Hearth & Home WhiteKnight

This is an amazing medium bodied Balkan-style blend, and I knew that I would enjoy this tobacco from the moment I cracked the tin. The tin note is a mixture of a woodsy campfire, and rich premium leather. The cut of the tobacco was a consistent short, yet thick ribbon that seems to pack well, and due to it being a little more on the dry side, it takes a light easy enough. At first light you are greeted by the smoky and leather like Latakia which to me seemed to be the strongest in the first third of the bowl. Now the Orientals were present throughout the entire smoke, however it just seemed that the Latakia was the star of the show for that first third. Other than that one observation, the tobacco stayed pretty consistent throughout the entire smoke with no singular tobacco stealing the show so to speak. As for the room note, I was told by those around me that it had a tolerable if not pleasant smell of a camp fire. The tobacco burned down to a fine white ash, although I did have to tend the pipe more frequently with this blend than I am use to. Overall, I was very pleased with WhiteKnight and will be purchasing more in the future. I would recommend this blend to anyone that enjoys the English/Balkan style blends

Never have any vintage Balkan Sobranie before, but been trying several Balkan blends that Russ made. White Knight is medium, multi layered, a little sweet, and refined oriental forward Balkan blend. I would say it's not as strong as Black House and Magnum Opus, but the flavor by all means is full and taste. The room note is classic, incense-like to the smokers and horrifying to wives.

As a big fan of Black House I was eager to try Russ's version of Sobranie white. I tried this tobacco in several different pipes and finished the tin before I gave this review. This blend has none of the spiciness and character the Black House has and when compared to the rerelease of Balkan Sobranie it comes up short. I made myself keep trying this blend in the hope it would eventually hook me in, but no. The first bowl tasted meh and the final bowl tasted meh.

I started smoking Balkan Sobranie around the same time Jim Inks did. So, I too missed the earlier versions of this blend. Obviously, WhiteKnight is not the blend I remember, but there are definitely elements, especially in regards to overall taste and scent that the eighties blend provided.

The main difference, for me, is the eighties version didn't have such a "high pepper count." WhiteKnight, I swear, has a goodly amount of perique added (or, at the very least something that mimics perique). I enjoyed this blend, but the pepper put me off a bit. Perhaps someone else can expound on this "pepper effect"; what is it in WhiteKnight that's providing this?

The current Balkan Sobranie blend, of which I've recently secured another tin (which wasn't easy) is definitely smoother and lacks the pepper. I prefer it over WhiteKnight, but considering the absolute pain in trying to purchase the most recent Balkan Sobranie, WhiteKnight is a good substitute (the recent Balkan Sobranie is not without its issues, either. Please read my update on Balkan Sobranie).

A solid 3 stars for me.

Keep on Pipin'!

I was lucky enough to be one of the pipe smokers who enjoyed many decades of Balkan Sobranie. Alas now our old faithful balkan blend is gone. But I say to you, it's okay fellow lovers of aromatic spicy blends that leave your taste buds asking for more. Hearth and Home has come up with a worthy runner up to an old friend.

White Knight is a truly flavorful blend masterfully blended to appease those of us who desire a more complex english blend. This tobacco smells great from the tin and smokes well without any additional drying or preparation. I would recommend this offering to a seasoned smoker. As most Balkans this should be lingered over along with coffee and the Sunday paper. Sweet smokes my friends!

I smoked one pouch of the old Balkan Sobranie smoking mixture in the early 1990s while I was in college and didn't know what I was doing when it came to pipe smoking (or much else, for that matter lol). That is far too long ago, and too brief an acquaintance, for me to be able to compare White Knight to the Sobranie. On its own merits, White Knight is very tasty balkan mixture. I found it dry, both in terms of taste and moisture. Very oriental-forward, with the Latakia and Virginia in second and third place, respectively. Quite spicy at times, which I very much enjoyed, with notes of leather and that yenidje spice note that is distinctive--I have seen it described as "unflavored soda" in reviews below, and I can see that, but I also got a little burst of sweetness too. A very tasty blend, but I found it very difficult to keep lit, despite having tried it in a variety of shapes and sizes of pipes. It worked best for me in a smallish Peterson bulldog.

