Peter Stokkebye Optimum (No.31)

The Virginias have some earth, wood and tangy dark fruit with minor grass and tart citrus notes as the lead component. The earthy, woody burleys are a little nutty with some molasses and a hint of cocoa in a support role. The black cavendish offers some brown sugar in the background. There’s some vanilla from a topping, too. The very sweet fruit topping has a little depth, and seems to me it’s of the tropical variety, though I certainly notice the berries, raspberry being among of them. They are little more obvious than the vanilla. There’s no artificialness to the richness of the toppings. They moderately sublimate the tobaccos. The strength is a step short of the center of mild to medium, while the taste is a slot past that center. Has a mild nic-hit. It may need a minimum dry time. Burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with no weakening of flavor, no dull or harsh spots, and won’t bite even when pushed. Has a very consistent creamy sweet flavor from top to bottom. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but no goop or dottle. Requires an average number of relights. Has a very pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and room note, and is easily an all day smoke. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

Theres one thing that bugs me about this site .. Reviewers .. lol . If you " rarely smoke Aros because they do nothing for you " .... why waste space that people will have to read through to get to a real review . Anyway , this is a good aro in the PS fashion . Like many of the cased Aros , if you like the flavor , you'll at least like the blend , given it lights and smokes well enough ... which this blend does . I have this blend jarred and smoke it now and again . The room note is very nice and the flavor , I cant quite make it out [ I rarely can unless it's labeled 🙂 ] but it's nice . Smokes cool and the wife smokes it as well .

As I write this, I'm enjoying my first bowl of Optimum for the day. It won't be my last. Currently my favorite tobacco, I have a pound and a half of this delightful blend in my humidor.

The pouch aroma is wonderful, mouth-watering and delicious. If I had no match, I might be tempted to just dig in with a fork. Packing a bowl in my favorite bulldog, I set fire to the blend and my wife immediately exclaims, "Oooh, what is that? It smells GREAT!" And she says it every time I light a bowl! This is a real crowd pleaser.

I am unable to distinguish the exact flavor of the casing, but it is sweet and still allows the taste of the tobacco to peak through at times. My only complaint through the bowl is that it seems to require slightly more relights than usual. But this doesn't really bother me and is probably an exercise in picking nits.

I recommend this blend highly for both the beginning pipe smoker, and for those of us that have smoked a pipe more winters than we care to admit. Even the dyed-in-the-wool, English-only, conformist pipe snob would enjoy sneaking a bowl of this when no one was around. Go ahead, I won't tell!

This is a great example of what I consider a good aromatic. And depending how the topping hits you, it could easily be that four star aro for you.

The reason for my saying this is the fact that the topping hangs through the bowl from beginning to end albeit lessening in intensity as you move through the bowl. At about one third the way through, the burleys come through and combine with the topping for a great smoking experience reminding you that you are, indeed, smoking tobacco not candy. All the while this is happening, there is no goop left behind and the smoke is cool on the palate.

The topping is as stated; vanilla and fruit. I also seem to pick up some kind of liquor, but am not sure what. This one is kind of similar to CAO Moontrance to me which has bourbon added and more of a tropical fruit essence, but performs remarkably similar.

I have greatly enjoyed many of the PS aros and this is no exception, but this is a little different than the others in that it seems more like a traditional American Aromatic than a European Aro, meaning heavier in the burley, black cavnedish and topping. In any case, I really enjoyed the generous sample given me by the STG/Lane representatives at the last Chicago Show and will likely pick up some more to put into the cellar.

Peter Stokkebye - Optimum (No.31).

When I pulled this out of my cellar this morning I thought, wrongly, Optimum was an English! Now, by no-means am I 'anti aro', but I'm not a massive fan of this.

The tobacco appears to contain a higher proportion of Black Cavendish compared to the lighter leaves. The ribbons are quite chunky in size and the moisture's good. The aroma from the pouch suggests a large inclusion of citrus.

At first, this is the way the smoke tastes: mainly sharp and citrusy. These inaugurate few puffs don't sit very well with me. But in quite a short space of time a vanilla creaminess begins; this raises it from the depths. As a bowl progresses the fruit also develops more character; what began as just astringent citrus develops into mango and passion fruit. Sadly Optimum bites my tongue and this ruins any of the enjoyment I was having from the tropical flavours. To be honest, as I'm in the minority camp on strength of flavour: strong, I get very little in the way of actual tobacco taste.

The nicotine's mild to medium and I'm not too fond of the room-note; it's fruity, but not my thing.

Optimum isn't the worst blend I've had, but I don't rate it with any more than two stars.

Somewhat recommended.

Peter Stokkebye - PS-31 Optimum

Star Rating = 2

Rating Scores - 10 is the Best and 0 is the Worst

Pouch Note = 8

Room Note = 8

Flavor = 7

Bite = 8

Burn = 8

After Taste = 7

Raw Score = 46

Rated Percentage = 77%

Comment = Smooth, Mild, has a Fruity cherry casing After Taste from Start to Finish

I think this is a fine, light aromatic, and its my favorite aromatic from the Stokkebye line. I see the aromatics get dinged a lot in the reviews which is unfortunate, and its typically the blends with latakia out the wazoo that get the highest number of reviews and high marks. My favorite tobaccos are not aromatics, but when I want one this is it. When I'm working in the yard, I can get a large pipe of this going once and then forget about it as I puts around. Its pretty mild, a bit too mild I suppose, and doesn't bite when I'm concentrating on other things. It burns with no tending or tamping. The flavorings are not so over the top that its a sticky mess to work with. It will burn down about two-thirds of the way before going out at which time it is usually best to dump the remains. And yes, it is a bit gunky at this point, but not nearly so bad as many other aromatics. Its a good crowd pleaser when I'm in the mood to mingle and actually care what other poeple think of my pipe smoke. It has gotten more compliments from strangers than any other tobacco I've ever smoked. Period.

This bulk tobacco offers the smoker an unchallenging, yet flavorful smoke. The strength of this tobacco is very mild, yet it's flavor is straightforward with hints of sweetness throughout the entire bowl. I've been told that this blend is cased in rum and vanilla, yet if true, the casing is mild and one has to work to decipher these tastes. Overall, I enjoy this tobacco, especially during my morning commute to the office as the sweetness of the tobacco creates the perfect entre into the rest of the workday.

In general, I'm not a fan of aromatics, and I don't normally buy them. But, this is from Peter Stokkebye, a brand that I trust, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. It is surprisingly sweet, but not too sweet. It does have a fruity flavor with a mild hint of citrus. I have smoked several bowls of it and find that it has no tongue bite. It will remain in my top drawer as something I return to regularly, when I'm in the mood for it. I recommend that you give it a try.

I must admit that this review may be a little skewed. I love Stokkebye blends, but I just couldn't get into this one. Perhaps it was because it was very well aged whenever I received it. A friend of mine who runs a tobacco shop found it in the back room (he bought the place from the previous owner last year). He let me get a sample bag (about 8 oz) for helping him out. This stuff had me pretty excited because it smelled AMAZING in the bag, and it was the perfect moisture level. I packed it in a Dr. Grabow and lit it up, expecting the tobacco gods to deliver the magic of a well-aged tobacco to my palate.

That's pretty much where the excitement gave way to utter disappointment. It was a bland, tasteless smoke with a hint of sweetness. My car smelled wonderful, but I couldn't taste anything. I may pick up a fresh batch sometime to try, but for now I'll leave this one in a jar to mix with other things.