G. L. Pease Sextant

(3.30)
Sextant is a classic mixture harmoniously married to a Navy flake. Ripe Virginia tobaccos are first blended with Cyprian latakia, fine Orientals, and a touch of dark fired Kentucky leaf, then infused with a hint of dark rum before being gently pressed, matured and sliced. The flavor is rich, bold and satisfying, the aroma an enchanting interweaving of traditions.

Details

Brand G. L. Pease
Series Old London Series
Blended By Gregory Pease
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type English
Contents Kentucky, Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring Rum
Cut Broken Flake
Packaging 2 ounce tin, 8 ounce tin, 16 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium to Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium to Full
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.30 / 4
38

21

7

5

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 71 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 26, 2012 Medium Extremely Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
After reading the posted reviews of this new blend so far, I have to throw in my agreement with quantumboy. In short, this is a medium-strength mixture in which burley plays a dominant role, while the latakia and "hint of rum" are in the far-distant background.

I love many of the Pease blends, and I wanted to love this one all the way to four stars. But I don't enjoy the harsh edge that comes with a blend that's medium-to-full in the nicotine department. Sextant is in that category. It won't make you dizzy -- thankfully, there's no perique, and the burley is well balanced with the Virginias -- but there's still enough nicotine to be decidedly noticeable in the smoke.

I was also surprised -- despite what another reviewer has perceived -- that the rum is so much in the background as to be virtually undetectable on its own. Talking of rum and naming it Sextant made me naturally expect a navy flake. But I don't think it really fits that mold; there just isn't enough rum for it to be anything more than a hint, adding a slightly richer flavor than it might otherwise have. (I would have to say the same of the latakia, as well.) That's not a bad thing. It just wasn't what the label description led me to expect.

Sextant is very well-made, and the tobaccos are top-notch. The broken-flake cut is effortless to rub out fully -- something that can't often be said of more traditional navy flakes. It burns beautifully, usually requiring only a match or two for the entire bowl. It is a truly enjoyable and relaxing smoke -- recommended to anyone looking for a change of pace from latakia-focused English blends or straight Virginias; highly recommended if you especially enjoy a more nicotine-centric blend.
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 24, 2013 Medium to Strong Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Popping a young tin of Sextant, the proof-y smell of (un-spiced) rum wafts right up, as expected. Next up is something mentioned by Dr. T (below), that I want to address, namely the Liquid Smoke condiment that some affectionately refer to as "barbeque sauce", which I happen to roundly loathe, almost as much as I loathe propylene glycol. Like Dr. T, I also associate both with McClelland, which partly explains why I mostly avoid that marque. Fortunately, as with GLP's JackKnife Plug, the hated "smoke" scent fades with time. Still, I'd rather do without it altogether. The other tobaccos are pretty much "merged" under the dominant scents, but generally there is a "substance" similar to a medium/full English, tempered and "strengthened" by GLP's deep and mildly pungent signature KY. Moisture is typical for a GLP ribbon, with minimal water(!) as a humectant.

Prep in my dry climate is no more than setting some ribbons in the sun to dry, followed by a careful load with as many of the ribbons as possible oriented vertically. Smoked thoughtfully (best with all GLP blends, IMO), Sextant is Lat forward, and overall it is delightfully fragrant, including the rum. Withal, the Orientals quickly begin to spice things up, at which point I automatically adjust my cadence to taste. The VAs come up about 1/3, accompanied by muted but fragrant incense, and this is when it gets really good. I recommend minimal poking rather than tamping, and if you can smoke it all the way down in one shot, so much the better. The aftertaste is delightful, sort of like Margate Plus, with VA sugar, along with the spice and the strong KY tobacco. Like some other reviewers, I also notice and appreciate the "creamy" mouth feel.

