Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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"