Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding

(3.46)
Plum Pudding is an English Balkan blend like no other. Rare tobaccos, crafted and pressed carefully together. Many pipe smokers say it is their perfect tobacco. Nirvana, said one reviewer. Master Blender Joe Lankford created this treasure for the Seattle Pipe Club our perfect tobacco. Delicious, smoky, spicy and positively addictive. Truly an exquisite tobacco to share. Enjoy this original cake of six rare ingredients: Latakia joins with Turkish Orientals, Virginias, cavendish and perique. Crafting the most sought after small batch blends in America since 2007

Details

Brand Seattle Pipe Club
Blended By Joe Lankford
Manufactured By Sutliff Tobacco Company
Blend Type Balkan
Contents Black Cavendish, Cavendish, Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Krumble Kake
Packaging 2 or 8 ounce tin weight
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium to Full
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.46 / 4
127

46

15

10

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 198 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 19, 2016 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.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 22, 2014 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
105 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 15, 2014 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!
87 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 31, 2013 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.
70 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 14, 2011 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.
39 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 14, 2014 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
35 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 01, 2014 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.
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh bulk
28 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 21, 2011 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.
28 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 30, 2016 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
PurchasedFrom: Traded with Gentleman Zombie
Age When Smoked: One month
27 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 31, 2014 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
23 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 19, 2014 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.
22 people found this review helpful.
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