Butera Pelican

Blend Name: Butera Pelican

Description on Tin: The second, after Kingfisher, in this special series of pipe tobaccos especially formulated to the specific priorities of Michael A. Butera. Simply, Pelican is the perfect Mixture, combining exact portions of the finest, most rare Cyprian Latakia, the spiciest, most zesty Turkish and Orientals, and the richest, most sweet sun grown Virginia whole leaf available today. Aged in cakes then fine cut to ribbon form. Pelican delivers multiple dimensions of sweet, mellow tastes, with a variety of contradicting rich and spicy room aromas. Return in time to those days and nights long since forgotten, when only the finest English Oriental style Mixtures would satisfy you.

Leaf: Cyprian Latakia, Turkish, Orientals, Virginia. Ribbon cut.

Tin Aroma: Slight sweetness, Latakia in the background although not overpowering. Very pleasant.

Taste: Not very complex. No sweetness. Could mostly taste smokey latakia, a little harsh.

Smokability: Dry. Took a few relights, but burns to a nice fine ash.

Room Note: Typical smokey English aroma

Thoughts: Was a little too strong for me. I prefer English's with a little more complexity to the flavor, such as slight sweetness or tangy flavor.

Recommend to: Experienced English smokers that prefer a strong blend or favor Latakia.

Summary: It didn't live up to the hype for me. There's other less popular English's that I prefer. This particular batch had at least a year of age on it. Smoked in a cob & briar.

My Background: I've been pipe smoking for 1 1/2 years, starting out on Aromatics, then moving on to English & Virginia. I favor VaPers. I'm not a Latakia fan but enjoy a well balanced blend. I've been doing Sutliff reviews for about a year. I have tasted at least over 100 tobaccos.

This has the potential to be a fine Latakia/Oriental blend, but there is some kind of additive that gives it a sour chemical, taste and an odd aroma as well. Too bad really since I greatly like its brother the Kingfisher.

Just finished up with a tin of Germain's Pelican from 2013. Initially I was totally disappointed by it and thought it tasted no better than a Camel Turkish Royal cigarette, the Latakia was barely detectable but that could possibly be from it being 4 years old but I don't think it would have faded that much, I just think it's a very lite, Oriental forward blend. After airing out for a good two weeks this started growing on me a bit but still way to mild for my palate. I decided to add some Izmer and Latakia to the mix and let it sit for another month in order to fully marry. With the added leaf I truly enjoyed this and it reminded me some what of the blends you would find from Smokers Haven (also Germain). Great quality leaf for sure but a little too bland for my taste. I don't know why this one garnered so much hype on the forums but I think it's totally undeserving of it and if it were readily available you would hardly hear a whisper about it - hyped due to obscurity - go figure.

I had long heard of this blend and finally got a tin of it in a trade with a forum friend for the common Escudo. This was a trade in my favor, I suppose, in a matter of value as the Pelican at the time was recently discontinued. From a standpoint in flavor, however, my friend definitely got the better end of the deal.

This one just didn't do it for me and it is likely the fact that I just don't like light bodied blend and this is one to my tastes. It has that hay like sweetness from the Virginias and a bit of sourness from the orientals. If there is Latakia in this blend it is barely detectable. It justs needs more.

So what to rate this blend. If this blend was available I would give it two stars and would say if what I described sounds like what you would like, then buy this. But since this is discontinued and tins are already flying off the auction block at ebay for greater than $40, I would be a one star out of realism as you would be better served by buying a couple of 250g boxes of squadron leader.

Keeping it objective I will give it two stars as I reserve one star for those blends that truly repulse me.

Bit of a letdown, it has to be said.

For as long as it took me to procure this tin, I was expecting to be really wowed.

What I got was a high quality, refined, well behaved but also predictable English blend that was remarkable for the high quality VA's that are present throughout, and for the transformation that goes on as the smoke goes on. It really needs a pipe that gets warm to get this one to play much, otherwise its rather boring, but in a good pipe with a well packed bowl, it goes from meh to really nice and sumptuous quite well.

However, it has nothing on McClelland British Woods which is similar in what I think they are aiming but, but BW blows it away for a fraction of the cost or fanfare.

Don't hunt this down, in my opinion. There are so many others.

Butera Pelican - An Oriental forward balkan blend that is a little buttery ,spicy and sour . The Latakia right behind with the usual flavor of the smokey leaf . The Virginias provide some grass and fruit and some citrus? It reminds me of Red Rapparee a bit . It tastes like there is cavendish in it but that could be the topping maybe . It is not a terrible smoke but the citrusy topping just doesn’t work for me . It covers up what I think the Virginias are supposed to do in this type of blend . The topping clashes with the Orientals and makes the blend too sour for me . Red Rapparee represents this genre of tobacco better. 2 stars

Pelican is a mild, smooth, standard English blend, at least in its Jersey-produced iteration. Turkish forward, as you'd expect, with an appropriate amount of Latakia. The Virginias are good, not great.

There must be 1000 blends that fit this description. Fans of Germain's house style will like this better than some, but I can't imagine that anyone is pining away for Pelican when it's not available.

This is very much a take-it-or-leave-it blend. I'll pick up a tin if I see it on the shelf, but I'm not going to go out of my way to find it.

for all the hype i found this to be a little disapointing good tobacco not great in any way

Pelican is an ersatz English. You can tell it is really Danish. This is not a slap at Denmark. Most of my pipes are Danish, but when it comes to tobacco English rules. It contains the right tobaccos: Virginia, Latakia, Oriental, but somehow it doesn't work. It has a sweetness to it which I would swear is a bit of black cavendish. It is milder than most English mixes, which comes through not just in flavor but also in room note. This gets a nod of approval from my wife. It is better in the last half of the bowel because it picks up a little in strength, but you have to smoke the first half to get there.