John Patton Storm Front

Earthy, nutty and smokey burley with a extremely light molasses sweetness is the major component. The woody cigar leaf, and maybe a very light topping of some kind adds to the light sweetness of the burleys. But don't get me wrong: this is not that sweet of a tobacco. It's a stronger, woodsy tasting burley that is a nice change from the Carter Hall type of blend; more in the sweet and sour genre. It's nearly the kind of burley blend you might find from some of those made by C&D. It has a mild to medium nic-hit, which might surprise you, considering the name of this mixture. It has enough strength to please without knocking your socks off. Burns at a moderate pace, cool and clean with no dull or harsh spots and leaves little moisture in the bowl. Requires few relights. The after taste lingers, but you won't mind. Not an all day smoke, but one you might come back to later in the day.

-JimInks

I weep huge tears that only nine of John's blends are currently available. It's the "Great American Tragedy". Be that as it may, I can't say enough about this blend. Over the past months it has turned into my favorite blend! Now, I've been a pipe guys for years and have traveled the weary road through just about all the genres and blends that there are...of course there are always new ones with which to play. This one is one of the finest concoctions avialable...especially to lovers of Burley blends - like I am. Some perspective...my favorite blends are the new JackKnife Plug (GLP), Stonehaven, C&D's Briar Fox, Exhausted Rooster and Night Train, Gawith's Dark Plug/Flake (unscented) - blends that are pretty much straight tobacco in flavor but perhaps with the subtle addition of an enhancing flavor. I like 'em strong. I like 'em full. I don't like Latakia.

SO...Stormfront has the following to recomment it: a) Bag aroma - sweet nutty Burley coupled with a subtle undernote of citrus (?). b) Gravity fill with one tamp and then re-fill to top...simple, easy, fast & effective. c) First light and it takes off. I've done a single tamp and then re-light, but you can go with just the intial light. It works. WARNING: keep the bowl lightly tamped during the 1st half of it will heat significantly. d) TONS of thick delicious smoke. Sweet Burley flavors. Lovely. e) Smokes to halfway point easily and without a hint of bite or gurgle. f) By this point (1/2 onward) the flavors have shifted to present deeper and darker notes...the cigar leaf is now evident but still subtle...and while needing occasional relights it delivers on these flavors while still being a no fuss, no bite, no gurgle experience. It does not taste like a cigar...that leaf just deepens the flavors and adds immesurably to the overall experience.

This is arguably one of the world's greatest blends, and absolutely ideal as an all-day smoke. If this ever goes off the market, the house of cards I call my life will come tumbling down.

On my 10 point scale, for me this rates a 9.75. Very, very highly recommended. Esp. to fans of Burley blends.

Update #1: As many other reviewers have done on these hallowed electronic pages, I need to go back and ammend my initial glowing comments re: this blend. My apologies for having mislead any of you re: the relative merits of this one. After having really lived with it for a few months, having at least 2 bowls a day in various and sundry pipes (and even though this is a burley blend, it seems to do well in any briar as well as the expected cob) and finally really feeling I have a handle on it...my earlier review isn't quite accurate. I believe I fell short in presenting its spectacular goodness. What this blend represents is something truely profound: the absolute domination of smoking perfection.

I feel I have a burden of responsibility to ensure that each and every one of you reading this march your butt over to 4-N's and get started with this one as soon as possible. After all, you might not have much time left. That bus with your name on it might be barreling your way even as you read this...better take advantage while you can.

You can tell by looking at the tobacco that there's a good portion of cigar leaf in this one. It's a strong presence in the blend. From the taste, I don't think it's Dominican cigar leaf because it has the spicy, punching strength I associate with cigars from the mainland, from Honduras or Nicaragua. But enough of me trying to sound like a con o sewer. The cigar taste is gentle and strong, but it never overwhelms the rest of the tobacco. Which, surprisingly enough, is Burley. I dislike Burley. It's been in every tobacco I positively loathed. So I have no idea why I bought this tobacco. But I'm glad I did. If this is Burley, then I'd be happy to be buried in it when I die.

What you get here is two slow, powerful flavors melding into a single experience, as when real cream is mixed in coffee or caramelized onions piled on a steak. There's nothing sharp or insistent about either flavor, but their casual strength joins easily and together they just sort of roll unstoppably over your senses. The Burley (and I still can't believe it's Burley) is sweet, but it's darker and less insistent than sugar, tastes more like pecans in molasses. The sweetness goes very well with the lower, salty, earthy flavors from the cigar leaf.

The fun part (as though it's not fun already) is that the tobacco increases and changes flavors while you smoke. If you like that experience, you'll love this tobacco. When I started puffing, I was thinking, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if they put some tobacco in this one?" Then for the rest of the first half of the bowl, I could tell there's tobacco, of course, but the flavors were a simple promise of something deeper later on. The last half of the bowl is where the flavor marriage takes off and does its thing, producing a stunning crescendo sweet and earthy goodness, with new hints of chocolate and pretzels. The nicotine strength keeps pace, beginning mild and ending up on the verge of wooziness.

And that's just some turns with an MM Washington. What would this be like in a larger bowl? Hmmm . . . I can't wait!

