Esoterica Tobacciana Stonehaven

Thanks to a pipe smoking friend, I have had some six year-old Stovehaven calling to me from my desk. This is one of those things where if you waited for the occasion that was worthy, you would soon have some seven year-old Stonehaven. I decided not to wait for a special event. Maybe I decided to create one.

It is hard for me to describe because I am not the poet. There is a depth to it, and it is smooth and full of VaBur flavor. There is a smoky thing going on in the flavor profile and I found it slightly sweet and a little heavy. It smoked very cool for me, and it was a longer smoke than I expected. Those flakes are dense. I have a theory that when there is not enough taste in a tobacco, I puff it too fast trying to extract some. Stonehaven does not have the "not enough taste" problem, and I am finding this to be a tobacco that suits me every well. I have about an ounce total, and I will enjoy it.

I know I am not adding much to the body of knowledge about this legendary tobacco, but I do want to cast my vote with four star folks. FWIW, I rubbed mine out.

As Korndog said, this HAS to be dried out to be appreciated for the near-perfect smoke it is. I sampled it fresh out of the bag and it was a bit hot as it got down the bowl. Dried to the point where it breaks off easily (not quite crumbly) is about perfect for me. If you're going to give this blend the time it deserves, I recommend you dry it thoroughly. Experiment with different degrees of moisture until you find the right one for you.

This blend has depth and complexity, the nuance of flavors coming through at different times. Sometimes the burley takes center stage and sometimes the stoved virginia rears its head. Throughout most of the smoke, this blend is a true "blend", with all the tobaccos melding harmoniously into what just may be my favorite mixture. I have about 20 "favorites" and I think this one may be the best of that group. I cannot recommend this blend highly enough. If you like natural tobacco taste with just a slight sweetness that can either be complex enough to sit and contemplate or easygoing enough to sit and forget, you have to try this one. Consistent from bowl to bowl and year to year, just don't forget to dry it thoroughly in order to experience the full flavor spectrum. If you don't like it, don't throw it out! I'll be happy to take it off your hands. 🙂

The unobtanium of the pipe tobacco world. It is absolutely incredible and worth all that is said of it. The greatest vabur I have had the pleasure of smoking. I was lucky enough to have forum friends send me plenty of this over the past year and am just nearing the end of those samples. I have never had a bad bowl of it yet.

There is really nothing that I can compare this blend to. It has a lot of body to it and the Virginia (very mature) and burley combine to give a sweetness that is perfect to the tastebuds. The flakes themselves are so thin and fragile they make prep a thing of ease. I won't downgrade on the availability factor, but it is a bummer that Germain can't keep up with its demand.

It is even a bigger bummer that people can cash in on nearly double the cost of this once they buy due to that same demand. OK, rant over. Get if it you can find it.

Esoterica Tobacciana’s Stonehaven is – IMO – an archetypal English flake tobacco, not only in terms of the blend and the way it’s processed, but also in terms of the way it smokes, which is perfectly. It is everything I want in my pipe, and there is nothing there that I don’t want, apart from regret over not laying up more of it when I had the chance.

Tin note is the yardstick for VA/Burs, featuring chocolate and prunes over the tobacco. The tobacco is pre-aged, correctly pressed and fermented, and it’s also perfectly “conditioned”, ready to smoke right out of the tin, given a proper fold-n-stuff load, which is to say, not too tight. There seems to be a range of VAs, with plenty of red and brown, also some air cured leaf along with the stoved, and fruit has been added at some point. The lot is deep, dark and sweet like molasses and treacle, but it is not cloying, and the Burly is as “fatty” and rich as any I’ve ever sniffed or smoked, nutty and just tannic enough to add its own brand of “tang” to that of the VAs. The flakes are moist, and they require some patience at the light (preferable, IMO, to drying it out). Stonehaven is great right from the match, and it just gets better as it is smoked down. There is plenty of smooth, fragrant smoke, and the scents and tastes run parallel, quite rich and thoroughly satisfying, overall, with exemplary balance from top to bottom. Strength is medium; tastes are toward full; room note is pleasant. The aftertaste is the best of a very fine smoke, and it lasts for a long time.

