Hearth & Home Black House

This blend has been compared to the original Balkan Sobranie 759, and while I am too young to speak on that, I can speak on the excellence of this blend.

Black House is a luxurious English blend, that hits all the flavour notes you want from the genre. No varietal of leaf is overpowering the others. This is harmonious, slightly creamy, and delights the palette. No chance of tongue bite, and has a pleasant room note.

A fantastic tobacco and an easy 4-star smoke. Rich and smooth, with absolutely no bite, bitterness or harshness. A fabulous, sultry, nuanced, full balkan which seamlessly integrates and balances the various component tobaccos like few other balkans ever have. Mind-boggling how smooth this smokes for a blend rich in orientals and virginias. The savory virginias assert themselves more in the second half of the bowl. The latakia is ever present but does not muddle or overpower the blend. Does it look, feel, taste or smell like my heavily aged samples of 70's Balkan Sobraine? Not really. But then, it's pretty green in comparision, so the latakia is still quite a bit more dominant in this blend's youth, it has an odd but pleasant sweetness from the cavendish, and the orientals have a different flavor. This blend is sweeter, smoother, and less complex, earthy and salty than the Sobraine I've smoked so far. There IS something reminiscent in the room note, however, oddly. An outstanding effort nonetheless. Is it closer than McClellands' Blue Mountain? I think so. Regardless of any unfair comparisons to other long-aged weeds, it stands on its own merit as one of the smoothest, most creative, most well-balanced and flavorful balkan mixtures currently available.

No disrespect meant, but this strikes me as the balkan blend that GL Pease has been chasing for a long, long time. This blend is quite lat-heavy but has none of the occasional harshess and/or bitterness in other blends which often do not agree with my chemistry the way Black House does. Four stars. Stock up and don't look back. This is a great smoke now, is almost dry enough to smoke right out of the tin, and can only improve with age and proper cellaring. Several of these fantastic new balkan blends on the market are making me reorganize and rethink my cellaring activities.

This is the best Balkan blend I have ever smoked. The DFK gives Black House a new and very well received reaction on my part, which distinguishes this mixture from all other Blakans.

Russ Ouellette has produced an outstanding Balkan. I have never tried the original 759, only the pouch version. As this is a bit different, it still has the rich deep earthy, spicy, leathery everlasting taste that I love so much.

As a lot of VA/OR/LA are simply bland to my tastebuds, BH is and will always be my favorite among English/Blakan blends.

I will stock all the way up to High Heavens this marvelous tobacco.

As a novice pipe smoker, I've been trying a lot of different blends, styles, and brands of tobacco over the past few months trying to really nail down my own personal tastes and preferences. I've been impressed with some, disappointed by some, and surprised by a few. Black House, however, really does stand out in a class of its own. Having never smoked the legendary tobacco it was intended to emulate, I can only say that the original must have really been something. This is to date the absolute best tobacco blend I've tasted. It has earned a spot in my regular rotation, and I envision many years of enjoyment ahead. I've already started hoarding up tins of this stuff to store in the cellar for future smokes.