The description of this tobacco is right on. You don't have to warm up to it. It's complexity is evident with the first Puff.. the interplay between the Latakia and the orientals is flawless and very pronounced. In fact that's what this blend is all about. For those who are obsessed with the incense quality of some English blends, they just hit the jackpot. But, it is not musty and old. It does not remind you of squeaky leather, tapestries, or furniture with wooden feet. It is much too vibrant for that. This tobacco seems alive.

Some tobacco I prefer to smoke on rainy days, such as Mcclellan's black shag or G.L. Pease's quiet nights. But not this one. White Knight is made for sunny days and convertible cars. Fireworks in the backyard or with a game of horseshoes. I think this smoke is made for good times. You don't have to ponder it, or break it down. It just feeds you what you want.

Pretty dry blend. Not much dottle. Like any good tobacco, a great reward with small puffs.

My perception of this blend underwent a radical change. After my first two smokes, I considered WhiteKnight not just a poor oriental-forward English -- but unsmokable. The orientals were too perfumed. The yenidje leaf imparted the cloying taste of unflavored soda water. How could reviews for this blend be anything but negative? I chalked it up to a peculiarity of my palate.

But as a new pipe smoker, one lesson I've learned from veterans is to hold on to jars of all blends -- even those I dislike. And so this is what I did.

Three months later, for lack of a morning English, I decided to revisit WhiteKnight. I expected to dislike it as much as I did during the first two smokes. But in the intervening period, something miraculous happened. The perfume and soda water taste abated. They drew back from the front. Now they only existed as something of a seasoning -- allowing the latakia a more central, grounding role.

That made all the difference. Now each smoke is a pleasure.

As I write this, I'm currently in the process of smoking down my stock of WhiteKnight. I use it as my morning blend. Will I buy it again soon? Likely not. Again, as a new pipe smoker, there are other English blends I'm eager to try. But WhiteKnight reinforced an invaluable lesson: never judge a blend on how it smokes directly out of the tin.

I'm trying this tobacco on the recommendations of this website and I'm wondering if this is now a different tobacco from these older reviews. Can certainly smell latakia on opening the tin; however, after several pipes full, using several different pipes, over several different evenings, I'm wondering if I've got a bad tin here or something. The moisture is fine out of the tin, the tin was definitely sealed when I opened it, but this is just plain bad tobacco. Bland, but bitter and harsh, even after trying different packing methods and different size pipes. I used to smoke the Balkan 759 as my everyday smoke when it was still in the old "cut the top" lithograph tins... I'm not even comparing White Knight to my memories of that old tobacco, this doesn't even qualify as a Balkan at all. I usually smoke LJ Peretti and Wilke blends, along with semois (and the occasional pouch of Saint Bruno and Five Brothers), and I have to wonder if this is just a bad batch of tobacco. Although you can detect latakia in the tin note, I'm not getting much out of this at all. I even opened a fresh tin of Ten Russians to make sure there wasn't something wrong with my palate. I'm actually going to check back here to see if there's any more reviews going forward to see if anybody else has had the same experience as me. I try not to be a negative reviewer but in this case I almost feel like I'm warning people away from this...

update 6/16/21 after having gone through most of the tin now, I'm going to have to go with this is either a bad batch or it's no longer made with the same quality tobacco the other reviewers were getting... it's both bland and unpleasantly bitter... finished off a tin of 10 Russians in the meantime and I don't think it's my palate because the 10 Russians was perfectly fine to the last shred. oh well, make of this review what you will, there are other tobaccos out there that are consistently good, and I don't see any reason to take another chance on this one.