G. L. Pease Cairo

(3.11)
Cairo is a wonderfully complex mixture of red, orange and bright Virginia tobaccos, exotic Oriental leaf, and just a whisper of perique. The flavor is naturally sweet, slightly nutty, delicately spicy and rich. Subtle citrus-like notes harmoniously support the more robust flavors of the darker Virginias. A medium bodied tobacco with a delicate aroma, Cairo will satisfy Virginia lovers and the connoisseur of Oriental mixtures alike.
Notes: From GL Pease: Cairo is one of my favorite cities in the near-East, perhaps even the world. When I was there, the energy of the place inspired me in ways I'd never imagined. This tobacco has a distinctly Oriental character, reminiscent of the spice markets in the bazaar. What else could I call it? Cairo was introduced in March, 2000

Details

Brand G. L. Pease
Series Original Mixtures
Blended By Gregory Pease
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.11 / 4
53

51

18

10

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 132 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 14, 2010 Medium Extremely Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
Greg Pease has a way with tobacco blending that strikes my palate as most unusual. His tobaccos are never what they seem to be at first blush. The old saw of "You must smoke at least x ounces of a tobacco to get its true measure" was never truer than with GLP blends. This one gets a solid 3.5 stars, just short of 4 because while I do enjoy this one, it isn't one of my favorites. That said, I think it is extremely well done and deserving of my support in the form of more tins for my cellar.

Cairo and I didn't start out so well. When I first smoked it in late 2008, I found it rough and harsh and "cigarette-ish". Whether the last 1.5 years in the cellar smoothed it out or my own self smoothed out is not readily known. But when I reopened the tin and took a big snootful, I thought it smelled like an OTC tobacco. No sweat there, as I enjoy several OTC's. However, this blend has one thing most OTC's do not have in my opinion, and that is depth. Many OTC's have good flavor but don't progress beyond the flavor at the match. This one does. It develops layer upon layer of complexity as the various VA's and orientals play with one another. The perique is there, but just slightly... just to add a layer of depth without making its taste known too much.

Interestingly, the tin description of this one is very accurate. It's a good tasting tobacco and one that I'll return to on occasion. More than that, it's an exciting blend. GLP blends are hit or miss for me when it comes to my own personal enjoyment but I always get the feeling that the final product is exactly what Mr Pease had in mind when he envisioned it originally. I think of GLP blends as good art. Whether I get it or not doesn't diminish it's artistic merit. Cairo is truly amazing stuff. As with most GLP blends, it still has some secrets but it's worth the time to discover them.
34 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 06, 2003 Mild None Detected Mild Very Pleasant
An unusual offering, and a very refreshing one, showing G.L.'s originality and resource.

The Virginia here, very bright-looking indeed, is briskly herbal and not at all sugary. The orientals bring it a sec smoothness: this virginia blend does NOT bite. Périque gives a certain airborne edge. Mild but not bland, like chablis. I cannot think of anything else like it.

I have found this an outstanding outdoor smoke; nothing seems to make it burn too hot. A find.




2/2003 Returning to this blend after a few months, I found it had dried out a bit, which made its flavour that little smidgeon more intense. The citrusy sweetness of the virginia was more to the fore, the orientals more in the background.

This was a wonderful experience, at 4 in the morning, in an Ashton Rhodesian. I decided to upgrade the rating.
26 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 24, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The Virginias are a little grassy with a little tart and tangy citrus, and tangy dark fruitiness, and some earth, wood and bread, though I found the sweetness was more toned down than I had expected. Not much of the “vinegar” either. I barely notice the spice from the perique. It mainly has a plum and raisin character. The Oriental/Turkish is dry, sour, woody, earthy, herbal, floral, spicy and smoky, and often dominates the Virginias, especially after the half way point. Won't bite or get harsh, but it does have a few rough edges. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is a shade below that mark. Burns at a reasonable pace, cool with an inconsistent taste, and a little sour dullness near the finish, though it’s fairly smooth until then. Has a decent amount of complexity, but again, not consistently. No moisture to speak of left in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Has a lightly lingering after taste and room note. Not an all day smoke. Two and half stars.

-JimInks
24 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 04, 2014 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
I'd like to make a little different style of review than I would normally make, I'd like to "Review the Review's"! I tried this blend, wrote my review in a "Word document" and was in the process of puting it into the site when I noticed my rating was way out of sync with most of the others ( 80% 4 star, 20% 2&1 star ). I stopped and asked myself what was I missing??? I'm sorry, but being an old Engineer, I started to try to analyze the "data". Here is what I thought was interesting:

1) People seemed to either love this blend or hate it ?( more love it now than years back)

2) People who loved the blend tended to rate the "flavoring" very low or none , where as people who didn't like the blend, rated the "flavoring" as stronger or in the aromatic camp. ( Was there a quality control issue, or just preferences?)

