Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.