G. L. Pease Sixpence

The mildly tart red Virginias have a little less tangy dark fruit than usual, and are a little more earthy than commonly expected, though the hay notes somewhat mitigate that. They also have some bread, wood, mild vegetation, light sugar ad tart citrus. They are the lead components. The earthy, woody perique is mostly plum and raisiny rather than spicy, the latter aspect partially being undercut/enhanced by the dark fired Kentucky. It's very earthy, woody, vegetative, floral, rather sour, and mildly nutty. The DFK is a supporting player, whiIe the perique is a step above being a condiment. I can't identify the topping, but it has a slight sweetness with a sour note and a taste of alcohol. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium. The taste level is medium. Won't bite or get harsh, but it has a few rough edges. The components meld well to create a harmonious, very consistent flavor. Not very complex, but it burns clean, slow, and cool. Barely leaves any moisture in the bowl, and requires just above an average number of relights. Could be an entry level product for those wanting to venture into this territory. I consider this to be just shy of an all day smoke, but is easily repeatable during the day.

-JimInks

I am a big fan of Sixpence. I loved the way Greg Pease wove the Kentucky and Virginia together and topped the broken flakes with some sort of casing that was quite tasty. Sixpence burned a little more quickly than many Pease blends, and a slow draw was needed to fully appreciate all the different and wonderful flavors. I know everyone's chemical makeup is such that certain blends are loved by some and hated by others, but I can't imagine anyone not liking Sixpence.

Pipestud

I must admit that I usually am strictly McClelland, Escudo and Dunhill DNR when it comes to VaPers and when of comes to Latakia... GLP. I was lucky to have a taste of this wonderful weed before it even had a name. If you have ever doubted GLP in this category, I urge you to tryus Sixpence. This is about as balanced as a VaPer can get!!! The Virginia's and the Kentucky kinda take the front seat upon lighting, giving the zingy VAs a nutty backdrop. About a quarter of the way in the perique kicks in. I don't know how to explain how this blends flavors meld but I'm going to try. For some reason.I get a taste of graham crackers when I exhale out my nose. As the pipe burns, all of the tobaccos join together creating one flavor that dances on my taste buds. This flake burns perfectly the whole way down, leaving no dottle and maintaining a solid smoke. The topping works more like a glue, holding all these flavors together without taking front stage. Age will only do this stuff wonders...I suggest cellaring as .such of this stuff as possible. For me this blend breaks all the GLP barriers and takes #1 in my rotation. All I can think of is balance......everything from room note to nicotine.. (actually the nicotine is a little more then usual GLP flakes....not quite JKP but more then Fillmore or Union Square). I can smoke this all day long without tiring of its flavor, its satisfying and bold as well as smooth. Just give it a try....I promise you won't be dissatisfied!

Very much a first impression here, but it's undeniable this is a well crafted blend. i cannot imagine how many tries it took to balance the virginias, dark fired and perique so expertly. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of dark fired as a regular smoke, so I was happy it's not overpowering in this blend. The tin note was very much fermenting plums to me, and there was a grape sugar note in the background, perhaps from the "spirit" added? The topping was not detectable in the smoke to me, or at least I didn't recognize it. There's little enough perique that it barely burns the nose, and little enough dark fired that it's not burning my throat, but those two still give the primary taste, a very rich, slightly spicy one. The virginias are subdued, and definitely in the background. Greatly enjoyed smoking this in a tall straight chimney, it melds into a very rich, hard to describe flavor towards the end of the bowl that's just lovely. Hope this first impression helps anyone.

I am a big fan of Sixpence. I loved the way Greg Pease wove the Kentucky and Virginia together and topped the broken flakes with some sort of casing that was quite tasty. Sixpence burned a little more quickly than many Pease blends, and a slow draw was needed to fully appreciate all the different and wonderful flavors. I know everyone's chemical makeup is such that certain blends are loved by some and hated by others, but I can't imagine anyone not liking Sixpence.

Pipestud

G. L. Pease - Sixpence (Old London Series).

I normally like a blend containing Perique as my breakfast blend, and because I've just finished off the tin of Sunday Picnic which was my recent one, I decided this would be my morning smoke for the week.

Before I properly begin, I'll get the bad point out of the way: it's the dampest G. L. Pease blend I've had. It has to have a decent airing period, otherwise it won't stay lit for love nor money! Bad point dealt with.

