G. L. Pease Gaslight

New smokers beware - this is a Vitamin N blend. I imagine more seasoned smokers might not be too fazed, but I haven't been smoking too long and Gaslight bordered on too strong. Smoky, spicy, and full flavored latakia-forward blend. No detectable sweetness. When I was finished the first bowl, I was dizzy, and I'm writing this fresh from the experience.

The good? No bite. Sliced thinly with a razor-sharp knife, it crumbles extremely easy. Penzance like preparation. A learning experience for me.

Ultimately not my cup of tea, but I will try a few more bowls and edit my review accordingly if I find my experience changes. GL Pease has some great offerings. I would suggest trying some other of his well reviewed blends before venturing into this kind of territory. Enjoyable, but definitely not for everyone.

Tin note: Dung. Fermented gorgonzola left in a pair of dirty socks. It’s the worst tin note I’ve ever smelt... I smoked and smelled Pirate Kake and even pure latakia, and they had a decent tin note, but this one is horror. A friend who worked at SmokingPipes told me that it smells exactly like when they opened the barrels of perique.

Aspect: Two blocks of pressed tobacco, dark in aspect. Black, dark brown and a bit of dark gold. Quite moist. Easy to slice, not very easy to rub.

Taste: The first smokes I had were fairly sweet and smoky, silky, dark fruit tones here and there, even pomegranate. The orientals started to appear slowly and mildly, with a bit of spice. Some wood notes were definitely present. The red virginia is a key component in my opinion, blending perfectly with the oriental and especially the latakia. It is probably what gives the pomegranate taste, sweet and sour notes. At first it really is a good, balanced blend. The latakia became more prominent after the middle of the bowl. However, as I kept smoking and after I jarred the tobacco, it changed in taste... quite a lot! The smokes are woody with a bit of smokiness and lots of spice, but also a fermented taste. Perique, are you there? The sweetness went down two notes than how it initially was, and the spiciness has gone up a lot. The red virginias can still be detected, they are a little in the background. There’s wood and there’s smokiness. It’s not smooth or creamy like JimInks described it, I would say it’s sharp because of the orientals, so if you compare this with, lets say Margate, which is indeed very smooth and creamy, this is quite sharp. I would actually compare this to Dunhill’s Durbar, for the strength and spice. More of an oriental than an english blend. Is the taste full? Almost. It’s medium to full. It’s one step after medium. Nicotine wise it’s ok, it’s medium I’d say. Like Stan very well said, it has an almost cinnamon-like taste, which mixes well with the smokiness of the latakia and it becomes very very delicious. However the spiciness from the turkish it’s a bit too high, for me at least. Has quite an aftertaste. The taste stays with you after you finished your bowl or after you put your pipe away for a bit.

Lights up very easy. Slow burning indeed, but it’s burning great, it’s a very good burner. Burns well, with an even white ash. No bite from hot smoke, but it has a harsh spicyness. Room note is tolerable.

All in all it’s a decent blend, complex in taste (not super complex but definitely not dull). But it’s one of the few english/oriental blends that I don’t give four stars to.

P.S.: Review on the spot here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BpW5Q0l3vU

If the FDA really wanted to stop newbies from pipe smoking it could mandate all tobacco be processed as a plug. As a long time pipe smoker I know the drill. We like the fact that pipe smoking is not just lighting up a stick of tobacco and suck in. Crumble cakes are irritating, but not so off putting that it makes you want to quit. Flakes are just a hassle, inconvenient but easy to rub out. Plugs are an ER doctor’s dream, if those doctors knew about pipe smoking they would recommend everyone smoke plugs; lots of sliced fingers to stitch up. Gaslight is a plug. BE WARNED. Virginias, Orientals and Latikia. Once sliced (the plug, not your fingers) it produces thin leaves of tobacco that is like a cigar leaf. As a plug, it comes very moist and unless dried out is very hard to light. It produces a medium to full taste without any topping. Strength is also medium to strong. Once you get it going, it produces a lot of smoke. Very well balanced, the Latakia is forward but not a lat bomb. Smooth mouth feel, with a nice coating after taste. I would call it old school, just good quality tobacco taste. If this were available as something other than a plug I would smoke it more often.

Gaslight is an interesting tobacco in many ways. First, the name is evocative. Being part of GL Pease's Old London series, you know what is coming. Traditional style tobacco with no flavoring or tricks. Just the way they would've been made in England in the "golden age" of pipe smoking. Second, the tin art is amazing. It fits the blend's overall concept. Before I tried it the name and the tin art are what drew me to the blend to purchase it.

Third, the presentation is fantastic. Tobacco "brownies" with rich medium and dark brown tobaccos that provide a completely unique experience. Just the fact that you have to slice it and rub it out provides a level of investment in the smoking experience from the first moment you open the tin that you don't get with other ready-rubbed tobaccos, or even most flakes for that matter.

Fourth, the flavor of the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the bowl. Gaslight is definitely focused on the Latakia and, to a lesser extent, the red Virginias. The blend contains Orientials and Perique as well, but they are much more subdued compared to the other two tobaccos. I can taste them coming into the mix and then receding just a quickly. Every once in a while I get the cool "menthol-like" sensation on my tongue that I get all the time from Esoterica's Penzance. Don't take that the wrong way, Gaslight tastes nothing like Penzance and is not a substitute for it in any way. They both have their own things going on and some will like one better while others will like the other.

The Latakia is the focus here, and the red Virginias supply the support. The retrohale is flavorful and rich, with a slight tingle of Perique/Red Virgina spice. Overall it is a dark experience, not too similar to Dunhill's Nightcap in flavor, but similar in feel and form in some way.

