G. L. Pease Triple Play

Id give this ten stars if I could. An absolute all time great pipe tobacco. Its also, yes, rather a lot of work to prepare. But well worth it. The flavor is just astounding. Heaven. It can be chopped, or crumpled or whatever you like. It burns pretty easily anyway you work it. A cool and long lasting smoke, with a solid hit of nic. It just doesnt get much better than this.

Upon opening you are greeted with a beautiful solid brick of tobacco. This plug is one of the more solid types and takes to a knife well (though it is still a soft plug, not hard at all). I have found many leaves in the plug which are whole and occasionally larger than the 2x2 brick itself. Truly a beautiful presentation with A+ tobacco leaves.

I prefer to cut the plug against the grain and then fully rub out. Some of the leaves will be too large and need further cutting. This tobacco is moist but will smoke well after 5-10 minutes of drying, a perfect moisture level for aging in the cellar.

The taste is pure tobacco, no sugars or topping present. I taste sweet Virginia, bread and spices. Half way down the bowl the flavor develops into an old world taste, sublime!

I will be buying 8 tins next time to age for 3-5 years. This is a tobacco everyone should try!

I liked, but did not love, Jack Knife Plug. I really liked the novelty of the plug and the process of preparing it to smoke, but I thought the blend was a bit overwhelming to be a regular smoke. I LOVE Triple Play. The addition of the Perique seems to make all the difference. It balances out the dark burley and seems to mellow the blend while adding a distinctive pungent flavor and it cools down the Virginias making this a wonderful smoke. This is a man's blend, but one that you can still smoke all day. It still has a pretty powerful nicotine kick, but nowhere near the nigh overwhelming kick to JKP.

The aroma in the tin is sweet and earthy with notes of dried fruit. The flavor is consistent from first light to the end of the bowl. The room note is pleasant although my wife said it reminded her of a cigarette (I lay that at the feet of the Burley content and my wife's hyper-sensitive nose). Nevertheless this has found its way into my top five blends.

I can't wait for more plug blends from G.L. Pease.

So let's start with the basics -- this stuff is a nightmare to pack and load. The cake does not crumble, and if you try to break it up you get massive pieces of leaf that make quality packing challenging. So you cut it up with a knife into ribbons, but still have to slice and dice to get something manageable, working around all the stems that seem to be baked in. Ok, once you do that, you're left with a tremendously wet smoke, even after some drying time, and you're gonna need relights. It's really a pain in the a** presentation.

BUT, darn if it isn't a good flavor. Its got a light sweetness, huge body and depth, and a wonderful balance. The kentucky shines through without overpowering, providing a vinegar sweet "thickness" to the profile. Just a pleasant bit of spiciness, not enough to give me a nose tingle, and a great kick of vitamin N.

If you're willing to invest the time and get this stuff burning, its tremendously rewarding. I'm honored to light up a bowl of this every day.... and that smoke comes right after I curse it during packing and loading, and right before I crave it after I'm done. It gets better with age (my current tin has a year on it), and really shines after some jar time to rest. It's got a great every-day meaty balance -- you can focus on it and enjoy the complexity, or ignore it and read a book. Lovely. And cursed. And lovely.

Oh. My. God. Is this THE tobacco I was looking for? I can’t stop myself from writing a review after just 2-3 bowls of this... Starting point: I am a va/per and va/bur/ky lover, so this looks like an easy one to win... Opening and tin note: just another crumble cake, which I am not so enthusiastic about. But what I see here is something I remember seeing at a tobacco farm: BIG leaf pieces, and this is crucial for the smoking process. In fact, breaking the plug and filling the bowl is not neutral here, because the more you pinch and break, the more you realize that you will be smoking some puffs 80% perique, some puffs 80% burley... and this is magic! Everytime you fill a bowl you can predict (or look for) a peculiar taste-shape and predominance for that very singular bowl!

Smoking it is just perfect, few or no relights, evolutions and surprises from top to end, beautiful ash.

I understand why some may find TP “too tasty” or “too many things in one” or “too sweet and pungent”. I guess it requires your buds educated to VAs (red here, which I love and prefer), AND to burleys (the real PLUS in Triple Play imho) AND to perique.

I mean the Dark Fired KY here is THE game changer, for us va/per lovers always in search of a difference in so many similar market offers. And Pease here MAKES the difference 100% hands down! Think of a Solani 660 with a boost, of a Telegraph Hill with a solid ground floor, of an Old Gowrie pressed and enhanced to the millionth power...

