Peterson St. Patrick's Day 2015

The grade of this cube cut tobacco is undenied. It contains some high quality leaf, manufacturing is immaculate, and if you like fruity aromatics, it'll give you a smooth and cool smoking experience.

So why do I not recommend it? Because I think it's a hoax!

This so called Limited Edition looks, smells and tastes just like some other pipe tobacco I know, that is freely available at a lesser price, the "W.Ø. Larsen Belle Epoque" to be specific. I think, they're the same tobacco.

Even the tin description is basically the same:

Peterson: "A fruity mixture of Virginia, Burley, and Oriental and spicy tobaccos, gently pressed and cut into cube. Black Cavendish and smooth coloured Virginia are subsequently added. The bend is refined with rum and the aromas of mango, maracuja and vanilla."

Larsen: "A fruity blend of Virginia, Burley, Oriental and spice tobacco are as a basic blend lightly pressed and cross cut. Subsequently Black Cavendish and bright Virginia are added. The blend is flavoured with rum, mango, maracuja and vanilla from Madagascar."

I feel ripped off, because the only limited thing about this pipe tobacco seems to be the tin.

Pop da top to me tin and ooooh..

Delicious all the way around. The tobacco is a beautiful cube cut of diversity. The topping is fruity and strong and the cubes make it burn sloooowww. This is an aromatic that stays with the bacca, has a great room note to boot. However it doesn't leave a mess in the pipe but does leave a good Ghost of St Paddy. So my advice is to smoke it in a pipe set aside for aromatics.

If you are familiar with or enjoy Drew Estates "Grand Central" then you will have good understanding of this blend as I believe they used the EXACT same topping as Grand Central or one very close to it.

I'm very impressed with this new Paddy Blend and will order more. I want to take the time to wish all my fellow pipers around the world a Happy Saint Patrick's Day and many blessings to you!!!

Update:March 20, 2015 I'm very deep into this tin and it's almost gone. A few things I left out my initial review. The cub cut is a bit harder to light than most cuts but when you get it lit its also a VERY Sloooooowww burner. This tobacco is really a nice surprise. This blend could be something they run all the time as I find it already better than several standard Peterson blends. They should think about marketing this in the future and adding it to their standard production. Saint Patricks Day has passed and this tin has become hard to find as most stores have sold out. If you can get your hands on some do it. I highly recommend it.

Very pleasant tobacco. At first I was reluctant as I thought this tobacco would be too sweet. After a fes minutes however I found out that the initialen sweetness evolved in a complex mixture of à variety of tastes. The room note is very soft and not agressive at all. At the end of a smoke you really want more and are frustrated that the smoke is over. This tobacco for being an aromatic one is a real treat and highly recomandable.

St. Patrick’s Day 2015 vs. W.Ø. Larsen Belle Epoque

I possess both of them and they are very similar. The tobaccos used, the color, the cut (shape of the cubes) look identical. SPD smells slightly sweeter, fruitier and does not have the alcoholic scent to it, that Belle Epoque definitely has. The same is basically what l experienced when smoking them. Against all etiquette and enjoyment, I even lit two clay pipes in parallel (Yes, … I know).

Both of them are state of the art when you are looking for that particular aroma. Since this one is limited anyway, the long term rotation is predicable.

UPDATE: I bought another pouch of BE to my 100g tin of BE, and they seem just as different or the same as in comparison to SPD. Slight variations in production and/or age, even packaging may obviously alter perception. Conclusion: SPD and BE are the same tobaccos sold in different packaging. If you don't care for that, pick the cheaper one.

I purchased this from 4 Noggins with a two tin limit, so I snatched up my two. Very nicely done tin art in a 50 gram size tin. A nice mix of medium brown, light brown, and black cube cut tobaccos (slightly larger than most cube cuts I've been familiar with by the way), and a delicious tin note. I certainly was able to smell the various components that were listed on the tin as far as the aromatic elements go, although not much of a tobacco smell to speak of. That's ok as Peterson generally uses top notch tobaccos in all of their offerings. Considering the potent sweet and fruity tin note, this was not sticky to the touch at all. Very easy to load and took to the match readily. One relight was all that was needed to smoke this one down to the bottom. With many of the Peterson aromatics, I find that the aromatic component fades to a bitterness about mid bow, l but I have not found this to be the case with either of the two special edition offerings I have tried (the other being Holiday Season 2012).

