G. L. Pease Union Square

I bought this tobacco partly because it seemed a duty to experience the taste of pure tobacco but mainly because it was one of the first batch of Greg Pease's collection available from a UK supplier. Sorry to digress but I never thought I would type those words so Hooray!!! and thanks to the hard work and initiative of Greg and Gauntleys of Nottingham I can say goodbye to wrestling with UK custoums duties - last week I got a refund from an order in March!!! I must add however that my US supplier (Smoking Pipes) are a pleasure to deal with but those custoums duties are both an insult and an Injury.

Sorry the tobacco in question. I had low expectations of pure tobacco having tried McBarens unflavoured tobacco (Nothing but Tobacco or some name like that) years ago and it was flat and dull. Interesting but taste, remember and dump the tin. Union Square is the opposite. Open the drum (drums not cans in Nottingham) and get a lovely smell of sweet hay. Charring light hot but then a cool near bite free smoke particularly notable for a pure virginia but perhaps the additives in most flakes are partly to blame. Then a rich deep smoke evoking layers of flavour including hot raspberry jam on the hot sponge my dear old mother used to make, with, more in the background, strawberries, figs, nectarines. Then a counterpoint of dryer but still sweetish hay. Great smoke now but I think with huge ageing potential - my tin date was 051612 - as the flavours deepen and become more focused. No mean praise from a smoker of English mixtures. Stars? Four even without the ageing potential but with it a very easy four.

Will I buy more of this deep fruity tobacco (which is very easily available in the UK at last) to taste now and lay down for the future? Of course.

Edit (March 2016): Almost four years on from my initial review, either this tobacco or my palate has changed, because what I wrote back then definitely doesn't resonate with my recent experiences.

Having given another tin a try with my latest order, it's been one excellent smoke after another. There is enough sweetness to satisfy, but for me what comes forward the most are the bready/pastry notes from what must be the red VAs, more so than any other VA I have ever smoked, with the possible exception of SG's Best Brown Flake. These flavours intensify after mid-bowl, and there are no harsh notes towards the end as there are with countless lesser VAs. All in all, brilliant stuff. I'll be ordering more tins and hoping for the same quality.

Rating raised from 2 to a solid 4.

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Serviceable, well-intentioned, but there's nothing outstanding or spectacular going on here. Pleasant sweet, brown-sugar notes crop up for a few puffs in the second half - otherwise not a great deal happening. It tastes very 'young' (my tin is dated May 2012) and it doesn't seem like the blend has been subjected to much aging prior to packaging, so a sealed tin would no doubt improve after a few years in a drawer, perhaps substantially.

This is a high quality leaf that burns well as can be expected of a Pease blend.

Sadly, there's nothing truly spectacular about this blend. It definitely smokes better after the first third of the bowl as it begins to taste how it smells in the tin. There are definitely fig/raisin notes as well as a natural virginia sweetness, but the beginning of the smoke tastes too much like a cigarette. It would probably make an excellent base for mixing, but by itself, it remains underwhelming.

It's certainly a high quality leaf that any virginia lover, or someone looking to try out a pure virginia, should give a try, but I don't see myself buying another tin with so many other offers out there.

----Update------

After storing this blend for about six more months (total one year of age), the nuances of this tobacco really came through. The taste became more full and constantly progressed from spicy to sweet and earthy throughout the bowl. Still a cool smoke without a bite issue. I highly recommend this blend--greatly improved with age and airing out.

Edit, 2015, feb.: after revisiting this, and the other tins that had aged over the years... they didn't last long, turned into a stellar tobacco, complex, yet well married, high nic, give it a chance if you're one of the naysayers, hold onto it for a while.

This being my first online review take it for what it's worth. That being said I figured on reviewing this tobacco for a couple reasons; I am almost exclusively a virgina and virginia perique blend smoker, Union Square being a virginia i figured I had some, if any, credibilty, take it fwiw. And two, this blend just doesnt do it for me.

