G. L. Pease Sextant

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.

This is a pretty gosh darn good smoke.. the latakia is too much for me.. but.. the way the blend is composed gives a robust flavorful experience.. the addition of Kentucky is very unique.. as is the 'navy' character.. my one complaint is it at times just tastes like a robust English.. maybe a bolder black mallory.. but at other times you just get lost in it and enjoy its uniqueness.. smoky.. sweet.. robust.. enough strength to meet any evening.. but very particular.. a solid smoke.. for me not a regular smoke.

This blend has a complex flvor, belying it's complex composition of Virginia, Oriental, and just a dash of Latakia. For me, this tends to be much more Virginia forward than many of the other GL Pease blends. I would classify this as an advanced pipe smoker's blend that needs to be slowly smoke to fully appreciate all that it has to offer. I found the tobacco in my tin to be a little moist, but a 5 to 10 minute dry time would easily fix. I would recommend this to anyone that has an experienced Virginia based palate. There is a slight touch of rum that seems to accent a slight nutty flavor.

I really enjoy this, a fine blend to my taste. Latakia always tells a story, I'd say, be it wispers of autumn campfires or tales of nautic adventure. This is the latter of those two, the rum and latakia combine to set sail for a quiet cove of contemplation and dreams. I would smoke this at sea at any given time, or on the porch at dusk. For those moments, this is spot on.

Taste: The scent of rum is pregnant, the latakia lingering over it with its smokey allure of darkness. Upon lighting the rum recedes, and primarily kentucky and latakia takes the stage. There is a sweetness to the blend, probably in part due to the virginia but also due to the topping; it does not dominate but it is there. Further down the bowl a spicy tingle is added as the kentucky grows more pronounced.

Mechanics: Comes as a broken flake, ready to smoke right out of the tin. No dottle, no bite. Medium nicotine strength.

I agree with Pipestud's review that this is an unique and interesting blend but not easy to determine whether it would stay in my regular rotation. The tin note is as good as tobacco can get, and the flavor is complicated and keeps changing. Rum note diminishes after 1/3 of the bowl, I don't think it should ghost the pipe. Eager to see how it ages.

From a "Fresh Tin"- I don't think so,,,, I find GL Pease blends very finicky, they either need 6 months of cellar time, are too old school strong ( like this), or are Magnificent . When I find one that is not to my personal liking, I'm reluctant to criticize, because "Followers of Pease" seem to have a religious experience with his blends. Upon opening a a fresh tin, my initial reaction was " this blend is terrible", tasted like I was smoking a "Wolf Brothers, Crooks Rum Soaked Cigar" from 40 years ago ( you haven't smoked one ? you'd never smoke a second !). I just took the tin and threw it on the "pile of misfit tobacco's".

Fast forward about a week: After numerous openings of the tin and sniffing, I determined the rum topping had somewhat dissipated and It was time to gave this one another try,,,,,,,,"not bad", but I'll give it another few weeks to breath. The rum is still too distracting for me.

Third week open- the initial light still produced a strong "muddy" flavor and a considerable rum note. The flavor mellowed some with subsequent relights ( DGT) . However, I never felt like this was a blend that was worth ordering again, smokable , yes, worthy of more than 2 stars ,no.

Open 3 months-This blend turns creamy and interesting after allowing breathing time in order to temper the rum. It is a flavorful and smooth offering while allowing one to appreciate all the components without overpowering them with rum. But I have to give this considerable breathing time.

I'm not going to say it's an everyday blend , but I do crave it once every two weeks. A nice change. 3 stars

Was a little hesitant to go with this smoke because normally I prefer the taste of the more natural blends, but because it was a Pease blend I figured I could try a little different smoke built by a master blender. My take is that this is a medium/strength mixture in which I find burley playing a dominant role, while the latakia and whif of rum are in the far-distant background. Smokes slow, cool, and dry but the roomnote will have you run out of the house. Although it did not convert me to these types mixtures Sextant still has nice qualities if you like this type of weed.

I'm almost done with my first 2oz tin so I'll get my thoughts down. To me the flavor overall is of dark fruit and toffee with a wood smoke layering on top. It's pretty complex but the flavors are very well-blended so it's hard to pick them apart with any great detail. I do get the rum but it's very complimentary and not at all cloying. Strong in the nicotine department.

As it's a cut flake it's takes a few charring lights to get going but smokes well from there on out. Right out of the tin it was at a good moisture level for me.