Finally, let me wipe my eyes from tears of happiness and commotion for finding this treasure, and let me go ahead with other brands’ va/per/bur waiting to be opened from my cellar... hopefully I’ll get back and update this review with more comparisons and evaluations. Or rather I’ll be found in the cellar in despair, ranting for that last bowl of Triple Play which I’ll have hidden somewhere not to find myself without this nectar!!

I bought a tin of Triple Play several years ago as an extra tack-on to another order. It was a G.L. Pease blend I had not tried, and I typically enjoy most all of his blends. I didn't get around to smoking any until recently. As expected, I found it to be a most excellent smoke. It reminds me of Jack Knife Plug a great deal. Except, without the smokiness. That is my initial impression. It's Jack Knife Plug without the smokiness. Or at least the same degree of it. Jack Knife Plug is one of my favorites from Pease. It is a wonderful silky delicious celebration of what pure tobacco can be. This has that same pure deliciousness of exceptional pure tobacco flavor as well. It is very good. Pease has a way of giving his blends a character, smoothness, and subtle touch that few others can. This blend is a superb example of his subtle touch. The constituent parts aren't any different from dozens of other similar blends, and yet it stands apart. Triple Play doesn't seem to get much attention, but it should. Purists will find it to be one of the finest examples of pure tobacco flavor out there. I detected no bite, no burn, nothing unappreciative at all in smoking this blend. The experience was purely pleasurable once the charring light was completed.

Triple Play is a nice change of pace from other VaPer or VaBur blends. The uniqueness come from the Dark Fired Kentucky. It really add a different dimension to basic VaBur. And the added Perique is just the right amount of spice. It is Like a nice grilled steak. It hits all three bases, Virginia, Perique, and Burley. Have had this many times over the years and it never misses. I cut a 1/4 inch flake that I cube cut and slightly rubb out.

I got this as a sample from a UK pipe-friend! Before reading about it on here, I diddn't knew this was based/inspired by JackKnife Plug, a plug I like a lot!

My sample came already cut and rubbed out finely, so I can't comment on the plug itself. But the colors are black, dark brown and few red-brown tones. Triple Plays scent is ripe dark, and slightly sour fruits, decent woodsy smokiness and some earthiness. Almost a bit offensive, due to the intense aroma of both the Perique and dark fired leaf, but intriguing for the lover of a hearty smoke.

And hearty is also the aroma when smoked. ripe stoved- and dark fruits by the Perique and Virginias with a slight sweetness dominate the flavor, especially on first puffs, before the dark fired leaf kicks in. The dark fired Kentucky is added in just the right portion, GL Pease naile it here. It adds a rich earthiness, smokiness and wood and takes its share in the flavor-profile to take an equal portion (taste-wise) as the Perique and Virginias. There's also a minor nuttiness, and some grassy notes by times.

This isn't a "Va/Per spiced with Kentucky" nor a "Va/Ky spiced with Perique", but a TRIPLE PLAY! Even tho I guess Virginias are most, then Perique and at last Kentucky in the mixing ratio, all three ingridients take a similar share in the flavor. This is "Virginias, Kentucky and Perique" whilst most Va/Per/Ky (or as I call it "Trinity of tobacco blending"..) use one of the two (Perique OR Kentucky) for spicing the blend!

Decently spicy, some boldness in there, but not overwhelming in strenght. Medium to strong, but a solid medium in strenght for the Aficionado of a hearty, stronger smoke. Very digestible. What can I say? I LOVE IT! I love a lot of Va/Per/(dark fired)KY blends, but Triple Play is in the Top-3 list. Burns cool and slow and makes for a long smoking session even though my sample was rubbed out to shag-like cut!

Chapeau to GL Pease...this is my second GL Pease blend (JackKnife being the other) and I'm deeply impressed...those are some serious tobacco blending skills! 4/4 stars....I NEED to get more of this....ASAP!!!! 😉

Edit: I wrote an in-depth review with pictures of it in english language on: http://tabak-pfeife.com/index.php/tabak/sonstige-tabake/65-triple-play-gl-pease

Conclusion: Complex interplay between pleasant flavours makes for a nice smoke. This is for those who like their VaPer with some oomph. Yet this is a bit too subtle (bland) for my taste, and that is why it remains at a two star level. But still it is a good smoke no doubt.

Taste: Plum and pepper from the perique mixes with the virginia sweetness and the kentucky sting to make a chutney like character with hints of wood. It is dry and light yet direct and powerful and increases in power as the bowl progresses. The sweetness gradually diminishes and the last third or so is nutty, wood-ish pepper with some faint fruity notes down low. Yet there is something missing, I think I would prefer a bit more perique.

Mechanics: A plug, firm and compact, to slice and rub. Great burn, no need for relights and always a dry smoke with no bite. Medium to full strength.