3) There were numerous references to the size of the pipe smoked, the larger size being the preference and seemed to be a factor in how people enjoyed this blend. ( I had been smoking this blend in a cob)

4) People who liked the blend seemed to use adjectives like :Virginia forward, sweet, cool burning, not bland, interesting, low Perique nice Orientals, good balance, develops through bowl, citrus notes, not harsh, no bite, good cellaring.

On the other hand, people who didn't like the blend used adjectives like: Harsh, cigarette-ish, spicy hot pepper, topped aromatic, sour, ashy, all high notes, Perique/ oriental forward, no taste, boring , bites.

MY CONCLUSIONS: Take the time to read some of the good & harsh reviews with an open mind, I did. Afterwards, I tried this blend in a heavy briar and it is much improved over the cob. I believe this is a blend that will greatly improve with airing and cellar time ( 6 months minimum , check your tin dates ). I'll be updating my review as my experiment continues. But for right now, how to rate this????, 2 or 4 ,OK it's a 3

Updated 2015-02-23- I keep trying this blend and now the tin has almost 10 months . I'm convinced that I'm totally in the later camp, that is to say , "People who didn't like the blend used adjectives like: Harsh, cigarette-ish, spicy hot pepper, topped aromatic, sour, ashy, all high notes, Perique/ oriental forward, no taste, boring , bites."

This blend ravishes my tongue, period . 1 star
Pipe Used: Cob & Briar
Age When Smoked: 3 weeks/ 10 months
20 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 13, 2001 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Appearance: Mostly red and orange with a lesser amount of yellow/tan leaf, and a small quantity of dark. Medium ribbon cut with some short pieces.

Aroma: Rich somewhat sweet virginia aroma, with a spicy background, and a trace of mustiness. The blend is a bit sweeter smelling than I expected, possibly Greg processes his Virginias. Haddo?s also has a sweet tin aroma.

Packing: Very easy to pack using the gravity method. The cut works well in any size pipe from smallish to large bowls.

Lighting: Lights easily, but not too quickly. The medium ribbon ensures that it will not burn too quickly. Char, tamp, and relight gets a good cool burn going.

Initial flavor: The initial taste is sweeter than expected from the ingredients listed, the virginias predominate. There is a subtle spice, and a hint of the raisiny perique tingle. It does not seem to be fast burning, so it remains cool, while burning well.

Mid-bowl: Still beguiling in mid third, the turkish and perique contribute a bit more of their flavor to round out the smoke. When smoked slowly, the flavors vary constantly, revealing nuances of taste. No tendency to wetness detected.

Finish: Continues to be cool and tasty to the end, no real change in taste, and no harshness at all. Leaves a clean, dry ash in a dry pipe. When smoked slowly, even the pipe cleaner comes out clean.

Summary: Very tasty and gentle on the palate, definitely a blend I will come back to. This is a type that has always appealled to me as an eye opener, or in warmer weather. Could well be an all day smoke. The only blend in this general category (va-turkish-perique) that I like better is Butera Blended Flake, and only because it is a flake.
19 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 10, 2002 Mild to Medium Mild to Medium Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
Cairo is really a fine smoke, even for a fellow like me who doesn't normally drool over perique blends. What is so different about Cairo is the fact that the blender (Mr.Pease), found a way to combine virginia and oriental leaf in a manner that did not cause one's tongue to be fried.

I don't think I will ever smoke another bowl of this tobacco simply because of the perique, but I did not find this to be a bad smoke at all, and for a perique hater like myself, that is a true testament to the quality of this blend.

I took the tin to my pipe club meeting a couple of months ago, and the tobacco didn't stay in the tin long. The majority of the guys loved this stuff. I suppose you will too.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 04, 2016 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
Most tobaccos IMHO improve with age and for me, this is especially true with Pease/ C&D Virginia blends. I have several that I struggled with that I am revisiting and Cairo (6/09) is the second one of the four of them. The others being Fillmore, Cumberland and Laurel Heights. Cairo’s tin scent is a little sour, slightly sweet, a little bit of plume and spirts like topping. I generally no longer subscribe to the notion that many bowls are required to get every nuance of every blend. However, Cairo did in fact require a long time for me to understand Cairo’s complex flavors. I think that DK’s comments on this blend are very similar to my own thoughts on Cairo and I don’t have much to add. I too found it “cigarettey” and rough when new. There are layers of flavor that seem to show themselves more depending on the cadence and bowl size. I sometimes get a little nuttier flavor, other times the Dark Virginia plays a greater role. I cannot think of many blends that compare to Cairo, although when aged, the closest blend I can think of is Japan Tobacco’s Momoyama, although Cairo is more complex. Cairo isn’t an everyday blend for me, but when aged four stars just the same.
Age When Smoked: 2009
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 18, 2009 Strong Mild to Medium Full Tolerable
Over the past few years, I've grown acquainted with most of the major tobacco types used in pipe blends. I can easily pick them out during a smoke. However, Orientals generally slip past my senses and remain a mystery. I hear people describe them as "buttery," and I admit, I just don't get it.

