Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.