This was a pleasant, non biting, didn't burn hot or gurgle at all type of smoke. After having had several bowls before reviewing, I found the aromatic taste lasting the entire smoke without accompanying bitterness. I really like the slightly larger cube cut as well - large enough cubes that they don't get caught in the draft hole of the pipe!

All in all a 4 star smoke for me and highly recommended for aromatic aficionados and those purists who may be looking for a change of pace in their smoking regime. For someone like me whose daily go-tos are Irish Flake and Solani's ABF, I will be stocking up on a few more tins of this before it's gone from the shelves.

Peterson-St. Patrick's Day 2015.

I often as not find that if it's an aromatic blend I will either love it or hate it. This falls under the caption "love it"!

In the tin it's very intriguing on the eye. There's a good quantity of virtually perfectly formed cubes, it's a very 'neat and tidy' blend all with a perfect amount of hydration.

The smell reminds me of high end jellied sweets. Although there's rum included this seems to make up a tiny amount of the aroma. I get a subtle sharpness but if I didn't know I doubt I'd identify it as being rum.

I simply adore the flavour from this. Again I find that the rum seems absent, the fruit takes up most of the room in the flavour, especially the passion fruit, it has a practically tropical taste! There is also a fondant type of sweetness, not strong but a great addition. The flavour is nicely rounded off by a creamy attribute, this would be a great dessert smoke!

The burn from this is great. Even, steady, and very slow. It takes a fair amount of time to properly enjoy a bowl without rushing!

This doesn't bite me. I find aromatics can often be nippers but this doesn't give me any grief whatsoever.

This is a great aromatic, there's plenty of flavour without an immense amount of falseness.

Highly recommended.

Oh well, good leaf. And, I must admit, the flavouring is very balanced and mellow. My problem with aros is that, after a few puffs, you can forget what the heck of a tobacco you are smoking, because your mind is swept away from thousands of smells and connections to other smells. May I remind here that the nose, as the ears and the eyes, is actually PART of the brain, and the scent is the quickest of senses’ sensation to reach the hypothalamus. This is the reason why I like simple, unflavoured tobacco: to enjoy that marvellous trip through odors and tastes, but a trip that I can follow, rather than I am confused by! Moreover, underneath the flavours here you get a strong cavendish taste, which is, once more, just a mash-up of aromas, always sweet and without any distinct character. If you like it, smoke it. Not for me.

Perfect aromatic, after few years in cellar tobacco became so silky smooth and tasty, cool dry smoke no chance of bite, no moisture till the end. Natural taste of tobacco living in harmony with fruity topping. Wish to have one more tin....

I bought this tin from our local tobacconist this past Saturday, just merely because it is an older tin and being from South Africa we do not have a vast selection of tobacco choices. Most we have to import ourselves.

First smoke of this I was a bit hesitant due to the tastes of the other Peterson Aromatic tobacco which is nothing but hot steam.

Upon opening the tin I was met with great quality tobacco. The Bright virginias were golden and if Im not mistaken it does contain a small quantity of black cavendish. The smell from the tin was beautiful, I picked up vanilla, and rum with slight notes of passion fruit.

My initial thought was "oh no, another tin of bland and steamy". I was thinking why does Peterson stuff up such beautiful tobacco...

I smoked this yesterdaay afternoon. I aired it out for 20min on my tobacco tray, loaded up half a pipe and went out to the garden, the charring light did not take well the first time but I was suprised as this tobacco did not taste like the other aromatics frim Peterson, Being excited I tamped down the tobacco and lighted it again. WOW, I thought but being skeptical as it is a Peterson aromatic I smoked it halfway through, It took a few re-lights but once it was going it burned nicely, not to a fine grey ash but nicely for an aromatic.

The burly and orientals came through beautifully and the aroma did translate through to the smoke, it was a sweet smoke, not overly sweet, just right. I was impressed with this tobacco. It was cool burning, no nic hit but who cares, pipe smoking are for the experience and enjoyment and I was really enjoying this aromatic.

I do not know what Peterson did differently but the sure did something right, I highly recommend this tobacco and will definitely buy more tins of this. Petersons Founders choice is the production run of this now.

I really liked this. It burned and packed great. Had a nice little topping that was very "Peterson". There must be coconut in it. Could use a little more strength, so I added some cube cut burley. Very enjoyable.