfumed, the Perique comes and goes, the Virginia increases in flavor over time, everything does what it should.

This is one of those blends that gets creamy about midway through, it is super pleasant. It has a little bitterness on relight, but that only lasts a puff or two so it's a small price to pay. The chunks of pressed tobacco do a good job of moderating the burn rate after the cake is rubbed out ... it's a slow, cool smoke.

Plum Pudding is as good of a Balkan as an American blender has ever made. It was hard to get for a while, and it doesn't come cheap now, but SPC should be proud of this blend. Instead of chasing re-releases of long-gone Balkans with famous names, maybe Plum Pudding should be the stick by which the rest are measured.

Pipe Used: basket pipe

Age When Smoked: freshies!

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	curttuck (12)	2015-04-19		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Plum Pudding is a complex, dark, rich, full bodied and mysterious blend. Smoky, spicy, leathery, salty, peppery umami flavors. A dark complexity similar to very high quality German dunkel. Notes of figs and raisins, soap, yeast, viola. Occasional floral notes in the nose. The tin note is incredible. Ketchupy, steak-saucy, incensey, exotic, fermented and musty. The first time I heard about the tobacco with the name "Plum Pudding", I was instantly intrigued. Since then it's become my overall favorite English tobacco blend. I like to pack a bowl of this at night and top it off with a small layer of Dunhill Nightcap. It reminds me of very complex incense made in ashrams in India: Ayruvedic, spiritually inspired combinations of elemental herbs, spices, woods, gums and resins. It has that kind of mystical, exotic and otherworldly taste and smell to it. I always hated cigarettes even though I tried to like them. But when I was a boy I went into an humidor and smelled some exotic and dark aromas unlike any I had experienced before. I wondered if there could be more to tobacco than the experience of a cigarette or cheap cigar or was it all kind of like that? Much time passed and I discovered that there was a much higher order of tobacco that did in fact bare little to no resemblance to cigarettes. This is the one that did it, the one that made me realize that it could be gourmet and a true art form. Plum Pudding is a kind of masterpiece for the senses.

Pipe Used: MM Corn Cob, Tom Briar

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JustinCarcerated (99)	2015-01-06		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Unnoticeable

Two ounce kake from bulk tobacco buy @ Pipes & Cigars, so cannot comment on tin note with sincerity It's fairly well compressed as far as 'cakes' go, more like Kajun Kake than Penzance in its handling.

Takes more than one light to get stoked, but once lit burns remarkably cool- which could be from the Cav. I will digress and state that the Better 1/2 got this blend off my wishlist on this site, but I'd forgot why I wanted to try it and therefore hit this Toby blind without preconceptions.

Having confessed this to you, I tasted no Cavendish that I could discern, although there was a certain tasty sweetness early bowls that I wished had lasted, cuz it really was yummy. Would have said no perique either, yet Froggy on da Bayou came to mind early on, so must have at least subliminally tasted it, maybe?

No bite, not Lat heavy - well-enough balanced to be an English without being bland or lacking distinction, Still, for me to rate it 4 stars I'd have to be burning through the two ounces like I was at a fire sale but alas....no.

Recommended, would be a wise choice for newbs or smokers wanted to put their proverbial toes in the Latakia waters, as it's not overwhelming. Again too, my sample was from a bulk purchase, and not a tin.

Pipe Used: New Meer, new cob

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipes&Cigars.com

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stutter818 (51)	2014-10-19		Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I love love love this tobacco. It's rich, woodsy, slightly spicy, and slightly sweet, perfectly blended. It comes in a Kake form and even breaking off chunks and pieces to load your pipe, the consistency of flavours is still there. The room note to me, is lovely. It has a real distinguished quality smell of that makes any sense. Like good quality leather furniture! It comes in bulk which is what I smoked. I'm the biggest fan of this kind of tobacco flavour. It's also got a slightly creamy smoke. It gets a little spicier mid bowl. I prefer this one over Mississippi River only because it's slightly less spicy and slightly sweeter. However that blend is also amazing.

Pipe Used: Estate dunhill shell briar billiard

Age When Smoked: A month old

Purchased From: 4noggins

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-11-18		Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

The best way I can describe the tin aroma is a musty odor...something akin to a horse blanket or dirty sweat socks. Fortunately, the smoke is much more tolerable. The pressed cake pieces look like fresh-baked, Betty Crocker brownies. I was expecting another blend of Latakia overload. That was not the case here...smokes like a Balkan. Some have stated this is similar to Penzance, but is smoother & sweeter. This and other comparisons prompted me to try this blend. I think that the Latakia variety used in this blend is probably Cyprian.

Plum Pudding delivers in all aspects of a quality pipe tobacco. I believe it might even make a good chaw after a soak in some ribbon cane syrup. FWIW, I mainly smoke VA or VA/Per blends. I've been trying to find a Latakia blend that I like and this is not it. It's pretty good, but after a while, became disagreeable to my palate & I won't be buying any more. OK...two st**s!

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Bubbamorris (16)	2022-06-30		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong

Sometimes amazing, sometimes meh. I’ve learned that this is one of the most inconsistent blends from tin to tin I have ever smoked.

Background:

The first time I bought Plum Pudding, the tin note amazed me. A deep, rich, smoky, leathery, a bit vinegary, and a bit cheesy aroma blasted me in the face. Shaking it around in the tin, it almost smelled like manure. Being new to pipe smoking at the time, it was the first latakia blend I had ever bought, and the aroma made me a little nervous. However, the nervousness soon faded when I packed it and lit it up. The smoky sweet latakia, the incensey orientals, that strange saltiness everybody talks about, the sweet cavendish, and spicy perique hit me, and it was a truly magical moment. I likened it to an evening Christmas party when the smells of the wood burning fireplace, the fragrance of the musky colognes and perfumes people are wearing, and the aromas of the food that’s being cooked all mingle together. That was probably the quickest I’ve ever smoked a tin.

Flash forward to now, after having had 4 more tins since then. I have failed to find a tin that matched the richness of that first one. Not only that, but each of those tins were different from each other. There was one tin that came close to the first one in terms of the flavors, but it was lacking the overall depth the first tin had. One of the tins had almost no detectable latakia, one had too much latakia, one tasted like a predominately Virginia blend, and there was the one that came close but lacked the depth. For this review, I’ll use the tin I’m currently forcing myself to smoke through, which is the one that tastes like a predominantly Virginia blend.

Review:

Opening the tin, the aroma is muted. I get none of that dark smoky leatheriness that the first tin had. I do get the vinegar and cheese, which I suppose could be a product of the Virginias and orientals, but without the smokiness it’s just pretty boring in the tin note department.

When I light it up, I get predominantly bready and earthy flavors from the Virginias in the forefront, a bit of tingling from the perique, and floral orientals and dark fruit Virginias on the finish. Every once in awhile I’ll get a hint of smokiness from the latakia, but it’s extremely subtle. Being a crumble cake, the bowl goes out often, which was the case with the first tin I had as well, though I ignored it because the flavors were so good. With this tin though, the relighting, paired with my frustration of this tin not tasting like the first, is really bothering me. Also keep in mind that I love Virginias. If this had been marketed as a dark Virginia blend with orientals and perique, I’d probably like it. But when I’m in the mood for a balkan and reach for a blend that’s supposed to be that only to find that it tastes like a predominantly Virginia blend, I’m going to be disappointed.

So there you have it. The most inconsistent blend I have ever tried. 3 of the tins were 2/4 stars. 1 of the tins was 3/4 stars. The first one was 4/4 stars. So on average, I’d give this 2.6/4 stars. I’d recommend it only because you might get lucky and get an amazing tin, but just be prepared if you don’t.

EDIT 2/10/23: I just had one of the best bowls of Plum Pudding that I’ve had in a very long time. I wanted to do some experimenting. I transferred about 3 oz of Plum Pudding to an empty Plum Pudding tin. My reasoning was that the first tin of Plum Pudding I had I smoked directly from the tin and not a mason jar. I waited about 5 days and opened the tin again. The latakia was definitely showing up now. It’s how my first tin of Plum Pudding smelled. Smoky, leathery, tangy, vinegary, in that order. At the first light, the very first flavor I tasted was the fragrantly sweet latakia and orientals. A smoky, buttery, sweetness. For too long, that flavor has been missing. The typical bowl of Plum Pudding for the past 6 or so tins now has been dominated by Virginia on the first light, with pretty much no latakia presence except a few spots throughout the bowl. It has also been tasting kinda muddy and harsh. I’m guessing that by being in an unsealed tin for almost a week, the Plum Pudding had time to dry out. I know some blenders have said that latakia performs and tastes better a bit dry, and I think that’s what happened here. Smoking it again while typing this, and WOW, the latakia and orientals are really shining. The dark fruit Virginia is still there, as it should be, but it doesn’t completely dominate the other flavors like it has been. Even the perique is more noticeable now, adding some pepper and spice. So, my recommendation is to not jar Plum Pudding. Or if you do jar it, at least let the unsealed tin sit for several days before you do. Also, pack lightly; gravity fill your bowl to the top, and then lightly push down with a little pinch to top it off. I’d now rate this 3.5 stars.

Pipe Used: Savinelli 802, 320

Age When Smoked: 6 months

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mijnnif (126)	2022-04-21		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Tin note is wonderful sweet cavendish with Latakia some light spice probably the Orientals. Outstanding English blend. I would consider this medium. All the flavors meld nicely when smoking Defiantly Latakia forward but the cavendish and the Orientals are present and accounted for. Doesn't bite but if puffed hard it gets a bit hot. Nic. hit is medium to full. Its in my rotation and well worth it if you like English blends.

Pipe Used: 1920s BBB Brier

Age When Smoked: 3 months old

Purchased From: Smoking pipes

Similar Blends: Maltese Falcon.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DeathMetal.org (231)	2021-06-04		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Strong

Summary: a Balkan made sweet through the addition of Cavendishes with a plum-esque note from the Perique.

If you have not experimented with blending your own Englishes, this blend may seem like wizardry, but that is the same effect that makes your odds-n-ends jar seem amazing: when you add enough stuff together, the internal conflict makes the blend seem to have a lot going on, but the lack of balance means that it defaults to the lowest common denominator among its ingredients. In this case, that is sweetness. In this blend, I taste mostly Virginia sweetness boosted by both sweetened and unsweetened Cavendish, and on top of that, a somewhat mediocre Oriental-heavy English. This makes it basically a bad match for a mix of "My Mixture 965" and "Nightcap" with Cavendish dumped in like the Super Value "English Blend." It is however a great way for Sutliff to sell its $2/ounce blending tobaccos as a $7/ounce boutique blend promoted by influencers. There are many better Englishes out there.

Similar Blends: Peterson - My Mixture 965, Sutliff Tobacco Company - English Oriental.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Poodlejuice (49)	2021-06-03		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

It was the name of this blend alone that aroused my curiosity about pipe smoking. Of course I naively thought it was an aromatic. I was very surprised, although pleasantly. I still can't say I enjoy any other English as much as I do plum pudding, there just something intangible about it I can't describe.

On first light I usually encounter a plummy, stewed fruit note, wood smoke, & an earthy incense like quality. The overwhelming dried fuit dies off a bit and leaves a nice amount of sweet & spicey wood notes & floral notes. The amount of things going on is incredible. This blend hits almost every note. Sweet, salty, smokey, dried/stewed fruit, floral & earth. It burns incredibly dry & cool. Even though the flavors are robust its still easy to smoke this bowl after bowl. There's just nothing else like it.

Pipe Used: Cobs, various briar

Age When Smoked: Fresh and cellared (1-2yrs)

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	unsociablehobbit (6)	2021-02-01		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Strong

tin note is very ketchupy and smoky. smooth brown sugar on the retrohale. spiciness on the top of my tongue, im guessing from the perique - the heat lingers a bit then fades. not spicy at all on the retro. relatively slow burning, depends how you broke it up and how long you dried it. needed a few relights. i get some nuttiness' and sour/tang thing going on when the spicy from the perique isnt taking over.

leaves a figgy dark fruit like after taste and some smoke, i find it pleasant. smoke is medium to full bodied, room note is pretty strong.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Seabhac (5)	2020-10-28		Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

New it opens with cream and incense. Leather follows a dark honey sweetness. Aged one year in the tin (!): The immediate note is a masculine incense. A A dark Honey sweetness on the tongue followed by a short, dark, nutty finish. This disappears before mid bowl and again we have Sweetness, a headshop- like incense, followed by a lengthy leather finish. Due to it's coarse nature it requires several re-lights. Also, due to said coarse nature, it may require additional moderate puffs in the beginning to truly get a mouthful of smoke. This also becomes less of a problem as the bowl regulates throughout the smoking experience. Awesome smoke new and a very awesome smoke aged. Highly recommend.

Pipe Used: Grabow Grand Duke

Age When Smoked: New- 1 year

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Similar Blends: H&H Whiteknight.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Desertislandtoolworks (18)	2020-10-24		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

When I orderd and then smelled this tobacco I was expecting a pretty straight forward latakia blend but once it was lit the experience was much more complex. The initiall light takes a bit to take as the rubbed out cake still gives somewhat larger pieces but once it takes off it smokes very cool and consistently. The Latakia is mellower in the smoke than I expected from the tin note but still very nice. The flavors all flow and meld together very nicely for a well rounded smoke. I was a bit surprised at how sweet it was and found that I could control that somewhat by technique. Through lighting it I discovered long puffs really bring out the sweetness while the shorter breathe style of smoking lets you taste more of the orientals and perique spice. I find the orientals give it a cedaryness that is quite nice. The perique/casing seem to be the source of the fruity sweetness and must be the leading contributor to the aptly named blend. I found that the wetness out of the tin is about right, maybe a touch wet and that the tobacco smokes well right down the the bottom of the bowl. Not as stong on nicotine as many others I smoke so would make a nice all day smoke.

Pipe Used: Briar

Age When Smoked: Fresh from a new tin

Purchased From: smoking pipes.com

Similar Blends: Nothing I've tasted although I've got some Maltese Falcon to try next that I hear has similarities..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LiterarySmoker (143)	2020-10-07		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I'm just finishing up a year and a half old jar of Plum Pudding I had set aside to cellar and I thought I'd offer some thoughts.

When you first open up a can the smell is very Latakia forward and slightly incense like due to the orientals. As it ages that heavy Latakia smell will settle a little bit and the blend will become even more incense like and it's incredible. The tobacco itself comes in thin cakes that are easily broken up. This is a blend that handles better in a smaller bowl, but I have smoked it in a deeper bowl just fine after some dry time. It does take a little longer to get lit, and I find it needs a relight a bit more than average.

