G. L. Pease Area 51

Area 51 is a limited run special edition tobacco that was produced for the Columbus Show by GL Pease. Regis McCafferty (co-founder of the North American Society of Pipe Collectors), recently gifted me a tin. It is a fabulous smoke! It has strength, a dominating sweet Oriental flavor with some added Virginia sweetness and more than a wisp of Latakia. Pease topped it with a little something extra (Rum). I love it and just can't seem to put this stuff down! The added sweetness and nostril tingling oomph simply knocks my socks off. The flavor is deep, especially when sipped slowly.

I was asked what Area 51 is comperable to. Man, I just don't know. I think if you took the old Balkan Sobranie White and removed the Latakia and added a sweetner similiar to what G&H puts in their Rum Flake, then you'd have something similar to Area 51 - maybe.

So, I am a pease fanboy, unashamedly. So when I scored a tin of this on eBay years ago, I decided I couldn't open it, so I waited. Well this year halloween just around the corner, I figured, what the hell, lest crack that sucker! So I'm now realizing that this tin is 10 years old. When I first cracked it, the aroma was just, wow, a raisiny, musty, rum laden aroma wafted into my nostrils. I just smelled it for a minute before putting it in a jar to sit for a week or two. I finally couldn't wait any longer and decided to smoke a bowl. Wow, just wow! So delicious, english, smooth, creamy, leathery, and with hints of sweet, sugar cane and brown sugar from the rum just peaking through every few puffs. I love pease stuff, especially the english blends, and I new this would be a treat, but I was worried that 10 years may not have been kind. Glad to see that my fears are unfounded, if you get an opportunity to nab a tin of this and you like Pease other english entries, especially Chelsea Morning, give this a shot, you won't be sorry, but good luck finding it, being that it was a limited run 10 years ago, I'd get this is one of the very last tins in existence. If I had do compare it to something, I'd say it's like Chelsea Morning, Piccadilly, and Black Frigate had a love child.