Unfortunately, this is where my love affair with Gaslight ends. To me, it just falls off rather quickly at the half way point, becoming flat, one dimensional and slightly acrid. As great as the first half of the bowl is, the second half is equally disappointing. The retro-hale becomes hot and burns my nose slightly. All of the deep, dark, rich tobacco aromas disappear and an overall taste of ash remains. I don't mean to sound too dramatic. It isn't horribly unbearable, and it is still smokable, it just completely loses the magic of the first half of the bowl and becomes an average straight tobacco more akin to a cigarette than a good pipe. But, oh, that first half of the bowl!

Fortunately, the first 4 points outweigh the last one for me. Between the presentation, aroma, and that magical first half of the bowl, it keeps me coming back again and again. Every time I hope that the second half of the bowl will be better than last time and Gaslight will become a truly 4-star blend for me. It hasn't happened yet, but maybe in the right pipe, on the right night it will. Take this review with a grain of salt. These are only my preferences and the experience might be different for you. I definitely recommend giving Gaslight a try! For me it's really a 2.5.

This was another half ounce sample I recieved from smokingpipes for buying other things. It came in a small ziplock baggie as a chunk of cake (It's not solid enough to be a plug in my mind) about the size of a large gaming die. I cobbed this bc I don't like to try anything too pungent in a pipe I use for mainly one blend. I was smoking it outdoors, and it was not recieved well by the ladies that were present haha.

It's smells very fragrant, not just the normal smokey leather of the Latakia. But also of perfume almost. Kind of soapy, a bit flowery under the manliness. I'm not sure it has the "essence" in it, it may just be artful blending and aging. It's pretty dark overall in color, so I would say this was left to marry for some time before it was cut. You only want to cut a small amount off at a time, as it rubs up to be decently larger than it starts out. After a bit of time to sit out, it should be fine to smoke. It is a bit oily, so drying was my preferred method along with a slightly looser packing.

It took a bit more fire to get going than I expected, but it did burn pretty well after that. On the charring light it tastes heavily of wood smoke. It does settle in after the first third and has some changing tastes to it. A bit of spicyness, a bit of the sourish oriental taste to it. Also it has a nice earthy quality that comes through here and there. It took a decent amount of fiddling with to keep it burning properly, so keep your tamp handy.

It is probably not for everyone. It is a full English blend and should be treated as such. You may want a wider bowl for it, which I think brings out the flavor a bit more than a small pipe does. It goes well with scotch I can say from experience. I liked it, but I'm not sure I would buy more however. It is probably one to be smoked outdoors depending on your living situation. (Not all of us have a man cave). It is worth trying though if you like fuller English blends that are not overpowering on nicotine. Not sure how they did that actually. I figured this one woul d be a bell ringer for certain from the smell of it.

I've heard a lot of good things about Gaslight and I was looking forward to trying it. Generally speaking, it's a good English blend with a leathery flavor and touch of spiciness. It also smokes very cool.

On the downside, I was thrown off a little by having to cut and rub the tobacco before packing my pipe. I tried to be mindful of the thickness of the strips and ended up with short and thin strands of tobacco that broke apart easily. The other problem I had was with the amount of ash created. Not surprisingly the ash was very fine and had a tendency to escape the pipe - this goes back to how I cut the tobacco. Also, I had to do a lot of relighting especially to get the bowl going.

If you're an experienced pipe smoker, and have used plug tobacco, you'll enjoy this blend. For someone still trying to find their way with smoking a pipe - like myself - you might have better luck with something else.

The room note is very pleasant, Latakia is bold in this tobacco. Easily sliced and easily rubbed. Medium to strong and you should smoke after a greasy food 🙂 Also, has a dusty taste.

3rdguy

Just finished a full tin of this. Tin did have about 3 years of age on it and was bulging nicely. C&D makes crumble cakes really, I would not consider any of these plugs. If I can easily tear it apart with my fingers…that is a cake…I digress.

This is a latakia forward, very light English. Smooth, nice taste but it is latakia dominant, 100% of the time. Maybe with a few more years of age the other components would have shined a bit more. Retrohale is smooth as it gets. Few relights will be needed. Not much else to add really..

I think this is a great beginner blend for the English crossover person, a latakia beginner or a beginner pipe smoker in general. It does seem to be very popular with the new pipe smoker. Just not enough going on to make me ever want to buy it again. Not bad by any stretch just not a stand out blend IMO.

Gaslight - a hard one to rate but an easy one to describe.

This tobacco comes as a plug, which is something I always like since it means playing around quite a bit. I love comparing the different nuances the smoke develops depending on the specific cut I go for. The tin note, though, is something that quite turned me off in the case of this tobacco. I love to take a sniff of a freshly opened tin and usually like the smell of English mixtures too but this one just smelled too much of "musty" Latakia to me. I say "musty" Latakia because I like the smell of pure Latakia as in Wellauers Syrian Latakia (a blending tobacco I always keep around to tweak some very light Oriental blends). Let's move on to the actual smoking experience. It's not bad at all, it's just not my cup of tea. There's one simply reason for that - there's too much Latakia for my taste. OK then, this is not the blender's fault but I certainly won't buy Gaslight again.

OK how then shall I rate this tobacco? The individual tobaccos used are of high quality and produce a smoke that does not bite at all. I certainly recommend this baccy to the Lat bomb lovers (especially if you like the "musty" kind of Latakia in this blend) but my taste buds tell me to give Gaslight 2/4 stars.