Upon opening you are overwhealmed with that lovely BBQ/ketchupy aroma that some love and some love to hate. I love it, but have learned to grow cautious of it, why? Because sometimes it just needs more maturity, durring this maturity i find that the ketchup mellows out over time, not completely, but subtle hints of other virginia earthy flavors win-out over time. Such is the case wth this blend in my opinion. And I didnt just come to this conclusion from the tin aroma alone, i've got less than 1/4 of the tin left after a trial an error period. While very smooth, and married, lacks depth of taste due to the robust middle-ground flavor. Not many high notes, or low notes usually attributed to the airy Hay-like sweetness of some bright virginias, or the dark muddy notes of a pressure firmented beast, this Union Square lies somewhere in the middle with the potential for subtle whisps of both high and low va tastes. But my tin, without a doubt, needs more age. She's too green for me folks, a little boring. I will let my tins age some more and update accordingly. Would I recommend this? Well yes to a fellow virgina smoker, and no, to anyone else, fore it's not what I would want anyone basing their virgina experiences on. Tempermental, and boring. But has potential to be great. Thanks for reading, hope it helps.

Perfect, and to think I almost didn't try this because I never thought of G L Pease as a Virginia blender. Now how to describe ? Take 1/4 Briar Fox as a base, add 1/4 Mac Barens Virginia #1 for sweetness, add 1/4 Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake for fruity nuances, finally add 1/4 Solani 660 Silver Flake for the Kentucky spice . 4 Stars

Agree with Zulujerk below

Updated 10/30/12 I'm a little disapointed with my second tin, it just doesn't have the sweet high notes I found in my first. It falls closer to Briar Fox than the others I called out. Maybe it's the age of the second tin but I need to take this down one star . Still a fine tobacco but more of a "Brown Flake"

Smoking a 2 yr old tin. It is a fine VA, and is clearly from a crop selected for pipe smoking. Highly evident crystallized sugars on the leaf. That said, my tin was not evidently sweet in flavour as some suggest it is. Nice format and good tobacco. There are many in its class but it is worthy of recognition since it is available and characteristic. With such simple tobaccos, I sometimes wonder how much is the art of blending versus just harvesting and processing a crop of a particular field in a particular year. Is the Union Square of 2011 the same as my tin of 2009 or am I simply tasting the leaf from a unique crop bought by the blender at an auction, that eventually runs out? Perhaps we must start to treat such tobaccos as vintages, and demand the craftsmen to label their products with the year as vintners do rather than just date the bottom of the tins..

First class VA. Ditto the previous reviewer. Beats FVF by a country mile. If you like Va then you will love this. Ageing will make this truly magnificent.

Holy cow, this is great Virginia tobacco! I'm on my first tin but so far so great. Found I had to give it a good rub to have it smoke reliably, but that done it requires little tending. Don't know but it seems like one goes down one of several paths when taking up pipe smoking. A lot seem to enter with the aromatics. Many just stay there. Good on them! The remainder seem to veer next towards either the Latakia camp or the Virginia camp. I've found myself in the latter. And Union Square seems to be one of the purest expressions of Virginia I've encountered. No taste comparison intended, but it's like having an extremely dry Martini....one where the bartender just THOUGHT about Vermouth as opposed to having added it. This stuff is 'dry' in that respect, the only sweetness coming from the Virginia leaves themselves. Really great.

Tin: Comes packed in a flap-eared cardboard container inside the tin. Smells of a light wheat, bread or hay. Mottled light to dark tan. The slices are delicate and easily fall apart.

Packing & Burning: It is frustrating the way the slices are packed. They are on edge, instead of lying flat. The slices were easy to rub between the fingers into small pieces. Although I smoked US without any drying, left out to dry, it was fairly dry in a few minutes.

Taste & Aroma: Something like a mild wheat, hints of leather, mixed with a grassy astringency(maybe due to lack of age), tangy and a little sour, with an occasional hint of cigarette.

Room Note: Pleasant and pleasing

Overall: I like the fact that it is pure VA. For this alone, it deserves 4 stars. Some elements of the taste and aroma are too off-putting. 3.4 Stars.