Dan Tobacco Gordon Pym

Appearance Not the usual cut for an English mixture, this is short and wide. The color spectrum runs the gamut from pale yellows, through tans and reds, to black Aroma: Just the perfect aroma for an English blend, sweet Virginias, spicy Orientals, and smoky leathery Latakia. Packing: Easily packs into medium and large bowls, not tried in small bowls.

Lighting: Takes flame readily, usual char-tamp-relight sequence gets a good coal going.

Initial flavor: Full bodied English mélange of tastes, smooth on the tongue, with good mouth feel. All of the components can be sensed easily by the palate.

Mid-bowl: Burns cool and dry. The flavors are like a musical group; sometimes all together, sometimes in solos or smaller combinations. Wonderful balance of tastes, nothing overwhelms anything else.

Finish: Always finishes too soon for me. Satisfying enough that I don?t need another bowl right away, but the next one is always Gordon Pym.

Summary: Perhaps a bit too full for an all-day smoke (YMMV), but excellent anytime of day or night

I was given a tin of this blend as a gift and after finishing the last crumbs today(02-09-2004), I am ready to review. Upon opening the tin you are greeted by a very pungent and slightly sweet aroma with no casing detected, this is straight tobac folks. The cut is almost a square cut. Moisture was perfect. Packing is a breeze and lighting was just as easy. Initial flavor was similar to "lakeland" virginia with the orientals and latakia kicking in after the second light. The flavor was borderline English/Balkan, kind of hard to pinpoint with some bowls tasting like a sweeter "scottish" blend. Overall, this was a good to better blend with enough complexity to encourage me to finish the tin. I can't say that I would buy another tin of this, not because I didn't like it, but rather due the preponderonce of excellent blends in this genre. My local tobacconist sells this for $12.50 a tin, too pricey when there are better blends for less. Overall, it burned well, didn't have a tendency to bite, finished with a nice fullness toward the bottom of the bowl with a dry, grey mottled ash left. Also, you can smoke this all day without wearing your tastebuds out. Rating 3.5 points out of 5. Try it, you may like it.

Tin Aroma: Sweet and Musky, a good Va/Oriental blend, judging by the 'nose'. Why don't they make 'sweet & musky chicken' instead of boring old 'sweet & sour chicken'?

Physical Characteristics: A nice, short ribbon cut, maybe a 'cross-cut'. A pleasing array of colors, though I do find the top of a tin, upon opening, to be mostly blond pieces. A good shake on it's way to my pouch and all is righted, however. Due to the size of the cut, it packs nicely and easily, but is still large enough not to be in danger of being sucked into the airhole of my pipes, a definate plus! Burns evenly and easily to a salty, granular ash.

Notes:This is uncomplicated, unfussy, and very pleasant. The beginning of the bowl is a very mellow Virginia experience, subtly toned by the Orientals and the sparse Syrian Latakia. There is a vague hint of spiciness, but not so much as to be really noticeable unless you were paying attention to it. As the bowl progresses past the halfway point, the Oriental character becomes somewhat more apparent, but never overpowers the subtly sweet Virginias. This is definately worth smoking all the way to the bottom, as the last few puffs are just about as perfect a Virginia/Oriental balance as one can find.

Verdict: While I have nothing bad at all to say about this tobaccom, there was little to really grip my attention in it. I would definately recommend it as a mellow all-day smoke.

Nice exotic smell, burns nicely off the tin. Balanced flavors, woody, sour, spicy and mellow. An all day, cool smoke for those who want a mixture where the Latakia pushes the other flavors without overwhelming them.

A good full medium English in strength and body, highly recommended for those with a better smoking technique than mine as this tobacco is a gem for subtle flavors.

Virginia lover

This is a very good medium English blend, I have to say. I enjoyed it immensely and I usually prefer Cyprian latakia over Syrian. However, that being said, I wholeheartedly recommend this blend to English lovers. It has great flavor, acceptable nic hit, and burns quite well. I probably won't be ordering again, though. There are so many other great English tobaccos that cost less and are equal to or better in quality. Good stuff, though.

Gordon Pym... There seems to be two kinds of pipesters, the one that smokes English blends, and uses milder American blends for a change of pace. Then there's the guys that smoke the milder American blends and use English blends for a change of pace. I'm the later. This is where Gordon Pym comes in for me, just right in strength, with fine burn characteristics, and with minimum Latakia flavor ghosting. A pleasure. For what it is, it's first class. 3 stars. My personal rating 2/5

This is the perfect blend to enter the English Mixtures wonderful world. Very balanced and gentle. Very good the latakia. The problem is that the taste is very fine and it smokes cool only for the first third of the bowl; then the taste mysteriously disappears and the tobacco suddenly starts to burn hot. Very good only at the first puffs. What a pity!!!!

update: taste lasts for much more than I thought. One more star for its very simple smoking control.

Well at first puffs I thought that the smoke will be a medium quality one and that I will consume this tobacco ocassionally and never buy again. When the overwhelming low quality Latakia has took the principal role on this smoke I was sure that I've made a mistake choosing this tobacco.

The Virginias are nice at flavor. The orientals, if the blend has some, are not detectible, maybe just because of the bad Latakias used in this blend.

Update September 2008

The more I smoke this blend, the more impressed I am by its subtlety, complexity and overall charm. I therefore upgrade my original rating from three stars to the full four.

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During the recent spell of outlandishly hot weather I found myself casting around for a clean-tasting tobacco that would serve me as an anytime smoke and give flavour and satisfaction. My normal Virginias had all failed the test, tasting either dull or downright rough and offensive. My English blends had similarly fallen by the wayside. Even Burley classics such as Edgeworth Sliced would not do the trick for me, and so out of curiosity I turned to Gordon Pym, a tobacco that I had previously found pleasant but stunningly ordinary. Epiphany!

For whatever reasons, the heat and humidity appeared to have worked an act of magic on this blend. Most noticeable initially was its sweetness, a refreshing, pure cleanness of taste that was in no way cloying. The touch of Syrian Latakia offered a pleasing, mild smokiness to the effect, and then the Orientals joined in, their slight spiciness giving a gentle tingle to the tip of the tongue. There was no further development in the overall flavour, simply a slight gathering of strength towards the end of the bowl, utterly devoid of harshness of any kind and with no excess moisture in the bowl. A pipe cleaner passed through at smoke?s end emerged bone dry and remarkable clean.

Subsequent smokes in a wide variety of different briars all gave the same results and the same degree of smoker satisfaction, leaving me with a clean palate and a happy smile. This is not a great tobacco, but it is one that continues to serve me well in the present sub-tropical conditions. If it works for me, it could work for you too.