I hope it’s clear that I love this tobacco, and I’m glad to have found a tin to review since I joined TR. IMO, this is one of the most “satisfying” pipe tobaccos on the Planet. It is delicious, long-lasting, and “comfortable” in a way that too few modern (not to mention available) blends can equal. Obviously, I think Stonehaven is worth the chase it seems to entail these days. Four Stars, of course.

Without a doubt the most elegant and unique burley/Virginia flake that I have ever encountered. From the bag, the flakes are very moist and smell like dried fruit and dark chocolate. Obviously, this flake does require some dry time. When lit, the most obvious flavor comes in the form of a subtle sweetness which is most likely the product of Stonehaven's light treacle topping.

The actual flavor of this tobacco is burley driven but somewhat elusive, and often what I experience are mere hints or suggestions of certain flavors rather than anything clearly pronounced. However, I find this to be a large part of the allure of smoking this rare tobacco. Stonehaven is not what I would call a rich tobacco, but it's still a fairly complex smoke with a wide range milder dark, muted, stoved tobacco flavors. In other words, the flavors are not huge but they are still present. The treacle topping is executed perfectly and sweetens the smoke just enough to provide a counter balance to the bitterness of the nutty and slightly smoky tasting burley. The mouth-feel of the smoke is superb, it has in spades that creamy attribute found in some of Germain's other blends that has the uncanny ability of feeling full while tasting relatively mild. The overall result is a silky smooth, bitter-sweet smoke with a dark & distinct earthy cocoa like flavor. Stonehaven is extremely refined and aside from Germain's own Rich Dark Flake, there's nothing on the market even remotely like it.

The first time I smoked Stonehaven I didn't really get it. But at this point in time, I hadn't really found my stride with burley. But over the course of time I began to appreciate just how distinct this fine tobacco is. It doesn't shine in every pipe, and its flavors don't always come directly to you. But when Stonehaven is properly prepared and burning well, it can make for a truly fantastic experience.

This legendary tobacco scarcely needs another review, but in light of the more recent lackluster reviews, I feel compelled to speak up for this wonderful blend. This stuff is fabulous. Massive tin notes of dried fruit with some pleasant grassy and chocolate undertones, overall very autumnal. Beautiful thin, dark flakes that fold or cube-cut easily, or fully rubbed out if you like. Best dried for an hour or so before smoking. A complex flavor profile through the bowl, with that heady dried fruit tin aroma translating to a similar semi-sweet taste on a solid fine Virginia backbone. The burley makes this a very mellow smoke despite the abundance of flavor and balanced sweetness. The second third is a truely spectacular pipe smoking experience. Although you can push this tobacco more than other Virginia flakes, it will welcome very slow sipping for maximum flavor output. Yes, this tobacco has a lot of hype and is always sold out. That is because it is great. If anyone tells you otherwise, I would suspect that either their taste buds are severely pidgeon-holed, or they are trying to dissuade you from searching for it so they can find more for themselves.

Wow! After over 100 four star reviews, there's not much to add, but here goes. This has a great tin aroma, to me its a combo of figs, raisins and wine. It seems very moist and so I let it dry for a couple of hours. I think that this was a mistake and I now prefer to let is sit for just a few minutes and then rub it out. Stonehaven doesn't bite, but I still like to sip it slowly as I find a bowl lasts a long time and it really brings out all the taste. It doesn't suffer a case of the "bitters" that other burley's sometimes have. My only gripe is the inability of Esoterica to keep stores in stock as demand always out paces supply. Very highly recommended!

Stonehaven is a blend that may take more time to understand than most mixtures. It's huge. Gigantic. A titan, even. And that's just the cut of the leaf!

When you pick up a package of Stonehaven, you get slab after slab of dark, luscious, inviting tobacco. I wanted to eat the stuff. It smells of fine wine, premium dark chocolate, and well-fermented cigar-wrapper leaf. And it's an all-natural (no topping, casing, etc.) tobacco. With Stonehaven, a little goes a long way.

I prefer smoking flake tobacs on the dry side, and either fully rubbed out or sliced into a cube cut of varying sizes -- the smallest of which ends up on top of the bowl as kindling. I never apply any pressure when packing this stuff. It's just too meaty to cram into a pipe.

