Seattle Pipe Club Mississippi River

Upon opening the "bag" from Pipes and Cigars, it smells very strong and overwhelming in not a pleasant way. I actually did not care for that initial smell at all. However, while smoking it, that smell is completely overhthrown by the nice woodsy/smokey smell that it exudes. It is certainly a nice change of pace from when I switch between something like this and some of my favorite "go to" aromatic blends. It's not cheap (3 ounces for $20 with shipping) and I have a hard time buying a lot of it for that reason, but it is worth a try in my opinion given the smoothness of the it.

When I first opened this tobacco I really liked the smell. Super concentrated black tea and smoke. The taste is essentially the same and boy is there a lot of it depending on the pipe. Not a "smoke and don't think" blend, because your brain will be busy getting all the tiny flavor differences out of it. One of the best blends I have tried to date.

Of the three Seattle Pipe Club blends this is my favorite.

Mississippi River, has a distinct balance and very intriguing nuance to my palate. The smokey Latakia, while ever present in flavor and aroma, subtly compliments the interplay of sweet Virginia and spice from the Oriental and Perique in a most wonderful way which is finished off, quite interestingly, with a smooth creamy dark Chocolate note that makes this one a truly unique smoke for me. Being a Krumble Kake, is an additional bonus. A "Treat" tobacco for me which I reach for on occasions when in the mood for a Latakia blend of medium body, yet rich in flavor with a little spice. A great change of pace offering.

I am a Virginia smoker. I love a great Virginia. Of the three Seattle Club blends, this is my favorite. If you like a nice base of red Virginia, this should hit the spot. The slow burn of this tobacco keeps it nice and cool for a Virginia blend. Just enough Perique and Latakia to give it a touch of spice. Definitely not a mundane blend. For the Virginia smoker a must try.

Very good. I was anticipating more similarities to Plum Pudding, yet they

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're apples and oranges. I like Plum Pudding, but I dig Mississipi River. Tin note is sharp and sour vinegar with a bit of stewed fruit, similar to HP Sauce or a smokey vinaigrette. It burns the nostrils on first lid pop and I get a kick outta watching my non-smoking friends taking a whiff from the jar then puckering and contorting their visage, it packs a whollop. Mississippi River is virginia forward with orientals providing a tart/sour essence and a light spice, faint fruit note from the perique. The latakia is purely condimental, the hand that mixed it was soft, gentle and as steady as the flow of the mighty Mississippi. It says on this page that this is a krumble kake, I can comfortably say these days it

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's a sliced kake. I am blown away by this blend, it has no contemporaries that I

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've smoked; it is quite unique and difficult to describe, but it

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's perfect to me. Enjoyable from top to bottom. Never bites, never any harshness on the throat or palate. Similar to Plum Pudding it has a fairly plentiful sugar caseing and requires drying, but not nearly as much of either. Sweet, tart, grassy, bready, woody, earthy, smokey goodness. Very, very nice. I

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'm getting in my canoe, sittin

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' back, putting my feet up, tipping my cap over my eyes and drifting down this lazy river for a good long while. 4 stars. From Canada to Clarksdale, cheers to the delta blues and the fine state of Mississippi.

Update: at some point something has changed, be it age, palate or what, I don’t know, but I don

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't find this stuff as enjoyable as before. Honestly, I find it super salty these days. I looked at all the other reviews and only 1, doc’s pipe, mentions tasting salt or a saltiness in it. So maybe we are outliers, but I find it almost intolerably salty now, particularly on the initial lights. I also notice the tin/jar note to be so overwhelmingly astringent and sharp, that it makes me sneeze and cough, it’s like huffing a powerful vinegar. Weird stuff. Downgrading to 3.

A virginia forward blend with a touch of latakia, perique, and orientals basically equally in the background. A healthy dose of propylene glycol and sugar. Give it plenty of time to dry if you want to properly enjoy this blend. Otherwise the flavors will be diluted with steam.

I think it's a safe bet that Sutliff 515 RC-1 and 507-S are used as the base of this blend. The virginias are bready, the perique for a little spice and earthiness, and just the right amount of the smoky/incensy latakia and orientals. A perfectly proportioned latakia blend for hot weather. The charcoal/burnt campfire log sucking fiends will say they can't taste any latakia, but it is there. Very sweet at the top due to the casing but that fades away quickly. Great balance of flavors going on, very mild nicotine.

