Esoterica Tobacciana Margate

While all the favored Balkan named baccys like sobranie and sasieni seem like heavyweights, I find Margate to be a fine medium to lightweight Balkan.

After a lengthy session of picking out sticks, I packed it into an average size GBD and had a very delightful smoke. This stuff comes at just the right moisture, packs easily, lights easily and stays lit well. Does not smoke hot, no hint of a bite, no gurgles, no strong build-up near the bottom of the bowl and left a dry, light grey ash and left me feeling totally satisfied. The tobaccos seem to be of the highest grade and the blending is superb.

I find Margate to be one of the finest tobaccos I have ever smoked and recommend it for 5 stars right under my favorite Count Pulaski.

Tin: Lightly pungent and smoky aroma. Mixture of black and brown thin ribbon. Not terribly moist, the tobacco tending to stay clumped together when rolled into a ball.

Lighting: Took a strong effort to get it lit and keep it burning. Letting some of the tobacco dry for 20 minutes, it was quite dry.

Taste & Aroma: Using undried Margate, the beginning is disagreeable and nondescript.

Mid-bowl, a pleasant nutty and toasty taste developes from the VA and, or, turkish components.

The bottom of the bowl continues an interplay of VA and turkish, the VA being mildly sweet. Subsequent bowls give varying results.

Sometimes the bowl is good from top to bottom. The moisture level, humidity of the air, and, or, how tight it is packed seems to determine the quality of the smoke. Maximum flavor seems to be obtained with the tobacco dried about 20 minutes.

Nicotine: mild

Room Note: medium, like the taste

Overall: Margate burns a little hot trying to keep it lit, with a bit of moisture generated. Margate has a little more taste compared to Penzance. Margate has more of the classic toasty and nutty taste and aroma of an English blend. The moisture level of the tobacco seems to be the key factor. When dried out a little, 3.9, 4 stars; undried, 3.6, 3 stars.

This is one tasty tobacco!

I was very impressed with the presentation and the burn characteristics. The flavor is sublime.

I know this is going to be considered heresy by many, but I prefer this to Westminster. The flavors are far more balanced and is subject to far fewer relights. Let's face it, working at smoking a bowl is not as satisfying as just kicking back after that initial char burn with a single match and being transported to another place and time. This blend does that.

I found my tin to be a little damp for my personal tastes and dried some to almost a crisp state (my preferred texture). Straight out of the tin, you could see the promise, but the humidity got in the way of the really big show.

After drying for about two hours, I loaded my corncob and we were off to the races. What a difference the drying time made! The latakia and orientals were absolutely fantastic. The virginia was there as well, but did exactly as it is supposed to do in an english blend. That is, to support the latakia and orientals, not try to overshadow them. It starts of a little light for me, but quickly picked up in strength and taste to a desirable med/full.

I can't say enough about this tobacco. It is surely one of the standards that all med/full english blends should be judged by. If only Dunhill still produced weed this wonderful.

If you like the genre, you should like this one alot.

UPDATE: After smoking this for several months on a faily regular basis, for me anyway, I have to reduce the rating to 3 stars.

Now, I do this because of my own initial enthusiasm with the blend. Occasionally, I will settle down to a little lower scoring profile for a partcular blend once I'm VERY familiar with it. (i.e. smoking 2-3 bowls a day for several months)

This is one of those blends. It is so close to 4 stars that when you first try it on for size, you fall in lust briefly. Then, it becomes a very good friend with benefits....LOL And to me that ain't 4 stars. Still a great blend though.

I enjoy this blend and when my favorite (Smokers' Haven "Our Best Blend") is un-available I smoke this in its place. Produced by J.F. Germain & Son Company from the Jersey Isles UK (not US as stated in above frontispiece) this is a wonderful English Mixture.

The tin aroma is a pleasant mix of Turkish, Virginias and Cyprian Latakia with the Latakia predominate. The mixture is a fine and fairly long string-cut of mostly dark brown and black leaf with a very few light blonde strands. When I look at, a side by side comparison, of three opened tins of Margate, Pembroke & And So To Bed the blends appear quite similar. The aromas of each are different with Margate being smokier, Pembroke of Cognac and ASTB of Ale.

The flavor is pleasant and builds nicely as the bowl is smoked down, its smoky, tangy and slightly sweet; a real keeper. The Nicotine level is mild to medium. 8-1/2 out of 10 stars.

Salutations, permit me to begin by stating that in my view 'strength' refers to the nicotine content. I do not find this tobacco nor its sister blend Penzance to be very high in nicotine. That being said, I do not smoke for that reason, simply for the flavours. I also really enjoy the room aroma of Latakia infused tobacco, hence it is most pleasant in my books. I am sure others would beg to differ.

I find this blend to be quite similar to Penzance in some respects, yet different in others. It is a ribbon cut as opposed to pressed slice. I would say it is not quite as intense as Penzance, and for me it's a great early morning to early evening smoke; a quintessential all day smoke. Afterwards I would prefer to finish the evening with a bowl or two of Penzance. Unless of course it's forty below outside, that would be Penzance throughout the day and into the evening with a cigar or two, just for good measure. I should reiterate that I am a Latakia fiend and thus these two blends are the best I have ever put a match to. These Esoterica blends are the very peak of Mount Latakia for me.

- Tabaco

This is a mostly dark brown shag blend with some lighter strands densely packed together. It takes a little effort to separate the shag since it is quite moist and needs to dry out, this is problematic while in clumps. This packs and burns very well once untangled. The latakia, orientals and virginias play nicely with each other. The virginias are not so much sweet but lend a nice dark nutty tone. This is a good medium English that should be applauded for its balance and nice volume of smoke (something I must have in a blend). There are other blends of this kind I like more, but this was a good one.

A wonderfully full and satisfying English blend on a par with Penzance, its sister blend. Consistent interplay of spicey Orientals and Latakia makes this a 'must have' for your tobacco stash. Well-mixed ribbon cut lights easily and delivers a rich flavor for the entire bowl. Although some have descibed Margate as the ribbon-cut version of Penzance, Margate has a 'texture' of its own. A delight to smoke.

Margate is about as good as pipe tobacco gets. It is a masterpiece by any measure and one of the finest classic English blends available today.

I would describe Margate as medium rather than full. It has a beautiful aroma in the tin, and it packs and lights with ease. This blend has a delightful, all-natural latakia fragrance when smoked, and a delightful sweetness from the Virginia. It is exceptionally cool, too; your mouth won't even feel like you've been smoking, even after several consecutive bowls.

This is rich, delicious pipe tobacco of the very highest quality.

This Tobak has almost everything the flavor is amayzing but lighter than I expected, during these warm summer nights I could really care less. The burning is cool and consistent, however, I don't like to pack a pipe with ribbon cut tobacco. It might have to do with the pipe a W.O. Larson 7 straight grain Brandy in shape with a very narrow bowl. I would like to stress once I did have the pipe packed it smoked perfectly with an easy draw right down to the heal of the bowl.