G. L. Pease Chelsea Morning

I've been looking for an early/all day English Blend for quite some time now. GLP's Quiet Nights is my go-to English as the sun gets lower in the sky, but with a morning cup, it can be a bit much. I'm not a huge fan of the "other" Morning blend, so when I came across Chelsea Morning, it sounded like it might check all of the boxes and so I put my order in and anxiously awaited what could be my all-day English blend to arrive.

Upon opening the tin, the Latakia is apparent, but subdued. Which I considered a good thing. The Virginias were more on the fresh hay/citrus spectrum, and I thought that would be great for a smoke early in the morning.

The cut is a chunky ribbon, but easy enough to pack and light. The mechanics are spot on and I have no issues smoking it down to the heel with little or no relights.

The taste. Here is where things get a little...complicated. In the right pipe, this blend is astounding. Sweet, fragrant and complex with flavors and aromas of incense, citrus, honey and spice. However, in the wrong pipe, it leans towards harsh and acrid, and you get none of the sweet Virginia flavors to balance out some of the more assertive condiment tobaccos.

I have found that I need to smoke this in a pipe with a tall, narrow bowl rather than a wide, shallow bowl. I like most of my English blends in wide open bowls in order to taste all of the component leaves, but I like to smoke my Virginia blends in taller bowls that let the sweeter leaves shine and let the condiment leaves play a supporting role. Because Chelsea Morning is such a complex blend, but still relies on the Virginias as its foundation, I treat it more as a Virginia blend rather than an English.

Once I figured out this little idiosyncrasy, I have really enjoyed the blend. And I dare say that if you aged this blend for a year or two, it would be a transcending experience as an all day smoke.

I will say that I get more nicotine off of this blend that some others, so I generally like to have something in my stomach in the morning before lighting it up.

Overall, I really like the blend and enjoy it very much. I docked it a star simply because it is so finicky about the type of pipe that it prefers. Sometimes the ideal pipe is not ready in the rotation, so that eliminates Chelsea Morning from the lineup for that day. However, I still recommend trying it and possibly aging it to see if that rounds out some its persnickety characteristics as the Virginias continue to age and sweeten.

G. L. Pease - Chelsea Morning

This one strikes me as similar to C&D's Plantation Evening although here the flavors are more melded together, likely by a difference of processing.  A lighter english blend where the different flavors tend towards mild but certainly not boring. There is some creaminess and spice but often the mouthfeel strikes me as dusty, but not in a bad way.  A good english blend at a time when you may not want a hard core latakia blast or oriental blast.  Pretty well balanced.  It can turn a bit ashy in the bottom half, I think going at it too hard may be a contributing factor there.  The particular cut lends well to smoldering rather than all out combustion so these bowls tend to last awhile.  It is a blend that can show you different nuances of flavor and mouthfeel at different times, probably also owing to it's cut.  Despite being a worthy and high quality blend, I don't feel particularly strongly about this one.  But it's worth three stars at the least.

Edit: 10/28/19 I’ve decided to rewrite my review entirely. Chelsea Morning has become one of my favorite morning blends, paired with a cup of black coffee. The cut is quite rough and uneven, but I only rarely rub it out or break the larger chunks into smaller pieces. I’ve found it smokes best in a medium/large bowl, being careful not to pack two tightly. It offers notes of ripe fruit, deep plum and raisin, accompanied by a bit of hay, woody orientals, rounded out with creamy, smoky Latakia and a healthy pinch of pepper spice. The deep fruit notes of the Virginias working in tandem with the plummy, peppery Perique is what really sets this blend apart. Delicious. Highly recommended.

I've really come to enjoy this blend, though it wasn't "love at first puff."

In the tin, the aroma that comes through is mellow (which shouldn't be mistaken for mild). There is the stewed dark fruit that you'd expect, plus some tang and smokiness from the oriental and latakia leaf. The cut itself is hard to pin down - chunkier and less uniform than a ribbon, but certainly finer and less chunky than a broken flake. This can make it a bit of a challenge to pack perfectly, but paying a little extra attention to that makes it easy enough.

As I said, this was not love at first puff. Immediately after cracking the tin and packing a bowl it was very disappointing. I couldn't understand the hype - I got an early whiff of latakia which become largely flavorless and by the time I was 1/4 of the way through the bowl it was like I was smoking cardboard with a hint of perique.

Then I let it sit in the tin (lid on, but not in an air tight mason jar) for a few days. Letting it breathe just that little bit changed everything. The next bowl was everything it promised to be - sweet Viriginias with some tangy oriental coming through every now and then, latakia added the light smokiness I was hoping for, and perique that was doing all of those magical things that perique does to a blend.

For me, the perique built up steadily throughout the bowl - quietly adding a dark, stewy-ness to the smoke early on, and becoming much more pronounced and peppery by the end of the bowl.

Will this before everyone? Probably not. But, if you tend to enjoy the lighter "breakfast" latakia blends (Early Morning Pipe being the obvious example) and also like a little perique in your diet, I can't imagine this would miss the mark.

This blend is an English Style delight. It is an English blend that is robust, without being overwhelming the latakis, and the orientals delight, with the perique making a cameo appearance as the bowl is smoke to the end . Delightful in every way, I enjoy it every time I smoke it.

Sorry, old chaps, this one fell flat, in my book. Lacked the personality I require in an English/Balkan that I need to taste the tartness.

CM is the blend i like the less from the Pease`s works. I´ve smoked several bowls in several pipes but for some reason i can`t get stuck with this one. Put it to cellar for a while and then i´ll review again. So far, nothing special for me.

Purchased a tin about a year ago. Stuck it in my pipe cabinett and forgot about it. While doing some reorganization found it and tried it. The aroma in the tin was fantastic - I could smell the perique. It was a little damp so I set it out overnight to dry. Lightly rubbed it out with my fingers and stuffed in my pipe. To my delight this stuff is really good. Burned well and was tasty all the way to the bottom. I was doing some sail repair and smoked it while outside in the cockpit - didn't have that grassy taste a lot of virginia based tobaccos do when smoked out of doors. Definitely will get put on my "approved" list. For a similar comparison - Frogmorton on the Bayou is close.

Have smoked this fine tobacco for several months now. Smooth morning and all-day smoke. Room note and taste is like Penzance light!

2014 10 19 Have stopped smoking this as more and more it has tasted unpleasantly sour and bitter to my tongue, although my colleagues still prefer this tobacco over many of the others I have moved to.