G. L. Pease JackKnife Plug

This is my first experience with a plug tobacco and I was very impressed. I am not a big Virginia or Burley fan, but this is one of the more flavorfull blends of that nature I have tried. Very smokey and complex with a nice balance of sweetness (without overwhelming). In full disclosure, I am not a hardcore smoker and the nicotine content in this blend is a little overwhelming for me. I can't smoke more than a single bowl at a time.

I've tried smoking this all three ways (shag, ribbon rubbed and cube). They all have their own progression of flavor. Of the three, I prefer the shag. It really emphasised an almost Perique peppery flavor that I really enjoyed.

I hear that GL Pease is going to be doing more blends in a plug. I look forward to that as well as smoking this blend once it has aged a while.

After reading the glowing reviews of this weed, I had to try some. Yowser. This is indeed one special fudge brownie.

Earthy, smokey(without latakia), flavorful and cigar-like, with a fairly strong nic hit to boot.

I didn't notice much flavor changing through the bowl, this is a more homogeneous taste, which in this case, is not a bad thing.

JNP tastes more like a fine cigar than any of the cigar leaf pipe blends I've tried.

Destined for greatness. A real masterpiece.

I am a fan of Kentucky leaf and sorely miss Orlik's Dark Kentucky Flake (though not so much its licorice). I've long awaited the day when Greg would push aside the perique and latakia to focus on this underutilized leaf in a creative way. That he did.

As stated by him and of course echoed by previous reviewers, preparation and pipe enter into the experience of JKP's enjoyment. The decision of a plug was his stroke of genius: ALL tobaccos rely on preparation and choice of pipe; we just tend to forget that and blithely do what we always do. But a brown bar staring back at us forces us to consider just what the hell we're going to do about it and accept a conscious responsibility for our enjoyment. It starts with getting to play with knives. (Great tin art, by the way.)

Me, I like dicing it. I like my smokes a bit on the moist side and this cut helps maintain an even level of flavorful steam. A shag cut would pack too densely or else burn too fast.

As to the bowl, it came as no surprise to me that a corn cob with no prior memories of latakia worked perfectly. Burley blends always seem to like cobs and this was no exception.

It seems odd to describe a taste by using a color (dark), but that's how coffee roast tastes are described, also brown sugar, chocolate, rum, even poultry meat. Kentucky leaf is the molasses cookie of tobaccos and what I like most about JKP. Not all of it is Kentucky, of course, Virginia is present to sweeten it. (Ironically, to acidify it in a chemical sense.)

I also like the fact that I didn't have to wait for this blend to age, unlike many Pease blends. There seems to be a culture assigned to this blend in particular to obtain mass quantities to hoard for aging. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest maybe JKP won't necessarily improve much and perhaps backfire. Esoterica's Stonehaven, a blend I'd compare this to, lost much of its flavor spectrum during six years I cellared it. (Though fundamentally different, Penzance did too.) Time will tell with JKP. Compressed tobacco is a different environment for aging processes than loose or exposed leaf.

I didn't expect this to become a regular with me; I don't have the tolerance for nicotine others have. Because of its ritualistic preparation, JKP is kind of a novelty for when I have the time and place for it. Nevertheless, I will always want a chunk available. Thank you, Greg, for giving us something to ponder and for the leaf choice.

This is a very good, strong tobacco. Rich, dark, fig, prune, and smokey smell upon opening the tin. It is harsh at first smoke. It improves considerably with even as much as a month of shelving. The powerful peppery flavor smooths out and is much more enjoyable.

If the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man smoked a pipe, this would be his blend. Rough and rugged in the tin, yet gentle on the tongue and full of flavor. It reveals a different flavor profile for each different way it is prepared. I recommend stocking up on this, it seens with any great blend, it always disappears. Congrats to you Greg, you have done well........

I had my first foray with the plug this Super bowl morning. It has been open for a couple weeks now as I received it as a sample from pipe smoking buddy. I do have about 4 tins stashed away that I wish to age however.