For me, this is a fairly "easy" smoke - for a GLP blend - and it is an easy recommendation for lovers of full English blends who are also ready for the "extras" that Sextant packs. Like other GLP blends, there is a rough-and-ready, tobacco-forward quality that is an acquired taste. As for "strength", I would say Sextant is considerably stronger than medium., like many of GLP's blends that include his KY.

IMO, all GLP blends are best smoked with your brain in gear, and Sextant is no different. Also typical of GLP blends, breathing and cellar time are very good to Sextant.
41 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 03, 2012 Medium to Strong Mild Full Tolerable
This started as an order for Balkan Sobranie. When the notice came that the blend was in stock, I rushed to acquire my share. I usually buy large enough orders to waive the shipping fee, but my two tins wouldn't cut it, so I decided to at least try something new. You really can't go wrong with a Pease blend, and I had recently finished off a tin of Gawith's Navy Flake, so I figured a comparison was in order.

I have to say, that open tin of Balkan Sobranie was very alone for several days while I had my way with Sextant. It took a couple of days to plow through half a tin, and just another to finish it off, I'm sure I set a few personal records. At that halfway mark I was forced to take a day off to recuperate, my tongue nearly destroyed. It was a huge burden, but I made it. The struggle was worth it, as Sextant is my favorite Pease blend since Union Square. It is a sweet, full bodied smoke that can easily satiate one's desire for a nicotine fix.

The note emanating from the tin is pure Rum, rich and intoxicating. I've sampled other Pease blends with alcohol toppings, namely Haddo's, Barbary Coast, and maybe Cairo, if I remember correctly. In my experience the effect burns away at light, or lingers for just a bit, rather than imparting a heavy flavor upon the smoke. Sextant fits that description, it in no way interfered with my smoking. I know there are others with a more sensitive palate, so I will abide by their experiences.

This is the heaviest Pease Latakia mix I can recall, obviously a product of the Kentucky's inclusion. I smoked Sextant at various times before and after a bowl of 965, and I found similar strength profiles. I'm happy to see Greg incorporate Kentucky into the blend as an alternative to Perique, which is also often blended in to build strength. Because I do not have a handy supply of blending Kentucky, it is definitely difficult for me to place the leaf. It would be nice if blending houses made Kentucky available, I'm growing a bit weary of adding Perique to every last blend I smoke. Regardless, I'm thrilled to have my hands on another heavy hitting English like blend, as Nightcap can wear on a person over an extended time frame.

A few weeks ago I finished off a tin of Gawith's Navy Flake. In full flake form, the blend was quite beautiful, as I remember much darker than Sextant. It's a bit lighter, very medium in character, and also quite excellent, but the two are very different smokes. Sextant is notably heavier, and much sweeter, perhaps owing to a higher dose of Rum, but also the choice in Virginias, which play the main part. Sextant seems to push the Latakia and Orientals to the background and yet the mixture feels robust and very well balanced. Gawith blends can arrive water logged, especially those with a topping, and Navy Flake was absolutely soaked upon flipping the tin. Sextant arrives at a perfect moisture, there's never any fuss from packing to lighting and smoking through to the end. The blend showcases Greg's skill in such immaculate presentation.

I'm curious where Sextant will take us...will there be more adventurous blending experiments in the future? Different toppings, more blends with Kentucky, different sorts of cuts? I'd like to put in a request for a Lakeland like blend--a high quality aromatic with traditional British toppings. Russ has been playing this hand, I want to see where it goes.