Upon lighting, I do taste a strong hit of luxuriously leathery Latakia and as i continue to puff that is filled I out with some light sweetness and very delicately complex orientals. The slower you smoke the more this blend blooms. As I blow the smoke out the leathery Latakia blends with a background nuttiness which is amazing. As you smoke however, you will find that this may not win you any favors but as always room note is a very subjective thing.

I find the taste right in the middle of medium, maybe moving toward medium strong. Lady N has never forced me into my chair after this one, but I don't think she is here to just play around either. I give the N in this a solid medium.

All in all this is a solid blend, an excellent example of a balkan blend, and easily repeatable. I don't think as good as this is that it is an all day smoke. I find it reasonably slow burning so keep that in mind. If you are thinking about buying and trying this blend but just aren't sure yet, do yourself a favor and pull the trigger on it.

Pipe Used: Basket Pipe

Age When Smoked: 2 years

Purchased From: Pipesandcigars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	HauntedMyst (22)	2019-11-27		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Picked this up after reading the Penzance like reviews. It's nothing like Penzance other than than are both deep and rich tobaccos where all the tobaccos play really well together. The flakes in this are amazing looking thick slices of varied chocolate colors. They crumble nicely though require a little more pressure. Keep some small chunks to burn slowly like coal in your bowl. Where as Penzance is more Oriental forward, this plays more evenly and is ever so lightly sweetened by the Black Cavendish. Lighting it brings a wonderfully smooth smoke that is deep with the Latakia and Virginia's at the foreground. It burns evenly and slowly and is consistently rich. Forgive my lack of eloquence when I try to say it doesn't change much as it burns down the bowl yet it's never boring. You can taste each component fairly well. The perfect blend for sitting by the fire and enjoying a long read or for going for a long fall or winter walk. Where this is also different from Penzance is that you can buy it at retail! Go get a can or two!

Pipe Used: Dunhill Cumberland

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Cigarbid

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	FilipPruncu (85)	2019-09-28		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Plum Pudding. It’s not a surprise that it’s been so well rated here, with a score of 3.5. This blend really is something special, in many ways.

But anyway, after 135 reviews here, I’ll make my contribution as well, if it’s of any help to anyone.

And I’ll start, like I usually do... with the beginning. :) And the beginning goes like this:

Wow! What a smell! After I opened the tin, I was hit by an amazing oriental/latakia smell that is absolutely delicious, plus a smell of some perique making it a bit close to Nightcap in terms of tin note. It’s very leathery but has some other notes that I can’t really detect, maybe a barbeque smell, I don’t know. However, it’s quite strong and very pleasant.

The tobacco is well pressed, presenting itself as dark bricks of various shades, from full black to brown and a little golden virginia.

At first, it didn’t seem too moist (just by touching it) so I tried to smoke it directly from the tin without leaving it to dry. Well, that didn’t work up too well, because it needed many relights, not to mention that it took me three matches to light it up until I decided to go for my Bic lighter. It’s not super moist but still needs about 10 minutes to dry before you rub it.

It’s my first krumble kake and indeed, it’s a bit hard to rub it if you don’t have experience with this type of cut, but after practicing, you get the hang of it, it’s not rocket science. You can’t rub it like a flake, so you must be careful taking small pieces without turning it to powder, which is why I recommend that you rub it while it’s moist and leave the rubbed tobacco to dry, instead of drying it and then rubbing it, because it will be harder to rub if it’s dry and it will have a tendency to be rubbed too much and turn to powder. I found that by peeling it and then rubbing it makes a better result.

Now, before I go on talking about the taste and everything else, I want to get your attention on something.

It’s weird because I’ve read many reviews and watched some video reviews of this blend, and I’ve observed that everyone has a different description of this blend, and my opinion is also different from all I’ve read and watched, because it amazed me of how sweet it is, which for an oriental is too sweet and i think it’s because of the black .cavendish/cavendish. Even the tin that I have is different from the ones that I’ve seen (although I’ve purchased it from SmokingPipes), it no longer has that long presentation of the blend, and it seems to me that the blend differs depending on the year it was produced. Perhaps this blend was changed somehow, from year to year. I was looking at a video review on Youtube made by Road King Piper published in April 2019, so from the same year that I bought my tin, he has a tin same as mine and all that he described is almost everything that I also detected. So yeah, maybe the way it was back in the day compared to what we have now is different, and people have different impressions on it it’s because of the date it was produced or maybe it’s just because it’s complex in taste, having so many types of tobacco. I don’t know. So, maybe my review will also be different from your experience.

Alright, now lets talk some real business! Like I said, first time I smoked it and didn’t dry it, it was hard to light it up and it always needed relights. Since then, I’ve been leaving it about 10 minutes to dry, then I rubbed it carefully, packed the bowl and light it up. How is it now? Well.. much better!

I’m used to lighting my pipes with matches, so for this blend, if dried enough, rubbed and packed well, it will be fairly easy to light with two or three matches.

First smokes I took from this were very sweet, and it seems that every time I light up my pipe it gives a sweet note, most probably from the cavendish, somewhat fruity taste, very creamy and not much latakia or perique at fist, but a combination of the orientals and cavendish, like a sweet leathery taste. I can’t say there’s a topping or casing, but it’s sweet, so there must be a good amount of cavendish in there, and you detect some virginia as well.

Now, as you smoke, this blend will change like a chameleon. It always changes. Sometimes tastes like a sweet smoky latakia, buttery, smooth, sometimes there’s more oriental in the front than latakia. The turkish orientals will get more powerful, the latakia will come eventually as you continue to smoke and combined with the sweet taste it will deliver a very, very enjoyable taste. It somehow reminds me of HU Tobacco’s Khoisaan, because Khoisaan also has a very sweet taste that is combined with a very smoky latakia, making it creamy and delicious (however, that one doesn’t have cavendish in it, but it has some fire-cured virginia). The difference is that Plum Pudding has a more oriental, leathery taste, while Khoisaan has a very smoky latakia taste, but they both have that sweetness and creamy taste.

Continuing to smoke, you will begin to notice a gentle touch of perique, especially when you retrohale. The latakia is different, it’s not very smoky but it can be detected in the background, it’s very well combined with the oriental, but the oriental is more pronounced.

This is a medium to full flavored tobacco, and it’s not a simple, monotone blend, it actually delivers lots of different taste and changes, but always in a good way. I’m personally very impressed by this.

Burns pretty well, doesn’t give any tongue bite no matter how greedy you smoke it.

Room note is very pleasant for me, it has an incense smell, sweet and smoky at the same time. I think that unlike other oriental or english blends, this will be easier to tolerate by a non smoker. I think, because I didn’t have any non smoker come into my room and tell me.

In conclusion: A must-have!

Pipes used: Savinelli Trevi 320 KS, Savinelli Tevere 315 KS, Butz Choquin Castel 1009

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Curious George (15)	2019-08-27		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I found it was best to set out a few small chunks to dry for a couple hours, then come back and break apart, allowing for another short dry time. Rubbing out left a resiny tar on my fingers, to give some indication of what we are dealing with. From the jar I smelled vinegar, dark fruit, mild spice and latakia. This was rather complex on the palate, seeming to hit different flavors at different times; sour, mildly sweet and smoky, a touch of spice that was more intense when retrohaling. Reading that description does not do Plum Pudding justice, it is simply a phenomenal tasting blend. Plum Pudding has been one of the more challenging to light and keep lit. Your smoke will be more work than pleasure without a thorough prepartion. That said, the extra effort is more than worth it. This is a must try for fans of any type and a top 3 for me.

Pipe Used: Savinelli 904, Jeantet Apple

Age When Smoked: 2 weeks

Purchased From: P&C

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Shaun_Pearson (21)	2019-07-26		Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

When I first tried this blend, I was drawn away with a hefty amount of tomatoes and vinegar-like flavors. However, once I cellared it into a mason jar, the tomato and vinegar flavor smoldered into the background to become a beautiful English blend that I couldn't live without. Like a clock, I certainly feel that each tobacco in this blend works in harmony to give the pipe smoker a beautiful experience.

Pipe Used: Multiple Briar Pipes

Age When Smoked: 1-2 Months

Purchased From: Twin's Smoke Shop (Londonderry, NH)

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	ChadwickGHurlburt (24)	2019-06-04		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

As of the time of me writing this there has been 131 reviews for this blend. I agree with everything 99% of the other reviewer have to say about this tobacco. With so much said already, I only bother to add my two cents for the sake of giving my own impression, and have something to do on a lazy morning.

When I'm in the mood for a nice pronounced Latakia blend, I can be picky. I love blends with Orientals and Latakia, but I don't care for overly sour tasting blends. Some like the sour, I don't. I initially liked Plum Pudding for the same reason I liked Gaslight, it has a certain sweetness that doesn't come through as an added topping. Although, I say that Plum Pudding is sweeter than Gaslight. Plum Pudding is sweet with a natural tobacco sweetness. It's smokey, but the smoke is soft and inviting like driving up on a BBQ where some side of meat has been slowly smoking for many hours over a smoldering fire. It isn't a sour smokiness and the taste isn't sour at all. The Perique doesn't jump out at you and try to show off. It's subdued and tempered by the other tobaccos in the blend. Which is nice, because Perique doesn't usually work well in English or Balkan blends, at least to my tastes. It works here, no doubt providing part of the natural sweetness which this blend highlights. There is Cavendish tobacco in this blend, which initially was the reason I was reluctant to try it. However, I feel that it is being used masterfully in this blend. It's working with the Perique, and Virginia's, to round out that natural tobacco sweetness and blend it with the smokey Latakia. All the components are playing nicely together.

The crumble cake was a bit moist when I opened it. I went ahead and loaded up a bowl anyhow and smoked it. It worked, but did require many relights to get it going. After allowing the tobacco to dry out, this problem went away. Allowing it to dry also improves the flavor and cools the smoke down substantially. It wasn't really a hot smoke when it was overly moist, but could easily become hot if you became impatient with it and started puffing too hard. After drying out, slow smoking this came naturally with no effort at all.

Several reviewers noted that they feel this smoke works better in a corn cob pipe. I've smoked it in several of my cobs and I find that it does work exceptionally well in my medium and large cobs. I attribute this to the nature of the crumble cake. Unless care is taken, it's easy for very small pieces of the crumble cake to partially block the airway on a typical tobacco pipe. The design of a cob provides a much larger airway at the bottom of the bowl, providing better airflow. Otherwise, there isn't any real difference in which pipe you choose.

I highly recommend Plum Pudding to anyone who enjoys English or Balkan blends and wants a sweeter smoke with less sour notes.

Pipe Used: cobs and briars

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jae C (3)	2019-05-04		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

One of my top 5 favorite Balkan blends of all time. I've no idea if the secret ingredient is a plum or plum extract, but I can definitely smell it. I love almost all of Joe Lankford blends, but this tobacco is a true masterpiece, The latakia and perique compliment each other with the most graceful fusion. I know of no other Balkans that create this unique fruity and smokey note that stimulates the senses with it's unique fragrance, especially during retro-hale. It's one of the most wonderful experiences in my pipe smoking inventory. There are only few other blends that can come close or surpass this type of experience, one of them being the plum pudding reserve. But I'm not sure it's worth the price difference of that magnitude. With my limited communication skills, its difficult to convey the special experience this smoke provides. Either way I thank you Mr. Lankford from the bottom of my bowl.

Pipe Used: corn cob, Meerschaum, Briar, EA Carey system

Age When Smoked: over a year in Mason jar.

Purchased From: local tobacconist and pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: there are some that can come pretty close such as London mixture and Frog Morton. But none can match it..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Darren (6)	2018-08-14		Strong	None Detected	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I’m looking for a word to describe this blend. Wonderful? No. Exquisite? Maybe. Perfect? Most likely. I guess because every ingredient is in perfect harmony with the others. I’m a Lat lover but don’t like it really heavy. This blend combines Latikia, orientals, and perique in the perfect proportion that allows each ingredient to make its own statement. This stuff is heaven

Pipe Used: Peterson

Age When Smoked: Fresh

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Baccyman (2)	2018-07-30		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Honestly, stuggled with this blend for most of the tin. I'd get good and bad smokes from it. When I finally got to the last little chunk, I ended having to mix it with some orlik golden sliced that had aged for at least a year to fill a bowl. This easily gave me one of the best smokes I've had. The other reviews on here have sumed this blend up pretty well, this is more a note for someone struggling to get into it. Try adding some well burning virginia leaf to it and you may be pleasantly surprised. Definitely getting again.

Pipe Used: BJV handmade

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Whaley (4)	2018-07-22		Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I can't really add nothing that hasn't already been said about this top notch blend. This is without a doubt one of my favorite go to blends. It's a must try for every pipe smoker.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	canvas (337)	2018-06-18		Medium	Very Mild	Very Full	Pleasant

Mmmmm. This intoxicating incense is filled with a spicy deep aroma of cloves + BBQ + Chinese Five Spice + caramelized charcoal bits. If that sounds like a lot of stuff, its because my sniffer isn't refined enough to isolate a single smell in this bouquet. I'm not too sure where the plum or pudding part fits into the Latakia masterpiece, but who cares... this stuff rocks.

When my Bengal Slices were out of stock, I tried a tin of Plum Pudding, as it was suppose to be similar. While Plum Pudding was a bit more bright in note than the more charcoal orientated Bengal Slices, I would say they are fairly interchangeable.

Packing a bowl of crumble cake is an messy task, but worth the effort as these little bits of smoldering peat burn forever. Almost an hour later, my mouth was numb from the clover bite, so successive bowls of this pudding is out of the question. I like to smoke a periodic bowl during the week, as this is not a daily smoker (if it was, I would likely never taste another blend again).

** Note - I marked the flavoring as very mild, since I am assuming all the many flavors are just a natural part of the tobacco blends used, but this felt like a drug-fueled aromatic, so it is hard for this novice to tell what is really going on here.

Plum Pudding takes the smoker beyond what (likely) most folks would consider a pipe tobacco, liken this to smoking cloves in lieu of a cigarette.

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: Bengal Slices.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	toddsmith7378 (41)	2018-04-21		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I can see what the fuss was about.

This is kind of the "advanced" level of Frog Morton. I'm really thinking of this blend as a combination of some of my favorite's and the weird thing is, it actually works really, really well.

First, it has the subtle sweet full English characteristics found in the Frog Morton Series, or more modernly Boswell Northwoods. Probably a slight topping, but only mildly deeply sweet like you would taste in those. Then, it gets interesting.

It has characteristics of a superb heavy Balkan in the vein of Blackhouse or Balkan Sasieni, turkish. I taste that oriental turkish flavor I do so love in those as a significant player. But even then, there's more. The only blend that does this as well I've tasted to date is Magnum Opus. There's perique in here. Not a lot, and its just an added slight hint on the nostril, but it adds a complexity that just isn't there in a Frog Morton, or even Northwoods.

