Hearth & Home WhiteKnight

Russ Oulette's 2nd homage to the famed Balkan Sobranie...This one as he states was modeled on the '70's version which he holds fond memories...I couldn't say since in the '70's I was still pursuing the perfect Aro...A futile venture which I have abandoned to pursuing the perfect anything that I can stick in my pipeand smoke...So much and so little time...White Knight is a delightful Balkan which I will return to time and again...Highly recommended...I want to thank Russ and G. L. Pease and Steve Books and the blenders at Cornell & Diehl and those at McClelland along with all those unnamed home blenders who do this for the love of the leaf alone for launching us into a new Golden Age of pipe smoking...Gentlemen (and perhaps Ladies) you have made this codger's waning years a complete delight...Thank you!...Bob323.

Am I missing something? I did not see this as Black House Mild at all, or as anything other than a middle of the road, bog-standard English blend. Decent Lat, nice spicy Orientals, decent VA and the rest of it, but it didn't light up and shine at all, it just smoked well and was nice, but nothing like the near religious experience I had smoking Black House.

I may need to revisit, maybe my expectations were too high. I have never smoked the old Sobranies, my pipe mentor has and he was trying this at the same time. Same sentiment as me, just a decent quality English, but nothing to get excited about.

Will stick a pin in this one and maybe revisit and see what is going on, but for now, 2 stars and nothing special. I would take almost any of Russ' other English blends over this.

Although I've never smoked the famed Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture, I feel this is what it could have tasted like. I thoroughly enjoy, and recommend this blend, and will definately stock up! My only complaint is the burning characteristics, it doesn't like to hold an ember for me. It could be technique, and/or lack of experience with this blend, but everything I try has the same outcome, I end up relighting many times a bowl. Which, isn't enough to stop smoking it, but can be a little irritating at times. I will record tastes, and final opinions when I finish a tin or two, seeing as I am only halfway through my first tin, I do not think 25 grams constitutes a viable, or complete review.

WhiteKnight is to me a quintessential English blend. Very classic taste. Full bodied, full on smoky, creosoty Latakia but with the Orientals playing an almost equal part with their sour and tangy notes and all this supported by sweet grassy Virginias and a peppery spiciness which is very Perique-like. If this is not a full-tasting tobacco, I wonder which is...

Although I appreciate English mixtures I do not get from them the heavenly bowl I occasionally have from Virginia flakes with or without Orientals and even Burleys, yet WhiteKnight is as balanced, complex and satisfying an English blend as I have smoked. It also smokes cool and dry and needs very few relights. Surely one of the best of its kind.

Haven't tried Magnum Opus yet, but I am wondering how heavy on Latakia it can be...

ORIGINAL REVIEW 6/2/2016

I was given a sample of this at this year's Chicago show and I must say, as samples go, the guys at P&C do not skimp. I probably got about 12 bowls out of this sample. So much that a friend of mine sent me a tin of this as he apparently thought I liked it.

I did not really care for this blend, but do give it credit for the education it gave me. It turns out I am not too much a fan of Yenidge. I think distinguishing amongst Oriental grades to be a complicated endeavor. every so often I would taste a Balkan type blend that had sort of a caramel taste/root beer taste to it. This blend had that taste heavy and since Yenidge is so heavily used in this blend, I have come to the conclusion that that is what is giving me that flavor.

Now I do like this flavor when its use is restrained such is the case in the 1776 Tavern blend. In that one it is subtle and offers a nice sweetness, but in this one, it really overtakes the other elements to my tastes and does not work for my palate. Even the latakia is in the background. Now it is not a bad blend by any means. I was able to smoke with no grimacing facial expressions, but objectively I have to rate this one a two star blend. There is a nice creaminess to the smoke and it is bite free. The cut makes packing and smoking easy and a bite free experience.

I think this would easily come into four stars for those who are crazy about yenidge and I have every confidence in Russ' ability to accomplish what he sets out to do, but I would rather smoke the Black House or Larry's Blend than this one.

UPDATE 7/18/2019

Times change and so do tastes and experience. Since my last review I was gifted another tin of this from my nephew, who also thought I liked it. So I finally decided to pop one of these two gifted tins to see if my mind had changed after some favorable experiences with some other Yenidge rich blends.

I am not so sure my mind has changed as much with the taste, but I think the difference between this time and the last time had more to do with the frequency of which I smoked it. When I get samples I tend to smoke through them fast as they are typically in a plastic bag and deteriorating quickly. Smoking through a tin did not present the same type of urgency, particularly the screw on type tins in which whiteknight is presented.

When smoked once in a while, whiteknight is a real treat. My aforementioned recent favorable experiences with Yenidge has taught me one thing for certain. Yenidge offers one of the finest sidestream aromas that you can get from tobacco, and since whiteknight has so much in it, often times sniffing the bowl end can be every bit as pleasurable, if not more so, as puffing on the stem end.

I will maintain though, from my earlier review, that if you do succeeding bowls, your palate will tire and become overwhelmed. At least mine did. So there is no way this could ever be an all day type blend for me. But for the occasional treat, it will indeed be a treat. I am adding a star.

Right from the first bowl I liked this blend. Balkans and English are my preferred types of tobacco so this blend is right in my comfort zone. It reminds me of the blends I smoked back in the 60's and 70's. White Knight is definitely the creation of a master. The flavor is beautiful and the cut and moisture level make lighting and continued smoking very easy. From beginning of the bowl right to the end it is smooth and never sour. I have smoked only two tins, but it is the blend I want to smoke bowl after bowl. I can't get enough of it, and it is consistently fine regardless of which pipe I choose to smoke.

This is an extremely sweet and creamy Balkan blend that I love more and more with every bowl of it that I smoke, and will forever be apart of my rotation.

White Knight is a very good clone of Balkan Sobraine as I remember it from the 70s. The current version of BS is good. , but on to Whit Knight. This blend is a very complex Balkan blend of the highest quality. There is not much to say after that.

Billed as a "cousin" to Black House, White Knight is a superb, complex, tobacco that I believe is destined to become a classic in its own right. It need not bow to Black House or any other blend.

The nose is relatively strong with the aroma of lovely Cyprian Latakia giving rise to a sweet, smoky, earthy note. The highest quality Orientals strike a delicious conterpoint from which emanate slightly sour yet smooth and sophisticated aromas.

Out of the tin, the tobacco is almost too dry. Oddly, I find that it does not take a match well and multiple re-lights are par for the course.

WK is a medium blend in strength and when lit itroduces a fair amount of smoke.

WK smokes even better than it smells.

A first-class tobbacco in every particular. 4 Stars without hesitation!