G. L. Pease Quiet Nights

Wonderful, interesting Blend that bridges the gap between a pure Virginia and English tobacco elements. Burns slowly, smoky, complex, Virginia sweetness, moderate strength, with multiple flavors and aromas. I love the way this is cut. Smoked in a large bowl, it allows you time to identify the individual tobaccos used. A new mainstay for me.

Broken flake of pure mastery.

Tin note is of balanced but smokey Latakia with a small but surprising amount of citrus. Not an Orange one like Golden Sliced, but more of softly blended, maybe even wine, type.

When smoked, first thing that stands out for me are the Balkan leafs with some healthy spice from the Perique. As I smoke it, the flavors of the Balkans, Latakia, Red Virginia, and Perique are just extremely well balanced.

Overall profile is spicey, smokey, with some sweet and sour. Full flavor. While I believe that every human should have some natural right to smoke this blend, including an everyday, all-day smoke, it is still a unique blend that has to be appreciated by giving your full attention to it. It's not a blend for non-thinkers, but requires you to sit, think about it, feel it, and relax.

Mechanically, not the friendliest blend. But further breaking the broken flake and working to make it easier to smoke is part of the fun.

For me it still requires couple of relights. Nothing to complain about really. Smoke is cool with no tongue bite.

The excitement about this blend is real and is time-tested. Hope to have enough of this for the rest of my life. Well done.

Quiet Nights is one of those tobaccos you will enjoy from start to finish. A great late day or evening smoke, this one delivers a smooth smoke you won't forget. Not very strong, not peppery, or overbearingly odd in any way. It has a nice touch of perique that doesn't blast it's way into the bowl. You can smoke it as slowly or quickly as you wish without tongue bite. It's almost as smooth as Penzance - but this isn't Penzance. This blend is in a class all by itself as one that is mild and enjoyable. No toppings or aromatics included.

I really like this blend. I grabbed it as it was recommended as an alternative to Penzance. I've still not had a chance to have the Penzance, but if its anything like this, I'll be happy.

Tin note is of Latakia (to be expected), flakes are thick but crumble easily and are a joy to handle.

This is an oriental forward blend, on first light it remineded me of H&H Black House (of which I am a fan) but I think this has a bit more going on than that. Smoking mechanics are great, it doesnt bite or get hot, no goop at the bottom of the bowl, this is one to stock up on.

This blend is a fine one indeed. It can use a little drying out when you first open the tin. All the components come together nicely to give you a nice long smoke that will sure to please. The nicotine level is just right in the middle of the road. Really can't be beat on quality of the tobaccos used in this blend. Cant wait to try what else is under the corporate umbrella. Highly recommended.

Is this my favorite tobacco? So far it is. I've been piping 8 or 9 months, now & have probably sampled about 100 tobaccos. I'm a Latakia fiend, so I smoke mostly English/Balkan/Scottish blends. I certainly have more of this stuff than any other tobacco. Well, I do have more of the PS Bullseye Flake, as I smoke that with my morning coffee. I just popped the lid of one of my 8 oz tins. As a former homebrew & National Level Beer Judge (Acetomenophen clobbered my liver a few years ago (18 day coma & not expected to live)) I erect the aroma of "noble rot" the earthy smells of fermenting vegetables & fruit. So far I'm using the Pease tobaccos as my late evening smoke. Gaslight, Abington, Sextant, Triple Play are in rotation. Ordered a sample tin of Westminster & Sixpence. Cyber Monday I ordered a bunch of stuff. 5 8oz Tins of Quiet Nights for $24 each. Everything in this blend works wonderfully together, providing a rich sumptuous, totally enveloping bliss. My wife likes the aroma of Latakia, so I'm happy there, too.

If you're sitting on the fence with this tobacco, my advice is to try some. It's wonderful.

Coming off of a Balkan binge, Quiet Nights at first smoke seemed flat. I missed that overwhelming Turkish overload that dominated smokes like Charring Cross and Bill Bailey's Balkan, and swore that the blend was missing something, going so far as to apply an extra bit of Smyrna in hopes of evening the blend out. That, of course, was unnecessary, and my palate quickly adapted. I suppose that I can be finicky when smoking a blend for the first time, full of expectations and curious about the impressions of others.