I'd say the only blend I've had that marry's this much stuff together into a masterpiece is Magnum Opus by H & H. Magnum Opus isn't sweet or as bottom heavy on the Latakia though. Hence, the Frog Morton comparison.

It really does live up to the hype for the connoisseur. It's really a tasty taster's tobacco. Probably not for everyone necessarily though. If you are an aromatic lover who is just interested in moving beyond straight flavored tobacco, this one might go under appreciated. I'm glad I worked my way up to it through the previously mentioned blends because I notice the nuances of all of them in this. I wouldn't have thought there'd be a way to taste all of them in one and it be so darn good, but it is true. It doesn't just work, it works really well. I don't think it replaces them, but it could. It very well could. If there was one tobacco, I think I simply have to have on hand, this is probably it.

Pipe Used: Meer

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Tobaccopipes.com

Similar Blends: Magnum Opus, Frog Morton, Northwoods, Balkan Sasieni, Blackhouse.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	J.R. Patton (106)	2017-12-08		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

For some reason in my mind PP was associated with or similar to Mac Baren's Plum Cake. Its not, the similarities start and stop with the shared word "plum." It took me a year or so to get off the fence and give this one a try. So glad I did! This is a seriously good blend folks, maybe a new top 5 for me. I had my doubts, chief among them being the cavendishes...the component can easily make or break a blend for me.

The marriage of the perique and latakia is right up front, flavorful, balanced, smokey, peaty, and just perfectly sweet and fruity all at the same time. I get some orientals peeking out now and then, but the Cavendish is all but unnoticeable and serves mainly to level the blend and rein it in some. There's loads of flavor here, and it never burns harsh or wet. No hint of bite found. Definitely most sublime in a cob. I feel like this might be about the perfect fall/winter/holiday blend.

SPC has grabbed my attention here, and I feel the fool for having waited to try PP until now. My favorite SPCs have been Mississippi River and Potlatch...until now. This stuff is like Potlatch on steroids and in crumble cake form. Can't recommend this one enough. It may be a tad tamer than the usual Balkans, but the extraordinary balance is heavenly.

Pipe Used: MM Diplomat

Age When Smoked: Fresh tin

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pylet2000 (33)	2016-08-26		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Update 9/6/2016: What a difference a few weeks makes. What I initially found super potent mellowed out substantially with increased time since opening. It's now within spitting distance of a McClelland for a few reasons, the key one being the permanently moist nature of it. I left a small amount broken apart to dry for 8 hours, and it was still as moist as the rest of the tin. So heavy humectant use aside, I found I liked this blend much more with lots of airing. The smooth mouth feel is still there, all the listed tobaccos can be noticed and are well blended, but the massive flavors when fresh simmer down to something much more familiar, and in my opinion, more enjoyable. Salty, leathery, smoky, and just a tinge sweet now and again. I stick with 3 stars, rather good and worth checking out for Latakia forward fans, but other blends strike a stronger 4 star nerve for me. I will likely buy another tin when I run out, but it's not an every day smoke in my rotation.

Original review below:

Initial impressions, I intend to update this review as I get through the tin.

Smells like a very nice Balkan in the tin, the kakes were nice and together with just a little bit of crumbling. Neat presentation, easy to rub out, leaning towards a bit moist. Does struggle a little to stay lit out of the tin, I did air out one bowl worth for about 30 minutes.

Many previous reviews of this don't really speak to how BIG the flavor is in my opinion. I like Balkan and English, this is decidedly a huge flavor in that arena. I can't quite decide if I think it's too much yet. There's a strong bitterness about 1/3 through the bowl, some may love that, so far I find it unpleasant in that sense. Perhaps the perique coming through.

I like the Latakia forward aspect, and many people have described a "creamy" mouth feel that I call a spot on assessment. The mouth feel is very interesting. No bite, very cool smoke.

Outside of the massive taste and noticeable bitterness, there is a saltiness to it that I like pretty well with the smoky / leathery aspect.

I think the most interesting thing about this blend beyond the creamy feel is the complexity. Each sip has something to say. There are very dominant characteristics, but somehow the subtleties aren't drowned out.

This is not everyone's cup of tea, and the room note is rather piquant. Initially 'recommended' 3 stars for its novel aspects, but only to those that really like big flavors.

Pipe Used: Savinelli, virgin cob

Age When Smoked: Fresh and dried to varying degrees

Purchased From: P&C

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pinko (52)	2016-07-15		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A serviceable Balkan with added Perique, a trick found in Super Balkan and Bill Bailey’s before Plum Pudding was a twinkle in anyone’s eye. The Turkish, Virginia, and Latakia are well balanced and play together nicely, although it’s maybe a little light on the Turkish for my preference. Occasionally the Perique comes through with an odd flavor.

What starts out as distinct flavors becomes muddy as the bowl progresses, no surprise when all those different tobaccos are competing. It’s pleasant all the way down, but never as bright and tangy as the first half. I’d be in love if it could carry that clear taste throughout, but no luck.

It’s hard to recommend Plum Pudding, it’s taken me 3 years to work through 8 ounces of the stuff so it’s obviously not high up on my list. I prefer both G&H’s Balkan Mixture and Stokkebye/Arango’s Balkan Supreme, both of which can be had for half or two thirds the cost of the SPC offering.

Age When Smoked: fresh - 3 years

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LivingFreeinTN (24)	2016-05-21		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Plum Pudding is a tasty Balkan. All of the components work perfectly together. Nothing overwhelms in this blend. Good smoky flavor from the Latakia, nice spice and perfect natural sweetness. It's brother blend, Mississippi River may get all the hype, but Plum Pudding is everything MR strives to be.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WhirlyBird (1)	2016-02-25		Medium to Strong	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

Returning to pipes after a decade and half of cigars, I read many reviews and made a number of purchases. This is my favorite tobacco so far to date. I prefer the latakia blends, but I smoke everything. I've found this blend most flavorful in my largest pipe, MM Freehand. The smoke is rich, and cool, and the pipe stays lit with only one or two re-lights. I do get a bit of saltiness, and the flavor is earthly and mellow. I don't have to sip it to get the flavor, and I like that.

Room note - I thought my wife would find PP too strong, but she likes it better than 'some of those sweet ones you smoke.' Who knew!?

Pipe Used: MM Freehand

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipesandcigars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Planet Scott (66)	2016-01-07		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Not much I can say that hasn't already been said about this great blend. Complex, but never overwhelming. So many things going on. If you are curious about this blend, just go and buy it. If you don't like it, I am sure someone will take what is left off your hands.

Regarding room note. I live alone, so I don't know how others perceive it. I enjoy it.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CREED (2)	2015-06-26		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I like this as an all day smoke. It is good with the morning coffee all the way up to sunset! Plum Pudding has just the right amount of taste to keep me going. Give it a try, you just might start packing more bowls. Remember to prep it right, and this will burn nice for an enjoyable slow smoke. Most people will enjoy the smooth sweet/spice this has to offer!

Age When Smoked: Crack it when you get it.....you will be glad

Purchased From: on-line

Similar Blends: Mississippi River but more taste and strength..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	mnadz (69)	2015-04-16		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

Very good tobacco with a great taste without being overwhelming. I am a big fan of Latakia, and this blend delivered. Burns well. No tongue bite. I let my wife rate the room note and she said this was a bit more strong vs. my other tobaccos that she finds tolerable to pleasant. If you're looking for taste, this should not disappoint. I did not rate highly recommended because I do think some other blends do a bit better job of combining taste, mellowness, and room note...i.e. Presbyterian.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	FenneckFox (9)	2015-01-08		Medium	Medium	Very Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is my favorite blend currently and I don't foresee that changing any time soon. It is absolutely delicious. A perfect blend of sweet, spicy, smoky, smooth, with a silky mouth feel. Comes in a wonderful krumble kake. I love breaking chunks off of the lightly pressed brownie, rubbing it out very delicately making sure not to turn it to break it up too fine. Sometimes I like it a little chunkier for a LONG burning and thoughtful smoke. Such a complex smoke and so relaxing. I find myself focusing on all of the flavors as they come and find it to be very meditative. It has the perfect amount of spice from the orientals and perique, a nice latakia flavor, not overpowering. There is definitely a sweetness to it, from the cav, I'm guessing. It is perfect harmony. If Beethoven blended tobacco's, I imagine this is what he would create. I am not a member of The Seattle Pipe Club, but I want to thank them, specifically Joe Lankford ( hope I got the spelling right) for improving my mental state. Yeah, it's that good.

Pipe Used: Various briars, cobs.

Age When Smoked: New and aged for a couple months.

Purchased From: PipesandCigars

Similar Blends: A kiss from an angel...haha..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrT999 (317)	2014-10-19		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A fairly typical Latakia blend, with just enough orientals to give it a bit of complexity. If you think medium strength Latakia blends are boring and are searching for just the right combo of underlying orientals to make it interesting, you might want to try this. If you're satisfied with any of the many other similar blends, give it a pass.

Pipe Used: briars and meers

Age When Smoked: just arrived

Purchased From: smoking pipes

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	wmf (14)	2014-09-19		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Rich, very light spice, faint molasses and date all blended into wonderful tobacco goodness. Has a very slight trace of licorice. My tin was mostly broken cake that lights and smokes like a dream when prepared into small chunks like some have mentioned here. Smokes just like it smells and tastes. Can smoke it all day every day but I reserve this for a break between my beloved Virginias. Buy the big tin.

Pipe Used: Radice medium short poker 1/16 bend

Age When Smoked: fresh

Purchased From: pipes and cigars

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	King Weed (228)	2014-07-28		Strong	Mild	Very Full	Very Pleasant

I want to state up front that I found this blend to be fantastic and I knew it from the first puff. It is rare that I regret selling any tin of tobacco, but I once won an 8 oz tin in the St. Louis Pipe Club's silent auction for an amazing $13.00! I resold it last year at our NASPC show for $20.00 and then opened a newer 2 oz tin and discovered this blend's magic - live and learn, I guess.

Yes the crumble cake format is a little more difficult to work up to pipe loading, but the reward is well worth the effort. Rich, creamy, well rounded formulation; this blend is just a joy to handle and smoke. All of its components work in joyous harmony. When I smoke this blend I understand the image on the old Smoker's Haven tins showing a happy guy slumped back in his easy chair with smoke gently wafting up into the room. Yes, I'm saying that this blend is somewhat nirvana-like in its intoxication. I just wonder what that "little something extra" is in this blend.

I guess after all that you can easily see just how much I enjoy this blend and I heartily recommend Plumb Pudding to every English smoker. The only negative I experienced was just how quickly it disappeared from both my pipe bowl and from the tin but, hey, we can always open another tin can't we?

Once I lit my first bowl, this tobacco rocketed straight to four star status. Try it.

Pipe Used: Charatan Executive from the 1960's

Age When Smoked: 1 yr old

Purchased From: pipes and cigars

Similar Blends: some other crumble cake Balkans, but really unique.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2014-05-29		Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

I wanted to love this. I can't even say I liked this. Chemical nose. Room note is somewhat unpleasant. Taste is ok. There is depth and some natural sweetness. Just not for me.

Update 6/6/14 Contacted Pipes and Cigars about my experience and was promptly provided another opportunity to try this tobacco. First tin must have been bad. Fresh batch was very enjoyable. Spicy, Smokey and a touch sweet.

Pipe Used: Bent Billiard

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SmokeDawg (82)	2014-05-28		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Finally got my hands on an oz. of this pudding cake from the city of coffee and rain. Wow, what a unique smoke. Delicious, unique. I can see why this is so popular. If you haven't tried it imagine a cake of smooth cool smoky latakia with a touch of sweetness along with a touch of spice. I experienced it all within the small bowl and without a such much as a hint of bite. I'm a fan of Perique and it was in the back at first but made itself known by adding a touch of spice near the middle and last of the bowl. I like that. Grade A Pipe Club weed right here. Great job to the blender… Highly recommended.

Age When Smoked: Bulk blend.

Purchased From: PipesandCIgars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Lit a Kia (69)	2014-05-08		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

This is one of the more interesting English blends I've smoked. The tin note (just one ounce in a baggie) is nice but subtle. The "kake" was dryer than it looked and doesn't need much (if any) drying time.

For the first third of the bowl, the room note outshined the smoke. For the last two thirds, the smoke was delicious while the room note became more complex. The flavor is ever changing but incredibly harmonious; takes you to unexpected places without missing a beat. This one's perfect for "snorking." Soak it up.

This is really good stuff. Very high three stars, rounding up to four.

Similar Blends: Hearth & Home Fusilier's Ration.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Virginia lover (218)	2014-04-23		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

With so many tobaccos involved, it's either hit or miss. I am happy to say that this mixture is a hit in all aspects.

A creamy and dry smoke with a smooth finish. I get a sweet, sour, salty, smoky and slightly fermented taste from a slow burning tobacco. A harmony of flavors with a canvas of Latakia on which the other tobaccos are added to create a masterpiece English mixture.

Congratulations to the Seattle Pipe Club and thank you for sharing this refreshing offering with us.

Virginia lover

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	rtheen (3)	2014-04-07		Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This tobacco I found to smell of strong latakia upon first opening. I actually waited to smoke it due to strong room note I thought it would have. However, I found this blend to have a great full bodied flavor with some nice orientals lightly coming through. The room note was tolerable to the fiance which was a nice surprise. I find the smoke long and cool which is great. To me this tobacco smokes well slow but hot so I like a wide bowl to smoke out of, less of a success with my longer smaller bowls.

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Kerpap (14)	2014-04-07		Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

there is officially now only 1 tobacco: Plum Pudding. I am a fan of English tobacco. This is an incredible blend. everything about it is perfect. the name Plum Pudding describes it perfectly

Pipe Used: Peterson System standard XL305

Age When Smoked: fresh

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

Similar Blends: God. or an angel. or a chorus of Angles..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Der Pfeifenraucher (71)	2014-03-16		Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I'm pretty new to pipe smoking and I feel that my palette is WAY too underdeveloped to begin to get into depth with this tobacco. For now I'll have to settle with saying that this is a smoky, savory type of tobacco with flavors and aromas that I can't yet adequately recognize or describe.

Plum Pudding is a very good smoke with a great tin smell, nic effect, and burn rate. I'll have to revisit this one once I get a few dozen different tins smoked so I have a better idea of how to evaluate all of the exquisite goodies going on in this blend.

Pipe Used: MM Hardwood

Age When Smoked: new

Purchased From: P and C.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	arfenhouse (6)	2014-02-20		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Mellow latiaka smokiness, subtle sweetness in middle, and a slight sour peppery finish. More sweetness and pepper towards the end of the bowl. I usually don't like much perique in english blends but maybe because of the cav it works out fine here.