A while back I picked up some Oriental blending leaf (Turkish Smyrna) to isolate its taste profile. I mixed it in with blends on hand, did a bit of my own blending (I'm no Alfred Dunhill), and smoked it straight (better than expected). I still had problems, so I went in search of a showcase Oriental blend to show me the way.

I chose Cairo specifically because it lacked Latakia, which tastes so full that it tends to outshine anything else in a blend. After some experimentation, to tell you the truth, I'm still baffled. Maybe my palate is shot from all the English and this leather tongue can't pick up on the subtleties. Who knows?

Despite the failure of my mission, I'll say that Cairo is an excellent blend. On first opening, the tin will yield the unmistakable scent of a topping. I'm assuming this is some kind of liquor, but being a bit naive of the variety, I can't be more specific (the translation to combustion is restrained, however). Cairo is a blond beauty, full of brightly colored leaves. You can see a few flecks of Perique, but the leaf is used sparingly. One might think a mild smoke would be in hand, but this is a mistake. Cairo is rich and full. The first time I smoked this, I put it in a large sized Meerschaum and nearly overdosed on nicotine. That is rare for someone who craves heavy blends.

I value novelty in my tobacco, as I tend to tire easily of monotony, and this mixture is certainly unique. I can't pin another blend that tastes anything like this. I haven't yet decided how Cairo will fit into my long term rotation, but these 2 ounces will be a pleasure to explore.

My fixation with Orientals will continue until I'm satisfied with my knowledge of the leaf. Scouring tobacco reviews, I think I'll try Embarcadero next. I'm interested to see what Greg considers a super variety of Izmir, and its implementation in flake form.

Four of Five.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 03, 2003 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
(From a blind tobacco tasting review)

Appearance: An overall light tobacco, this blend seems to have at least five distinct tobaccos in it. I detected (in declining amounts) bright ribbon, yellow-orange irregular leaf fragments, red ribbon, red/brown leaf fragments with a greenish cast and black tobaccos (which appears to be stoved). The sample arrived at perfect smoking temperature. Easy to pack and keep lit.

Tin aroma: The tin aroma is delicate, and not associable with any blender (thus immediately ruling out McClelland, MacBaren, SG and GH!) I pick up hay, figs, a bright American Virginia toasty sweetness, a tanginess (but not the scent) of dried apricot, a suggestion of vinegar and something else that I can?t put my finger on. No perceptible casings, just high-quality Virginias.

The Smoke: On light up, the bright Virginia makes its presence felt with a warning sting. I diligently apply conscientious Virginia Technique for a few minutes, but because I?m driving I drift back into dangerous territory. The delicacy of the aroma is reflected in the flavor without being ?light.? The bowl finishes nicely, but only when the last ember dies out do I notice that my tongue is moderately cooked. My fault for angering the BPTT gods with inattention. A nice, bright Virginia blend.

Second smoke is in a Savinelli Classica, which loves American Virginias, on my screened in front porch on a perfect 72-degree F evening. While I rigorously try NOT to identify a tobacco, breath-smoking begins to bring out not just wonderfully sweet, complex and delicious Virginias, but also a seductive, mysterious and evolving element. The complexity of the blend suggest a GL Pease blend, and the mysterious element, which I believe to be Orientals, leads me to the conclusion that this is GL Pease Cairo, one of my very favorite tobaccos. This experience reminds me that a casual smoke of this tobacco misses the soul of this blend, and can leave the smoker with the impression of a light, somewhat hot, non-complex mixture. Such a waste!

If this ISN?T Cairo, I am VERY eager to see what it is.

(Post-logue: Cairo is unlike any other tobacco available - hence my ability to identify it. Non-Latakia Oriental blends (plus gorgeous Virginias here) are few and far between, but the intricacy, variation, complexity and development of Cairo leaves me breathless. It has gotten to the point where I refuse to smoke it unless I can focus all of my attention on the smoke, because a casual, non-conscious bowl of this will miss the majesty that lies just beneath the surface.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 30, 2018 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
G. L. Pease - Cairo.

If I'm honest I wasn't exactly impressed with my first bowl of Cairo. Boring. But it got a different reception this morning when time was against me! Any-hoo, let's go back to the start: a medium brown ribbon which could pass off as being a shag. The moisture of it's spot on and the tin smells sweet and sour.

The cut makes loading a bowl a doddle, then lighting's easy, which is why it makes a great smoke when time isn't on your side. It burns a bit quick, not suiting the position of an evening smoke, but again, when time is of the essence that's no problem. Virginia (mainly the fruity red) and Orientals (sour yet fragrant) take responsibility for the primary flavour. The other Virginias and Perique sit further back. Especially the Perique; the description says a 'whisper' of Perique and I couldn't put it any better! I don't get any tongue bite but it can become a bit warm if puffed with too much vigour.

Nicotine: just above medium, at a push. Room-note: not great.

Cairo? Well, it wouldn't be my first choice when I have hours to relax with, but as a 'pushed for time' smoke it deserves three stars:

Recommended.
Pipe Used: Freehand
PurchasedFrom: 4noggins
Age When Smoked: Stamped 01/30/18
8 people found this review helpful.
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