G. L. Pease Sextant

I was one of the privileged few to sample this in early March at our pipe club dinner, where Greg Pease is a member. He brought an unmarked tin of this (approximately 3 weeks before release) for all to try, and by the time he left it was empty. Everyone loved it.

The rum flavor is very muted in this blend, lending a touch of soft sweetness, and complements the Latakia and Kentucky leaf quite nicely. A number of us felt there was Perique present in the mix, which Greg assured us was not. It is likely the Kentucky leaf (at least this is my guess) that gives this a bit of spiciness. This blend produces a very thick and luxurious smoke that does not bite no matter how madly I puff it. It has a generous nicotine kick, and I recommend sitting down for this one. I have cellared a few tins of this, and it is likely to become my after dinner smoke for the time being.

Although I like a lot of different tobaccos, GL Pease blends have become my overall favorites due to their consistent fantastic smoking qualities. Greg's experience as a master blender is very evident in everything he markets. This one is sure to please any lover of English blends.

Aye mates, this is a keeper. Tested it in a new, larger Ardor (10 bowls) and in an older, smaller GBD (11 bowls). I think better in a smaller bowl.

A rich, rounded, partially broken flake which becomes fully rubbed by the time you have dug in the tin by half way.

The base is virginia and the other tobaccos are not too noticeable to me due to the rum topping, though you occasionally get a dark note of the latakia or kentucky.

When freshly opened, I felt I noticed more latakia at the outset of a bowl, but it was quickly engulfed in the rum which flavor becomes more prominant as you go on.

My test for this blend was in the keeping character of the rum, which quickly fades in some other blends (Aliester's rum topping was similarly strong at the start but after a few days it faded almost completely -- though that older tin was 15 years old when I smoked it). The first few days Sextant's rum is the dominant flavor, but after smoking the entire tin in 10-11 days, the rum mellows out some (not much) after a few days yet stays with the entire bowl to the end. If you will take more than a week or so to smoke a tin, you'll need to better protect the contents to maintain a solid rum profile. I did nothing special to preserve it but put the top folders back in and lid back on.

Although the base tobaccos make this blend rich overall, it is the rum profile that makes it taste delicious. The base alone would not do it for me (I smoked the remaining scraps after 11 days and it was -- exposed in a pretty much empty can -- rather plain by then). If you don't like rum or liquer flavors in tobacco, this blend is not for you. I didn't know I liked them so much until after a few bowls of this.

I was impressed as this is a full tasting blend (not as heavy as an English) with a tasty rum flavor (Master Please admits it's rum, but if there is something else to help it along, I do not know). The flavor is why I like it and I am not normally an aromatic smoker. A fairly consistent flavor. Not hot or bitey or wet to me, but a full sensory experience. 1 or 2 bowls a day was plenty for me.

This has more flavor, character, and body to me than either MB's or SG's Navy Flake. Of course, this is a deluxe navy flake with a virginia flake and light english mixture pressed and combined.

Highly recommended to the bold virginia smokers. Make it so.

The 8 ounce tin I bought to try had a release date of "January 4, 2015". The tobacco had been on the shelf for over seven years, quite enough time to age. The appearance of the tobacco is a broken flake the color of pine chaff with flecks of darker latakia and lighter orientals and Virginia. The moisture content is perfect despite its age, and the broken flake has only gotten softer over the years, and is easily stuffed into the pipe.

The overall flavor is quite complex. Suede, almond nut, floral note, sweet baked apple, pine tar note, light smokiness, a bit of smokiness, and a spicy spice set in the background that is hard to parse into its components. The rum gives the bouquet, aged for years, a caramel touch. The flavor is rather pleasant, although, in my opinion, the nutty note is a bit out of place.

Taste... This is where the difficulties began. Initially, the blend behaved like a very good English blend: light grassy-fruity sweetness of Virginia overlaid with quite creamy support and smokiness of latakia, plus spicy oriental. But Kentucky quickly stepped in, adding density to the latakia, and the overall flavor acquired a fair earthy-nutty tone. By the end of the first third of the pipe, it was clear that the Kentucky in the blend was definitely not for the smell - it is quite a wholesome player, and the blend looked more like an American blend with latakia and oriental than an English blend with Kentucky, which for me was a bit too much. I was not able to finish a large pipe because I felt the excess of this component. But, after trying three or four of the pipes I had, I found one in which smoking it made the Kentucky taste less significant - although, of course, it didn't go anywhere. It was a small Rhodesian pipe, the Peterson 999. In this pipe the tobacco was the most balanced in taste, although along with the Kentucky, density of the latakia decreased somewhat. Nevertheless, the blend was quite mild and didn't bite, although a slight roughness remained until about the middle of the pipe. The tobacco smoked very dry and cool, burning out into an almost white dusty ash. From my own experience, subtracting the subjective influence of Kentucky, I believe the blend has a medium strength.

The smoke from the blend is not too dense, but it is long enough to be felt in the room, smelling of smoldering wood with a hint of almond and sandalwood.

What's the bottom line? I can count on the fingers of one hand the Burley and Kentucky blends that I really liked. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Sextant is not one of them, but it's not the Kentucky. The reason is that, for all the complexity of flavor and taste of the blend, I have not found something that would "hook" me. The blend is quite decent, but Sextant - a typical "jack of all trades, master of none", all good, but nothing came out. A good American with latakia, but that's all.

I do not like this blend. It just did not sit well with me, and I found it somewhat nauseating. I wasn't sure why - was it because of the rum topping? Or because the tobaccos in this just don't blend well together? Maybe all of the above.