Solid, no frills, well made english.

3.5/4 stars

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CTS (138)	2014-01-30		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

Smokes cool and complex all the way through. Sipping it, once you're into the bowl, allows the individual players to come out. For the first few minutes the casing is evident. It then fades way back, allowing the blending at work to shine. The Latakia is always evident, but not an attention hog. The Orientals are most evident on the retrohale, the Virginias on the palate during the draw. The Perique is somewhat evident in the second half, with no actor overwhelming. Very good blending, ditto on the tobaccos used. Burns clean and easy throughout. 4 stars.

Pipe Used: Bjarne Billiard Churchwarden

Age When Smoked: >= 6 months

Purchased From: Gift from BOTL

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Briar and Ice (4)	2014-01-23		Strong	None Detected	Very Full	Strong

Plum Pudding

First, I would like to point out that the name by itself just sounds like figuratively the best smoke ever invented. Marketed as an English blend, but don't be fooled, this is easily the one of the weakest English blends I have ever tasted, by that I simply mean that the signature redolence of Latakia, often an accompaniment to English blends, is not overpowering here. You will enjoy this tobacco if you are not used to Latakia, it might not be your favorite, but there is enough going on elsewhere on the palette that this smoke will most likely be tolerable even for those who are not of the Latakian ilk.

I bought this in bulk, 8 oz to be exact, and despite its numerous containers it still manages to reek through the bag. The Perique and the Latakia attack your nose up front, which is a common feature of the aged and spicy Perique, which when accompanied by the leathery zest of the Latakia, is really quite an extraordinary smell.

Crumbling down to size, carefully packing the bowl, and minutes later a customary crisp has formed atop the bowl, and smoke is billowing out of the mouthpiece as I pull the pipe from my mouth between puffs. Beatifully subtle, there are so many flavors going on in this bowl, that to really break it down, one must close their eyes, puffing slowly and savoring the taste. The sweetness of the Virginias and the Cavendish serve as the basis of what I would call the "Plum" of this blend, strengthened all the further by the Addition of Turkish tobacco, which has a richer taste, and together these three build the fruitier part of the taste, this is much more pronounced in the opening puffs, because the crisp has not yet built up enough to reinforce the pungency of the other, stronger tobaccos, and the sweetness is what pours out to start. As the bowl continues, the Perique releases its development of the thick and smoky spice that forms the basis of the "Pudding" part of the bowl, with the even thicker Oriental still yet adding another layer, until the Latakia finally completes the thick and creamy, yet earthy soil of the pudding, and with the "Plum" side fading just slightly further into the background, the bowl reaches is peak for about 5 minutes when all of the flavors are working in near perfect balance. This is the harkening of a delicious tobacco. Going in I thought that a blend of this kind would be overwhelming, but it really is exquisite to experience all of the flavors adding slowly as the character of the smoke develops. Each step along the way is as delicious as the previous, and if all goes off without a hitch, Plum Pudding just really hits the spot like no other, not unlike a 6-course meal of fine, delicious tobacco.

Pipe Used: Werner Mummert Sanblasted De Stijl Poker

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com/pipe-tobacco/

Similar Blends: In a class of one, really..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Joeray (61)	2014-01-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a great English Blend, I very like it from the start I open the tin. After rubbed from the rumble cake form, it is easy to pack, I made it 3 layer pack into the bowl, make the first light and then smoke it. The smokes is so great, my respiratory, both on my nose and my mouth full of the spiciness and the peppery taste from the oriental and the perique, I really enjoy it. And sure for those who doesn't like a spicy or peppery taste I suggest don't try this blend. For those who ussually smokes VaPer or strong English this blend surely will not dissappointed, the spiciness and the peppery taste is very good and finished well with sweetness.

Pipe Used: Tsuge Kaga

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	bob323 (46)	2014-01-10		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Dee-licious!!!...Up among the best ever...Too bad I can't afford this on a regular basis...Will buy a few ounces from time to time to cellar for special occasions.

Pipe Used: various for testing

Age When Smoked: fresh from Smokingpipes

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-12-30		Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Exquisite! Mostly everything there is to be written about this blend already has. It's full-bodied, palpable, soft, smooth. One of my go-to tobaccos thus far.

One thing though. I'm a bit of an amateur so I don't want to make waves. But...this tobacco is classified on this site as a VaPer. Doesn't the tin itself read Balkan/English?

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Scupbucket (10)	2013-12-22		Medium to Strong	Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Heard a lot about this blend on the YouTubes so after waiting for this to pop up in stock I nabbed a few ozs and took this for a test drive. Not too shabby at all! Smokey, spicey, peppery... like mentioned in other reviews the flavors really pop about halfway through the bowl. A bit of a high maintenance smoke though. Quite a few relights and burns a little wet... no bigs. The flavor outweighs the work. I noticed the latakia mellows a bit after being jarred for a few months. This stuff is amazing in a cob in the morning! Dig it!

Pipe Used: David Jones lovat, cob

Age When Smoked: new/few months

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-12-06		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

EXCELLENT! what else can i say without being such a nerd. took me some time and arrangements to get some, as i live in belgium and pipes & cigars won't ship outside of the u.s. but it is definitely worth it and i bought half a pound. very smooth, subtle and complex.

Pipe Used: hackert, l'antara, dunhill, mm cc

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	A.E. (22)	2013-11-07		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Plum Pudding is a very nice, smooth, smoky, English Blend. With the name "Plum Pudding", I expected some element of topping, but happily there is none. I'm quite firmly a Comptons of Galashiels Blends devotee, closely followed by Pipes and Cigars Marquee Magnum Opus and Black House. Plum Pudding reminds me of Marquee Black House - smoky and just spicy enough, yet clean and smooth. I'm a sipper, but Plum Pudding still burns fast and hot for me. In its favor, even though a bit hot, it offers no bite. I like it, and will let it age some before giving it a final assessment. For now, it deserves a solid 3 stars.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-09-13		Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I'm a novice pipe smoker and wanted to try an English blend. After looking thru other reviews here I decided to give plum pudding a try and boy am I glad that I did. Has a very nice flavor and an ever so slight aftertaste that's actually pleasant. I'll be getting more of this very soon to cellar- its that good!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Smoking Sam (20)	2013-06-18		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

The general listing says that this tobacco is not available in bulk, but it most assuredly is available in bulk from Pipesandcigars.com. After having been on backorder for seven weeks, I finally received eight oz. bulk yesterday.

There were several blocks of krumble cake, but most of the tobacco was loose and perfectly fresh and moist. Eight oz. fills up a Mason jar perfectly.

My first impressions are that this is a high quality tobacco blend, with a complex mix of flavors. All of the bowls that I have smoked so far, have started off tasty and spicy from the very first light. About a third of the way down the bowl, I get a slightly salty taste and then the flavor profile explodes, and the Orientals make themselves known. Pleasant aftertaste.

Burn is incredibly good, with zero drying time. Ash is a fine white. No tongue or mouth burn whatsoever. The bowl does tend to get a little hot, due to my aggressive puffing. I find that when the tobacco does not relight, it is because there is no unburnt tobacco left in the bowl. Zero dottle. Pipe is virtually clean when the bowl is through.

In short, this is a tobacco worth waiting for, and sure to become a new favorite in my rotation. Four stars. Worthy of its praise, and highly recommended.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pacman357 (15)	2013-01-25		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Sweet Grandmother's Spatula, that's good. Picked up a few ounces. Most of what I could say has already been said in praise of this amazing blend. I'll just add that my largest purchase of any one tobacco was 16 oz. I went and got 3 lbs of this. I am not close to that amount in another other blend.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hawky454 (107)	2013-01-25		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Full	Pleasant

This blend is among the best! It took me about two ounces before I fell in love with it. Perfectly blended, very spicy with just a note of sweetness. This is up there with Penzance, although they are very different blends in their own way. I'm smoking a 2 yr old 8oz tin so this may have something to do with it's brilliant flavor. All I can say is, if you like a spicy full flavored English blend than this should be right up your alley! This is not an aromatic.... It's not even a cross over blend. This wouldn't be a good blend to travel with because there is some maintenance involved with rubbing out the thick chunks of cake but in my opinion it's well worth it and serves its purpose as part of the ritual we pipe smokers like so much, even when preparing the smoke. Essential.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-12-23		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Very Pleasant

Please re-read all previous comments. It's a dead issue. This is a FANTASTIC, MUST SMOKE English blend. Finally! A replacement for NightCap!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-12-07		Medium to Strong	Mild	Very Full	Strong

By far this is one of my favorite blends I have ever tried. I loved it so much that I bought 10 oz. in bulk, and cellared 3 oz. to age. You can tell immediately that this is going to be a good smoke. The smell of the kakes are incredibly rich, sweet, and tasty. Rubbing it out is such a pleasure too! It leaves a wonderful smell on your hands. The first puff is so incredible!! I love the full flavored taste. You can taste all the blends in a perfect harmony. When blown through the nostrils it brings an even fuller taste. Incredible. I enjoy this blend right down to the last puff, everytime!!!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mr. Big (321)	2012-08-04		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Original Review- Very , creamy, sour, salty, flavorful and BITTER, all in a good way. I think you could smoke this all day long as long as you are not looking for sweetness. Very slow burning, and excellent on the relight. I'm not a big fan of "Krumple Kake "cuts but this does make for a slow burn. The blend has a very nice balance between the Orientals , Latakia, with the Latakia more out front and with no bite (some spice from the Perique?).

A word about the blends bitterness, it's not a bad thing, just diffrent, kind of like eating a 90% dark chocolate, very flavorful just not sweet, ( I'm in shock with some of the other reviewers that find this blend sweet, knowing the knowledge of many of these fine reviewers, I feel this may be due too my chemistry).

I do have other blends I like better. I prefer a little more sweetness.

updated 12/23/12- I've purchased another bulk batch, and now has about 3 month of cellar time (original review had about 9 months). I'm somewhat disappointed, this batch seems spicier and more muted in flavor than before. Not as creamy and not enough Latakia or Oriental for me, others may find this perfect. This may improve with more time but I'm reducing this to 3 stars

updated 12/16/2014 Well, my bulk now has about two years in the cellar and it is good. Very creamy and yes, some sweetness. I find this similar to "Old Dog". This one has the Perique and a little "Burley based Cavendish" that gives a bit of spice. As you get to the last 1/3 of the bowl the Burley Cavendish starts to get stronger and bitterer, not all in a bad way, but it does overtake the other tobaccos and things get "muddy" and darker. I think the spice could get hot if you pushed . This does seem to need a year of time before it's ready.

Agree with reviewers ,"TOBACO" , "DK"

Pipe Used: cob

Age When Smoked: 1 year

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-07-07		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable

Just another enthusiastic four-star review for Seattle Pipe Club's "Plum Pudding". I started out with a 4-oz. bulk purchase from PIPESANDCIGARS.COM (apparently the only purveyor of this blend). It was love-at-first-bowl. It had me at "hello". This was "the beginning of a beautiful friendship". [Okay, that'll do it for movie-related clichés.] Seriously, a wonderful tobacco. Other smokers may know of blends that are similar, but for my limited knowledge Plum Pudding occupies a tasty niche all its own.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Tom Bombadill (120)	2012-01-22		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Pleasant

A pressed cake blend, the cavendish makes the smoke smooth and slightly sweet. The virginas and perique give it a nice spiciness that keeps it interesting. As for the "VitaminL"...

The latakia is pungently excellent throughout! For fellow latakia fans, I'd rate PP as a medium-latakia strength English blend. Smells great in the tin, tastes great smoking it, and PP smells great clouding up wherever you are when you are puffing away.

The best praise I can give Plum Pudding is that I really look forward to smoking it. I love latakia and this is the kind of English blend that makes me really enjoy pipe smoking.

Four stars amigos!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2011-09-13		Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

This is quite possibly my all time favorite tobacco. Upon opening the bag, (it is sold in bulk at pipesandcigars.com) there is a wonderful aroma of Latakia. Once lit, the room note is very pleasant, with a sweet leathery smell to it. A subtle english tobacco, yet very smooth and slightly sweet.

This is a great choice for any smoker, from the lover of rich English blends, to the new smoker who likes aromatics. This is a great smoke, well worth trying.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2011-08-28		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Oh-Oh it's magic...everything in perfect balance..Just like tin states: Delicious, smoky, spicy and positively addictive

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2011-07-22		Medium to Strong	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

A perfect afternoon smoke. Not too heavy on the Latakia but enough to taste like a proper English tobacco. A nice subtle blend with oriental overtones. A very nice everyday smoke.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Xeneize (275)	2011-05-02		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Simply put, one of the best English mixtures I've ever tried. The main star is Cyprian Latakia, so wonderfully combined with sweet Virginias and Orientals and lightly spiced with Perique. So smoky, so smooth... You all really need to try this outstanding product.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2011-04-05		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Uncharacteristic of most tin descriptions, Plum Pudding's description is spot on for me. "Delicious, smoky, spicy and positively addictive" There's not any more I can really say.

soli Deo gloria

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	zulujerk (146)	2011-02-21		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

First, a complaint. Strangely, my tin was primarily composed of ribbons, but buried deep beneath that top layer was a single compressed brick. WTF? Is this a quality control issue? Did someone get lazy and simply decide to forgo bricking the remaining tobacco?

Well, aside from my initial anger here, not quite getting the advertised product, I actually do prefer its present state. In truth, the brick is only a pressed block of ribbon, anyhow, the same as many C&D crumble cakes, and seems mostly an aesthetic alternative that adds no particular dimension to the flavor. I just find it somewhat random to see a tin of tobacco in such confused disarray, from the good people at Habana Premium, of all places.

As for the taste, this is wonderful stuff. It's a solid English mix, with plenty of strength, a pronounced sweetness, owing perhaps to a topping of some kind, and it has a nice, spicy prominence no doubt characteristic of the Oriental component. What's not to like? The proportions are well balanced-- the sweet smokiness drives the blend, with dark leaf comprising roughly half the tin, the remainder, a dark, reddish brown assortment of Virginias and Orientals. There are no high notes here, but instead a deep meaty flavor, with a heightened strength most likely a product of the added Perique.

And yes, this is the rare, cased English, of which I have tried a couple, namely those in the Frog Morton Series, which I find too light in body, and Perfection, which, while stronger, had a strange aftertaste that didn't quite meld, in my opinion.

There are a handful of Cavendish laden Englishes out there, Black Mallory comes to mind, and of course, 965. But I'm terrible at placing the leaf--hell, I can't even begin to describe how 965 differs from Standard Mixture, though I'll admit to loving the both of them. For all I know, a cased Cavendish might be the source of Plum Pudding's sweetness, rather than a straight topping. Though I'm not an expert on these matters. I will say, however, if you want a sugary English with some decent body, this is your best bet.

