G. L. Pease Union Square

I gave this straight Va offering a go when I was still wet behind the ears in the hobby. At the time I really wasn't able to suss out the leaf flavors well, so the first go wasn't so great. It's also a bit on the stronger side nic wise, so that also deterred me from it. Since then behind my ears have dried a bit and I've branched into LBF, Escudo, Golden Sliced etc., so I decided to give this another go.

The cut is a flake, but to me it's more of a broken flake. Most of them end up being about half the size of an average Orlik or Mac Baren flake. You can still put a few together to fold & stuff or you can just rub it out. With this blend I've rubbed it out and have had good results.

It packs pretty easily and takes a char/true light well. It burns on the slower side which I think helps draw flavors out better. Being a straight Va one would think this would be a fairly straight forward and mundane go, but it's quite the opposite. Because of the diversity of types of Va leaves it offers every flavor profile in that spectrum. You get the plum/raisin/fig notes. The bready yeasty notes come out as well. The citrusy earthy hay like flavors come in as well. It's a rare complex Va blend.

To me this is more of a sit down an concentrate on the smoke kind of blend, because of its complexity.

Overall I'd recommend it for anyone that's in to Va's, but not as a first foray into the Virginia genre.

It's got a little more nicotine and flavor than the average Virginia Flake by Peterson, McClelland or Dunhill. Perhaps, even less casing is present even in the tin scent. So, I give him credit for something that really does seem a very true pure strong Virginia blend. It reminds me of McConnel's Red Virginia a bit. If I hadn't already smoked that, I'd likely be more wowed, but it's pretty similar in character, and I think McConnell's is a little tastier.

I do enjoy this one and it's a darn good smoke. I just have yet to taste that GL Pease Blend that verifies his stellar reputation as the best. I do think this one has potential to age into something better than smoking it new, but it's certainly not a negative review, just didn't blow me away. It's basically as good as other Straight Virginia's that are out there made by the reputable companies. It does have artisan quality flake, so that's a plus. Reminds me a bit of a McClelland, but completely without their signature.

If he was going for something pure, which maybe he was, he hit the mark. It's almost just a packed raw blend of Virginia tobacco's. I think I can smell the dirt it was grown in, its that natural.

Well-formed, loose flakes with a mild Virginia aroma greet the smoker who opens an aged tin of US. A tad moist on opening, but easy to pack and light no matter how firmly pressed. So far, so good!

I simply cannot agree with the plethora of laudatory comments with their extremely favorable contrasts to the great English Virginia flakes from so many producers (some of which are blended in the USA)! Perhaps I am not yet ready for a "natural Virginia" and historically prefer adulterated Virginias. I do not know! I do know this blend was very much less flavorful and generously satisfying than about every other "full Virginia flake" I regularly puff. I had high hopes after all the four star ratings!

To be fair, this Virginia flake has grown on me in a subtle way over the last several days. Well-aged and given enough air, the blend "rounds out" into a mild, satisfying smoke that is more generous than initially indicated. There is more sweetness and flavor satisfaction since I first opened the tin: three stars!

This is one of the best VAs I have ever smoked.... Period. I was surprised how quickly I finished the tin, once opened, My rotation ceased being a rotation. Union Square became my everyday smoke till I ran out. Never wet or hot, just a perfect VA taste. Anyone wishing to try their first pure VA would do well to try this one from Greg Pease. No need for me to rehash what a high quality VA is here as others have done it well in other reviews. Suffice to say this is what a VA was meant to be. 4 stars.

I'm somewhat disappointed by this pure Virginia from GL Pease. If you smoke this a little bit too fast, it tastes absolutely nothing. Just hot air. If you take your time with it you can feel the sweetness from the Virginias but that's about it. It has a taste that, unfortunately reminds me of cigarettes. I had hoped for more complexity. Especially from G.L Pease but I guess that it can't be a home run every time. I do however think that this blend will improve with age.

