G. L. Pease Chelsea Morning

A well balanced mild English. Ever so slightly sweet and sour, giving it a scrumptious quality. Perfect moisture in the tin. A great way to start the day. I have had much better (to my tastes) though, so I won't buy it again.

My 2oz tin did not have any internal paper parceling (manufacturing hickup?) and was also a bit drier than I like. The tin note is fabulous and the cut looks great - though not necessary the best for packing/smoking. This blend is largely (bright) Virginia based with a smattering of Latakia and Oriental tobaccos and a touch of Perique. The blend lit and smoked well with a mild but tasty flavor with a subtle topping of some sort Those looking for a rich full flavored tobacco will will find this one a touch mild. Further, the Virginias appear to be quite young, so this blend will certainly improve with age.

From a 3-year-old tin, Chelsea Morning falls firmly on the Va/Or end of English blends. The Lat is very understated, which works on a blend like Dunhill Early Morning Pipe because of the quality and balance of the Virginia and the subtle application of the Orientals.

Subtlety was never G.L. Pease's strong suit. The Orientals are sour and unbalanced - they would require either a better VA presence or a good deal more Latakia to balance them out. The Perique, when it is evident, doesn't help with the overall sour flavor.

Chelsea Morning may appeal to fans of strong Turkish-forward blends, but otherwise it makes for a nasty morning smoke that doesn't hold a candle to EMP or any other mild English breakfast blend. Skip this in favor of benchmark mild Englishes.

This is the blend where I figured out that Pease is making tobacco for a different pipe smoker than me. I mean holy crap, what were you doing the night before that this blend "shines its brightest" with your morning coffee?

I can imagine the blender spending all night tossing and turning with a raging nic fit and then pouring this into a pipe first thing. Maybe it would be better to adapt the alcoholic's technique and keep a tin of Nightcap on your bedstand to take care of the 3am shakes, and then blend an appropriate morning mixture.

Chelsea Morning tastes pretty good, but it's light for its power. I don't want to smoke this stuff early, and later in the day would rather have a blend that's got a little more Latakia flavor to it - hey that's the first time anyone has criticized a Pease blend for not having enough Latakia, isn't it? I'm also not quite sure where the Perique is supposed to fit in, it seems really out of place.

Maybe this is Jose Mourinho's Chelsea Morning now that he's unemployed, but the rest of us can't go back to bed to sleep off the nicotine haze. Two stars, I'm sure it's great for addicts.

A nice morning smoke with more latakia than I'm use to for a first pipe of the day. High quality, nice cut for loading, smokes well, but there's not anything to hang my hat on for more than one tin. I can check this one off my list.

After several tries, I have decided that I can't really smoke this blend. That's not to say that it is a bad blend. The many many positive reviews should tell you that this is good stuff. I have just never done well with perique. I think that chemically, I don't agree with it. I knew that this blend contained perique when I ordered it, but I wanted very badly to try it anyway.

After a few months the blend has gotten noticeably smoother. However, it still doesn't agree with me. If you are not usually a fan of blends with perique, this one will probably not be for you either.

Greg Pease makes great tobaccos. He makes my all time favorite blend. This one just isn't for me.

Not sure about this one. I frankly do not like the taste of it. My wife commented on the smoke saying it smelled 'like a wet dog'.