Well done!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2010-12-16		Medium	Very Mild	Full	Pleasant

One evening I read at http://forum.pipeclub.gr about some tobaccos made by the Seattle Pipe Club. All 3 blends were brought to me. Plum Pudding was by luck the first one I've tried. I haven't smoked many cakes. I was impressed by the different color alternations it had: red, brown, black and a bit blond. And an undetermined scent. It contains Cavendish, Virginia, Perique, Oriental and Latakia. None of it makes its presence detectable, but they compose a very well balanced mixture, sweet, piquant with full flavor. Flavors that interchange very pleasantly. Also, although for me Perique does not leave a pleasing aftertaste, in this mixture it didn't occur. For my first smoke I used the “small cubes” technique. In my second, I cut a piece and rubbed it. It seems to have high levels of humidity which however does not influence the tobacco. That is to say it didn't need to dry out in order to smoke it. Moreover it lights very easily and it smokes slowly. Fortunately I have one more tin; otherwise I would feel very insecure, as I usually do, until another tin was brought to me. The room note does not cause grange faces as other Latakia tobaccos cause.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	regulator3 (2)	2010-06-24		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This was my first taste of an English/Balkin blend, I am trying to broaden my horizon as a smoker. When I opened the tin the scent of the tobacco about knocked my socks off. It was a very earthy smell and the fact it was pressed cake, I had never smoked a cake before so I wasn't sure, I used to smoke christmas cheer 2000 so i rubed it out like i would that. loaded it up in one of my bent apple shaped pipes and lit. I had a hard time keeping it lit it took me 4 char lights and then i got it going for about 5 minutes and then had to re-light and re-light. Altough i think the tobacco was moist hence the trouble keeping it burning it never gurgled in the pipe. The flavor was out of this world though. I enjoyed what i associated with a nutty kind of flavor like the after taste of a cashew, and that spicy sweetness you get from the virginia's, The people around me didn't seem to mind the smell of it burning, I think I am going to mason jar cellar this tobac for a while and then dry a little bit before i get carried away with it. Definately would reccomend this as an early morning with first cup of coffee kind of blend or maybe an after dinner kids are going to bed and i am about to head that way after my pipe kind of smoke.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	smoking-rob (79)	2010-05-01		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

I have just uploaded a picture of an opened tin of Plumpudding as this should show why it is called so. Nothing further to add to the reviews here but I will mention that I do not detect any aromatic flavouring of any kind.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2010-02-17		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is great blend and when rubbed out, delivers a wonderful and rewarding smoke. It's complex, though not overpowering. Does not bite and will remain in my rotation.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2010-01-05		Mild	Mild to Medium	Full	Pleasant

Plumb Pudding is by far one of the most enjoyable pipe tobacco experiences I have had. It has beautiful colours in the kake. Lots of reds and some dark reds/browns that must be stoved virginias. It can be crumbled or sliced right from the tin, filled and smoked with minimal relights. This is a beautiful oriental/english blend with a nice plum like topping. As you smoke you can taste the orientals - light and refreshing. You can taste a little latakia and once in a while tastes like a VaPer. All the while through the bowl these flavours come out through the plum - which is not over the top but just a perfectly engineered as a compliment to the quality tobaccos which remain the highlight. Outstanding! Thanks to SPC for sharing this one with the rest of us.

Background: I like Englishes, Orientals, VaPers, various flakes. Not a huge aromatic fan.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Thorre (27)	2009-12-26		Medium to Strong	Mild	Full	Tolerable

Plum Pudding was my one of my first purchases of crumble cake. SPCP reminds me of C&D Bow Legged Bear. In look ,smell, and taste. It took me a while to get it to stay lit. Once I got the right crumbling technique, and moisture, it was no problem. The taste is incredible. Smooth, smokey and slightly sweet doesn't do this balkan blend justice. It may have a slight topping that gives it a slight aromatic flavor. I like the tin, because it forms a very good seal. In the tin Plum Pudding has a good, strong tobacco smell and colour. This is a must try.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-09-10		Medium	Very Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Not too much to enjoy for me in this blend .If you like heavily cased tobacco that is sickly sweet & syrupy with a lot of topping this might hit the right notes for you, You don't need much of this blend cause the taste will stay with you for days. Why do I bother with aromatics??

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-06-13		Medium	Extremely Mild	Full	Strong

Plum Pudding is a very good English/Balkan krumble kake that has the requisite smoky latakia body but with a mild sweetness that persists throughout the bowl, likely due to a topping as well as the contributions of the cavendish. It falls just short of my four-star mark, though, for perhaps the same reason that non-balkan smokers may find this one more to their liking: The sum total lacks a bit of the pungent oomph and cheese-like complexity that I savor in my favorites. But, again, it's very good and worth trying. It's not wimpy by any stretch, it just lacks a slight edge that would push it into the realm of greatness for my palate. I am sure it will hit the sweet spot for many pipesters, particularly those who would like to like Balkan blends, but have found them too Balkany (Balkanish? Balkanized?).

As a krumble kake, this stuff requires rubbing out and considerable drying, unless you need to burn down your stash of matches. (I was impatient with my last bowl which, consequently, ended up using an entire box.)

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JLong (36)	2009-03-29		Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Edit, 2-22-15: After 6 years, this is still one of my absolute favorites. Thick and spicy says it all.

This is a cool, slow burning balkan with no bite or harshness whatsoever. The spicy, sweet flavors begin to kick in about 3/4 bowl for me and last till the end. The after taste is even sweeter and last well into the following morning after an evening bowl. I like the plastic tin cap because it seals drum tight and no moisture is lost.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JPC1114 (2)	2009-03-19		Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

To all of you that Never tried this English Krumble Cake Blend You are Missing out on a Great smoking tobacco. I just bought a 2 oz. tin and Love it! Ready to Buy the 8 Oz. Tin and store it for a few months. Wish they would sell it Bulk?

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Country Piper (12)	2009-02-27		Medium	Mild	Very Full	Pleasant

After reading the reviews on this tobacco I knew I had to try it. I have/had been a 965 fan for many years but as it became harder to get I knew I would have to change. I ordered a couple of tins and opened one the minute it arrived. What a great smoke! Somewhat difficult to prepare as it is a hard pressed baccy. Easy to light and a wonderful aroma. The latakia is not to heavy but perfectly balanced. Never over powering but excellent down to the very last. I cant indentify the " something extra " listed on the lable but whatever it is I am not complaining. One of the best English/Balkans I have ever had.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-02-23		Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

This is the perfect introduction to English/Balkan blends. Personally I have always found the pouch aroma of English blends to be intimidating. I believe this is one of the factors that keeps new pipe smokers choosing aromatic tobaccos, they smell good so they must smoke good. This is the first English Balkan blend i have smoked and i chose it because it has a pleasant rating regarding room note. I cannot say enough about this tobacco. Now if i could only find other English blends like this one, anyone have any other recommendations? i think Penzance is next.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-02-19		Strong	Medium	Full	Pleasant

This is a delicious Balkan Blend of Oriental,Virginia and Latakia in a slice type flake cut which is great. At one time I tried it (several months ago) and it bit me. I cellared it and now smoking it in a small briar it tastes wonderful.There is a mention on the label that "something extra" is added. Does anyone know what the "something extra" might be?

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-02-12		Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This is one of my favorite blends. It starts out with a sweet first light. Then turns complex. The tobaccos used are married well with the pressing. The amount of Latakia gives this blend a nice smoky flavor, the Oriental gives it a light touch of spice, and the Virginias gives a sweetness to this blend. It smokes very slow so expect a long smoke even in a small bowl. There is no bite in this blend. Once cellared for 6 to 12 months this blend will mellow even more, but it is ready to smoke when first bought.

As the English say about Latakia "It has a plum pudding flavor." This is where the name comes from. This blend has an ample amount of Latakia, is a very slow burning balkin type tobacco with no additives. Expect a nice long smoke even in a small bowl, depending on how you rub it out. ENJOY.

Update 02/13/2010- Due to a couple of reviews here I feel like I should say that there are no casing or top note on this tobacco. What little cavendish is in this blend I would be surprised if anyone could taste it. This is not an aromatic tobacco, and not meant to be. Joe

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-02-09		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I normally take tin descriptions with a grain of salt as tobacconists normally tend to be a bit overzealous in their descriptions of blends as a marketing technique. Frankly, most of it is bullshit.

Well, not the case here. This stuff is nothing short of incredible.The flavors are exactly as described by previous reviews of this blend. Cool burning, no bite and delicious even with only a couple of weeks in the tin. I can't even begin to imagine what this tobacco would be like with some age on it. If there is such a thing as the "perfect pipe tobacco", this would be it. I can't come up with the words to adequately describe just how good it really is, so I'll leave that for you to figure out. Buy it. It's worth every penny.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-12-10		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I am not an insider of the Seattle Pipe Club. In fact, I have never met any of their members (although I am sure I would enjoy doing that). Heck . . .I don't even live in Washington. So this is a 100% unbiased review.

This tobacco is very tasty! It sort of is like Penzance - but sweeter - and with a spicy twist. Out of the tin it is is dryer and firmer. The nose is more refined with less Latakia and a hint of something sweet/spicy (which I cannot yet figure out - perhaps the Perique). At the match it is nothing short of magic. Smokey, salty, gently and naturally sweet, a bit of spice . . . I could go on. It really is great stuff. Even the aroma left on my hands is soothing and delicious. It tends to nip me so probably best smoked as an occasional rich treat.

If you like English blends then just go get this before it is gone. Really. You will be glad you did.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-11-22		Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Fantastic! One of the best tobaccos I have ever sampled. Buy it while it lasts...

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-11-19		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I picked up a tin of this from pipesandcigars.com due to the high reviews. I was not disapointed. If you like latakia you will like this blend, no doubt. tobaccoreviews.com has help me tremendously in finding the right product for my needs.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-11-15		Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant

FANTASTIC!! Let me just say this is BETTER than Penzance & it's all I want for Christmas!! 4 stars without a doubt!

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-11-09		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

I tip my hat to Joe Lankford. This is perhaps the best Latakia blend I have had the pleasure to smoke since Whidbey Island Supreme.

This tobac is a lot more than just a Latakia blast, the balance between sweet, salty, smokey and rich is near perfect. It smokes slow and dry, a good tobacco for contemplating the state of the world.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-11-08		Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

This has become my favorite end of the day smoke. It comes in chunks about 2 1/2" long, 1" wide and 1/2" thick. It is a very dark pruplish color, and needs to be rubbed out. This one takes a while to smoke, and the blend is never, ever boring. the balance of these flavors of Latakia, Perique, Orientals and Virginias is amazing. Set aside some time, and enjoy this spicy, smokey, sweet and wonderful tobacco.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-10-01		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This near perfect blend reminds me of Penzance without the hard edged Latakia right off the bat (Don't get me wrong, I love Penzance but this is better and smoother). The taste is complex, with a smooth Latakia note throughout the bowl, at the same time allowing the other components their time in the spotlight. The Virginas, Perique and Orientals each take their turn, so your get a good sense of all of them as you smoke down the bowl. Best, in my opinion, in a small to medium sized bowl, because it is a bit wet right out of the can. This is because of the cut - a flake and crumble cake mix, sort of. I have never seen anything like it. I guess it looks like actual Plum Pudding in a way. I normally do not rub out flakes but this one you have to in order to keep it lit. I have introduced this blend to several others and it has become a big hit. By far my favorite Balkin-style blend - even though it is in short supply. It's simply a delight! Highly recommended.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Diesel Fumes (10)	2023-01-05		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I’m sorry to all those who have raved about this legendary tobacco. For me Peterson My Mixture 965 is a landslide better value. It’s like famous for being famous. Too expensive for average tobacco.

Pipe Used: Dunhill

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Tobacco Pipe

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	HeadmasterOfHerf (25)	2023-01-03		Medium	None Detected	Very Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Although its reputation precedes it, SPC's Plum Pudding is a stellar blend. I'd go so far as to call it the Platonic ideal of English blends.

That said, Platonic ideals are kind of boring. After your first few rodeos with it, you know what to expect and are going to get it every single time. Sure, it's a little sweet, a little tangy, and doesn't bite. It packs easy and requires little to no relights. Smokes great in a cob. I could go on and on about everything that's right with this tobacco.

But.

It's just kind of boring. The flavor's nice, but it's nothing to write home about. There are other, more interesting English and Balkan blends out there. Perfect for getting started with the genre, but maybe explore the other offerings too.

Pipe Used: Missouri Meerschaum Boone

Age When Smoked: 3 months

Purchased From: cigarbid.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SSJOH (16)	2022-09-02		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

The tin note was strong, meaty, smoky, and delicious, very like a well-crafted beef jerky. The texture and moisture were on-point. Smoked slightly hotter than most of the English blends I've tried, but with little to no bite. The flavor was consistent, full, and absolutely superb. Burned evenly to a surprisingly small amount of fine, medium-gray ash.

This blend is already one of my favorites. Highly recommended.

Pipe Used: Mr. Brog Briar

Age When Smoked: Just Purchased

Purchased From: Cigarbid.com

Similar Blends: Sutliff #526 Old Professor.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BRandom (7)	2022-03-15		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

Doesn’t get much better than this! Nothing like any other blend I’ve tried. Mid way through the bowl, all those amazing tin notes started coming through (in my experience anyway) and I’ve been hooked ever since. After a thorough char and lighting, a good rhythm is all you need to keep this going, just sit back and enjoy. It has the heartiness of a smokey/savory barbecue with some pleasant fermented fruit essence. I can’t recommend it enough!

Pipe Used: Savinelli Oscar & Tortuga

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	J_Row (2)	2022-01-09		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

I'd heard lots of great things about this, and at the time of purchase was into peaty scotches so this seemed to fit the bill, 2 oz later - it succeeded. Heavy, rich Latakia certainly is the lead actor with some sweetness (virginias/cavendish?) And oriental spicey notes supporting in equal parts. The perique I don't really notice, unless it is the mushroomy type - which my palate has yet to learn. The nic hit isn't really noticable but I still prefer it after a meal of some sort because of how flavorful, dare I say decadent, this blend is. My only qualm was learning how to pack it well. The first few bowls I rubbed out like a flake and was left with dust which didn't smoke too well, after learning to leave in larger chunks is when this really started singing. Some relights, but that's par for the course for me. All in all would highly recommend if you are looking for a rich full smoke.

