G. L. Pease Gaslight

(3.32)
From Gregory Pease: "Deep, rich and full flavored, Gaslight burns very slowly, delivering a lingering, satisfying smoke for the true connoisseur of latakia based blends. The red Virginias present a background of natural sweetness, whilst fine Orientals provide just the right amount of spice. I like it best sliced thinly, rubbed out and packed loosely in smaller bowls for a satisfying, surprisingly long-lasting smoke." Easily sliced, easily rubbed out and easily packed.
Notes: This is the 7th blend in the Old London Series.

Details

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

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.32 / 4
85

38

22

7

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 152 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 10, 2014 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Medium to Full Tolerable
A very smokey, woody, earthy, musty sweet Cyprian Latakia-forward plug that’s easily broken up with a decent knife to suit your preference. The red Virginias are tangy sweet with some earthiness, dark fruit, wood, and a touch of spice. they are supporting players. I get hints of cocoa from something here, and I’m not sure what causes it based on the tin description. The Oriental/Turkish offers some spice, light buttery sweetness, light sourness, earth, floralness, and wood as a secondary star. It’s not your typical lat-bomb because the other components add enough complexity to keep this from being one dimensional. It’s also smoother and creamier than your average lat-bomb, too. Slow burning, and with a slight dry time, will leave just a little moisture in the bowl. Requires some relights. Has a cool, clean, very consistent sweet and savory flavor from top to bottom. The strength is a couple of rungs past the center of mild to medium. The taste is a slot past the medium threshold. The nic-hit is in the center of mild to medium. Won't bite, and has no dull or harsh spots. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and stronger room note. Almost an all day smoke.

-JimInks
83 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 17, 2013 Medium Extremely Mild Full Pleasant to Tolerable
In the same way a good hearty red wine was often said to be sunshine in a bottle Gaslight is sunshine in a plug. It tastes vibrant swirling smoothly between citric sour, muted sweet, even more muted bitter and back but deep, soft and smooth, a difficult trick to pull in itself. Definitely guaranteed to drive the winter blues away which is very timely as the night frosts have started here on the English East coast and the days are worse - short, grey and depressing.

Enough of the weather - Gaslight's specifications are more interesting. Tin note is not that marked but pleasant enough - mainly the usual suspects for a latakia blend of creosote, soap, leather but with a hint of rose (just like a lovely climber my late Aunt had but I have forgotten the name). The tobacco comes as two plugs per 2 ounce (57 gram) tins, is quite soft by traditional standards and so is fairly easy to cut to slices (flakes for UK readers) but best with a sharpish blade to avoid crumbling although a bit of early crumble is not too much of a problem anyway. Cutting needs to be across the grain to get the right mix in each pipe but rubbing out the flake is simplicity itself. Say two minutes per plug.

The first pipe does start a bit latakia heavy but evens out over three or four puffs and then its balanced taste all the way (and with subsequent pipes) with changes merging into one another. There are suggestions of essence of orange (liqueur or fine homemade marmalade perhaps), bread, soft muted creosote, coffee, occasionally dark chocolate. More mysteriously there is hints of a taste that I had not thought of for years that I associate with Balkan Sobranie but I could never quite place what it was in the 70s or now. Very cool and slow smoking - about the slowest latakia mixture I have come across in 35 years the nearest being one of the mixtures Dunhill did for JB Priestly but that was stronger and less ebullient in taste. In spite of all this intensity Lady Nicotine is manifest in medium strength so I would guess its in pretty much every smokers "Goldilocks zone" taking into account appropriate deployment of small and large pipes. All in all very tasty indeed! How is all this achieved? I could only guess but if you want to know ask Greg - after all he takes questions in an excellent column in pipes magazine each month (link on GLP's website).

In summary sunshine in a pipe, puts one in mind of Van Gogh's Arles paintings, perfect for winter and who knows about the other seasons at the moment but I would expect it to be at least a sundowner in the hottest summer and probably far more. Recommendation - need you ask? I just hope fellow pipesmokers do not overwhelm the logistics chain by cellaring too much too soon (I must confess to 15 tins so far) as it has all the signs of a brilliant keeper, it is the right type and the tobacco is very fine even by GLP's exalted standards.
72 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 22, 2013 Strong None Detected Full Tolerable
As advertised this is indeed a rich Latakia cake blend. It has a wow factor. This is not a Latakia dumping ground, but you must like full English to like this "bad boy".

It comes in two bars in a tin, and though you must use a sharp knife to slice the segments, they crumble pretty easy after that (again added by some more small cube cuts). So not as tight or dense as many plugs. More of a "krumble plug."