Strong, pure Virginia tobacco. The description is exact and this tobacco is a real thoroughbred. A little bit much strong, but tasty and natural. Excellent straight, excellent with a hint of Latakia or Perique if you prefer. Nothing else to say: try it!!!

When I started looking into straight Virginia blends, I quickly settled on this one as the first to really try and take apart. I'm a devotee of the GLP blends and know that aging really takes some of them to a sublime level. So when I saw a few 2009 tins on pipestud's website at basically retail, I jumped.

The broken flake is kind of weird. I've found that lots of the GLP broken flakes are really variable, in that you'll sometimes get a tin that's really broken, and sometimes they're mostly intact. I'm guessing that shipping is what breaks a lot of these.

The tin note is really deep and earthy, and if the blend had any bright leaf in it to begin with, five years has allowed them to darken. In the pipe there are lots of different notes coming and going: a subdued sweetness, deeper, earthy flavors that I tend to associate with orientals, a little bit of cigar-like spice. I'm bad at describing component flavors of a blend, but let me say that this is well-integrated and, as I think someone else said, highly complex across a narrow frequency band. There aren't bass notes that latakia or dark-fired Kentucky can provide, and none of the highs that perique or bright Virginias bring, but in the middle there is a ton going on. How much of this is inherent in the blend, and how much comes from aging, I can't be sure. But it's sublime, whatever it is.

I'm happy to have another tin of this aging away, and I'm going to get some more. This isn't necessarily a blend I would smoke all day, as the nicotine can build up a bit, and I do like some condimental leaf with complex Virginias. But for someone like me who doesn't like overbearing sweetness in his pipe, this is a fine, fine blend.

EDIT On the strength of that 5 year old tin, I ordered an 8 oz tin. I did my usual thing and split it up into 4 mason jars, and opened one of them right away. I'm a little disappointed. The flakes are a little chunkier, which is fine, but the cigar-note that I liked in the old tin is really amplified here, kind of taking over the subtler notes that I really liked. So for me, this is 3 stars fresh, and 4 with age.

I'm careful to make sure that I have enough time to smoke a full bowl of this stuff. Besides Navy Escudo Duluxe, I don't have a more consistent burning tobacco in the cellar. It's my first GLP and it has really caught my attention.

I would agree with some reviews below; age this a bit and it smokes like gold in your pipe. Though, I did enjoy the first pipe right out of a fresh tin. Man, those are beautiful flakes.

Lights easy, packs well, burns so nicely and so cool that I sometimes think that its not burning at all. To me, when I light this one up I'm left thinking that this is the way tobacco was meant to smoke (and smell).

And I think, contrary to popular opinion, this might be one that somebody relatively new to pipe smoking could try without getting blown away by the strength and swell Vitamin N content.

Nuff sed.

I've been holding off this review for a while as it has taken me a while to adjust my palate to Mr Pease' tastes. There is little doubt that he has a distinctive House Style- I have so far tried four of his blends and they are all unmistakably Pease. His tobaccos tend to emphasise the upper mids and high notes- you won't find much of that 'slump into your sofa and stare off into the distance' you get from something like Nightcap or Escudo- even with something as satisfying as Cumberland there is a cerebral/controlled aspect to a Pease product akin to a very well prepared IPA (at the proper strength, 3.6% ABV) as opposed to a Titanic stout, which makes you wistful for a roaring fire and a blustery night. I ordered 2 tins of U.S. and used one of them to add complexity and lightness to some McBaren's H.H. Old Dark Fired, which works very well. But on it's own, Union Square is a subtle, clean tobacco which gives most flavour as a broken flake, sipped conscientiously, with the ocassional deep draw. I can't think of any oher Va I have ever tried which so captures the essence of Va- this is a superb product, but be aware, it is subtle. It needs to be unpacked, to be thought about, to be viewed as one would extremely well prepared sashimi. I have learned a lot about Va from U.S. and I feel everyone should have a tin or two in their cellar, to be able to touch base with the purest offering of this quintessential species of tobacco