Pipe Used: Few different briars

Age When Smoked: 0-1yrs

Purchased From: B&M

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stah (139)	2021-12-23		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The number of delighted reviews describing this mixture is uncountable. "Nirvana', 'excellent', 'divine', 'perfect'... After such epithets I felt a little awkward to join the ranks of professional critics with my review. The situation was further complicated by the fact that for a long time tobacco was arriving to us in very small batches and was sold out in a matter of hours. At the end of the year, however, I grabbed three cans and opened one to see for myself just how good the blend was. The amazing thing is that in the store where I usually buy my stuff there wasn't a single review for this tobacco - apparently everyone who bought it had lost their ability to speak.

The tin I opened was dated 10/22/21. Actually, 100 grams of tobacco would fit in a tin that big, but for some reason Sutliff didn't use a smaller size.

The appearance is several bars of layered tobacco, each a centimeter wide. The bars are loose, easily crumbled and kneaded into a fairly fine cut. The color of the blend is dark brown, with lighter flecks and almost black streaks. The moisture content of the tobacco is almost perfect. One bar was just enough for an XL size pipe. The tobacco is easy to fill and light.

Smell - the unobtrusive smokiness of latakia with a slight hint of burnt feather is paired with a fairly pronounced tar note. Added to this is a woody scent, some sour tan leather, a bit of paprika, turmeric and a bit of hay. All the smells are very subdued, no one note is overtly dominant.

Taste - sweetish base, as if from molasses, with quite a slight smokiness of the latakia in the foreground is immediately complemented by a marine brackishness, as if from seaweed, a slight acidity and barely noticeable sweet paprika. A fruity note, coming after this ensemble, remains on the aftertaste - as if you tasted a few minutes ago a plum baked on the fire, framed by other dried fruit. The taste of the tobacco almost does not change during smoking: the smokiness of the latakia grows, there is a subtle earthiness. The tobacco slightly knits the tongue, but is neither harsh nor biting to the taste. The strength is somewhat below average, but it is still possible to get a nicotine hit in a very large pipe. Despite the shallow cut, the tobacco smokes quite cool and slow, burning into a dusty light gray ash with a barely noticeable yellowish hue. The tobacco leaves quite a bit of moisture in the bowl, so I recommend smoking it in bents.

The smoke is dense, with a faint but noticeable smell of peat and a sweet tinge. It hangs in the room long enough.

Bottom line: by mixing such a large number of ingredients, it's easy to get carried away in the dominance of one of them. But Joe Lankford has succeeded practically impossible, he has created a Scottish blend (I wouldn't go so far as to call it English or Balkan), which when smoked you wouldn't be afraid of being kicked out of the house - perfectly harmonious, quite light and pleasant in taste and smell. In terms of harmony, it somewhat resembles his own Snoqualmie Falls, but significantly more complex and richer.

Pipe Used: Peterson SH Original, Lestrade, POTY 2017,

Age When Smoked: 2021

Purchased From: Online

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	GreybeardPiper (7)	2021-05-28		Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

For some reason I danced around purchasing Plum Pudding for a long time. The reviews are stellar but it always seemed intimidating.

I finally made the plunge and I've definitely been missing out. SPC Plum Pudding is one of the best tobaccos on the market. However, I have struggled getting the most from it. It frequently smoked a little hot and peppery but drying it out to the bone, I'm getting full cool flavor. The tobacco is deceptively moist out of the tin but dries very quickly.

I've already purchased another as well as the special reserve for the cellar. Don't pass this one up.

Pipe Used: Mr Brog Briar

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	musicman (131)	2021-05-01		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable

How it took me so long to try Plum Pudding is a mystery. I feel like this blend has quickly become part of pipe tobacco blend lore. For a very long while, everywhere I looked, be it pipe forums, youtube channels, or pipe blogs everybody was extolling the virtues of this magical blend. Yet for years, and not purposefully, I never gave it a whirl. Well, I finally joined the masses and here are my thoughts.

This is a thick chunky crumble cake style of tobacco. Very easy to rub out, and I would find, very easy to rub out too much. The tin note is what most balkan style blends usually are. Dark, spicy, smokey, inviting. There is a slight dark fruit impression in the tin that intrigued me. I found this one a little moist right from the tin, but not by much. About 30 minutes of airing out was perfect to my liking.

What I found when I smoked this blend surprised me. Based on the raving this blend has received, I expected to have a euphoric moment from the second I fired this blend up. Instead, I didn't really understand what all the hype was about. Do not get me wrong, this stuff is very good, and of premium quality, but it did not make me swoon over it. That is, I didn't swoon over it at first. Here is the thing. I was expecting some amazing flavor point to jump right out, and for me to say "Wow, that ______ taste is amazing!" I didn't get that. I got a good balkan blend. I would come to find that the magic in this blend is in the subtlety. See, this blend is amazing because it is perfectly balanced and blended. It is smooth, full of flavor, and performed well. The genius, is in the fact that it is so well blended, it all sings together in harmony. No one flavor jumps out and grabs your attention. The more I smoke of this blend, the more I realize how amazing it is. This is a perfectly balanced and blended balkan. It's damn good. As a musician, it reminds me of a really good ensemble. There may not be one musician in the group that makes you say "Wow, that horn player is phenomenal", but the sum, is greater than the whole of the parts. Highly recommended, but I believe it takes an experienced piper to fully appreciate the genius happening here.

Pipe Used: Many, mostly a rossi full bent

Purchased From: Pipes and cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Robby the Belgian (24)	2021-01-27		Medium	None Detected	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

When opening my jar, the immediate tin note is very strong, like a malt vinegar. After 10 seconds or so, it becomes a bit more mellow, reminding me of a smoky steak sauce.

There is a lot of flavor. The Latakia and spices take the wheel. It becomes a bit sweeter during the progression of the pipe, but the smokiness remains a key aspect. I find it hard to detect the different components; the constituent tobaccos have been married solidly into one, big-bodied, deep flavor profile.

For me this is a solid choice of tobacco after an exhausting day. The kind of evening where you need to unwind and take your mind off things.

As most other reviews point out, keeping this tobacco lit might be a bit of a challenge. One thing I found to work for the second half of the smoke is the technique sometimes called "stoking the ember" or "stoking the bowl". Cover the bowl with your hand or a finger to reduce the oxygen intake, giving a better ratio of oxygen to charred tobacco, for a fuller smoke.

I start out by breaking the tobacco in small chunks, but not quite rubbing it out (rubbing too much turns it into powder) and drying it for a few hours; after that, picking apart the larger chunks into smaller bits seems to work well enough for me.

I strongly recommend this tobacco if you like strong-flavored Balkan blends or Latakia-heavy Scottish blends. It is probably not be the easiest tobacco to start with for a novice pipe smoker.

Pipe Used: Peterson Dublin 05

Age When Smoked: 4 months

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Greybeard (62)	2020-11-19		Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

I certainly see why this is so popular. Smokey, sweet and a little bit spicy. Upon lighting I got a floral taste which is not my favorite, but it's mild and fades soon enough. There is the figgy/plum flavor in the background, and a mild spice. Does need a few more relights than average. Overall I really have enjoyed each bowl of this I've had so far, and recommend to any pipe smoker, especially English smokers.

Update: This blend is becoming more enjoyable each time I smoke it, and I'm looking forward to the days I do smoke it. I consider it part of my regular rotation. The only knock I had on it was the floral essence, but I'm finding if I break up the cake a little more than I had been it's even less apparent (or maybe I just got used to it). Bumping it my rating to 4 stars and adding to my favorite list.

Pipe Used: Benton Select

Age When Smoked: Fresh out of the tin

Purchased From: SmokingPipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gr8tefuldawg (87)	2020-04-27		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

SPC- Plum Pudding

This blend jarred from 3Mar19 was something I recently revisited, hidden away, and neglected due to the big brother special reserve taking the spotlight from it.

Providing the same dynamic and changing flavor of its bigger brother, this blend smokes well and provides great volumes of smoke, a year later this blend still needs a little time to dry, the convenience of the smaller chunky slices vs it’s big brother crumble kake is much appreciated.

If you are wondering what blend to start with, if you want a sweeter Balkan go with special reserve if you want sweet but not over the top grab this, the price point may also make a difference.

Balkan lovers should enjoy this quite fondly, it’s combined parts make for a great smoke.

I smoke this on occasion but have recently picked up a slight soapy almost Lakeland flavor on occasion from the plum pudding blends, as though it has a floral or licorice type additive, while not a deal breaker it is slightly off putting.

I will not rate this higher than special reserve the drying time makes it something to plan to smoke versus packing and smoking.

Pipe Used: Various

Age When Smoked: 13 months

Purchased From: Tobaccopipes.com

Similar Blends: Seattle Pipe Club - Plum Pudding Special Reserve, Ken Byron Ventures - King's Ransom: Rich Dark English.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Bird101 (8)	2020-02-03		Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant

Seattle Pipe Clubs Plum Pudding – On the evening of Wednesday, 1/29/20 I tried Seattle Pipe Clubs Plum Pudding for the first time. I found the tobacco moisture content on this tin to be normal for a broken flake type of tobacco. The tin note was very smokey and very reminiscent of barbecue for me. It put me very much in mind of a campfire. Taking a dry unlit draw (Which I like to do) on a packed Savinelli Fantasia Rusticated 673 which had never been smoked I got the same smokey barbecue flavor as mentioned above for the tin note. It took several “Char lights” to produce a well lit ember. Upon lighting the flavor was somewhat smokey but the flavor was not near as strong as the tin note. I found this to be an overall cool smoke, nice and dry with no gurgle. Once the ember was well established It required few relights with the application of light tamping during the smoke. I found that flavor became less smokey and more peppery as the smoke progressed especially about ¼ to ½ through the smoke. This was my first blend with perique and the pepper flavor was a bit of a surprise. At first, I almost mistook the peppery taste as a slight tongue bite, but there was no actual tongue bit. It was just a slight peppery flavor that became more evident as the bowl progressed. As to room note, I was the only person in the room at the time of the smoke. I did get up and leave the room and upon re-entering the room I found the room note to be that of a roaring fireplace or campfire. I was drinking a cold bottled water at the time of the smoke. Over all I would give this blend a 2 out of 4 stars for my taste. It was not an unpleasant experience however it is not something I would consider my go to smoke. It might find a place in my rotation as something to give a change of pace.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Fantasia Rusticated 673

Age When Smoked: Recently Purchased

Purchased From: Seattle Pipe Club

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	boc777 (39)	2019-12-10		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

In reading other reviews, it would appear that PP has some diametrically opposed reactions in pipe smokers. I will say right away, I am a fan! I had a hard time getting my hands on this when it first came out, due to its popularity. I wrote it off like I have Penzance, as my thoughts are, if its impossible to purchase, then why bother. I moved on. Well, I wanted to buy myself a Christmas present and went to get some special holiday tobacco. Found that PP was finally available, so I figured, why not. I was not disappointed. I was a bit greedy and just popped the tin open, crumbled it up and fed it into a large billiard. In retrospect, I should have let it dry a bit. But that's on me. I loved the smell from the get go right out of the tin. A little smokey, barbque, sweet goodness. Once I lit up, it took a little coaxing and tamping and a few relights, but I was also loading it up into a huge bowl. In the future I will be trying it in some smaller pipes. This blend to me is such a perfect orchestration of the Latakia and Perique that I cannot stop thinking about it at work today. It will be the first thing I light up tonight! If you have been on the fence about this, just buy a 2 ounce tin and try it. Apparently according to these reviews, you will either fall in love or you will throw it in the trash. I am in love. I have been a huge fan of Nightcap since day one, and I would consider myself mainly an English blend fan, but I do smoke Aromatics and Orientals as well. This one bridges more than a few gaps for me, and it will be in regular rotation. I will probably try to dry it out slightly and I may even throw in a pinch more Perique in another jar to experiment with it a bit. I will be ordering more shortly. This is magical weed and I recommend it to anyone, regardless of experience or preference to genres. I cannot offer a comparison to Penzance, because I have lost all hope of ever getting any. So, in my opinion, scr&w Penzance and I will be most happy with my Plum Pudding, thank you very much!

Pipe Used: Large dunny billiard

Age When Smoked: new

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	MAddMAnn (17)	2019-11-15		Mild	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is such a great oriental forward blend. I tend to retrohale a lot with this and that brings out a spicy flavor. Otherwise it can feel quite pleasantly sweet. This burns down quite thoroughly when I’ve tried it.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	OhioTony76 (59)	2019-11-04		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

This is a English blend with the cavendish being a large part of the flavor profile. Yes the cavendish is flavored. Almost too much for me. But it never gets there. The smoky latakia and the spicy perique really help balance this blend to the point of being a work of art. Very well done. Not an all day smoke but makes a great night cap on a cool night. Smoking experience inproves the more you let this dry out. Also, this really smokes great with a balsa filter, which I normally don’t use. But it protects the tongue a bit if your sensitive to cavendish in a blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Peterson314 (39)	2019-10-21		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

First Take:

I opened Plum Pudding for the first time this evening and cut off a piece, crumbled it up a bit, and let it dry for about an hour. First thing I did was stick my nose in the tin and man it's just intoxicating. Almost a shame to smoke it. I know that Seattle Pipe Club just likes to play with names, but I did think it smelled a bit like plums, maybe a bit like raisins. And peppercorns. But it had a full-on richness that begged to be put in a pipe. So, I obliged.

Like many reviewers before me, I'll echo that it's sweet and smokey. It tastes and smells like a camp fire. Like putting a giant log on a campfire, in the best kind of way. I love smokey scotch like Laphroaig and Ardbeg, so this flavor profile was pretty perfect for my palate.

Mechanically, I would say that I have never smoked a better tobacco. I didn't plan on reviewing the mechanics of it, but it was just so impressive. The tobacco packed perfectly, and once the top was toasted, I lit it once and that was it. I then proceeded to turn it into ash. I could smoke it fast, slow, make it hot, let it cool off, didn't matter. I was rewarded with a consistent, interesting, sweetly smokey flavorful balkan. I finished the bowl about an hour ago and the main flavor I'm left with is campfire. In a good way.

I'm a nicotine lightweight and I started to feel it about half way through the bowl. I'll probably wait to enjoy this again until after a heavy dinner.

2022-09-01 Update: I pulled this jar out of my cellar after it had about 3 years on it. It rubbed out very easily, loaded in my pipe perfectly, and only required one re-light throughout the bowl. Mechanically, this tobacco is really hard to beat. It's pretty perfect.

I was surprised at how this tobacco aged. It aged well in the jar, but I think I like the fresh tin more. All of the initial bold campfire-ness is gone, or pushed way into the background. This blend did not like small puffs; anything smaller than a giant head-covering cloud almost disappeared. This blend was best when I got the whole bowl hot and very smoky. At that point, it was sweet and smokey, bold but approachable. It never got acrid, I was never able to get it too hot. It's still a great smoke, but it's a completely different experience from what I remember from a fresh tin.

