G. L. Pease Mephisto

Well . . . I hate to rain on the parade but this tobacco did not work for me. I know it comes from a very well-respected blender and is of high quality leaf. I normally love G.L. Pease blends. But not this one.

Spicy Orientals and full Latakia accentuated by a sweet taste. Now I have smoked and like Navy flakes, so can handle that type of thing, but this blend went too far for me. Sort of like taking a fine smokey single malt scotch and mixing it with Grand Marnier. Both are high in quality, but sure don't mix well in my opinion. Sorry to be so harsh, but that is my impression.

This review is by no means intended to indict the other G.L. Pease blends. They are excellent and I highly respect Mr. Pease. It's just that Memphisto did not work for me. Maybe it's because I hate rum . . .

This tobacco smells heavenly in the tin. Therefore, I suggest its use as a room freshener, as smoking it is no great treat compared to smelling it. I admire the concepts behind Mr. Pease's mixtures, but I have yet to try one that I felt was made with sufficiently high quality tobacco. Take, for instance, this blend. It lights with a vague latakia taste, but without a hint of the deep, strong latakia flavor from the tin. The sweet savoury notes of the rum topping are utterly absent in the smoke (Blasted! For once, a casing I actually wish to taste, but it refuses to show its face), and the predominant flavor throughout the bowl is something like unfiltered Camels with a touch of evasive, capricious latakia. This is work, not fun, and I cannot finish a bowl of this stuff. To clarify, I do not feel that this mixture is actually nearly so bad as some of the filthy mundungus available out there, but at this not inconsiderable pricepoint standards are rightfully high, and Mephisto does not meet them. Where is all this money going if not to buy the evidently absent high quality leaf? If you can afford the Pease pricetag, you can easily afford brands like Dunhill, McClelland, S. Gawith, etc., all of whom blend just as well as this and do so using...good tobacco! Do not confuse newness or trendiness with quality, and send your tobacco dollar elsewhere.