Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.