Pipe Used: Peterson Mycroft

Age When Smoked: Fresh from the Tin

Purchased From: Puff n' Stuff - Atlanta

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	cam91 (23)	2019-09-27		Medium	Strong	Medium	Tolerable

Not at all what I was expecting. Almost all I can taste is a topping of plum flavored liquor. Out of curiosity I puffed hard and burned off the topping, and although that worked, i cannot tell if i ruined the tobacco, or this tobacco was just not to my liking. If you are looking for a latakia blend similar to GL Pease and Cornell and Diehl offerings, this is not it. Honestly, it seems I taste quite a bit of perique, but that could very well be the fruity casing. If you are into fruity tasting blends you will most likely enjoy this (as the name implies.) I was under the impression that this was a full flavored english/Balkan with a strong oriental zing- and it is not.

[Edit] Alright, I've spent more time with this blend and I have grown to like it. It is not like anything else I have smoked. It has a very strong sweet and sour taste which may or may not be all casing. Well, under that taste it has a very smooth sweet, smokey note that is delightful. This blend can really burn for a long time, too. I like it, even though it is not really my cup of tea. I think it deserves 4 stars even though I, as a huge fan of latakia bombs, will probably not buy it again.

Pipe Used: Cobs. Briars.

Similar Blends: Nothing else.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Tomcat (212)	2019-09-02		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Unnoticeable

Nice tin aroma of figs and smokey latakia . The latakia and orientals work well with the perique and The cavendish seems to smooth it out making it slightly creamy . Needs a lot of drying. I get a mild plum and red wine taste and taste the perique when exhaling through the nose very slowly. Nice mild english but is it a great blend ? It lacks the Oriental presence I like in a balkan blend . 3 stars would be the highest i would go . I had to try it though .

Age When Smoked: Fresh

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	ATW (110)	2019-06-13		Very Mild	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant to Tolerable

I've been a fan of the Mississippi River for a few years so naturally I wanted to see what Plum Pudding was all about. The Sutliff version is the only version I've had and is what I'm going to review.

Opening the tin the Latakia hits me. Very smoky, slightly sweet and deep tin note. At first light the Latakia is in your face. It reminds me of a dying camp fire type of smokiness. The sweetness is on the dark side. Unfortunately this is the highest point of the blend for me. The flavors turned very airy and light. Even though I can't find any hard evidence to prove it, I swear it tastes like a very light plum hence the name. I couldn't detect any of the orientals at all. Because of the lack of flavor, it tends to give me tongue bite due to over puffing. The combustion is great as it burns down to a white ash leaving no moisture or residue.

Overall, it's just not for me. I find Mississippi River more flavorful and complex without having to work at it. Fresh and at 6 months it's no different. This is going into my English jar that I made up to put all of the not so good blends in.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2019-04-22		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

Bought a tin of this back in 09. The best way I can describe the tin aroma of PP is a musty odor... something akin to a sweaty horse blanket. Reminded me of a barnyard with animals feeding on hay. Fortunately, the smoke is much more tolerable. The pressed cake pieces look like fresh-baked, Betty Crocker brownies. I was expecting another Latakia overload. That was not the case here... smokes like a Balkan. Some have stated this is similar to Penzance, but this is smoother, stronger, smokier & a little tastier. This and other comparisons prompted me to try this blend. I think that the Latakia variety used in this blend is probably Cyprian.

Plum Pudding delivers in all aspects of a quality Balkan blend. I believe it might even make a good chaw after a soak in some ribbon cane or some old fashioned cherry syrup. FWIW, I mainly smoke straight VA or VA/Per, VA/Bur & VA/Per/Bur blends. I've been trying to find a Latakia blend that I liked as well as the BSOM but this is not it. It's pretty darn good, however but after a while, seemed like it didn't deliver the Vitamin N I was looking for. Maybe because it's all I smoked for a while. Anyway, not too bad.

Pipe Used: Peterson System 312

Age When Smoked: Fresh Tin

Purchased From: Pipes & Cigars

Similar Blends: I had not smoked enough Balkans in this time period to make a comparison...

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2019-03-03		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I noticed the lightly apportioned Cyprian Latakia flavor was in the forefront but very soon thereafter, melded with the other varietals in this blend & stayed that way to the very end but was always feintly noticeable. It is a fairly strong blend that smokes mildly & produces plenty of smoke & I was really surprised at the delicious flavor this blend had to offer & the aroma wasn't bad... added that extra dimension.

No Latakia overload but an exceptionally, well balanced blend. I've craved a good Balkan blend ever since sampling a ten year old pouch of Gallaher's BSOM that was still fresh... that was back around 2012. There's a light, sweet fruity taste in this blend from the Perique, a little sweetness from the VA & Cavendish & some slight, sour saltiness from the Orientals when certain taste receptors are hit. The Perique seems to have that "Chameleon" effect, ie., hiding in the background. Too much & it is like chili pepper & just the right amount adds a fruity sweetness. This blend won't bite, smokes mildly but is closer to the strong end in the medium to strong spectrum.

It has a long burning rate, requires some relights & one is able to produce some heavy duty smoke rings. PPSR did not leave a burning campfire smell in my room but rather a feint scent of Latakia and an ordinary aroma of regular tobacco. This mixture never became harsh & the flavor kept improving until the very end, produced very little condensation & left a dry, gray dottle. To make a long story short, this might become "special." I Also bought a spare tin for the cellar. Great stuff.

Pipe Used: Cavicchi Dublin & D. S. Huber Bent Dublin

Age When Smoked: fresh Tin

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Croatian Pipesmoker (1)	2018-11-30		Medium to Strong	Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Definitely my favorite English/Balkan blend, I have been smoking it for over a year. The krumble kake is easy but delightful to prepare, I prefer to rub it out completely until there are no chunks left. The moisture level upon opening the tub is fine and does not really require drying time, although I notice the smoke improves as it naturally dries out over the course of a few weeks of opening and closing the can. The aroma is thick, sour and eye-watering in a great way, mostly dominated by the smell of the latakia. Upon lighting up, the flavor starts out gentle but satisfying and continues to grow in intensity to the bottom of the bowl. My experience smoking this is of two distinct flavor groups that alternate between dominance in a way that keeps me interested but does not distract me from enjoying this as a "mindless" everyday smoke. There is the element of "savory" from the latakia and the orientals, and "sweet" from the virginias and cavendish. The perique is much harder for me to detect. The sour, smoky "savory" element gives the flavor that great thick and greasy character that English lovers fiend for. The "sweet" element really rounds out the experience and makes it unique for me. Every couple draws i get a refreshing fruity sweetness that emerges. I think this is either from some casing on the cavendish (perhaps a plum casing, hence the name, or at least that's my theory), or the perique naturally coming through with some fruitiness, or a combination of both. I'm a lover of English blends, aromatics and all other pipe tobaccos, and Plum Pudding has become my first smoke of the morning with coffee, every day! Had to jump on the band wagon with this one, 10/10, can't think of a way it could be improved.

Pipe Used: BriarWorks Straight Rhodesian

Age When Smoked: Fresh to six months

Purchased From: P&C

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Tilley4 (16)	2018-05-26		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

I've been eyeballing this one for a while and decided to pull the trigger when it showed up at my local pipe shop.

I'm certainly glad I did..

The Latakia and Orientals are front-and-center here.... spicy and smokey and a little bit sour and salty.... best when sipped....

I paired this with a Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse ale.... the earthiness of that beer paired with the spiciness of the tobacco was truly a treat...

I'm not a big smoker of Balkan tobacco but this one may have changed my mind.... very very enjoyable....

I highly recommend this and will continue to keep this in my regular rotation.....

Pipe Used: MM Cob

Age When Smoked: Fresh

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Rick778 (13)	2018-03-18		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Just finished my 2nd bowl. Initial impression is leather earthiness with a strong overture of spicy pepper. I picked up a hint of sweetness in the smell of the smoke, but none in the actual taste. Broke the flake up into small chunks and loose flake. Seemed to have a hard time keeping it lit with several relights. Overall, really enjoyed it. Will need to work on proper consistency for loading.

Pipe Used: Jobey Dansk #2

Age When Smoked: Purchased Feb 2018

Purchased From: 4 Noggins

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Kiwipiper (6)	2017-09-26		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

Currently in my top 3, Smokey, spicey and sweet, it's easy to smoke and requite only a few relights.

Like mississippI river, Plum pudding smokes best not overly rubbed out, needs some dry time maybe a couple of hours, it seems dry straight out of the tin but I found it wasn't and made it impossible to finish the last 1/3 of a bowl.

1st half of the bowl is mostly latakia and Virginia, by the 2nd half the orientals start to come forth and by the end it gets a bit sweet and salty in a good way.

Not an all day smoke for myself i mostly smoke virginias, its a little rich for all day but it's a great after dinner treat.

Pipe Used: Ser jacopo Canadian and Savinelli billiard

Age When Smoked: Less then 1 year

Purchased From: 4noggins

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	grimstuff (14)	2017-07-02		Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable

While the smoking experience isn't as good as the heavenly, complex dried fruit aroma, I did find this tobacco quite interesting and nuanced. Mouthfeel is one of the more notable aspects, leaving a creamy coating, bordering on sticky. It tends to smoke hot. Flavors include raisins over mushrooms, woody. Needed several relights--might need more drying time. Latakia was light, with peppery Perique on the exhale.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Capri Root Briar 111

Age When Smoked: Fresh

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	roadkill0000 (23)	2017-04-05		Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Very Full	Very Strong

This review is intended for my personal record of what I like, please dont take this particular review to heart.

for a latakia heavy blend, i liked it. Smooth, creamy, much more approachable. Not my favorite but not bad either. I will have to take notes on this again while im smoking it.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	The Sunday Evening Pipe Smoker (54)	2016-11-12		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

First impressions is that this is basically Penzance but with that typical Balkan 'bitter' undertone of crushed walnuts.

This is one of those rare blends that gets better as the bowl goes down. In fact, the last third is the best part, taking on a kind of chocolate brownie profile to it. Simply delicious.

Smokey and a subtle, deep, brownie like sweetness, counterbalanced by the other flavours.

Similar Blends: Penzance.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	point9 (114)	2016-08-19		Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Seems to be the same components in Mississippi River, but much balanced and layered. Cavendish round the edge out, but a little over IMO. Great krumble Kake presentation is a plus. the flavor is unique and interesting.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jevverrett (104)	2016-03-13		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Another of the bombers gifts.

Tin note is wild, spicy and smokey and a bit sweet with a little tangy whiff to it. The presentation is chunks/slice of very well pressed short ribbons. It doesn't take a huge amount of work to prep this as opposed to a flake. It does take a bit though. After which, it packs easily with a light tamp. Don't want to firm this up much or it will not smoke properly. It takes fire well, and doesn't really need much help to keep going. Burns nice and cool though.

It is very tasty. The Latakia is up front and is sweet, smokey and delicious. Not heavy, but very present. They mixture with the other ingredients plays very well together. The perique adds a nice little zip to the mix, and the cav kind of smooths the whole thing out. The VA is nice and sweet and I'm not getting much of a citrus note from it. You can really tell that a lot of thought went into making this.

It may not be a good blend for beginners to get into, as it is a nice full English/Scottish with perique. For most others though, it is definitely worth trying. I will be buying more to smoke and cellar.

Pipe Used: IMP meer

Age When Smoked: Fresh tin

Purchased From: BoB gift

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	natibo (169)	2015-10-12		Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Very Full	Tolerable to Strong

This is a great full bodied "english" blend. It is not peppery, and some lat-per's are. It has a nice sweet note to it. Probably due to the cavendish. I found it needed no drying time. It smelled, smoked and tasted great right out of the bag.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Black Sheep (25)	2015-06-25		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is a full tasting English that I cannot more enthusiastically recommend. As the previous reviewer noted, Plum Pudding benefits from a bit of drying; that said, once in the bowel and lit, this particularly blend of "Latakia, Orientals, Virginias, Perique and a little something extra" (Tin Label) makes for a deep, robust, and completely enjoyable smoke.

I found that Plum Pudding paired well with whisky; I often prefer scotch, and this case the smoky qualities of an Isle of Islay whisky accompanied the tobacco quite well. By itself, Plum Pudding is flavorful without allowing any one aspect of its blended components to overpower.

Pipe Used: Invicta Briar

Age When Smoked: New and again after twelve months

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	willdoug49 (3)	2015-04-24		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

hmmm This blend is a bit tricky for me. I loved Mississippi River and wanted to see what else SPC was offering. I'm new to the pipe smoking hobby so of course I might not be as experienced as the rest of you all. I enjoy the campfire smell and taste. I got what I was looking for in this blend. Sweet & smoky. I've used cobs and a briar churchwarden. I thought it was great in the cob. Slow burn, easily kept lit, all day sort of smoke. When I tried it out in the churchy it got a bit funky. I got a weird burnt bread/nut/chemical taste about 1/3 into the bowl. It was surprising. I definitely will keep it around for my cobs but not again in old churchy.

Pipe Used: cobs briar church

Age When Smoked: fresh

Purchased From: pipesandcigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CFAF (9)	2014-11-19		Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

An English flake that's just different. (Reference point: 10 Russians and Gaslight are more latakia dominated.) It's a bit of potpourri, but it comes together. The latakia and perique mix nicely delivering a cool spicy smoke. The latakia is not overwhelming as in some blends, and that's fine. (I love latakia bombs and this isn't one.) There is a nice topping of cavendish, and that may offend some English purists. I don't care. It's a good smoke, a nice change-up from straight heavy Englishes, which I like.

I've smoked this upon receipt, but also have several tins stowed away for aging. I look forward to revisiting this again.

Pipe Used: Various briars

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WillBrown (137)	2014-11-03		Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Is this yet another contender in the "trying to be Penzance" sweepstakes? I think so. To my palate, there are more similarities between the two blends than not. Plum Pudding's not a bad smoke, but it's also not as good as many make it out to be, and, it's no Penzance. Like another reviewer I also got a chemical-like scent or effect from this blend. This effect seems to have dissipated somewhat after sitting on my shelf for several months. The bottom line, for me, is I'd rather be smoking Penzance than Plum Pudding. Still, since Penzance is such a headache to track down, Plum Pudding would make a good substitute, but, then, so does Lancer's Slices.

Pipe Used: Molina bent

Age When Smoked: ?

Purchased From: Pipes&Cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2011-01-16		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Sniffing the freshly opened tin reminded me of a sweaty horse blanket. After lighting up, similarities of Penzance came to mind. For reasons unknown, the tobaccos never seemed to meld into a sweet flavor I was expecting. The Latakia is always in the forefront and pretty much dominated the tastes in this blend.

