Hearth & Home Magnum Opus

Just received my tin and after two bowls I'm not sure if I can put a finger on the most outstanding ingredient in this blend. Emphasis seems to change with every draw. At first light, Latakia jumps up and gets those taste buds moving, then magically it fades to something else, you can still taste the strength, but it is now rounder? Simply fantastic! Not sure if I taste an easy going English, or a tasty Balkan, or a spicy Virginia playing in the background. Just when you think it reminds you of some past favorite, it lulls you into another area. Face it, It just works. This is my second tobacco from Russ O. and I couldn't be more impressed. A definite master at his craft. G.L.Pease was my benchmark for these types of tobaccos of late, but no longer. A solid winner.

I have come to expect quality from Hearth & Home, seeing as my favorite Balkan Blend is White Knight, followed closely by Black House, and Ashton's Artisans Blend. And they certainly deliver some exceptional products. Ultimately what sold me on this blend was the inclusion of the Oriental Basma. I love Basma in Peterson's Old Dublin, so I had to get this to try.

The tin art leaves a little to be desired, especially when compared to other tins H&H have on offer. But the tobacco is what we are after. Opening the tin you'll find a coarse cut ribbon of varying shades of black and brown. The tin note is enticingly, intensely smokey. With Orientals giving a woody, herbal tang that matches the Latakia. I think it comes at a perfect dryness to smoke right out of the tin. It packs well and lights well.

Now I've smoked this off and on for about 6 months now, and my advice up front is to let it age a little bit. Upon lighting, I taste a complex bouquet of flavor. The Orientals are immediately up-front. They taste herbal, earthy, and very incense like with a tangy sweetness coming from the Basma. The Latakia is smooth, creamy and smokey. The Virginias add some sweetness in the background, and the Perique is giving off a nice spice throughout.

The taste I give a medium, this has the ability to be fuller, but I do like it where it is at. The strength is also a medium. The smoke is cool and slow. It's really hard to push this to hot. The room note is a typical Balkan so take that for what it's worth. This is a great, relaxing Balkan fit for a king. It doesn't replace my feelings for White Knight, but it is a solid, outstanding blend.

This is the first time I had the urge to be untrue to my fellow pipers. I had the great idea to write an awful review so I could hoard this tobacco. Yes it is that good. For a complex and very flavorful tobacco the tin note is not that strong. I get some smoke Latakia and believe it or not rasins and figs from the perique. A little sweetness and sourness but a mild smell from the tin/jar Not the taste, this truly is a masterpiece. This tobacco presents itself with so many flavors it deserves your full attention but it does not require it. I have done office work and prayed the Rosary while smoking this blend (something I love to do when I smoke a pipe, for you Catholics out there it is like burning your own incense and it helps lift your prayers to heaven. I may petition the Vatican to replace Frankincense with Magnum Opus during the Mass). Latakia and the Orientals are the star players in this blend. Woody, smoky and sweet. The dry balsa wood like flavor and the malty flavor that is present throughout the smoke is extremely pleasant. The perique while in the tin note is just a support condiment that seems to boost the flavors of the Latakia and the Yenidje. I get the "fizz" feeling with this blend that I absolutely love. It also presents a creosote like flavor towards the last 3rd of the experience. This is a world class tobacco. The only thing that I do not like about it is the tin art. Had I not known that this was a Russ Oulette blend I would have passed it on gaudiness of the label alone. However if the words " beauty is only skin deep" ever had meaning it would be now. One of the best smokes out there.

Excellent. From the wonderful tin aroma to the fantastic room aroma this blend leaves this is another superb creation by Hearth and Home of Pipes and Cigars dot com. Most oriental/latakia tobaccos seem to me to be very one dimensional varying only by the strength of the latakia applied. But Magnus Opus is a complex blend with a variety of oriental leaf that offers a complexity of flavors that change as you smoke the bowl down.

I generally tire of these types of tobaccos and switch blends often, but this one will stay in my rotation and be smoked on a regular basis.

Well deserving of its name, the Magnum Opus offers a base of sweet grassy and hay-like flavour of the Virginia, with sweet Latakia-woodiness. It is smokey, but not aggressively so - the orientals offers a creamy butteriness to the blend, with the Perique peeking through some delicious peppery spiciness. Masterfully blended, it is somewhat similar to G.L. Pease’s Abingdon, albeit less fruity.

I wonder why it took me so long to get to the hearth and home blends ? Lack of knowledge. I love the sweet bright yellow Virginias and they play well with the fine orientals including yenidje ! The latakia is top notch and the perique adds spice to an already spicy blend from the orientals ! This is my kind of balkan right here ! Oriental forward smokey and spicy and sweet combination. I love it . 4 stars . Russ is the man .

Magnum Opus is an excellent everyday English blend. The tobacco is a fairly coarse ribbon cut and the tin note is fairly mild with notes of earth and spice.

The dominant flavor throughout the bowl is black pepper and earth to a lesser extent. There’s a lighter note of grassiness and a bit of smokiness and cedar.

Overall Magnum Opus is a world class blend that I’d pick as an everyday smoke over nearly any other blend I’ve tried so far. I was also given a sample of some 4 year aged Magnum Opus and I can safely say that it gets better with age.

Yum. 'nuf said. I'll get much more of thisl Nice smooth, balanced flavor. Remains very cool, regardless of how stressed I'm puffing it. I'd highly recommend this for someone wanting to get into non-aromatics and towards an English blend. I don't mean to over-simplify the taste. I think it's all around delicious!

One of the roundest and most succesful of a genre known by many names: crossover english, americanized english (ha!), English plus, kitchen sink blend, etc. Not my favorite type of blend, maybe because they often miss the mark for me, with a few notable exceptions. Magnum opus is firmly in that category, along with Potlatch, And So to Bed, Artisan blend, and Bengal Slices. The exceptions are testaments to the skill of the blender. However, when not so skillfully done, blends such as this can easily become muddled, heavy, confused, and unharmonius. There is none of that here. Magnum Opus presents a unified flavor profile that is well integrated. It is Latakia driven, with much barbecue-ey sweetness and tang. The oriental component is blissful, the trademark yenidje soda flavor evident, which i love. I dont remember being as impressed with this previously as i am now, so perhaps a year or so aging has brought something out in it. Equally possible is that my tastes have changed or my memory isnt what it could be. What i know for sure is that this is a 4 star blend, very reminiscent of Bengal Slices flavoring, but much better, softer, and with the added benefit of those beautiful orientals, and a whisper of the plummy sort of perique. My tin is quite dry now, and smokes beautifully. Sipped slowly in a cob it is magical when i draw some outside air into each breath. If pushed it becomes bitter. All the more reason to take it slowly and enjoy. This is what Frog Morton seeks to be, but doesnt achieve. A sweet, round, fragrant and rich latakia mixture.