G. L. Pease Union Square

This blend was a very new experience for me, I thought I'd had Va before, but when I tried this I realized that those other blends were not a pure as I thought. It is a very interesting smoke, very bitey for me, I found that it smoked best in clay or meerschaum. I like it a bit on the dryer side, I found that when I smoked it fresh it tasted like wet grass, but when I let it dry a bit it likened more to freshly cut lumber or sawdust, but with a nice sweet honey finish, all interesting flavors to me! I like this blend and I'm curious to see what a five or ten year old tin tastes like, I've got one aging, so with any luck, I'll be able to have that experience!

Union Square is probably the best Virginia blend by GLPease. Sweet, subtle, and hayey, like all good Virginias, with a citrus flavor given by the bright leaf component.

That said, US lacks the taste that I love in GREAT Virginias, like FVF, IRC Flake and the like. Maybe this is the less "bland" from the GLPease Virginias line, but still not quite on pair of the great ones.

I was excited to try this as it's a new blend to me (nobody imports this into the UK AFAIK) & I love VA like nothing else.

The tin was a little moist, so I let it air 2 hours. Packed lightly into a small Peterson. Rubs out nice & easy into ribbons of long leaf - so far so good and as expected from a GLP product.

The intital few puffs were very light, like breathing air, but this improved into a good, dense, rich, voluminous smoke. I enjoyed the taste, which is like hay, vanilla top notes, richening out into almonds & nougat, toast, oats (oatmeal is present throughout), sometimes cocoa, othertimes tannin- like a merlot wine- all good and complex. not boring, as it changes as you smoke the bowl, almost with each puff. It burns reasonably cleanly and demands go go slow, threatening to bite a bit, but maybe I'm being too greedy and puffing too fast 😉

I am going to be really picky now. The tobacco was a slight disappointment insofar as I expected a smoother, more rounded, more mature taste and this is at times a bit tangy and atworst slightly sour, like it's a bit green or immature. I'm comparing it to my gold standard VA, Full Virginia Flake. I think maybe my GLP tin could do with cellaring for a year as the FVF has been left to mature 2 years, so perhaps this isn't a fair comparison. My point is that FVF is half the price, so I excpected more from Union Square right from the start. But don't let that put you off. The tobacco is very good, and would be excellent given a little maturing.

Tin note of stewed Rasins, spice, and hay. Tobacco broken flakes are not too moist, no drying needed. The yellowish-brown flakes have a little dark brown and tan leaf. It rubs out fairly easy. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium to strong and nic is medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of strong spiced bread, wood, mild earth, mild sweet grass, mild floral, very mild tart lemon, very mild orange bitter and a mild peppery retro. Virginia is leading, supporting and providing backup. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is good.

Average American straight virginia. Certainly enjoyable to smoke but it doesn't give me much of the pleasure I associate with SV tobaccos. Good entry point to discover GLP VA blends.

My second tobacco from G.L. Pease - thanks to the excellent Gauntley's of Nottingham (UK):

I have not been fan of straight Virginias, preferring English mixtures recently, as well as Irish Flake, & Peterson 3Ps. Recently I tried Pease's JackKnife - the finest tobacco I'd ever smoked. I hesitated ordering a VA but wanted to try a flake from Pease.

Well, the first impression was certainly good - lovely, warm tin-note and easy to handle & pack. Smoking this straight out of the tub - I could feel the potential to bite, but nothing like Erinmore or MacBaren's or Dunhill Virginias. This is something entirely different. With other VA's I've tried you get told off for rushing. With this one, you are cordially invited to take your time. It's a far friendlier gesture. After two bowls, I now feel I've finally been given a good example of what a Virginia can be - dry, sweet, a great early-to-mid-day smoke. At £16-odd a tub, it's expensive, but you get slightly more baccy and the quality is worth it.

It is dried-prune-y and a little sweet as I like my va flakes, but I can only achieve that taste for a short time in the middle of the bowl. During the beginning and at the end of the bowl, it is less sweet and dried-prune-y and has a very savory tobacco taste.

This one took some time to grow on me, or something. The first 13 smokes were uninspiring at best. Very little flavor, and bitter at that. Then it got better; some fuller flavor with a nice subtle sweetness appeared for the final 8 smokes. Always deceptively strong on the nicotene given the light flavor, or maybe I just pulled too hard trying to get more taste, or maybe I inhaled it a bit inadvertantly. Anyway, for the last 1/3 or so of the tin it was good. No bite. Don't know if I'll re-visit, but I did enjoy it toward the end.

Wonderful VA flake mixture. This, I think, shows that GLP can compete with the traditional European VA flake blenders, and compete favorably in my view. I flirted with 4 stars, but 3 for now, as I typically prefer some perique in my VAs.