Peterson Irish Cask

I first picked this blend up several years ago. I cracked the tin did not care for it at all. Overall, I found it to be too harsh. I transferred the contents into a jar to be revisited on a later date. The later date has come and my opinion has not changed all that much. The leaf has melded together a bit better. However, any hints of clarity are fleeting. There is the occasional dark fruit note and the more prevalent peppery spice from the perique. Despite these characteristics I still find this blend to be harsh and not very enjoyable.

This is a strong blend with a good amount of earthy, woody flavor. Half way through the bowl the sweetness starts to come out, and there is a floral nutty flavor that hits pretty hard. I am not sure I liked it at first, but it started to grow on me after my 3rd or 4th try. This has a warm and creamy flavor that reminds me of an oak fire in winter time.

The nicotine content is pretty high. I would recommend that if you are a new piper or don’t smoke much, that you stay seated and have some water handy.

Great smoke, Peterson has done a great job with this blend. Now that I am used to it, I like it a great deal. Cheers!

After watching a video on Irish oak by S & T, I decided to give this a try.

The tin aroma is a nice Virginia smell. Kinda sweet, kinda earthy, kinda musty. The moisture content is perfect. First light to last puff is pretty consistent. I get a very slight spicy from the perique toward the end but it's not noticeable. The overall meld of flavors are slightly earthy from the Virginia's, and a nice almost brown sugar sweetness from the black cavendish. The Cavendish stands out more then anything. The cavendish and perique combined give this blend a nice aged tobacco flavor and almost leather like mouth feel to the blend. As it burns down, the flavors of the cavendish and perique build more and more but never overpower. Their is some nicotine to it as it goes down also. I never once picked up on any burley. Its burns cool and clean all of the way down.

If I can compare to anything it would be Elizabethan Mixture but lighter in perique. It is lighter and has that aged quality to it. Overall it's a nice smooth blend. But it doesnt really have a "wow" factor. It can be pretty one dimensional.

As for to sherry oak barrel aging, I imagine that it would be new barrels because I get no other hidden flavors from this.

Smoked a full tin of this stuff but can't say I overly enjoyed it , the perique is evident , but I think I prefer a normal Vaper , now I notice there's burley in it , the tin lasted me about 12 months as I only wanted to smoke it occasionally , would love to comment on the flavour but don't know what to compare it with.

I've never smoked a Va/Per before, so this is the first tobacco I've had with what I can tell is the pepperiness of perique that so many pipe smokers talk about!

Upon opening the tin, it smells almost... Vinegary (the citronella perhaps?). Not unsimilar to Irish flake. I packed the bowl halfway and began puffing away, the vinegary smell does not come through in the smoke which is good, and there's a faint hint of essence. And then all I taste is what I think is perique! It made the virginias harder to distinguish, but I did like the wasabi nose tingle that you get. Definitely loooking forward to smoking through this in the winter.

The other reviews of this tobacco are accurate and this tobacco should be applauded. I tried and tried with this one but for me, I cannot enjoy burley out of a pipe no matter how hard I try much to the chagrin of those I smoke with and buy from. I think that this would be a perfect candidate for the world's fanciest cigarette and I was about to buy cigarette tubes to put it in and give to cigarette smokers. However, I was able to trade it but if I was Santa Claus well then Christmas would have come early for the few cigarette smokers I know.

Irish Oak is very good, but if you let it age for about a year, it is great. The Perique is more peppery and a little spicy, but also a little sweet. The Virginia's impart a little sweetness with some hay or grass notes. I found Irish Oak to be a little harsh though, if pushed or smoked too fast. It burns fairly well and the nic level sits somewhere around medium. Some age mellows this tobacco out and sweetens that perique nicely. This is a really good cellar blend.

Irish oak is a very interesting blend.covered all my expectations and far more!once you crack the tin a fresh smell comes out.citruses,grass,hey,spices and a very mild sherry note.the moisture level is a bit high but no drying time is needed.every time i dried it out the flavours went flat.packs and lights easy.some relights are needed though.while burning the flavours are very pleasing including everything you need from a Va/Per blend.the virginias are the main player offering you grass,hay.citruses and earth.then spices ,bread,and sweet notes are added from the perique and cavendish.simply a perfect combination!burns a bit fast without burning the bowl.no tongue bite,burns to total ash with a little moisture at the end of the bowl.room note is pleasant.can be easilly smoked all day offering you pleasure!definitelly recommended!

Occasionally when I was a kid in the early 1980s I would get invited to jump in the car with dad for a short trip up the highway to Pete's Union 76 service station.  Dad and Pete were old friends.  In a way, Pete had the dark complected look of a pirate, with his long ponytail, big moustache and aviator sunglasses instead of an eyepatch.  Looking back on it now they seemed quite the pair, dad the salesman and Pete the free spirit.  Now the place was a cinder block building from at least the 50s with two gas pumps out front, a garage on one end, and a reach in cooler full of sodas inside along with a glass counter full of various candies.  And lots of tires stacked everywhere, because tires were Pete's thing.

A trip to Pete's meant a bag of M&Ms for me.

And so dad and Pete would lean across the glass counter, have a smoke and shoot the breeze, while I ate my M&Ms and carefully studied the tread patterns on all the tires.

Irish Oak the tobacco blend remains something of an enigma to me, but I just totally called out the memory it conjures up.

Somewhat musty, somewhat sweet, with hints of chocolate that I assume are from the sherry barrel thing.  Sometimes a little spicy.  Sometimes with the nicotine kick.  A pleasant but wily, unpredictable sort.  Like the Eric Cartman of tobaccos, it does what it wants. As for me, I'll leave the enigma be and just enjoy.