In that vein, I've wondered why Quiet Nights has been so "quiet" on Tobacco Reviews, as people have comparatively registered a great many more appraisals of Chelsea Morning. I say this because I expected Quiet Nights to be the showcase in the Old London series--a Pease Nightcap killer. It's been so long since I've smoked Dunhill that I honestly forgot the blend, and having recently acquired some of the new stuff, found myself underwhelmed. The new Nightcap seemed weak, and lighter on the Latakia than I remember, however hazy those old impressions. But that overwhelming strength I was seeking doesn't exist here, as well.

Quiet Nights is certainly a full blend, but nothing that will knock you out, which is probably a good thing for most smokers. It's a rare English in flake form, a beautiful blend in the tin, with broken, soft, thick flakes. The Latakia is far more plentiful than the new Nightcap, and the blend registers a deeper sweetness as well with a contained Perique element, similar to Nightcap. They share attributes, but their differences are greater than some other blend comparisons that can be made.

Now that Quiet Nights is finished and I have that old standby at hand again, I'm realizing that I've come to appreciate Balkans more than I had anticipated, despite my early dislike of the genre. With that, this fight to the death finally ended when the whole event burned to the ground. It was a tasty spectacle.

Four of Five.

Most of the Pease blends that I have tried I haven't really enjoyed without some age on the tin. Quiet Nights is my exception. It may be unfair to Greg, but I think that many will compare this to Penzance. I find this blend to be full right from the start, yet very cool and smooth. It is a little moist right out of the tin, but only requires a short while to dry. QN packs a fair amount of nicotine so beware if that's not to your liking. For those that compare it to Penzance (I find myself somewhat in that camp), QN lacks the sweetness found in Penzance although that may develop more with age. What keeps this from being a four star blend for me is the bottom third of the bowl. To my taste it becomes less complex and more bitter. I have stashed a few tins away to see what a year or two will bring. Recommended.

Appearance: Although the description listed a flake, the tin of Quiet Nights that I received contained it in a completely broken form. The tobacco was packaged on February 8, 2022 - it wasn't even a year old. Despite this, the blend was a thick dark brown color with occasional light brown flecks. The tobacco was a little moist, I had to dry it out a bit before stuffing it.

Flavor: Leather, musk, roasted meat, spices, a discreet note of tar, woody cedar and sandalwood tones create a dense bouquet, in which it is difficult to catch the individual notes. Almost imperceptible notes of baked fruit and figs complete it with a light sweetness.

The overall taste is slightly subdued, but dense, and difficult to decompose into components. Wood-smoked note predominates, spices play almost along with it, among which turmeric and spicy herbs (oregano, thyme) stand out a little, there is a slight tinge of pepper. Virginia plays in support of the main flavor, giving a slight sweetness. But overall, the tobacco taste is rather dry, and somewhat reminiscent of blends with Syrian latakia. Near the middle, the Virginia notes almost disappear, merging into one dense bouquet, the taste becomes dry and the blend becomes full and strong. I can't help but notice that at the end of the smoke I detect a strange light eucalyptus flavor - unexpected, but not unpleasant and very light. The tobacco smokes very cool, slow and dry, burning into a light gray dust and leaving almost no moisture in the bowl. The strength is more like blends with Syrian latakia, just above average, a slight nicotine kick is possible when smoking in a very large pipe. The aftertaste is woody, with a subtle meatiness, quite persistent.

The smoke is not too dense, but persistent and very noticeable by smell - sandalwood, tar.

What's the bottom line? Pease seems to have continued his experiments in trying to achieve the flavor of Syrian latakia, and I believe he succeeded the most with Quiet Nights. The carefully selected blend of orientals, Cyprian latakia, and perique, with the red virginia added, is gorgeous. It's an inch far from lat-bomb, but very mild, capable of pleasing anyone who likes latakia. This blend almost displaced my favorite Odyssey from the pedestal of evening blends. Almost - because in my opinion, there is a little more latakia in it than I would like. Maybe if I'd gotten my hands on a 5-7 year old tin, the Odyssey wouldn't have had a chance. As for the comparison with Chelsea Morning, I'll probably refrain here - despite the same components, the difference between these tobaccos is very significant.