Esoterica Tobacciana St. Ives

For its vein, St. Ives is good. The trouble is it reminds me a bit too much of 'And So to Bed' which used to be tolerable before they dramatically changed it. Honestly, other than Penzance and Stonehaven, which I have not had the pleasure to taste again for well over a year, none of the Esoterica series really do much for me. They're not as aggressive as the Germain Royal Jersey series and just a bit too much moldy peat and brine to suit my tastes. If you're an Esoterica lover, St. Ives is a good selection, but it's for a very specialized palate.

Two and a half of five stars

The smoky, woody, earthy, sweet, incense-like Cyprian Latakia take a small lead. The smoky, woody, earthy, herbal, vegetative, floral, mildly spicy, sour, lightly sweet, rather fragrant Orientals play an important support role. The dark and golden Virginias provide some tangy dark fruit, tart and tangy citrus, earth, wood, bread, grass, sugar, light floralness, and small touches of spice and vinegar. The sugary, earthy, woody, lightly fruity black Virginia cavendish is a tad more noticeable than the other Va.s. Overall, the Virginias are secondary players. The apricot and bitter coffee toppings moderately sublimate the tobaccos. The strength is just past the center of mild to medium. The taste falls a couple of steps short of the medium threshold. The nic-hit is a rung below the strength level. Won’t bite, or get harsh, and has few rough edges. Burns a tad warm at slightly faster than a moderate pace with a consistent sweet and savory, floral, mild campfire and mildly muddled flavor. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average numbers of relights. Has a lightly lingering after taste, and the room note is slot stronger. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and repeatable for the less experienced. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

Picked up an aged bag of this some months ago and have smoked about half of it and gave away the other half. This is mostly a darkish brown color with some light specks in a weird cut that is a cross between a massively broken flake and a choppy ribbon cut. The smell in the bag is kind of nonchalant, with a hint of cloves and fruit.

A crossover blend with latakia and fruit - tastes like some sort of berries with some sour apricot thrown in. The description states coffee and I don't really pick up that taste exactly, but I do get a sensation of coffee bitterness within the latakia's smoke. Light latakia and the orientals are almost non-existent in taste but do show up in the room note. Throughout each bowl, I got a sense of stewed fruit which oddly enough was more pronounced with each relight for a few puffs. Stewed Relights - what a weird concept. The base Virginias seemed boring overall, with a few blades of grass, a clump or two of earth and a basic hay-like presentation. This one, along with most of the line, tells me that Stonehaven is their crown jewel. Penzance is good, too, but most of the rest of the line is inconsistent and odd, albeit kind of unique. I like the concept of the crossover blend but most of the time it just doesn't work for my taste buds. But try it if it interests you. It's a well put together blend, but doesn't generate any enthusiasm on my part.

Smoking Esoterica Tobacciana St. Ives is like eating an expensive steak for which you try to convince yourself that it deserved the amount you paid for it. Somewhat Recommended to the ones looking for a transitional blend between Aromatic and English (mostly English).

The blending house's description sounds heavenly but this stuff doesn't attain those lofty heights. It tastes and smells like cigarettes.

A very interesting tobacco, it is a bit like Pembroke Lite. If you find Pembroke too heavy, try this medium english blend. It is very sweet and the fruit topping is subdued, but like most sweet blends, it has more bite than I would like. The combination of sweetness, latakia, and fruit flavor reminds me a lot of hookah tobacco. If you like hookah tobacco, you will like this blend. If you want a real change of pace and like english blends, you will like this as an occasional smoke, as do I.

I was given a couple of bowls of this a few weeks ago and tried it out in a corn cob. It has a sweet grassy smell, shag cut and smoked smooth and mild. The first thing that came to my mind concerning the topping was ‘Juicy Fruit’. This is an okay blend but I found myself wanting to hurry up the second bowl so I could go on to something else. Glad I had the experience but this flavor combination is not for me.

I received a sample of St. Ives and was happy to get to try some without investing in an 8oz bag.

The cut is shag-like. Bag note was spicy and sort of fruity. Moisture was great. Easy to pack, wanted to clump together a little. Lighting was quick, charred, tamped, and light and go.

Taste wise this one is interesting. The background is highly reminiscent of Margate. Where Pembroke adds Cognac to Margate, I'm not sure exactly what was added to the English background here. Dark Fruit overnotes to me a little bit like Raisin? Spicy hints here and there from the orientals. Together, a little odd at times, like it really can't figure out what it is.

Left quite a bit of moisture (needed a few cleaners during the smoke) but burned down to nice grey ash.

This is one that I'll have to come back to later once I really decide what it is.

This is one weird bag of pipe weed. The smell out of the bag is overwhelming. Somewhere between rotting fruit mixed with the ladies section of a bingo hall. Fruity, perfumey, and old lady foot powder, not a good smell if you asked me. Now the appearance of the leaf is typical for anything that comes out of the Germain factory, top quality leaf, so I did not let the stench drive me off. To be clear, I did not put any of this stuff in a pipe without 40 minutes minimum of drying time. The aromatic casing/topping does dissipate with dry time. It needs the dry time because it is pretty damp out to the tin/bag. Flavor: This is not as bad as I thought, but not as good as I hoped. I held back on writing a review to give it a fair shot. This is very similar to And So to Bed but just stronger on the topping/casing side. This is a solid English blend under the topping/casing. I am not an aromatic smoker as a general rule so I am not sure if spraying good leaf with fruit loops makes it more appealing to that type of smoker or not but it might. For the traditional English smoker this might be too much for you to get past, however I can taste the VA's and Latakia despite the flavoring. The flavoring hits you first every time and it is kind of floral and what I call "powdery" like old woman body powder. It is like walking through a department store perfume counter with you mouth open and then taking a drag off of a cigar or cigarette. The first thing you get makes you wince an then you settle in and enjoy the smoke. I found that sipping this is not the way to go unless you want to savor the perfume. If you puff at a medium/fast cadence you get sweet and slightly grassy VA and creamy Latakia. I cannot find an Oriental tobacco here but it is a decent sweet English if you can get past the flavoring. Big strength is the room note. Very pleasant smell in the room