Lighting this weed -- and maintaining a good ember -- is no sweat if you puff it on the dry side. I found that different bowl sizes or shapes can either highlight a particular taste or host a flurry of flavors. I love this stuff in all of my pipes, regardless of the outcome. You get richness and roundness from the get-go, and you end your bowl in a similar fashion. Stonehaven is a consistent performer.

The robust, wine-like bouquet is a perfect complement to the dark cholocate. The taste of cigar-wrapper leaf, which evokes sense memories of the way good cigars smell in the box or a well-kept walk-in humidor, really ties everything together. What you smell in the leaf before you smoke it tends to also be what you taste. Keep in mind again that this blend contains no flavorings -- nor does it make use of any cigar leaf. It's just this amazing on its own. I'm able to savor Stonehaven at any time of the day; however, it can be especially rewarding after a big meal. The stuff is bold, yet so refined. No bite.

Dedicating one pipe to one tobacco isn't my thing, but if it were, I'd have to get a seven-day set for Stonehaven. This is remarkable stuff. Give it a try, but save some for me!

Recently, I have heard so many mixed reviews of this blend. Everything from "Amazing to Severley Overrated." General consensus is that it is a really good blend, but I think the scarcity and the hype has evidently left its mark and not in a good way. It appears from my reading up on the blend that a decent group of smokers believe that Esoterica is forcing this blend to be rare and scarce because they only release a little at a time. I have to say that this could be happening, but at a minimal level. The real reason both Penzance and Stonehaven are rare and scarce is because they use specialty aged tobaccos and obviously aging tobaccos correctly takes time. They can attempt to artificially speed up the process, but that has its downfalls both in terms of quality and most importantly taste.

To get to the point of reviewing the tobacco itself, I believe that this is a quality tobacco that is noticed both in look and taste. I do believe the hype has hurt the tobacco as mentioned earlier because smokers come in with really high expectations and I can't blame them, I kind of did too. However, if you take that into consideration and temper expectations, I really believe there is a good chance that you will like Stonehaven. Its fruity smell out of the tin is not extremely pleasing to me, but it by no means a turnoff either. Even though I absolutely love McClelland Virginias, the ketchup like smell is an example of a smell that qualifies as turnoff for me. Either way, the raisen, figlike and chocolate smelling tin note is still solid in its own right.

As for the smoke, I noticed a drastic difference when smoking it somewhat damp, yet easily smokable versus smoking it dry, I mean really dry. Something like 12 hours of dry time. The drier it was, the better the smoke and flavor was, which I thought was kind of different. The complexity of the blend seemed to come though more and it was a much more satisfying smoke as well. Big, white clouds of dry smoke were commonplace when smoked this way versus when I smoked it on the damp side. I tasted the subtle sweetness and at the end of the exhale I tasted something like a dark chocolate taste that was quite pleasant, even though I'm not much for sweet tobaccos. Stonehaven burned cool, tasted pleasant and was quite satisfying overall I have to say as the blend unfolded down the bowl. I think those of you that believe it is overrated, possibly try to smoke it dry and see if it changes things for you. Nothing to lose and everything to gain in that regard. As a side note, I think the pipe you smoke it in also might make a difference. It was true in my case and it might be something worth trying for those looking to change it up a bit as they try to extract the complexity of this blend.

Overall, I rated the blend 4 stars. I would rate it a 3.6-3.7 to be exact and I do like Penzance better. I think the hype around Penzance is legitimate because I have not found anything like it in terms of exact taste and most importantly quality. With that said, Stonehaven is very solid in its own right and I think that J.F. Germain and Son's Rich Dark Flake is very close in terms of tin note and taste. Not identical, but real close.

In closing, I believe it is worth a try if you can get your hands on some relatively easily. Obtaining some for the quality of the tobacco and Esoterica's great reputation in general is worth the search, however doing a bunch of work to get some is not worth it in my opinion. Stonehaven is a quality tobacco that gives you a great smoking experience I expect that those of you that try it will find it to be that way as well. Just keep in mind the different ways of smoking it to ensure that you get out all this blend has to offer. I hope that this helps guide you all in your search for great smokes!