Park-Lane Tobacconist London Fog

Shop owner, pipe maker, and blender, Paul Bonacquisti has a way of taking some existing tobaccos and nicely turning them into something else and London Fog is a great example of this ability. London Fog in the pouch smells more of Orientals than Latakia. But that’s not to say that there isn’t a good amount of Latakia in the blend. I find LF to be a typical medium to full Balkan style blend that burns cool and seems to produce quite a bit of creamy smoke. There is a light sweetness that may come directly from the Virginias, but I can’t say for sure that is the only source. I can say that it lessens as the bowl progresses. His addition of some sort of Lakeland style tobacco seems to “fill in” the blend in a good way. Having smoked a lot of blends from the Lake District, I would not call this any more than a minor, but meaningful complement to LF, but doesn’t come close to taking over the profile of the blend. I think that most Balkan/English smokers would find this blend enjoyable.

This is a very nice English Blend composed of Latakia, Orientals and Virginia's with an added "secret" ingredient they call Lakeland Style. I have no idea of what the ingredient is as I don't taste it. I taste the sweetness of the VA tobacco along with the full bodied smoky taste of the Latakia. It is fairly heavy on the Latakia but it smokes very smooth and rich and is very satisfying. The cut is rather a rough cut with some ribbon, the pouch aroma is rather pungent and spicy and at a nice moisture content. It loads very well in the pipe and smokes all the way down to a light grey ash leaving just a little dottle and little moisture at the bottom of the pipe. I don't know what Oriental they are using as nothing jumps out at me but the overall blend I find I like a lot. It has very little if any tongue bite, smokes the same to the bottom without getting overwhelming. The room note is what you expect with Latakia in a blend. To me it smells great, to others they may not like it. For an English blend I really like this blend and it could very easily become a regular for me when I am smoking an English. I recommend this on highly!

Another in my Park Lane journey and yet another winner. This is a fine high quality english which stands on its own merit. Browns and blacks, virginias and latakia playing nicely in an easy cut. Add to this the Lakeland condiment and you have an English with a twist. I do taste the presence of a light top note but I am uncertain what it is. I have smoked several bowls of this and it burns clean and dry to the bottom of the bowl and leaves me looking forward to smoking it again.

A truly interesting approach to latakia and a nice change of pace!