James Fox Campanile

Campanile managed to secure a perception that I have been carrying around for years. This is that Latakia is over rated. Here is an English blend that is the best tasting English blend I have ever smoked and it has little to no Latakia, depending upon whom you ask. The combination of light Virginias and various sorts of Turkish make for a blend that tastes meaty and toasted and simply wonderful at any time of the day.

I get the impression that Latakia was once a mere component in the whole range of blending for the pipe, and only in recent years became a genre in itself. Why should it be the end all, be all of this style of blending when Campanile and other fine mixtures of old manage to do such amazing things without relying upon it?

One warning is that this much Turkish leaf can burn hot if one is not careful. I wanted to smoke one pipe of Campanile after another, but would find my tongue becoming a bit sensitive over time.

Regards,

A. Morley Jaques

Side by Side Comparison of Orcilla Mixture, Campanile and Original Oriental

I usually do not open multiple tins of tobacco at the same time of the exact same genre. But with the advent of Embarcadero, Yenidje Supreme and HH Vintage Virginia, all containing Virginia and Oriental leaf without latakia, I wanted to see how three ?classic? blends compared. Each has at least five years aging in the tin unopened. I do not have a tin of aged Cairo, or I would add it to the present review.

I laid out three mounds of leaf from each tin, equivalent to what would fill a very large pipe bowl and then some. As always for me, this is a test for the eyes, the nose, the fingers, the ears and mouth.

Orcilla Mixture: Color-wise, Orcilla is the overall lightest of the three. Mostly light browns and tans, with a few suspicious specks of dark leaf. Moisture content is just right, but there were more stems here than in the two others. There is a fermented nose in the tin and something very faintly smoky when I cup my hands around the tin and inhale through my nose very deeply. I am suspicious of Latakia, but am not confident.

Campanile: Darkest of the three and the reverse of Orcilla. The specks are the lighter leaf, while the remaining are medium browns to black. There are a few stems. There is something definitely smokey in the tin aroma, as with Original Oriental. This was noticeably moister of the three.

Original Oriental: Bright, black and brown in near equal proportions. The most visually interesting of three, but it is also the hardest to anticipate what it will be like smoking. Only a tiny stem. Moisture content is fine, but I smell something smoky, just like in Campanile. These are not supposed to have latakia, hmmm.

Cut: All three are a medium long ribbon cut, with Orcilla being much finer, followed by Campanile and then Original Oriental. All three are nice blends to handle, but will require care when loading due to the long leaf.

I decided on three of my best Virginia pipes for the test run, then one more whiff of Campanile and Original Oriental made me think better of it. I think they have Latakia. I will not put noticeable latakia or aromatized leaf in a pipe reserved for Virginia blends. I switched out two pipes for pipes used with very light English blends that had very little noticeable residual smell in the bowl. Orcilla loaded with ease, followed by Campanile. Original Oriental took more care. I used the Frank Method with each blend.

My notes on each blend as follows:

Orcilla.

First Bowl Impressions: Not a light-weight by any means, and deep, earthy, spicy flavors betray the lighter appearance of the unburned leaf. I do detect brighter leaf at times. There?s a definite tingle in mouth and nose, but no Latakia, which is a good thing in this case. The burn is exceptionally even, white and rapid. My experience says, ?Respect this or your tongue will get slapped.? That said, it was easy keeping this cool. There is flavor aplenty. ?Sipping? this carefully avoids the need for aggressive puffing. Since this develops somewhat down the bowl, I?ll give my impressions on the middle and last third of the bowl.

The second third of the bowl is when the flavor intensifies. It does not vary from one flavor to the other, except when a little ?something? arrives. This ?something? might be Perique. If you do not generally like blends with Orientals or Turkish leaf because they are harsh, sour or oppressively acrid, Orcilla will change your mind. The Turkish in Orcilla are as good as any I have smoked in any blend and better than most others.