I began by slicing the plug into smaller "Penzance" size slices and folding it into a Mario Grandi bent apple that I have not really dedicated nor smoked all that frequently. Perhaps I was taking a chance that this tobacco would burn hot with only the carbon treatment in the bowl such as is found with newer pipes. I went this route however because I knew the pipe not to have ghosts from previous smokes with other essence that might creep in and cloud my judgement . The tobacco lit well initially and with a nice creamy billowing cloud of smoke. It was however a bit moist on the way down and I did encounter quite a few relights which leads me to think that my idea of aging this is spot on. Pease does tend to have a fairly high amount of moisture in his tobaccos but that is not necessarily a bad thing if prepared correctly. As for the taste, it has an earthy, natural flavor with deeper undertones not unlike I find when smoking brown flakes (Only no lakeland here) it has an occasional brighter sweet taste coming into the mix as well as bit of a peppery spice about mid bowl not unlike what a mild dosing of perique would give but this does not have perique. I imagine that interplay was due to the Kentucky leaf that is within. I also got a bit of nutty burley flavor as well as clove undertones but not too much. It did not move around too much and was relatively steady flavor wise and certainly did not bite or overheat my bowl. I eventually dumped the remainder of the leaf because it was just a bit too moist at the bottom of the bowl to continue. Pretty much just pure tobacco flavor as far as I am concerned. It has sufficient nicotine but no where near what you would find ina 1792 or Irish flake. I would put it more along the lines of FVF in that department.

I look forward to trying this in the future as the natural aging processes do there thing. This should be a good one to store up just as it's brother Union Square is.

I do recommend this to others. It should only improve with age and at that time I will update this review. For now 3.5 due to the moisture content.

This delicious VaBur is right up there with MacBaren’s HH Old Dark fired. Really yummy albeit strong dark fired Kentucky which (as you probably know) is burley from Kentucky or Tennessee which has been fire-cured. The tobacco leaves are cured by exposing them to open fires or in heated barns, which gives them their distinct dark color and intense flavor.

This gives the tobacco a deep, smoky taste but not like Latakia. It has an earthiness. There is a considerable nic-hit. No detectable casing. Ideal for those who covet a strong smoke.

The VA here adds background citrus and grass. GLP’s Triple Play is essentially this plus Perique.

Awesome, tasty, chewy, strong, lovely blend. 4 out of 4 stars.

My first smoke with this was amazing and it's one of the most consistent tobaccos I've smoked. I cut it fairly thin, rub it out, pack it average tightness.

At first I find it a bit harsh, but it settles down and sings the last 2/3 of the bowl. Bready flavors and occasional fruit flavors dominating... A complex tobacco that presents different dominant flavors in waves. After it settles down you can get a bit of smokey roundness from the DFK.

I like to chooch along too and this plays well with my cadence. Apart from maybe a bit of harshness after an overly aggressive relight (which is almost never needed), this is just smooth goodness.

It's hard to compare this to other VaBurs. All the flavors smoother and more complex than most. It stand on it's own for me. Delicious down to the last puff.

I do prefer a 9mm charcoal filter most of the time and this is no exception.

I'm not the biggest fan of the GLP plugs. They're not steam pressed, so they tend to come apart horizontally, or just all together flake apart. For this reason Ive taken to doing all the chopping right after opening the tin. Not a big deal, just thought it was worth mentioning. Moisture level is a bit high, nothing 30 mins of air time won't fix though. Tin note is like a slightly smokey, ketchup.

This blend reminds me exactly of a nice piece of home baked bread with lox (smoked salmon). It's also a bit cigar-like in body and mouthfeel. There's tons of super-bready red Virginia notes, lots of savory hickory woodsmoke, lovely floral notes, a nice rounded backbone of dry cocoa, earth, ketchup, molasses, worcheschire, black peppercorn, and something of a mineral note on the finish. Has a very dry mouthfeel, yet also provides a bit of brown sugary sweetness at the same time. Doesn't develop much as the bowl burns. Burns well with minimal fuss if cut somewhat small-ish. Nicotine is on the medium/strong side. If you like your smokes savory, you must try this. If your a dark fired fanatic like me, you must try this. The huge red-virginia character makes me think this would age well too.