I mainly taste the Latakia, but it has some extra spice at times (turkish) and definitly that red Virginia (almost cinnamon-like)shows up now and again, depending on how well you mix the cuttings.

I think the Latakia may show up stronger if you don't puff slowly or don't mix the cuttings well for your bowl. Not hard to do.

It is slow burning. I've spend over two weeks smoking small bowls (usually once a day) say like a group 3 size. 35-40+ minutes easy. I have about two bowls left (and a few more tins of it to age or to try next at Christmas, 2013). Yes, I want more. Definitely cool.

It does not compare too much to me to Penzance in flavor (a true crumble cake), which that has more of a Turkist content, but it does compare to it in terms of excellence.

So this is not as poetic as some other reviews because it so good that I don't have to be poetic. I think you see I enjoy Gaslight for what it is. A rich Latakia blend. It does make me want to walk the steets at night (or around a castle if I had one nearby) and blow its scent into the air. But I dare not as my smoldering prize will be abducted by those enchanted by its aroma.
51 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 02, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Very Pleasant
2 dark colored brownies pressed together but not so tightly as to be difficult to slice. Tin nose is latakia and some underlying spice that is probably the orientals. Having first screwed up another of Greg's plugs, I was extra careful to slice this against the grain before rubbing and loading. This plug is very easy to work with but a sharp knife is best.

This blend might be referred to as a Latakia Plus blend in that the latakia stayed with me first and foremost and there was never a doubt in my mind that latakia was supposed to be the primary focus. But the flavor shifts subtly and often, away from the typical latakia bombs. This doesn't taste how I recall Abingdon tasting, but it has all the complexity attributes of that earlier GLP blend. Just when it's settling into a groove, it alters suddenly and noticeably, but not jarringly. Flavor runs the usual gamut that latakia blends run but also into dashes of light fruit, coffee, and a hint of dark chocolate. Greg definitely knows how to retain interest and he seems to get the most out of "latakia, Virginia and orientals", as his blends containing those components all taste different and have varying levels of complexity. This one was complex but was never pushy. And the room aroma? Absolute nirvana!

As is my custom, I experimented with Gaslight by breaking off a chunk in my fingers and loading without slicing properly. All I can say is, don't do it. The blend becomes severely unfocused and "dirty" tasting. There's a reason it's in cake form and I found that the expert opinion on how to smoke this was, not surprisingly, the correct one. Overall, this is not my favorite GLP blend but it's worthy of a cellar restock, as it's definitely a winner!
Pipe Used: meerschaum and morta
Age When Smoked: new
39 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 12, 2013 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Now I've been to two church socials and a county fair, but I have never encountered a tobacco like Gaslight. When I lit up my first bowl, I wondered whether someone hadn't been storing potpourri in my meerschaum earlier in the week. That's how intensely fragrant Gaslight is. This I attribute to the Orientals, but the Orientals alone wouldn't account for the sheer intensity of flavor you encounter. It is as though Mr. Pease has devised a way to fuse together the spice and herbaciousness of Oriental varieties with the leather and tar of the Latakia, producing some spookily concentrated hybrid wholly unlike its constituent parts. While there's nothing overbearing here (the nicotine is moderate, the burn is even, and the virginias serve to temper and balance the mixture), the experience demands something like total concentration, like an organ concert in surround sound. In the tin, the two bars look at first small and unprepossessing, like a Jenny Craig dessert, albeit a bewitchingly perfumed one. Once you smoke Gaslight, however, those ingots take on a mysterious quality, as though someone informed you on good authority that they'd been quarried out of a black hole. If some tobaccos are all-day tobaccos and some are early-morning or after-dinner smokes, then Gaslight is a hold-my-calls, forward-my-mail, look-after-my-kids I'll-call-you-from-the-other- end-of-the-wormhole mixture. Did I mention that it is wonderful? Because man oh man it is.
38 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 08, 2013 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
I have to start this review with a short discourse on cigars. Nearly all cigars have what's called a "sweet spot". This is the point where all the various flavors and nuances meld together to create one wonderful flavor. That "sweet spot" may comprise no more than an inch or two of a seven inch cigar, but smokers will dutifully smoke through those inches just to reach it, usually half or three quarters of the way down. It's what they strive for. After a great deal of experimentation a cigar called the NUB was developed to be "sweet spot" from beginning to end. They were mostly successful. Now on to the review. Let me start by saying my favorite blends are English/Balkan blends. In particular those wherein the components meld together to create that "sweet spot" in the bowl, usually at around the 3/4 mark. Imagine my surprise shortly after lighting to realize that the components were already melded into one delicious flavor. How Pease achieved this I can't fathom. This blend is "sweet spot" from beginning to end. It's the NUB of pipe tobaccos. Simply amazing. All the usual notes of an English/Balkan are present; hardwood smoke, sweetness, sourness, saltiness, spiciness. All combined into one great flavor. The only difference between the top of the bowl and bottom was that it gained more depth and richness. This blend is stunningly good. If you don't try it you're cheating yourself.

