Peretti British Blend

This is a blend that I buy in 1/2 pound or 1 pound tins. Like all their blends, the tin tops are the traditional ones that require a coin or knife-edge to open, and the the tins have the same yellow label with a handwritten blend name and the blenders initials. I like this! No fancy marketing slogans or advertising gimmicks. With L.J.'s, it is always about the quality of the tobacco, and the blender's art and skill. Enough of my loyalty, on with the review.

This is one of the first Peretti blends that I tried in the early eighties. An extremely smooth satisfying smoke that never bites nor tires. A high quality virginia/perique blend with just the right amount of latakia. It lights easily and seldom needs a relight. It burns to grey/white ash with no excessive moisture in the heel. A subtle spicyness throughout the run of the bowl.

If you haven't tried any blends by this tobacconist, and you are an avid pipe smoker, you are definitely missing out.

Presentation is the typical Peretti ribbon cut, about half light brown shades of leaf and the rest increasingly darker with the few bits of black. Tin note is slightly sweet and vaguely floral and while I agree with most of the very good reviews of this blend, I’m apparently the only one who believes there is a hint of unflavored cavendish (or perhaps even a pinch of deer tongue?) mixed in: classic old-school American/English style. There’s some secret ingredient here, similar to Wilke’s Royal Scot conservatively and tastefully added to many of their English blends. Like all Peretti English and Balkan blends, this one arrives at the perfect moisture content and is ready to smoke upon arrival.

Chars and lights easily and stays lit. The first few puffs reinforce my view of that tiniest pinch of cavendish, but the main English ingredients quickly introduce themselves. While certainly a medium English in terms of strength, there’s nothing “medium” here in terms of depth of flavor- there is plenty of complexity there for the contemplative taster with surprisingly and overtly peppery Perique; mellow, muted Virginia’s (just the way I like them in an English blend); fragrant Orientals and dusky Latakia blended to perfection. While I realize I sound a bit like the blender’s description, it truly is a harmonious blend and one would have a hard time topping it with any of the more popular and commonly available tinned options that abound. A reviewer mentioned that this would be a fantastic introduction to English blends but I’m not so sure about that. While the blending is Peretti-perfect with tamed Virginia and this blending house’s trademark gorgeous Orientals, and while, like all Peretti blends, the smoke is dry and the flavor consistent, the Perique here, particularly in the first third of the bowl, may be a bit much for those unaccustomed to or otherwise not fond of the Spice. As such, one of Peretti’s other English offerings, sans Perique, may be a better introduction to the genre.

In short, this is Royal with the addition of Perique. And it works. All of Peretti’s English, Oriental and Balkan mixtures are variations on a theme, and what a glorious theme it is. Cool- and dry-smoking, flavorful and with absolutely no bite, there’s not much here to dislike, even for this peculiar smoker who generally isn’t fond of the Oriental-Latakia-Perique pairing. Peretti manages to pull this off with balance and grace. Support one of the few remaining boutique blending houses and try this blend. Add some Tashkent into your sampler, one of their world-class burleys, and whatever else strikes your fancy. You won’t regret it.

I've started getting into english blends more, and this stuff is prime. Very cool smoke, and it burnt very well. I smoked it while fishing, and had no trouble balancing the two.(Also tasted great later with the bass we caught!) Very low maintinence. I smoked it down to the bottom without a second light. Great taste, light and honest. I detected only a slight change of taste throughout the bowl, which is nice. Packs surprisingly well. Leather, hickory-smoke and cinnamon aroma in the pouch. Tastes like it smells in the pouch pretty much, only not quite as strong on the hickory, and a little more sweetness from the perique and the burning of the VA, especially noticed the sweetness when exhaling through the nose. Dedicated a pipe to it. Worth every cent.

Opening the bag of mixed of ribbons of various colors, medium brown with smatterings of black and darker brown with specs of yellow here and there, I was greeted by the musty, sour, smokey goodness of any excellent English blend. The sour smell was mixed with a bready type of sweetness. Smelled wonderful.

I ordered the famous Peretti thanksgiving blend and decided I’d get a sampler or two of theirs, since I have only had their thanksgiving blend.

I tried the British blend from their English sampler. Wow!! Very impressive! Good quality tobacco. Took a bit to keep lit but was an amazing smoke. Good Smokey English with plenty of nuttiness, incense like spice from the orientals, and had the right amount of sweetness from the virginias to accompany the other flavors. There also seems to be a sweet/sour combination that is amazingly good, i think the combo of the Perique and VAs. This blend was smooth as a baby’s bottom. Reminds me of somewhere between Potlach and PS English luxury, but not quite. There was something a bit different, something more, and can’t put my finger on it. Loved it! Will be getting more and looking forward to try the others in the sampler.

L.J. Peretti blending is superb. I bought the English sampler as I prefer Balkan and English blends. The sampler came with British blend, Centry, Royal and Omega. All are fine blends in there own right, however, British blend is a real winner in my opinion. The others seem a little to oriental foward for my liking. Everything in this blend shines and not one out does the other. There is a certain sweetness in here that calms everything down. There is no bitterness or overpowering leaf to dominate the others. If you were to show a new piper an English, this would be the one. This burns to a nice almost white ash with no moisture throughout the bowl. The old timers knew what they were doing when they blended this. I will be ordering more as this has moved to my top five blends. Highly recomended!

Let me first say, Highest Recommendation! This blend is perfectly balanced. The Perique is judiciously placed, the VAs seemed to be just a little more dominant, the Turkish and Latakia are wonderful in their presence. Excellent burning qualities due to the perfect moisture content and tons of rich smoke emanated from my pipe. Very full bodied and there is some good strength behind this Brit. Excellent value from some master blenders. This is done right! PTLOG

A very nice straight forward English blend. Has all the regular tobaccos plus the Perique is just the right amount for a little added kick. Good all day smoke.

Update: Been smoking this all week as my main tobacco. And it has grown on me. Has a mild sweetness to it. The Perique doesn't bite but is just there in the background. It is now number 2 on my list of Peretti tobaccos. Omega is number one.

An excellent enjoyable blend. I am a long time cigar smoker who started smoking pipes in Decemeber '08 and am finding I enjoy English blends with latakia the most. Reminds me of the tobacco blends I remeber smelling when I was kid. I rate this second in my English blend smoking experience to Peretti's Royal.

This is the perfect all-day smoke as far as I am concerned, if I was the type of person to choose an all-day smoke (I like to mix things up a lot, usually). The flavor reminds me almost of toast. It is mouth-watering. The tobaccos I usually smoke tend to coat your mouth and leave a thick flavor, which I enjoy qutie a bit, but some times in the morning I feel like being able to smoke a pipe and then eat breakfast and actually taste it. If after a late night your mouth is feeling a little grimy but you really want to light up, this is perfect. Wonderful in the morning with coffee.