Dan Tobacco Gordon Pym

William Serad once reviewed this blend in P&T Magazine and called the blend an exemplar. So, I quickly bought a tin and loaded a bowl.

Gordon Pym is, without question, one of the strongest smelling blends I have ever put into my pipe. The latakia was HUGE. The Orientals and Virginia were far in the background and for some reason, the Maryland leaf really exploded.

I will say this for Gordon Pymm, if you like to watch the smoke escape from your pipe, this blend will provide plenty of it. Oh, and it is a cool burning blend.

Dan Tobacco - Gordon Pym.

It's a robust mixture, containing some quite chunky pieces, has a good moisture, and is mainly three shades of brown: dark, medium, and light.

The flavour of the smoke's fairly unique. For the first third the dominant ingredient's the Latakia, although it isn't too pungent or acerbic a flavour, it's quite sweet and very smooth. After about a third the other leaves make their presence known: the dark fired Virginia increasing the smokiness, and some tartness and pizazz from the Orientals. I get no bite whatsoever, and it's cool in temperature.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: pleasant to tolerable.

Gordon Pym? Four stars:

Highly recommended.

This is a thoroughly delightful Virginia-dominated blend enlivened by a judicious amount of Oriental spice. I'm really impressed by the subtlety of the blend and especially by the quality of the sweet and delicious Virginias and the awesome Latakia.

My picture of this blend might have something to do with the well-aged tin I'm puffing from, but I suspect that this is yummy in youth, too. It smokes cool, billows like an old train, smells ok, and has a moreish quality that is causing it to turn to ash rather quickly around here.

If there's a drawback to this blend--and several other reviewers have pointed this out--it is in the subtlety, the lack of 'hey-look-at-me-ishness' that defines it. It's elegant, refined, delicious. But it doesn't stand out from the pack. Maybe that's to its credit in the pipe, but I can't imagine it does much for sales.

Oh man.... this stuff starts like Old Ironsides and turns sweet like Frog Morton... fantastic. Bingo.

In the first half the Lat, which is very smooth and of high quality, tends to smother the other components. As the bowl progresses from that point the other components push back and make a good showing. Smoke, wood, a touch of hay, a tart little sweet note and a mild spice make the second half quite nice. Wish the whole bowl was like that.

Mild to medium in body. Medium in taste. No added flavoring detected. Burns very well.

Syrian latakia seems enigmatic to me. If a blender surrounds it with the right constituent parts (Solani 779), it's a nice smooth tasty blend. If a blender does not (Frogmorton - I think it's their Across The Pond blend), it's an odd and sour tasting concoction... IMHO, of course.

Two words strike me while smoking this blend. First, it's a very smooth tobacco that doesn't even provide the slightest tingle on the tongue that could elevate to tongue bite. This is the 30 year old scotch of tobaccos - nice and smooth. Second, and this is more important, is balance. This tobacco seems expertly crafted, with each tobacco not only adding to the whole, but also blended in precisely the right proportions so that none of the individual parts calls attention to itself. This may be one of those rare blends I call "genius blends". It's equal parts sweetness, spice, earthiness and nuttiness. Genius. A nice "set it and forget it" blend to relax with.

So if it's a genius blend, why the 3 stars? Well, I guess I tend to like smooth tobaccos but the ones I love are usually more flavorful. This one misses my rotation by lacking that pizazz I require. But if smooth and well balanced are your key words in a tobacco, this is your manna. Impresssive!

The leaf components in this blend are first rate. This is a bit of a softer medium blend due to the Maryland leaf which is very mild and a subtle air cured character but the Latakia seems very pronounced despite not dominating the blend components. I think this is due to the cut which is a broad rough cut instead of the ubiquitous ribbon. In my experience the wider the cut the more profound the aroma despite hampering burning a bit. The orientals when they decide to make an appearance are intense in character, sweet and have an almost funky bruised apple character. The dark-fired leaf is hard to detect on it's own since it will meld with the Latakia but provides occasional extra richness. The virginias like in many English blends are lost in all this. As to complaints... the Maryland is a little high in proportion which dulls the blend a bit and not enough of those wonderful orientals. It reminded me of the older Dunhill London Mixture when Murray's made it. That blend had what seemed to me to be a milder air-cured base to it("Virginian") being analogous to the Maryland in this reviewed blend making it cooler on the palate than a straight virginia base while maintaining the richer condimental aspects of a medium blend. But, at times this blend can seem even richer in the medium-full range.

Even tho I only like blends with very(!!) little Latakia in it (f.e. Motzeks Old Curly) I somehow had a fascination for this blend and decided to order a sample of it with my last order at Dan Pipe. If its the classy, smooth looking tin art, or the well sounding name "Gordon Pym"....somehow I had to try this blend. As I'm no english smoker you may take this review with a grain of salt!

When the sample baggie arrived I was shocked: It smells intensly like Latakia, smoky, woody and I feel a slight herbal-sour undertone from the Orientals. I was expecting smell much less of Latakia, but it smells like a full-grown Latakia blend.

Smoking it shows - to my personal appreciation - that it's totally different than the unburnt tobacco seemed to promise. The smooth as silk, almost buttery, very woody and decently smoky syrian Latakia takes a relaxed backseat. It's there in every puff, but only very softly. The Orientals seem to give it a slightly herbal and ethereal, dry feeling. I can't really detect the Virginias, nor the Maryland. There's a mild sweetness to it, that may be coming from the VAs.

All in all the taste is smooth as silk, very mild in both strenght and flavor and I feel it's very suitable as beginners attempt on Latakia blend, or as a mild All-Day-Smoke for English lovers.

Gordon Pym's cut is like a square cut, and makes for a cool smoke and easy handling, just as much as it looks interesting.

As I don't smoke English blends, I can only rate this for its own merits and can't compare it to other blends of that kind. So I'll settle for solid 3 stars, because I had some smooth and delightful smokes with my sample. I'd also recommend it to people like me, who like only very little Latakia in a blend. Good smoke!

While this blend does not grab you by the ankles and shake you upside down to get your attention I feel that it is a good blend. It is not very complex but has good flavor and burns very cool and even. I generaly go for blends with more complexity but sometimes I just get in the mood for this and enjoy it. This may be good as an all day smoke for some who would enjoy a medium english blend as a main stay, I like it on occasion.

Update 6-28-11:

I dont know if my palate has developed or the blend has changed but I was sure wrong when I first reviewed this about the complexity. This blend weaves between the turkish and the latakia and the virginia adds a nice sweetness. Lately I have really been enjoying oriental blends and this one sings. I must upgrade this one to 4 stars!

I purchased two tins of Gordon Pym back in December of 1998. I decided to open one up the other day. I have mentioned this before in other reviews but I do not want to hoard so much pipe tobacco only to have it go to an estate sell. I would rather enjoy it than someone else. Upon opening I detected a nice fermented sour smell, it is loose cut and I packed it in a large poker pipe and lit her up. It smokes very cool and actually at times tickles my nostrils. Produces a lot of smoke and is an easy all day or night smoke. I am on my third bowl and no complaints.