Esoterica Tobacciana Pembroke

Well, I just love this stuff. Not a huge fan of boozey tobacco in general, I don't mind the occassional navy cav with rum. This however, is such a lovely marriage of a premium English with a delicate cognac, that it's in a class all by itself. Not going to be for everyone, and it certainly taints pipes.

Not quite as heavy in flavour as I was expecting - this could be a summer smoke for me.

Though I have been smoking Penzance and Margate with a great deal of pleasure for years, I had not got down to trying Pembroke until recently.

It does come a bit more moist than usual for English mixtures and some drying out helps, but is not essential. The tin aroma is awesome: rich, opulent, luxurious. The cognac is skilfully married to the base tobaccos.

In the pipe, the promise of the tin aroma is not belied. The taste is rich, almost incredibly rich. In more than forty years of pipe smoking I have never come across a mixture so full in taste and aroma. That having been said, Pembroke for me is party food - enjoyable on occasion, but a daily diet would probably lead to high levels of cholestrol.

If alcohol has to be put into tobacco at all, this is the way to do it. Whether or not you like Pembroke in the end, it is absolutely worth trying once.

Pembroke is such a luxurious tasty tobacco! Before writing this review, I had occasion to smoke a tin of unaged Pembroke, followed by a tin with 4.5 years of aging. The new tin was very good, the aged wonderful. The sharper edges had softened, and the latakia had mellowed to a supple smoothness. I love the way Pembroke produces clouds of chewy, smoke-ring-ready smoke. On the other hand, you will not win much goodwill smoking this in the presence of, shall we say, certain significant others who barely tolerate your smoking habit! BTW, I like the cognac topping, which is never obtrusive, just a hint of elegance underlying the full English taste. About the only thing I could say against Pembroke is that it has a certain drying effect upon the mouth and palate. If you are a latakia lover with a place to smoke this far away from the wife and kiddies, you will not go wrong with this blend.

mythdoc

Alright, so this is the third Esoterica blend that I smoke, after Penzance and Margate. What can I say? They are, indeed, great blends. Penzance was good, but didn’t blow me away. Margate on the other hand, did. It’s in my top favorites. Now, how about Pembroke? Lets see!

First things first, I have to talk about the tin note. I received my tin vacuum sealed, but it was also sealed with some tape over the edges for better seal. Even if it was sealed, when I took off the tape I was struck by an intense smell. Can you imagine? A smell so strong that it goes through a vacuum seal? And it was vacuum sealed, because it hissed when I opened the tin. And when I opened it completely, the smell was really strong. Tin notes are fermented, peaty, smoke and a bit of dark fruit. After it sat in the jar, it also developed some leather notes. It does smell a bit of cognac, but I would compare this smell more with Lagavulin 16. If you ever had the chance to smell and taste Lagavulin, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Does it smell of cognac? Maybe, but it’s more towards an islay scotch. It’s a strong, heavy smell.

The tobacco came quite moist, and the carton inside was just like in the other Esoterica blends. Colored from the juices of the tobacco. This seems to be specific to Esoterica blends. The cut is a perfect shag. It’s mostly dark, but has a good balance of brown and gold leaves. Super easy to pack up the pipe, but careful not to push it too much. Being cut so thin and being moist, you’ll have the impression it’s not tamped enough.

Now lets get to the serious part... the smoking experience. Due to the cut, the lighting won’t be a problem. From the first puffs you get peat, smokiness, vinegar and a bit of molasses sweetness. Few more puffs and you get some pomegranate and fig. Creamy, smooth smoke full of flavor. You will taste every tobacco in the blend, even if the latakia is in front, the oriental will also be detected and so will be the virginia, with some grassy and hay notes, not the sweet notes necessarily. But how about the topping? I’d say it’s mild. It’s so nicely done that it doesn’t overpower the blend. It actually BLENDS in the blend if that makes any sense. It’s perfectly balanced. Just a hint of alcohol, indeed somewhere between some cognac (or rather Armagnac, or a brandy or even Vinars) and Islay scotch with lots of peaty notes. You can definitely taste the oak barrel, and also a bit of fruity notes from an alcoholic beverage such as the ones presented above. But like I said, I detect more pomegranate and fig rather than grapes. So yeah, there’s the topping, mild and well balanced in such a way that it doesn’t cover the taste of the tobacco, it rather complements it. Hats off to the one that found this balance! Now lets smoke some more! Puff puff.... And came to half of the bowl. What’s here? Oh, we have some nice wood notes! Oak, yes, definitely, but not only. I can taste cedar as well. There’s still a vinegar taste, a musty taste, lots of peat and something that reminds me of anise and fennel, even some blueberries. Still has the alcoholic taste of brandy or islay scotch. There’s so much in there! Puff puff... oh, my! When did I get to the bottom of the bowl? I was enjoying this so much. I’ll probably smoke another bowl a bit later, but for now, what can I say about the end of the bowl? Well, you’ll get some spice. Some cloves, I guess, because it’s not a peppery spice. And starts to taste a bit like black tea. Am I the only one who gets this taste? If you ever tasted Keemun black tea, you’ll probably understand what I’m saying here. But anyway. There’s a lot that this blend has to offer if you sit and sip it slowly, searching for all the flavors it delivers.