This smoked very smooth & mild with good burning properties when properly dried. The cake crumbles easily and stays moist for a long time. If not dried out pretty good, it will burn slow, produce little smoke & will be hard to keep lit. I thought it became rather one dimensional and too bland after a few draws and remained the same throughout the entire bowl.

Not a great deal of flavor ever developed for me & nothing truly sensational ever surfaced. It does have some good smoking qualities & flavor but this wasn't a bell ringer for me. However, with its mild smoking charactertics & English atmosphere, I can understand how many would find this exceptional. I'll rate this about 2.7 stars. Sampled in a size two Dunhill.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Quiggifur (86)	2023-02-27		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

As with all other Latakia forward blends, the Latakia is about all I taste. I do get some sour, sweet, dark fruit flavor, but I have to search for it. I do enjoy a Latakia from time to time, and this is a very good one.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Caligator (4)	2023-02-23		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Plum Pudding seems to be most flavorful immediately upon opening. The sweet, smokey notes are, to me, most pronounced when the blend has not yet had a chance to be subdued by contact with outside air. The only downside to packing a newly opened tin is moisture. The cut of this blend seemed reluctant to accept a flame without some drying time and rubbing. And although dissipation of moisture provided for a less frustrating experience, I am of the opinion that some intensity of flavor was sacrificed in the process. Nevertheless, Plum Pudding delivers a rewarding smoke for anyone seeking the unique flavor of Cyprian Latakia when combined with quality sun-cured Oriental leaf and a condimental portion of Perique.

This is not a blend I would consider to be a "Lat Bomb". Rather, Plum Pudding is well-balanced and just complex enough to satisfy discerning tastes. No single component of this blend oversteps its role at the expense of the other elements. I consider this blend suitable for any time if day, as its flavor will neither fatigue a smoker's palate, nor bite one's tongue. Plum Pudding smokes cool and delivers a nic-hit of negligible strength.

This blend is a worthwhile purchase, a likely repurchase, and worthy of its acclaim.

Pipe Used: Savinelli 122

Age When Smoked: 1 year

Purchased From: SmokingPipes.com

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	HobgoblinTA96 (59)	2023-01-07		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This blend was a pleasant surprise. Tin note was of strong vinegar. Almost like that from a jar of apple cider vinegar. Fortunately, this quickly fades into more of a back note leaving behind a smokey stewed fruit tin not with hints of pepper and spice.

The cut was small faggots of crumble cake with some loose chunks of tobacco and dust in the bottom of the tin. Moisture is spot on and the crumble cake rubs out easily. Burns and smoked cool and clean with a fair number of relights.

Gentleman Zombie sums up the taste quite nicely. This has a mellow smokey and spicy taste that is semi-sweet and creamy.

Quite unlike most balkin blends that I have tried. The stoved cakes presents a harmonious marriage of the assorted tobaccoes contained within. Although the Latakia leads, it is softly guided by the Cavendish. Thus, although smokey it not as pungent as the usual lat bombs. Does leave a pleasant lingering smokey aftertaste and room note.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a mild balkin blend.

Pipe Used: Churchwardens

Age When Smoked: Fresh w/ 24hrs allowed to breath

Purchased From: Pipes&Cigars.com

Similar Blends: A unique blend in itself. Close to the more mellow English Blends of Europe..

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pip'n'Piper (50)	2022-12-25		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

The notorious Plum Pudding...It's okay. The flavour is rich, sweet, creamy, musty, smokey, spicy, slightly sour with notes of vinegar, plum, nuts, grass, campfire, peat and blue cheese. That's a plethora of different tasting qualities, but there are quite a few varietals co-mingling here. Three caveats I have with it: first, it smells a lot like blue cheese and musty books in a dank basement; It's not that I hate it, I just prefer blue cheese and moldy books the way I prefer bungee jumping... from a great distance. Second, it's quite moist when fresh and needs drying with a light pack or the relights will effectively double butane's contributions to GHG emissions. Third and most seriously, as I am often too hyperbolic, Plum Pudding like all the SPC blends is too darn expensive. The pros? There's depth and a warm homey quality to it, like sitting in front of the fire on a cold snowy winter's eve. It burns slow and cool. It has a delightful sugariness that gradually comes on and smooths out the musty and spicy aspects. It's certainly an acquired taste, but a delicious and rewarding smoke nonetheless. I do get tongue tingle if I puff too fast, likely the perique spice or virginia. I only buy 1 or 2 tins a year, but I still like it and enjoy it more with every fire and snow storm. Plum Pudding is overpriced and a tad overhyped, but still quite exceptional. Once acquired, the taste is very rewarding. 3.5. Highly recommend you take a shot, if it's a miss... well Im sure, like me, you've wasted more on less. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good pipe.

Pipe Used: Elf pipe from Santa's minions

Age When Smoked: 1 year

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Dwarven Ale (4)	2022-12-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

I swear when you crack open the tin of this stuff and inhale that it smells just like barbecue sauce. It’s amazing. I absolutely love Plum Pudding. I know that people love to hate it because of how popular it is and how everyone likes it but this is probably my favorite English/Balkan blend. It is super flavorful and satisfying, and I swear the smoke has a purplish tint to it.

The downside to this one is that I think you almost have to plan to smoke it. If I know I’m going to want some later, I will roll some out and let it sit out during the day. It’s perfect by late afternoon/early evening.

Pipe Used: Briar

Age When Smoked: 2 years

Purchased From: P&C and SP

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jwrenn18 (2)	2022-10-29		Medium to Strong	Mild	Full	Pleasant

Only my second nonaromatic tobacco and I love it. From the first tin note of smoky, woodsy goodness to the last puff from the full ashed bowl. This is only my second nonaromatic but the flavors could have fooled me. The smoke is thick and to my palate sweet. I did have to do several relights particularly on the last 3rd of the bowl. The flavor of the tobacco changes from the first 3rd to the last in a plesant way for me. The opening is sweet, earthy, dark chocolate. Think barbecue as others have said. By the end its deep woodsy, reminds me of a fire of leaves and branches in fall. Definitely a keepa.

Pipe Used: Viking 305

Age When Smoked: Fresh from tin

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	K.E. Powell, III (15)	2022-03-14		Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

At first, I was apprehensive when it came time to try this blend. Seattle Pipe Club has a good reputation to be sure, but the hype surrounding this blend has swelled and swelled for years. And, at the risk of outing myself as being a bit parochial in my tastes, I could not help but think a blend with this many components would fail to consistently harmonize its flavors over repeated sessions. I was expecting something pleasant, good even, but inconsistent and not able to meet the incredible praise heaped upon it.

Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. This blend delivers.

The tin note smells deeply of smoky Latakia and with a hint of sweetness given by the Virginias and Cavendish. The crumble cake is a joy to work with, and rubs or folds readily in the hand.

The smoke itself builds slowly, with the Latakia acting as an opening act and the cavendish as a mooring. But with each draw, with each puff, this blend slowly builds in complexity. The Perique adds sudden brightness and spiciness, the Orientals compliment the natural smokiness and reward patient smokers with subtle and rich flavors of clove and raisin. The smoke itself eventually reaches a creamy and thick cumulus, with a mouth feel that is full yet never overwhelming. That this blend does this and also manages to smoke coolly and doesn't need excessive relights is all the more impressive.

This is a blend to be savored, to be enjoyed on a still night as slowly as possible. The complexity of this blend sometimes intimidated me; my own palette, especially as it concerns Balkan blends, is in need of a little more refinement to fully appreciate this tobacco. But make no mistake: this is damn fine tobacco geared towards the enthusiast. Get some.

Pipe Used: Stanwell bent tomato

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	wizard_duty (6)	2021-12-31		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is one very well balanced English. It's got all the smoke, some sweet, some spice. All in all this one ticks all the boxes I look for in a nice pope tobacco. It crumbles easily, but be careful of making dust. Packs well, lights very easily. I don't dry this one as I can make the very top bit of the bowl quite fine and it takes the flame well. Doesn't need relights unless I'm forgetful of puffing.

Pipe Used: B&M Pocket sized briar

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	PaulMcCoy (78)	2021-10-23		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

The smoke is thick, creamy, and sweet. I had a hard time picking out the Virginias. The Perique is pretty far in the background. It’s good, but the mechanics are on the low side. It easily crumbles to dust when rubbing it out, and it doesn’t like to stay lit. This might be better smoked on a breezy day. If I can figure it out, I’ll bump it up a star.

Pipe Used: Stanwell Zebrano

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Pipesandcigars.com

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Smokolier (21)	2021-10-13		Medium to Strong	Strong	Full	Pleasant

Upon opening the tin, I was greeted by a bright and pungent aroma -- likely the perique. It smelled a lot like it tastes, in fact. The balkan pressed bricks came apart easily into little chunks which were easy to pack and light.

Plum Pudding is a bit of a perique bomb. Up front, the presentation is spicy and fruity, while a subtle molasses-like sweetness brings up the rear, creating a beautiful medley that justifies its ostentatious name. It really does sort of taste like plums. The pudding, on the other hand, is mainly in the room note, which is mild and sweet -- surprising for an English style blend.

After about a week or so, storing it in a cool and dry place but only in its original can, the flavor mellowed out significantly. It was still quite good, but not as cohesive. I recommend storing this tobacco in a mason jar if at all possible, as it will greatly preserve its unique flavor.

Plum Pudding is a must-have blend, and it has well-earned its reputation in the community.

Pipe Used: Missouri Meerschaum Mizzou

Age When Smoked: 1 Week

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Baubriar (10)	2021-09-30		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

Smokes easy. I have best results letting it dry for an hour or more. The tin note is okay but where this really shines is the decent aroma when smoking. Not much in the flavor department but enough spice to keep one interested. No tongue bite and only a mild hit of nicotine. Not a perfect one for me, but more than deserving of a spot in the rotation. Highly recommended if you have not tried it..

Pipe Used: Briar works poker

Age When Smoked: 2 years

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	PennsylvaniaPiper (17)	2021-04-26		Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I loaded my pipe of this one evening and then never got around to enjoying it. The pipe sat on the pipe rack for a few days before I picked it up and decided to light it. The super long dry time made this blend really work for me and I can generally agree with the positive reviews.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JKOD (30)	2021-04-19		Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is one of the first 10 blends I bought as I prepared to enter my pipe journey. Being inexperienced the first time I tried it and having no clue what English/Balkan blend meant - I remember my first puffs to this day. Wow, this is different - but something cigars never gave me.

I get a floral, herby taste with a bit of woodsy, smokey, and earthy goodness. Can’t say I’ve found the sweetness others describe, but it is a sweet spot and I savor the retrohale.

This is quite tricky to prepare as several have mentioned it can turn to dust. I find myself trying different ways almost every time I get it ready. Moisture is fine out of the tin or after drying a little. I’ve noticed no difference in taste either way. The dust is helpful to use for lighting purposes though...but, try not to get too much of it. Sometimes I have trouble keeping lit, but it’s certainly my fault.

As much as I like this one, I don’t smoke it as often as I’d like because I’m trying too many different blends. However, this one has earned its way to my list of growing blends I stock up on in the cellar. Look forward to years of smoking pleasure with this one. I still have some of the tobacco from the original tin I purchased, and hope to someday finally smoke the last bowl from it - but, I’m not in a hurry. I have plenty more! Kudos to its creator and many thanks.

Pipe Used: Several

Age When Smoked: New to 1 year

Purchased From: P&C

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	The Great Mungulor (8)	2021-03-13		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This blend is truly special. It's quite difficult to get hold of here in the UK so I was eager to try it. When I opened the tin, I was pleasantly surprised by the look of the tobacco. It comes in large, crumbly chunks and hits you with the most incredible aroma. The tin nose is a spicy, sweet wonderland with hints of leathery latakia. I loaded my cob and immediately was hit by a delicious melding of sweet virginia, balanced orientals and woody, earthy latakia. The smoke itself was plentiful and pleasant smelling. It also did not need any relights. This blend left a very pleasant aftertaste and burnt all the way down to a clean, grey ash - leaving no dottle behind. The taste of Plum Pudding is well documented and famously unique, a sentiment I share. If you are looking for a delicious blend that is like no other, this may be it.

Pipe Used: MM Corn Cob

Age When Smoked: New from tin

Purchased From: 4Noggins

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Azirish (18)	2020-11-19		Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium	Tolerable

Presentation is a nice loose cake. Tin note is wood smoke, spicy and raisins or fig, Barnyard. I can taste each tobacco in this. For me the Turkish orientals are just slightly behind the Latakia and Virginia. Each puff deep wood smoke, a bit of sour mixed with a slight spice and fruit. This one is totally unique and a real treat to smoke. Excellent with a good stout dark beer.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Roma 305, Chacom Apple

Age When Smoked: Fresh and 1.5 years

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BrokenRecord (124)	2020-11-18		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Is this a Balkan? I guess so.

The Latakia and black cavendish form a cohesive creamy foundation to this crumble cake. The cedar-like smokiness is the leading flavor followed by the spicy/sour oriental tobacco. The perique provides a slight fermented cigar undertone. Overall, Plum Pudding is a mellow Balkan blend. I see why people like it. I would give it four star if it did not tend to scorch my tongue.

*This review is based on a small sample and limited life experience.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Fawzi (5)	2020-11-08		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

It’s not an easy blend. The combination between Latakia, Perique, Virginia, Orientels, and Cavindesh, is so accurate. They all get together to make a delicious complicated nice mixture. Love it!

Pipe Used: Chris Asteriou

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DakotaHale43 (47)	2020-08-17		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant

The flavor for me took about a minute to get going, but once it did, it was a unique and full experience that I haven't often seen before, especially from a Balkan. The cavendish lends most of the sweetness that you find in tune with the virginias, while the latakia adds some of the smokiness to it. I couldn't detect much perique in the taste, but I noticed it in the tin note and aroma. The sweetness did let up a bit for me about midway through, but was still present during the entire smoke. Won't bite or get harsh, and is very balanced and consistent all the way through. My only criticism is that it might be slightly overpriced, but it still gets four stars from me.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	RedGopnik (16)	2019-12-16		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Strong

The cyprian latakia and perique give most of the flavor. Not quite enough latakia to call it a bomb but it has some bomb properties due to the dominance of the latakia Starts off nice and sweet and slowly develops into a nice bbq esque English. Strong herbal and floral notes (mostly a rosemary) throughout the smoke. This is what I taste, at least. A very nice smoke to retrohale

Give it time to dry it you are going to be relighting a lot. I have not had the special reserve yet, (most pipers I follow prefer the special reserve) but i am happy with this one. Not the greatest Balkan in the world but worth a try. Tin art is 10/10

Pipe Used: Cobs, briar

Age When Smoked: Fresh to 2 weeks

Purchased From: Online

Similar Blends: Pirate kake?.

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