The first thing to jump out at me attests just how vague the name Broken Flake can be. To me, they're simply flakes, unbroken!

The topping's a little tricky to pin-point, the tin-note implies alcohol, what sort's a mystery though. But, for me, the smoke clears this conundrum up: I'd say rum. It doesn't seem strongly flavoured, but it has a slight rummy sweetness that works impeccably alongside the fruity Perique. The tobaccos are obviously exceedingly high quality, they ooze eminence. Like I just said, the Perique's fruity, as opposed to being sharp. The Kentucky gives a smokiness, but it's not as headstrong as it can sometimes be. The Virginia's the lightest in flavour, it just gives a tiny amount to the mix. The burn's constant and even, providing it's not neglected, and the smoke's of a medium temperature from it.

The nicotine amount fits the morning slot well: above medium, and the room-note's quite nice.

This is one of those blends where it starts off good and just keeps getting better and better!

Highly recommended.

The Perique is figgy, fruity and mildly spicy. The Virginias are fruity and sweet. The DFK is very earthy, mildly nutty and has a touch of spice. The topping is a mystery, kinda sweet and I think I detect some fruity notes from it as well.

Altogether it's a very earthy VaPer that's heavy on the fruity notes and light on the spice. A very nice smoke. Unique and satisfying. Nice fairly bold flavors.

Medium in body and taste. Flavoring is very mild. Burns very well rubbed out or left as is.

Small brown broken flakes that I rubbed out partially before loading. Smell of some sort of booze in the tin atop a bed of dark base tobaccos, and a pretty good snootful of perique. Lovely tin note.

Tough review to write. The issues I had with this are much less about the recipe than about the tobaccos used. For some reason, I have lost my taste for C&D virginias and burleys over the last year, or they have changed much more than subtly. Their virginias now taste like their burleys and their burleys taste like Kentuckys mixed with ropes. I have a lot of the older stuff in my cellar and I'm tasting the differences between then and now, and I'm liking them less. That's not a problem with the blend itself, however. When this one was "in the zone", it was a great tasting sweet boozy flavor melding with the perique, which gave off dark fruit notes rather than peppery, spicy ones. These flavor overcame the rather harsh burley tones of the red virginia. Yes, it was the virginia that threw this one off for me. The Kentucky was a nice addition and added the proper amount of earth and nuttiness, but the virginias smoked harsh and overly robust, which just as often threw the balance off for me. I'd love to try this with either someone else's red VA's or C&D's lemon. There's just too much tobacco darkness here for me, and it wasn't often enough offset by the sweet and sour topping mixed with the sweet perique. I liked it fine, but it just didn't bowl me over as I thought it would.

(Disclaimer: Only been smoking pipes for about a year, so take my little review with that in mind)

That being said! The tin note on this blend is very sweet! Plum, sugars, tea, hay, and some hints of a dark chocolate. The charring light/post tamping smoke was very very creamy with hints of plum, hay, and some spice from the Perique. After only letting a flake rubbed out dry for about 10 minutes, It took one light to smoke down the entire bowl! Luck probably had something to do with it, but it is pretty rare for me to only have to tamp to keep a bowl lit.

As someone who mainly smokes English blends, I can honestly say I will be ordering 5+ tins of this blend. Very full flavored, great burning, tolerable room note, zero tongue bite, and honestly the first VaPer I have smoked where I wanted to keep enjoying it the rest of the night.

The Fine Print

Tin Aroma: Premium Virginia goodness with just a sour hint of Perique and lots of sweet brandy.

Preparation: The flakes come tightly packed in the tin. As these are broken and not whole flakes, I rub them out completely and then fill the pipe with the Frank’s method. You can smoke it folded and stuffed or fully rubbed, the experience will not disappoint in any way.

The Flakes: Very classic presentation, Sixpence comes tightly and neatly packed. Broken almost full flakes delicately packed in thick paper with something that can only be described as a double cover on the tin. The broken flakes are one of the lightest, fluffiest you will ever encounter if you are new to GL Pease blends.

Charlight: First Draw, very creamy, very light, perfect harmony of the leaf, the smoke is rich but never owerpowering, the special spirit used gives a really sweet profile for the first 1-2 minutes initially. The perique is a delight, never assaulting the senses but rather caressing you at all times. Retrohale is quite strong and you can taste the tasty virginia with the hints of perique wonderfully.