And the last thing I want to mention is that this has a very nice lingering after taste. I appreciate that in a blend.

Burns perfect, it doesn’t need more then two or three relights, delivers a cool and thick smoke. The room note is intense. Medium strength, mild topping, medium to full taste, tolerable room note (I love the room note, but it’s strong and a wife might not appreciate this in the house).

As for the idea that this is Margate with a topping.... well, not in my opinion. I found that Margate was a smooth, incense-like smoke, while this one is more peaty. Margate was more complex than this one, delivering many notes and flavors, while this one is not as complex (yet not dull either). DrumsAndBeer was saying Margate is bolder and this is sweeter. See? Experiences differ. It is true that this is somehow sweeter, maybe because of the topping too, and I also agree with him that these blends are a treat for olfactory experience.

P.S.: I smoked this in bulldogs, prince, billiards... but I happen to enjoy it most in a 320KS Savinelli. I’m not a big fan of the 320KS, but this one seems to be a perfect match, with the large bowl. Just my opinion.

P.P.S.: As I was saying, this is the third Esoterica blend that I smoke. I enjoyed Margate the most, this one being in the second place and Penzance in the third place. Now I’m looking forward to get my hands on “And So To Bed”.

By now you've read that this is Margate with a cognac topping. While I don't normally like alcohol flavored blends, this one is other worldly. It takes Margate, a great blend and steps it up a notch in flavor and complexity. Depending on my mood, either Penzance or Pembroke are my favorite tobaccos. Where as Penzance is a punch you in the mouth with Latakia and Oriental wonderfulness, Pembroke is smoother and more elegant while still being rich in flavor. The familiar Esoterica casing is here and I love it. This is an all day tobacco for me and one I couldn't recommend higher.

I was a little underwhelmed with Margate, with all the Esoterica hype. It's good, don't get me wrong, but for me it fell a little short of being a 4 star blend. The cognac adds a nice flavor/aroma dimension that nudges it to 4 stars. "They" say this is Margate with cognac added, which seems believable. The cognac makes Pembroke unique compared to other English blends I've enjoyed. I think it's about as much an aromatic as Bagpiper's Dream, another excellent blend that's flavored with cognac.

I can't add much to many of the reviews posted here, but I need to convey a new experience I just had with Pembroke. I've been smoking Esoterica tobaccos (Pembroke being my favorite) for about 15 years, but I just tried something new. I recently purchased a Rattray's Meerschaum pipe fitted for a 9 mm filter. I've never smoked a filtered pipe before. I made the purchase after viewing the Bremen Pipe Smoker videos on Youtube. I'll keep this short and cut to the headline. Pembroke, smoked through a carbon filtered Meerschaum pipe (active carbon filter from Futeng) is completely sublime. I highly recommend it.

Pembroke is another amazing blend from the traditional master blenders at Germain. It annoys me that as I read through some of my old reviews that I sound like I am fawning over this particular blender, there are many great tobacco blenders like: Pease, Oulette, SPC and others that make the big names. However there is something about the time tested methods at Germain that, at least to me, set them apart. Pembroke is in a category by itself to me, maybe because it is unique in the fact that there is flavored and unflavored version of this blend, not too many blends like that, at least that I am aware of. Margate is the non aromatic version of Pembroke and is a first class blend in its own right. Pembroke is a cased/topped version of Margate that actually improves the tobacco flavor and smoking experience. Most aromatics kill the tobacco flavors in my experience. They rarely enhance the tobacco's and I think it is even rarer that you would take an exquisite blend of top grade leaves and add a flavoring to them. In this case it was a gamble worth taking. Pembroke is a blend of top grade Virginias, Orientals and Latakia with Cognac added. The blend has been described by most as a Virginia forward blend but one in which the base of Virginias to me show case the high grade Orientals. No two palates are the same I guess. In Margate I find the smoking experience Oriental forward and quite delicious. In Pembroke I do think the casing/topping bring out the Virginia's a bit more than the other leaves, However the Orientals are still a co-star in this blend. The Virginias are sweet and earthy, vegetal with grassy and musty hay notes. There is also a toasty breadiness to them that is harmonizes well with the cognac. The cognac comes across as vanilla and dark fruit, probably why it works so well with the VA's. The Orientals is still a spcy star in this blend: woody and dry with spices that compliment both the VA's and the topping. The malty character that come with all balkanesque blends is here and it is bolder and sweeter due to the cognac, this is where this blend hits a sweet spot for me (pun intended). The latakia is masterfully applied as a condiment but is bold enough to be noticed in every puff. It adds a distance sweetness and smokiness to the blend that further accentuates the malty character. This blend comes pretty wet and needs adequate dry time to smoke well. With 30-45 minutes of dry time you will be paid back in spades. Burns well, does not bite (another amazing characteristic of Germain blends) and will burn to a grey ash with little dottle.

This is a really good light English with a fantastic topping of cognac not an everyday smoke even if it was available but great change of pace tobacco