G. L. Pease Samarra

Like blackpoint there is no complexity just a single cigarettey note with a subtle sweetness that must be worked for. I expected alot more from the g.l. pease offerings. This would be good for someone rolling their own cigarettes. Aging this tobacco will not turn it into a good pipe tobacco, I will not purchase more.

This would be an ideal introductory English blend for the jaded aromatic smoker. Several months ago, I navigated my pickup truck down to the local cigar/pipe shop cum fishing tackle store with the intention of discovering an ?honest? pipe tobacco among their proprietary, aromatic, palate-cloying tobacco jar blends. They showed me around the store and offered to sell me some assorted items in their tinned aromatic line, but I demurred. ?I want an honest, manly tobacco--no additives or embellishments.? ?But the only other SKUs we have contain awful, smelly, vile and disgustingly old-fashioned Latakia-contaminated tobacco.? ?What the heck,? I thought, ?that doesn?t sound too bad.? I snagged a sample of G.L. Pease?s ?Samarra? and, having paid for my purchase, levered open the tab-topped container . ?Hey,? I proclaimed, ?this stuff smells like good Scotch whiskey.? Aromatic smokers--to a man--they gingerly sniffed with wrinkle-nosed disdain at the proffered can. ?Be sure to only smoke that outdoors in a throw-away pipe. It stinks like burning rope and will ruin your good briars in a hurry.? Having smoked a goodly amount of rope in my misspent youth, with little evident harm to my person or pipes, I began to doubt the well-intentioned advise I was receiving. ?I?ll be sure to observe your every precaution,? I averred as I left their store, whereupon I promptly loaded a generic and geriatric Italian bent apple to the rim and ignited it greedily. Whadda yuh know? This isn?t too bad. In fact, it seems to be pretty good stuff. It tastes smoky and earthy, with some--what is that...cinnamon and cloves?! Holy socks, there?s a carnival of flavor combusticating in my pipe! What irony: I wanted plain ?unembellished? tobacco, but got a rococo pipe-smoking experience instead. I have long since gleefully ruined that Italian bent apple with generous quantities of Latakia-contaminated tobacco. I now wish someone ha

While as a general rule I enjoy all of the Pease blends, this one just doesn't do it for me. I have forced myself through 3 tins of this stuff, with varying amounts of age, all to the same final verdict. Complex?...perhaps, but far too mild and light of an english for me. I like my english blends stout, and sadly this one is the complete opposite. I can see where a lot of people would enjoy this one, especially the virginia croud looking for a mild to medium latakia blend. When I smoke an english I like it to be rich, smokey, and stout. Samarra just doesn't offer any of the elements that draw me towards a good english.

I don't usually smoke Latakia mixes, being a VA's man myself- But I thought I'd give this one a try. The tobacco is fairly dark stuff with traces of yellow virginia it seems. Is quite a refined mixture. smokes cool & biteless with a somewhat silky appeal. But as with most other latakia blends I've tried (all save 759)- that black & smokey, bitter taste just overshadows the VA's in the mixture ..........just my opinion. Sent me looking in the cellar for something lighter, brighter & sweeter. But.. every man to his own.