Having departed from my ship, I'm left with an open tin of the new Balkan Sobranie. It feels so light...and boring. Time to order another ticket to sea.
31 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 29, 2015 Medium Mild to Medium Medium Tolerable
The Cyprian Latakia is smoky, woody, earthy, musty sweet as it takes a little lead. The herbal, floral, vegetative, spicy Orientals are smoky and woody as well, though dry with a slight sourness in a support role. The Virginias are the major base components and offer some tart and tangy citrus, tangy ripe dark fruit, some sugar, wood, earth, bread and toast with a touch of grass. They end up nearly being a supporting player, too. There is a mild nuttiness, floralness, herbs, earth, wood and some spice from the dark fired Kentucky that plays well with other ingredients as a condiment. The rum is somewhat sweet, always obvious, and moderately sublimates the tobaccos, less so in the last third of the smoke. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is just past the center of mild to medium. Won't bite or get harsh, though it has a few small rough edges. May need a light dry time. A broken flake that burns cool, clean and slow with a mostly consistent, mildly sweet, spicy and more savory flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste and stronger room note. Leaves virtually no moisture at the finish. Requires some relights. Not quite an all day smoke. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks
29 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 06, 2012 Medium to Strong Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
This tobacco is definitely not my style. The initial aroma and flavor reminds me of Haddo's which is not a favorite by any means. Yet this is a delicious blend! Earthy, rich, primitive in some ways, it seems to hearken back to a day when real men traveled by sea and land and needed something in their pipe to keep them alert to the dangers.

The Kentucky was the first thing I noticed. In that regard, there are some similarities here to the recent Jackknife and Triple Play blends from the house of Pease. The rum is noticeable in the aroma and the initial light, but thankfully it fades to the background and whatever it adds to the flavor thereafter is good.

It gets richer as it burns, and some complexity starts to peak through the earthiness. Vary the temperature and you'll find some toastiness, some Virginias sweetness, and some smokiness, although the Latakia is lurking far in the background according to my taster.

This is quite different from the rich English blends coming from Pease of late, which, while delicious, seem to be variations on a theme. Sextant is a departure from the formula and I think he nailed it. It ought to age wonderfully, which is why I took the risk and bought several tins out of the gate.
24 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 22, 2012 Medium to Strong Medium Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Sextant is a delightful hedonistic easy smoking tobacco.

Presentation is in soft flakes which are easy to fold in or rubout. It lights easily, burns easily but slowly and is very good tempered - my tongue is a bite magnet but it has not nipped it in one and a half tins (generous 2oz tins not skimpy 50 gram Euro tins).

Sextant settled to its potential over several smokes giving a complex flavour - while not sweet it evoked the lovely dry plums you get in Germany in autumn, the sloes of English hedgerows and some lemon notes contrasting with spicy peppery flavours (possibly peppers, chilli, star anise - I am not well up on spices) mixed with some herby, grassy earthy notes. While it sounds a bit complicated the tastes are very integrated and the effect is very elegant like a fine wine in a great year.

Is the latakia noticeable? No, there are no campfire or creosote notes and, although the effect of latakia is noticeable in coolness, elegance and some toasted notes unless you are clinically allergic to latakia you could enjoy this mixture.

Is it an aromatic? No, the flavours are much more complex than a rum flavoured tobacco. Having said that I have no idea what category it is, if any, but certainly none I have come across - Dunhill had a rum cased English mixture with flake (My Mixture 620) but that was sweet and nothing like as complex - so I suspect only its maker can settle its category.

Warnings? My second tin was more recently manufactured (dated 030912) and needed 4-5 weeks air for the fruit flavours to kick in - it was originally just very spicy savoury even evoking chinese pork. But, like so many fine tobaccos patience was rewarded with a great full smoke.

Will I buy more. Reader, I have and I will unless you clear the shelves first! This is a wonderful, easy smoking, substantial, fun filled but complex mixture that I can not recommend highly or widely enough. Should appeal to those who love traditional flakes, aromatics, semi-aromatics, virginias, VaPrs and all sorts of mixtures (English, Balkan, Baltic) whether as an all day smoke, an evening smoke or a change of pace.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 26, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Pleasant
G.L. Pease-Sextant. A gift from heaven!

I wasn't too sure how the blend would appear in the tin. How 'broken' will the flakes be? Well, not too broken up as most of the pieces are still in flake form, small but still flakes. I find the term broken flake can be misleading: Sometimes a broken flake can be practically an almost ready rubbed mix yet sometimes, like this, you can still easily identify the flakes.