Last half is about the same as the middle third, but a bit more intense. I also sense more Perique. Overall, a solid blend with no arias, but Orcilla is surprisingly fuller than I anticipated without being overwhelming in flavor or strength.

Ongoing Impressions with Orcilla: I keep reaching for this of the three being reviewed here. It gets better each time I smoke it. The balance is perfect, highlighting the Virginias by off-setting them with the mild Turkish. The blender has a palate for subtle, rich flavors that anyone could enjoy who likes flue-cured leaf or Oriental leaf. This is World-class blending indeed.

Campanile: First Bowl Impressions: Subtle, but definite Latakia at the match and throughout, with a surprise taste of non-descript topping. Campanile is a nice, refined mild-medium English, but not an Oriental blend or a ?spiced? Virginia. It really does not develop much down the bowl, but does burn beautifully, cleanly, coolly, and to a dry, slightly mottled white ash. If J.J. Fox were a tobacconist in my neighborhood, I would feel quite blessed with access to such quality (and to think of the blending houses the residents of Edinburgh, Dublin and London had access to, without forgetting Kendal or Jersey, is to sigh that a great era has passed). With the price per tin and solid competition readily available, I am not likely to purchase more. I can still recommend it because it is well crafted, just not a niche that needed filling in my rotation.

Ongoing Impressions: Truly a clean pipe, clean palate blend. The Virginia leaf is top-notch and just gets creamier the more I smoked it in the same pipe on repeated occasions. This is far more refined than my staple lighter English, EMP. If I could get this more reasonably priced, I would enjoy a tin now and then.

Update: Having quite a collection of Oriental blends without noticeable Latakia and being quite confident of the ability of blends to be rich, robust and exquisite without Latakia, Campanile has some Latakia in it (or some other smoke-cured Turkish leaf [wink, wink]). Holding an opened tin to my nose, it is smokey and there is noticeable dark brown tobacco, akin to lovely Syrian Latakia. Dorisco is allegedly a pure Virginia and perique blend, but what makes it here in the USA has Latakia in it. That said, Campanile has absolutely no black tobaccos!

Original Oriental:

Initial Impressions: This is more in the genre of Orcilla, but darker still, with that acrid taste for which Turkish leaf is renowned. Thankfully, it is not sour, bitter or bitey. Compared to Orcilla, this starts off strong, like an amusement park ride launched by catapult. Orcilla starts more like the walk before the jog before the run. Despite the instant ?pow,? Original Oriental is smooth enough. The thought occurs to me that Original Oriental borders balkanic. There might be a smidge of Latakia here, but much in the way it appears ghostly in Pease?s Fillmore. If there is perique, it is quite enigmatic. I think Original Oriental is more like McClelland?s Yenidje Supreme, just fuller-flavored, but not as refined.

Ongoing Impressions: This has merit by itself, and I really do enjoy its complexity and richness. If I smoke it back to back with Orcilla and Campanile, it is ?odd man out.? I think that this is because Original Oriental demands my attention, and I do not always want to think too much about the ?act of smoking.?

At last found a tobacco I like to smoke at the very end of the day; light enough, but still with that 'sophisticated' though satisfying flavour. Plenty of light creamy VA here but with only that delicate and airy Turkish to go with it - none of those heavy or bitter orientals. Makes lots of smoke and a fair bit of ash too. The nearest pipe smoking gets, or should get, to a decent Turkish cigarette, but with more weight. This one is a rarity; you can find 50 VA flakes and hundreds of 'English' with Latakia, but not yet in 40 yrs smoked much like it. Different, and thanks for being different!

The paper of the tin was stained by tobacco oils and the inside of the rim has signs of rust, so there must be some age to this tin. Unsmoke it is quite fragrant. It is woody with a hint of smoke and it is seems to be minimally topped with a beautiful fruity/flowery fragrance which reminds me of the tin note of Rober McConnell's Original Oriental. The tobacco is almost shag cut and contains a few shades of brown leafs mixed with a few black shags presumably from Latakia (there are indeed a few bits of black tobacco despite the advertisement, if it’s Latakia or another fire cured leaf I cannot tell).