UPDATE: 12/11/13 Now I see how he did it. This description is from Pease's Stonehenge. "Once blended, the leaf was steamed, hot-pressed into blocks, and aged, to allow the flavors to meld and marry." I've only been around pipe tobaccos for about a year and a half. Still learning.
Pipe Used: MM General, Nording Bent Apple
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Fresh
30 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 27, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
I am smoking through a sample a friend gave me. I am on the third bowl in a Savinelli bent pot.

I sliced it as thin as I could with a sharp knife and rubbed it out. The tobacco is dark and fragrant. The flavor is a remarkably good combination of latakia and oriental tobaccos with a solid foundation of dark sweet Virginia.

You are thinking this sounds tasty, but my description does not do it justice. The blend is well balanced. It has a significant oriental signature with an omnipresent latakia there too, and it really satisfies. It is heavy and dark, sweet and spicy, smokey and savory.

I am not by nature a "flavor bomb" kind of guy, and this manages to push the edge for me without crossing it. I am liking this blend a lot and highly recommend it. I may have accidentally matched it with a pipe "made" for it, but I am going to suggest a wide bowl to really bring the flavors out.
27 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 21, 2014 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Tolerable
Plug tobacco is a throwback to a time before cappuccinos, before tv, before automobiles even. It was economy of space, easy to stash in a saddle or footlocker. When you earned a rest, you got to work with your hands and tools but this time for your own benefit, so you savored the ritual. I love plugs for the connection to my hard working ancestors who would scoff at ready rubbed flakes as frivolous. The deliberation of preparation is part and parcel of the experience.

I know why it's moist: anaerobic fermentation. The side benefit is that it still goes on in an opened tin. That said, three months in an open tin only improved it, in my opinion. The quiet time spent drying the spread out leaves is not a burden.

Light this with a match, please. Or a flaming twig.

Latakia is the first impression, followed by turkish and oriental. Finally the quartet with the virginias commence and all is right with the world and you are glad you smoke a pipe.

Slow, reflective puffing develops the richness of this blend. A moderately sized bowl is sufficient for an hour of the best pipe of the day. Nicotine cravers will be sated and those of us who are easily affected will find that the pleasure resumes when it is relit later.

There is a regular place for this in my rotation, and I look forward to it every time. Stock up- you won't regret it. This blend is for aging as well as present enjoyment. Many latakia blends don't improve with age; I don't doubt this one will.

Pipe Used: Comoy's prince, cob
PurchasedFrom: Pipes and Cigars
Age When Smoked: 6 months
23 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 03, 2014 Medium to Strong Extremely Mild Medium to Full Tolerable
At least one of the reviews for this seems--ahem--loaded to me. Which is strange, because G.L. Pease is one of the most popular blenders out there and you wouldn't think he'd need any extra help.

That being said, I like this Gaslight stuff. Pease, like most modern pipe tobacco companies, has thousands of blends, with new ones created every week, it seems. For example, C & D (which manufactures this for Pease) recently released their one-millionth blend. It's called Seriously, Guys, This One Tastes Different!

Ok, I'm teasing a bit, but how do these companies keep all their hundreds of offerings straight?

The reason these guys constantly invent new blends is because they know we'll buy them. The modern piper likes trying new tobaccos even more than he does smoking his favorite tobaccos. And so new blends are coming out all the time. Whatever's newest is probably what's selling the best for these guys, so they constantly have to keep thinking up a "newest".

I received a free sample of Gaslight in a recent order and it was good enough to make me buy more. It's a delicious looking brownie of a plug. Beautiful. Tin note is deep and rich with notes of dried fruit. It's not a lat-bomb--the Virginia and oriental/Turkish have a chance to shine, too.

Still, it's not interesting or different enough to merit a re-order. I will enjoy my time with this and move on to something still newer.

LOL.

Or maybe I will do something nuts and order a big ol' batch of my favorite, Presby, and stop fooling around in this over-saturated marketplace once and for all.

Maybe.
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 15, 2015 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
A rather unique presentation of a Latakia/Virginia/Orientals blend with the plug style leaf that probably could even be used as chewing tobacco (well, not really, but just going by its looks). Rich and flavorful with just a hint of alcohol - probably the natural fermentation of the leaf. It's a winner, for sure.
20 people found this review helpful.
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