I wouldn't classify this as an English blend by any stretch. The flavours in this blend just don't come together very well IMO. It's not as sweet and moist as Sutliff's rum flavoured Barbados Plantation, but just as unpleasant for different reasons. Anyways, the rest of my tin is up for offer to any fellow pipe smokers in the GTA region that would like to give it a whiff.

G.L. Pease Sextant is a ready rubbed Navy style blend, presented in mid brown to almost black shades of leaf. I find the smoky-sweet tin note very compelling and once lit the taste does not disappoint. This is easily a three to four star when fresh.

Aging a previously opened tin for another couple of months (up to a bit over a year in my case), makes the smoke extraordinary gentle and mellow. It loses some of the edge and some of the casing compared to a fresh tin and has the Orientals come through to take over the lead. Despite the softness, the tobacco remains satisfying. The nicotine reveals itself about half way down the bowl for me.

Be careful not to accidently draw in some of the super fine, bright ash remaining and enjoy.

Last spring my wife and I took a trip to Ashville NC with our son and daughter-in-law to celebrate our daughter-in-law's graduating with her PHD. While we were there we wandered into a pipe shop (sorry, I don't remember the name) and my wife bought me a new Savinelli pipe. I had brought a few cigars with me on the trip, but since it was just two days, and since I didn't know if I would have a time or place to smoke, I hadn't packed any pipes or tobacco.

When we checked into our hotel I noticed that they had a big covered porch with nice comfy chairs and ceiling fans and thought that would be the perfect spot to sit in the evening and enjoy a pipe, but as i mentioned above, I hadn't brought any (my mistake!). So when my wife purchased the new Savinelli I had to get something to put in it so I could have the first smoke in it out on the porch, so I looked around the tins of tobacco that the shop had and the first one that caught my eye was Sextant.

The tin said that it contained Ripe Virginia, Latakia, Orientals, and some Dark-Fired Kentucky with a hint of Dark Rum; this sounded right up my alley, so I bought the tin and cracked it open as soon as we got back to the hotel.

The tin aroma is sweet and slightly smoky and you can taste the sweetness from the Rum when you draw through the unlit pipe, but that kind of goes away on the light. When lit you get the smokiness of the Latakia (and the Dark-Fired?) at first, which transitions into a more Virginia sweetness as the bowl progresses.

This was the perfect tobacco for that evening out on the hotel porch, and I continued to enjoy the rest of the tin when I got back home.

I have never had a bad GLP tobacco, but this one ranks up there with some of my favorites. I love this one and it is highly recommended!

Short version: a complex blend, balanced and compelling in the first half of the bowl, murkier in the second half.

Presentation: a chunky, crumbly cut flake or cake texture, headily redolent of rum, or rather, of a spirituous distillation of tobacco, molasses, and leather. The rum acts as a solvent for the other aromas, and the nose is concentrated, unified, and heady.

Light: requires at least two good charring lights out of the tin, probably three. After that, Sextant burns steadily, producing copious clouds of white smoke.

First half: Sextant, without any mincing preliminaries, starts off with impressive force and complexity. The rum is present, but as suggested above, serves to blend or fuse the other flavors, the smoke and leather of the Latakia, the jerky-like meatiness of the Kentucky, and the spice of the orientals, all underpinned with the beautifully blent Virginias that do such job of supporting and framing other forceful Pease blends, chiefly Abingdon in my experience. The different components play off one another, shifting in and out of view, while maintaining a complex equilibrium. For the first twenty minutes of each bowl, I am astounded by the sheer chordal complexity, like enormous organ music in a dark church.

Sadly for me, this complexity leads more or less abruptly into a state of fatigue, where the Latakia numbs out to a neutral, lineament-like coolness, like menthol without the mint. The Kentucky, never a subtle leaf, begins to heave itself around erratically, kicking up a lot of dust. Once the equilibrium of the whole consort is lost, a murkiness takes over. Not unpleasant, just unfocused and a little heavy. It may be that for others the combination of Latakia, Rum, and Kentucky works a kind of dark magic, but for me, the collision of strong personalities here devolves into, if not a shouting match, then something less than civil and noisier than I like.

Complex and very flavorful. A nice English with a touch of rum. A most satisfying smoke.

I had one or two reservations upon ordering this, the description as a rum laced navy flake reminded me a little too much of SG's Navy Flake, an insufferable tobacco that I ended up disposing of about half way through the tin. I quite rightly questioned my desire to purchase this on that basis and can only put it down to my desire to try some Pease tobaccos and this being one of the few in stock when I placed my order online. My subsequent experiences of smoking it, however, are justification enough.

Upon opening the 2oz drum, I was greeted with a strange smell, it was one akin to silage with a sweet whiff to it, so wrong yet somehow strangely and very palatable. The rich dark browns of the flakes did, though, provides a lot of reassurance, they just seemed so right sitting there in the tub. Rubbing is no problem as the flakes just pull apart so easily, making the packing a doddle. Upon light, the flavour hits and it's so nice, less silage, more rum, just as sweet. The flavours from the tobacco nicely raise their head during the smoke, almost as if peeping out through curtains, especially the latakia, giving a delicate complexity to the experience. Throughout the remainder of the tin the flavour has remained pretty much the same, it will be such a shame when I have finished it. The only other thing worthy of note is the strength, it does pack a punch on the nicotine front.

This, then, is an absolute delight to smoke. I really do have a job pacing myself with this as I am finding it hard not to smoke this all the time. Sadly, this is not in stock at the moment with Gauntleys of Nottingham, the only supplier I can get it from in the UK. It's probably just as well as I seem to have found a tobacco that I would be happy to smoke all the time. I can't help crack a smile, though, that a small, relatively new, independent blender can outperform a well established brand like SG on what must be quite a difficult tobacco to blend. Thank you Mr Pease, keep up the good work.