Packs and lights easily and produces a delectable sweet and sour fragrant smoke with notes of wood and exotic spice where the Orientals have the lead role while Latakia although present is almost imperceptible. Has an easy draw, if one is careful to unclog the shag before packing, and it is of mild to medium strength but full of flavor. It is very soft, round and supple, but it burns quick – this is a minus - to a fluffy white ash.

Overall is an excellent Oriental forward mixture even more so than Robert McConnell’s Original Oriental which has more Latakia. It has less Oriental tanginess than El Rincon de la Pipa another favourite Oriental forward blend and I think it’s much more flavorful than Early Morning Pipe. Easily an all-day smoke.

Highly recommended for those who like Oriental blends with minimal or no Latakia. The only minus is that it burns quick.

I sure am glad I recently went back to this blend after a several year separation. It seems the leaf now employed is a bit more aged (as am I), but unlike me, the new maturity has produced a better product.

Campanile is soft and subtly sweet in a way one would expect from a Virginia/Oriental combination. Yet the exotic companion to the Virginia here is a cut above many other similar blends that I have tried. And, the room note is "to die for."

As one of the previous reviewers noted; a minor drawback to this blend is that is does have a tendency to heat up a bit. Puff slowly and surely you will be rewarded with as rich and creamy an Oriental taste as there is.

This rating is for the original Fox version (why all the originals are disappearing nowadays?). I haven´t tried the Kohlhasse´s, although I just bought a tin of it and I will open it soon.

Campanile is a great tobacco and for at least 4 years I smoked one bowl of it every morning, almost religiously. One year ago I decided to start a change of pace and take the opportunity to try new things and see if I can find something better, but I´m returning to my Campanile. That says it all.

I have smoked this tobacco in many different sized pipes over the past year. I have only smoked unaged Campanile and I am sure the blend only gets better with aging. Even without aging this is an outstanding blend. It is well balanced and the different leaves, orientals and Virginias, absolutly sing in harmony with eachother. This is not a sweet blend. Think of a natural English blend without latakia. The cut is ribbon, coloring is yellow and brown, with a wonderful tin aroma. It packs easily and stays lit. It does need a little drying out. Flavor is rich, never overpowering, smooth, smokes cool. There are times when I really want this tobacco...I give it 10 out of 10.

Campenile is what I like to call - Presbyterian Lite. High quality mature VA's blended with Turkish leaf and other orientals - except Latakia. While I'm certain there are other fire cured orientals in the blend - personally - I see and smell NO Latakia of the Syrian or Cyprian denomination.

What I do taste and smell are remarkable matured VA's striking a wonderful chord with some of that incense-like Basma, some rich Macedonian leaf and sweet spicy Turkish.

This is a complex smoke that smokes remarkably well right out of a moist tin, and even better when aired for a time. The ribbon cut is easy to pack and takes one char light very well. In fact, often, I only light once until the bottom of the bowl (with gentle tamping).

Marvelous stuff Cheers, VC

I ordered it with a great caution and basically because it was recommended by PIPESTUD. And he was ? once more- 100% right.

Amazing tobacco. For the last two months I have started trying many oriental tobaccos. It looks that Campanile has a maturity that makes it particularly tasteful. Creamy and sweet flavor from a combination Oriental and Virginia. I firstly tasted it in the evening and I didn?t want to smoke anything else before I sleep. Substantial tobacco. You can smoke it easily and pleasantly also in the morning.

His fault is that it warms up - in the beginning only ? the bowl, but afterwards you can smoke it cool and dry till the end. I will surely order enough of Campanile. It has the perfect humidity and does not need any drying. I will agree with most of the reviewers that it does not contain any Latakia. It gives a very nice smell in the room.

PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT

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