They're all superbly moist: Not damp nor too dry.

The aroma from the tin is divine, slightly woodsy, slightly smoky and a little grass like. In fact, I enjoy just opening the can for a smell it's that nice! Surprisingly I can't identify any rum.

This lights up brilliantly. Although the flakes were still pretty intact from the tin they've already started to crumble a little making it easy to rub and fill with.

The flavour of the smoke.... wow. It's not your standard Lat' bomb. The Latakia gives a mild sort of woodsy note albeit nowhere near as smoky as your usual Lat' blends.

I find the other tobaccos are about equal in taste. A grassiness from the Virginia complimented by a good almost nuttiness from the Kentucky. All the way through a bowl the Oriental offers its more unique piquancy.

After a while I begin to notice a sort of extra sweetness, not a 'false' kind but a natural one, almost like honey. This becomes slightly more noticeable the further down the bowl I get.

Again, as in the unlit aroma, I detect no rum. I think even if it is present it would be masked by the full tobacco tastes.

The nicotine is quite strong in this. Not a proper head spinner but maybe too much for some smokers.

I find this a definite four star blend.

Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: Davorin Devovic Morta
PurchasedFrom: Gauntleys
Age When Smoked: New
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 11, 2013 Medium Medium Medium Tolerable
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. 🙂
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 15, 2015 Mild Extremely Mild Mild Very Pleasant
Now this was an interesting mix. I got a really nice smack of Latakia combined with the other leaf and it was terrific. I am a big fan of Burley, and the Kentucky in this one offered a little extra backbone, which I enjoyed. The rum presence was discreet and Mr. Pease used just enough to enhance the overall presentation. Pipestud
12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 10, 2014 Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Medium to Full Tolerable to Strong
There are a lot of superlatives contained in the reviews before this one. Terms like "hedonistic," "adventurous," and "glorious" have been tossed about quite a lot, and I have to admit that I see where they are coming from. Sextant is one of Pease's most unusual blends, a genre-busting experiment like Haddo's Delight and Cairo.

When I open the tin the first thing I detect is the sweet aroma of rum, followed by latakia and a little spice. Upon first light, the flavor is almost all rum….but that only lasts for a few seconds. The alcoholic topping swiftly recedes into a background note, which is where it remains for the rest of the smoke, providing a rounded sweetness. The latakia is obvious but never overwhelming. I can detect the Kentucky, as well. But what steals the show here are the virginias and orientals, which provide a consistently evolving series of spicy notes that make this blend….well, damn near exciting to smoke. It's also quite easy to smoke, with good burning qualities and very little tongue irritation.

Sextant is a very exuberant, lively blend that really doesn't remind me of traditional English mixtures at all. What it does remind me of is a genre of tobaccos that Pease has not only avoided but publicly disavowed, namely that of the "American English" or "crossover." Examples of this class of mixture are Epiphany, Revelation, Morley's Best, Bald Headed Teacher, Barking Dog, etc. There was a time when you buy something akin to this in every drugstore in America, and both Cornell & Diehl and Hearth and Home have churned out a large number of them in recent years. That's a good thing for me, because unlike Pease I rather like the that type of blend.

Still, I can't call this a traditional "American English" because the inclusion of complex orientals distances Sextant from those aforementioned blends which, while quite delicious, are comparatively simplistic and burley-centric. Sextant possesses a richness those other mixtures can't touch (due to the heavy use of Vas rather than burley as the base) that would probably preclude this from being an all-day smoke. It's almost as though Pease has created an "American Balkan" of sorts. Personally, I'd like to think that other blenders may take a cue from Pease and experiment more in this direction. For the time being, though, Sextant is a one-of-a-kind mixture that I plan on cellaring extensively.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 18, 2013 Medium to Strong Mild Medium to Full Tolerable to Strong
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.
8 people found this review helpful.
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