The first quarter- Virginia Song: This tobacco is a wonderfully crafted dessert for the VaPer lovers, after the first charlight you barely would need a first light even, smoke it slowly and the wonderful nuances starts to heat up and slowly start coming out. Lots of virginia goodness, farm fresh hay !! a very good concoction indeed. As you progress further the perique starts to show its presence with the kentucky giving it a slightly fuller body. The taste of brandy lingers slightly with lots of virginia hay goodness, the chocolate coming out in the room note with the kentucky. Retrohale at this stage packs a lot of heat in terms of spice like cayenne but not pepper.

10 minutes into the smoke and finally the first true light was needed. Try to delicately light this leaf, as any extra heat will only add to the burnt bitterness in the taste profile. Very smoky, medium spicy, the broken flakes are now working wonders. Perique stays with you throughout; going up and down depending on your smoking rhythm. If you are a retrohale junkie, you will LOVE SixPence. There is strength in the blend but it won’t knock you out senseless. The sweetness rears its head up from time to time as an aftertaste but it gets muted by the Kentucky giving it an overall nutty, woody taste.

The second quarter - Perique awakens: 15-20 minutes into the experience; the Virginia has warmed up and blended well with the sidekick Perique/Kentucky. Expect perfect harmony, “balanced” is the keyword which keeps popping up in my mind. Miss Nicotine starts to show her presence in your blood stream as she tenderly cajoles you towards your daily dose of her in a very manner. She is a refined lover, show her some tender love and care and she will keep on giving you her wonderful attention. A very submissive partner appealing to your inner masculinity. As with all Virginia blends, go slow. You don't want this blend to burn at a higher rate as it naturally burns faster compared to the other Pease blends I have been smoking.

30 minutes into the smoke and I put my pipe down and reach for a chilled bottle of club soda.

Just a friendly reminder, if you haven't smoked a VaPer for some time, I would urge you to keep some cold water/club soda with you as you will certainly feel the nicotine slowly progressing on you.

After a few big swigs of the bubbly water and a little rest time. I light up my pipe again to continue the experience.

Second Half - Kentucky dominance: By the time you reach at the beginning of the second half the aftertaste of virginias has given away the stage to the woody flavor on your palate. The smoke is still rich and creamy without going overboard which is a welcome surprise as VaPer (Vrginia/Perique)blends tend to get more on the bitter side by now. The brandy casing is still detectable if you puff really slow and give sometime between each successive draws. A fantastic experience for smokers who love a healthy dose of nicotine in their blends but don't want to get dominated.

The retrohale has matured into a fuller version of the previous heat with a floral note in between. Never has my nose been treated to this royal treatment with any other blender's creations like it has with Gregory Pease's. At this stage, you would like to get rid of the ash in your pipe as you start the journey towards the last quarter or you might need a few more lights making the tobacco hot in the process.

Climax By this time I had put my pen down and allowed the experience to completely overtake me. Enjoying the perfect retrohale with every puff with my eyes closed; not wanting the bowl to finish but to linger on as long as possible. Bravo! Gregory Pease

Smokeability: Sixpence burns perfect all the way down, leaving no dottle and maintaining a perfect smoke. It stays rich and creamy throughout the smoking experience. The flakes pack perfect; you don’t need to rub them fully or if you want you can go ahead and rub them out. The experience more or less stays the same. The tobacco burns down to almost zero ash and maintains a steady pace. You might feel a tingle on your tongue because of the spice in the blend but this blend will never give a tongue bite or a tongue burn as long as you show proper respect.

Summary: If you are a big fan of Darwin you will love this blend, a lot. The tobacco constantly keeps evolving to a rich full smoking experience and keeps on giving you the subtle variations and complexities it has in store for you. As is common with almost all G L Pease blends;Sixpence would do wonders when aged. I wonder how would it taste like at 5,10,15,20 years. Hard work and lots of endless nights have gone into the alchemy which gave birth of this gem of a blend. A very welcome addition to anyone and everyone’s cellar.

An epic journey from tin to ash. I will give this blend a solid 3.5 out of 4.

Smoking Companions: A chilled bottle of Club Soda.

Will buy again? Hell YES!