This is cigar leaf done right. A lot of the blends with cigar leaf seem to be trying to create a cigar in a pipe and they fail every time because that's just not possible. Here it's applied judiciously and is, in my opinion, a roaring success. The Burleys are the star here and they're mildly sweet, nutty, and a little earthy. The cigar leaf adds a little spice, a very slight sweetness, more earthiness, and a good deal of depth. This is a pretty smooth smoke. No harshness, no sharpness, and not rough like many of it's kind. This is very well done and deserving of 4 stars.

Medium in body and flavor. Burns pretty well, but may need a re-light or two. If there is an added sweetness here I couldn't detect it.

EDIT 4-12-2016

I thought I would revisit and say nothing has changed since the last time I reviewed. It was shortly after I did my last review that I did a trade on a forum for 8 ounces of this that I just recently finished on vacation last week.

This is just the ultimate change up smoke, all day smoke, burley blend, cigar blend and codger blend all rolled up into one. It is still sitting comfortably in my top 5. The only improvement that I see that can be made is to offer this in tins. Anyway, I will order a few pounds next time to jar up for the cellar.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 10-28-2013

This is one of the easiest reviews I have done. I recommend this blend more than any other blend. So highly recommended is the only choice.

What is it like? Heaven in a pipe. Everyone should try it, especially any burley lovers.

I received a nice "sampler" from a friend (about 4 oz!) that knew I enjoyed a lot of great burley blends. Took me awhile to smoke all of it, but this is an interesting take on "straight" burley. Smokey is a good descriptor, and it's not one I've thought of often when it comes to burley.

Smokey and lightly sweetened with something, but I can't place the flavoring. May be mild cigar notes and there were some in this blend that popped up regularly, but they melded nicely in with the nuttiness of the burley. Since there is reportedly no virginia in this mix (and I didn't notice any), something else is contributing the sweetness and I'd guess it's a light casing of some sort. Whatever it is, it adds rather than detracts. But back to smokey! 🙂 Perhaps that's the cigar talking and it was a nice change of pace for a burley. Elevates what I would otherwise find to be a rather mundane mixture to "recommended" status. I'm not quite as taken with this as are some other smokers, but as far as burleys go, I've smoked better from the Houses of Uhle, Pipeworks & Wilke and C&D. But this is a rather unusual take on the straight burley and I can certainly understand why it has its fans. Definitely worth a shot as long as you don't go in with the absolute expectation that it will live up to its hype.

What a great blend. I really enjoyed smoking it. It has a very nice aroma in the pouch, kind of like old leather. It is a small cut mostly cube cut, loaded very easily in my pipe, and took one good light to almost all the way down and then only one more to finish. It smoked all the way down to a grey ash and dry pipe. It was very creamy, cool smoking and very rich tasting. The cigar leaf is there, but it does not dominate the blend, it ads spice and fullness. The burleys in this are just a match in burley heaven. I liked this one enough, that once I finished my first bowl, I loaded it again in a large billiard and smoked another bowl. This is a very nice blend that I do recommend very much to try, cigar smoker or not. Not for VA lovers but wonderful to burley smokers.

John Patton - Storm Front.

This is one of the best Cigar Leaf blend's I've had. No, actually, it's THE BEST.

The smoke hasn't only got the slightly acrid cigar quality to it, it has a great deal of flavour and depth. The Burley gives a higher amount of flavour, but a little unconventionally: rather than only nut's, there's more depth to it, and a notable sweetness. At first the sweet side is very mild, but once a decent burn has established itself the sweetness becomes a little stronger. The cigar leaf only gives a semblance of character: a gentle woody/earthiness, but nothing too sharp; it's been added VERY lightly. The nicotine's medium in Storm Front, and it hasn't got a bite in it.

An exceptional Cigar Leaf blend:

Highly recommended.

I have been enjoying a couple of ounces of this. I have to say off the bat that I think John Patton is a blending genius. I am also smoking Dark Horse and Dark & Stormy. Reviews are on the way.

This is a wonderful medium strength burley. It is earthy, slightly sweet and even more slightly nutty. There is a smoky, woodsy quality to this that I attribute to the cigar leaf. I think there is a subtle topping that adds to the sweet, but it is so subtle, I can't identify a flavor or even swear there is one. It is good. It came a little dry, and I did nothing more to prepare it than codger scoop and light.

If you like burley, this is a great variation on the theme.

I haven't smoked many burley heavy blends in the past—never really wanted to, until now. I'm glad I took the leap. This tobacco was an eye opener. The side stream to this 'baccy was nothing short of fabulous! I found most of the flavor, a pleasant earthy nuttiness there, very pleasing. This is a good "snorker," that's for sure (proceed with caution). The cigar leaf added to the blend was hardly noticed, mildly present in the smoke, not the taste.

The downside of this blend, for me at least, is the nicotine content—which I'd place on the high side of medium. I would not recommend smoking this blend on an empty stomach. All in all, a great smoke, one that I'll put in my rotation for next year; probably not a summer smoke, though, rather one for the fall or spring. Storm Front makes me want to try more burley blends—so, the tin of Solani Burley Flake I have in storage will have to be popped!

Juxtaposed against all the other blends I've tried over the years, I'd put Storm Front up near the top. Good Stuff!

Keep on pipin'!