G. L. Pease JackKnife Plug

This is a good smoke if you can keep it lit without disturbing it. I have at times packed this too tight moved it around and have gotten a bad case of hiccups. Having said that, there have been times when I have packed it just right and had a pleasurable experience with a few relights. As mentioned by some of my pipe smoking compadres " this is not for the faint of heart". The nicotine rush from this tobacco is up there with the best of them and I reserve it after a greasy meal that requires some aid for digestion. It also benefits you to have a nice glass of fine whisky along side of it; preferably with a couple of cubes. I always have some on hand and it does mellow a bit with age but not enough to be a daily smoke. I still, a majority of the times, get a tongue bit and need a day to recover. Again, I believe it is how you pack the beast that matters. Other than that not a bad one to keep in the arsenal.

Jackknife Plug is easily the best tobacco among those which combine Kentucky with other leaves. I'm not prone to enjoy mixtures containing Kentucky, as I find it harsh, bitter and with a taste that casts a shadow over its companions. Mr. Pease has managed to find the perfect balance, so Kentucky interplays with the sweetness and subtleties of rich Virginias for a complex smoke.

I've found some blends too strong on the stomach when others have described a good dose of nic. I found this one a little uneasy on the stomach so I blended it with about 25% mild black cavendish. The blending turned it into a very enjoyable smoke.

I don't know why, but I feel like I'm sitting with Robert E Lee around the camp fire with my cob and some "Jackknife plug". A strong, mellow, cigar taste. Just a hint of sweetness and chocolate. Just slow sipping. "Private, bring me a cup of coffee". Nice baccy. To prep, I find it best to first reduce the thickness of the plug by pulling it in half, then with a sharp chef's knife and a cutting board shave off thin slices. I tried 1/8" cubes but they were too hard to keep lit. Don't try to puff on this it will turn "metallic" tasting ( that's how I describe the taste I get from overheated Burley ?). Not an everyday smoke

Updated 8/20/11 I'm smoking my second tin and I may have been wrong saying this was not an everyday smoke. I'm looking to place this in my rotation as it is a nice break from the Vir/ VaPer/latakia blends. . I have to move this to 4 stars

Updated 10/29/11 Update ; Seriously, after working with this blend for a number of months and a few tins, it has some disappointments. This has to be smoked in a heavy brier and only at a smoldering sip. Otherwise, it will bite and get that "metallic" burley taste, I find this more on the burley side than Virginia . This tobacco just requires too much attention for a not so exciting experience, also rub out the plug and allow this tobacco to breath in the tin for about a week before smoking. I am reducing this to 3 stars. I found the same issue with C&D's "Briar Fox". I agree with much of reviewer "Kilmarnock Piper" above

Lots of natural tobacco flavor. I agree with Bulldog Jeff that this tobacco is reminiscent of a good cigar; not the aroma of a cigar, but rather the unadulterated nature of this blend. This plug-style concoction reminds me also of Cornell & Diehl's Briar Fox, but with the added depth of dark Kentucky leaf.

Govern Yourself Accordingly

An unexpected luxury. Full of rich earthy tobacco flavor, yet mellow enough to be completely enjoyable. I have tried it a few ways. Cubed into a big billiard is my favorite so far. A slight nutty flavor from the burley, sweetened by the virginias and rounded to its full robustness by the kentucky leaf. Smokes like a cigar, only without the "stinkiness" of a cigar. Each sip is full of rich smooth luxurious unmolested tobacco flavor. I thought I was just going to try this one tin and let it pass, but I actually think I may keep some of this on hand.

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.

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.

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.