G. L. Pease Sextant

Chestnut brown broken flake with a hefty tin nose of rum and the underlying latakia and orientals. A small bit of mustiness as well.

This would be a good time to distinguish between a professional tobacco reviewer who knows his stuff (not me) and some guy who smokes a lot of tobaccos and jots down his personal thoughts on how well he likes the blends (me). I struggled mightily with this blend. The idea seemed right up my alley and I've enjoyed other alcohol flavored blends but nothing comes to mind that included latakia. Therein lies the problem for me, I think. I simply did not care for the taste of mixed latakia/orientals with rum. Going back in my mind, I think I drank rum while smoking a latakia blend once upon a time and now I can't recall drinking anything but single malt scotch with those blends.

At any rate, this was a well-behaved blend and seemed to accomplish what GLP set out to accomplish. But I tried drying out the mixture (it came fairly dry in the tin) and everything I could think to do and what occurs to me is that I simply don't like the flavor. The rum was very dominant, even when dried. A little less might have worked better for me. But the idea is an excellent one, and my "somewhat recommended" rating is simply because of my own taste buds. I highly recommend this to those who are curious about the melding of rum and latakia. As for me, I may try this one again sometime but for now I'll have to satisfy my booze-flavored tobacco penchant with Haddo's and my latakia/orientals with Samarra, Blackpoint, Odyssey and several other GLP blends, making sure to keep them separate from one another. 🙂

I really wanted to like this one: I was expecting something like Mephisto (a blend I sorely miss), with the dark and sweet rum note perfectly marrying the Latakia, orientals and the rich sugary (stoved) Virginias.

And for a while, it looked like it could, with a nice thick broken flake cut to boot! Yes, because the tin aroma was lovely, and the tobacco seemed juicy, dark and "greasy".

Alas, my dreams were not fulfilled. I don't like Kentucky too much, especially in association with Latakia. And Kentucky is very much evident upon lighting the bowl...

Mind you, it's a good tobacco. But Mephisto was creamy and not too heavy, while Sextant goes on the nicotine punch side. Sure, I can slowly savour a group 4 bowl without too many hiccups... but I feel close to my personal limit. If you like/tolerate Kentucky, give it a try: it's a sturdier and earthier variation on Mephisto. Me, I'll pass: my rating reflects my personal taste only, not the quality of the blend which is very high.

I appreciate that all reviews are subjective and I shall make this brief agreeing with much of the analytical reviews that precede this one. As has been said by others below, I really want to like this blend more than I do as it has potential - but that is the problem. Don't get me wrong -this is a nice smoke. But that is all. The problem to my mind is that it is almost too well balanced. I wanted more rum - more latakia - more spice. If I did not have anything else to smoke then I would gladly smoke this. But as long as Gaslight, Westminster, Odyssey and many other of Pease's blends are to hand I would always reach for those first. The skill of the blend in marrying the flavours together is a curse rather than a blessing.

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.

Tin Aroma is very strong and pungent, and so is the flavor when first opened, jar it up and let it sit for a while and what you end up with is a nice scottish style blend