My experience here seems quite different from the majority of reviews. I have to be honest, I find no joy in this blend. There are some positives, however, it is as soft and smooth as a baby's bottom but the baby would have more strength than this blend does. As far as taste: the Lat. starts out front on the initial light, it is smokey and a little sweet. Then the VA's quickly take over. The Reds are tangy and sweet, the stoved VA offers a note of dark fruits as well. The perique does not come forward until after the first 1/2 of the bowl, it is peppery and has notes of raisin and fig but is usually present on the relights and not too much otherwise. The oriental was not found at all. I did pick up a note of dark chocolate (I think) the notes indicate that its there so I may have been looking for it and fooled myself as it is very mild. While this sounds nice, the flavor profile never developed all that much and the flavors never really stood out they stayed below the mild level throughout. The nic is not noticeable to me. I guess there must be some, they put the warning label on it but I could not detect any at all. Really sad when you are smoking a bowl and find yourself wanting to start another before you are finished. I know that a pipe is far more than just nic but when the flavors stay soft and hard to pick out and there is no noticeable nic what's the point of smoking it? The smoke was also very drying on the palate so I needed a lot of water to drink during a bowl. No complaints about the room note from anyone, I really could not smell it while smoking either. Finally, the price point on this is 30% higher than the other blends, maybe they have to up it to cover the cost for the outside blender, etc. but there are way better blends than this and for far cheaper.

Update: 9/4/19

Well if you read my initial reviews, I did not like this stuff when I first purchased it, and I dove in with both feet and bought an 8 oz tin along with some 2 oz tins! What I remember most about this was how salty is seemed to taste. Around 5 bowls worth and it was had an unbelievable salty character to it for something you smoke. Well I threw what was left in a ceramic tobacco jar I got at an antique store, threw in a few ceramic disks to keep it moist and put it on the shelf. I may have added water to the discs 3 or so times in the last two years. I saw the jar and thought I would moisten the disks again and figured why not a smoke. Now as you may have guessed the tobacco is not only older but it is much drier. Not quite a crispy critter but it is pretty darn dry. Now I have learned that drier is better in almost every case, but being impatient I do not always wait. This may change that. With a little age and drying out this is pretty good stuff. I would not say it is one of my favorites but it is a fine tasting blend. It is pretty mild with smokey notes and a hint of barbecue. The perique give a little peppery tingle and the Latakia gives some sweetness and some smoke. I am picking up more sour notes from the Orientals, which I like. I don't get much from the Virginia's other than they seem to support the other flavors nicely.

Mississippi River may be the most finicky tobacco I have ever smoked... and I can't say that is all bad, if fact it is kind of good. This tobacco when smoked the way it wants to be, out of the pipe that it chooses, is quite delicious. On some occasions and in the wrong pipe it can be rather disappointing. For me half the fun is finding out what I am getting when I choose it for a smoke. Tin note on this is light an subtle. I get a hint of latakia and a sweet smell, like honey or sweet pastry. Not what I expected but nice I have burned through about 4+ oz of MR so I feel comfortable with a review. When this is good all of the tobacco's sing, I have found a straight bulldog to be the best bet (briar) for a great smoke with MR. Spicy latakia, figgy perique and malty sweetness dance and morph when it is behaving.The orientals provide an ever present woodiness and spice in the nose which is very pleasant. I get a saltiness that peeks in and out when this is behaving and it is quite enjoyable, I have never had the salty pretzel taste in any other tobacco , I enjoy it when MR is at its best. Now for the not so good smokes, when it is not behaving (larger bent pipes in particular). I get some latakia and a mouth full of salt water. I have had a few smokes where the saltiness was so overpowering I had to put the pipe down. Even when dried I would get a wet mouth feel, not hot but wet, and very salty. On occasion, I have come back an hour later for this to change on relight, into a decent smoke but occasionally the saltiness is all I get and it is not something I enjoy. I have a weird relationship with this tobacco because when it is good, it is really good. I am looking into my technique since something this good must have a pilot error component when it is not so good... who knows. I recommend this and will continue to smoke it and see what I get. Edit: Much of my previous review was from a roughly 8 month old purchase of several tins of MR. I ma now down to my last 8 oz tin and this has only gotten worse bowl by bowl. I have tried to replicate the few delicious bowls I had to no avail. This is an utterly tasteless tobacco on average, and when bad is salty and wet as others have described. I have roughy 4 oz left that I will banish to the cellar for a few years I split some to a mason jar and some to a used tin that I will just put away to see if it ever dries out. The one nice thing about this is that it travels well in a pouch. I find that any other tobacco in a travel pouch dries to potato chip like dryness in an 8 hour period while this remains unchanged for days . It is never awful but it is rarely good. If SPC changed suppliers they should fire them or if lucky the FDA laws may give you a reason to just disappear. I am utterly disappointed in this blend. Stock up on Dunhill now before classic reliable tobacco disappears forever. 1.5 for portability and not a bad tasting smoke...just not good either.

Probably my favourite blend at the moment, the kake is very crumbly be careful not to over rub it out or its not as flavourful.

Virginias are the main player here, has a smokey background note and a little spice, the perquie is very faint only really showing up on the retrohale.

An all day smoke.