Seattle Pipe Club Potlatch

Another of the bombing gifts.

It strikes me as being plum pudding with burley. It is as good, and easier to work with than plum pudding is. Nice ribbon that packs and burns well. The burley may be what mellows this blend out. It sort of rounds off the stronger edges that the plum pudding has.

Overall, I like it it. It's a bit more of a go to blend than its counterpart because of it ease of prep. I guess it is to be expected from the SPC that their tobaccos would be outstandingly well done for the most part. I bought some more of this, and some of the Seattle evening, which I plan to get into soon.

SPC makes a lot of “kitchen sink” blends, where they put pretty much everything in a blend. Potlatch is the definition. Many times these blends become confused, muddied and doesn’t have that thing that can bring it all together. This one is all those things, but it is kind of like a jawbreaker/gobstopper/allsort in that if you get bored easily, this will keep you stimulated by the rapid and continuous flavor change. It’s like Indiana weather, you don’t like it? Wait a minute!

I get the feeling this isn’t a popular Tobacco , but I got mine for a great price and am glad I have 2 pounds. Try it out, you’ll only be disappointed briefly! 😉

Seattle Pipe Club's Potlatch is a festive unification high quality ribbon cut tobaccos, the Virginias are fruitily sweet and bright, and along with the earthy, woodsy dry Cyprian Latikia form the base of this blend. Front and center, the Turkish and Orientals sing through with slightly floral, tart and resinous effervescence that harmonizes quite well with the fragrant Burley which imparts a sharp, nutty and almost cigar-like top note. Perique is synergistic with it’s spicy black pepper and sour dark fruit. At the core lies unsweetened black cavendish that adds a creamy malt nuance and balances the components. Burns at a moderate pace to a gray ash leaving little moisture behind, even fresh out of the tin. Strength is a solid medium and is full of flavor. Due to the myriad of uncased tobaccos and their complexity, you will find variations from one bowl to the next and in which pipe you choose. Potlatch has plenty for everyone, and is a very welcome addition to the rotation.

Potlatch: a word meaning “potpourri” in Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw.

Update: July 17, 2020

What a difference a clay makes . . .

If you're not tasting tobacco in clays, you simply don't know what you're missing. I may very well have to re-review in a clay everything that I previously reviewed in a briar -- the difference is that dramatic.

The original review (below) was based on sampling Potlach in a briar. In a clay churchwarden, there was no confusion about what I was smoking. All of the constituent components came into perfect focus in the clay (whereas everything was a little "fuzzy" in a briar). The cool, dry smoke that the clay churchwarden provided, with its 7" stem, allowed me to individually pick out the black cavendish, the burley, Cyprian latakia, bright Virginias, Turkish, Orientals and the Acadian perique in ways that I simply could not in a briar. The best analogy I can think of is when NASA discovered that the reflective null corrector in the Hubble space telescope was about a millimeter askew, preventing the telescope from focusing properly (everything was fuzzy), and when they replaced the reflecting mirrors with clay ones, everything came into perfect focus, with crystal clear clay clarity . . .

In the original review, I was like "This could be like Russ Ouellette’s STC Smyrna mashed-up with some Irish Flake and Holiday Spirit” -- but in the clay, I had no such delusion confusion, and Potlach became a uniquely flavorsome tobacco tasting experience, unlike any other Balkan blend in my current portfolio. Good on Joe Lankford for coming up with this one.

---

This is only the third “American blend” that I’ve come into contact with – the others being Bayou Night and Sutliff's Crumble Kake English #1 – and Potlatch bears almost no semblance to either of those two.

The combination of flavors in Potlatch had my mental rolodex really spinning, trying to put my finger on what, if anything, I’ve had like this before. It’s an English/Balkan with a persuasive punch of Burley behind it. The thought kept popping up in my head: “This could be like Russ Ouellette’s STC Smyrna mixed-up with some Irish Flake and Holiday Spirit” – but that wasn’t quite right (in spite of how many times it popped into my head). There have been several comparisons of Potlatch to Plum Pudding (Plum Pudding + Burley), and I think that’s a closer equivalence than Smyrna + some Irish Flake and Holiday Spirit (more like Plum Pudding + Irish Flake), but it’s been some years since I’ve had Plum Pudding (ever since I ditched it for Plum Pudding Special Reserve). With my memory of Plum Pudding being a little hazy (I only bought a single 2-ounce tin of it, and that was when I first picked up the pipe back in 2013), I think Plum Pudding with just the right amount of Irish Flake would possibly parallel the Potlatch profile. (I need to get me another tin of Plum Pudding and do some experimenting). Potlatch is an interesting, stimulating blend, comprised of some quality leaf, but Potlatch is something I’ll have to be in the mood for – something I’ll be sure to crave when the time and weather is just right. Potlatch is good stuff -- stuff I will definitely come back to -- but Potlatch didn’t leave me doing 4-star backflips. More like 3-star summersaults.

I'm not going to give this a long review as to why I don't like it, although I will somewhat reccomend it for being a very complex blend. I think it is the variety of woody, flat, very smoky Latakia used (which I find in other blends so obviously other people like it).

I will just say that it is mild on the nicotine and has a woody, dry, sometimes nutty taste and a body which I find the opposite of "creamy".

If there were more burly taste and strength,I'd be able to classify it as an American/English.

I finally get it. Needs to be sipped slowly and gently to really get the delicate mixture. My revelation bowl was from an opened tin jarred for over a year. The first time trying it, it was way too complex for me - I was mostly a Latakia lover. Now it seems to have settled down perfectly and it is a delicious, still complex but in a good way smoke. I hope Deception Pass does this too - I am not a fan of it for now.

Potlach. I can not add any better comments to this lis mix described here. I subscribe to the harmony of the 7 tobaccos. I abide in saying that the burley is the master key. Latakia underlies with a minimal and precise dose of oriental. Virginia and Perique in the background. Finally the Black Cavendish brings its slightly sweet bottom. Four stars. Blessed be God who gives sublime moments of pleasure.

Wow! Complex, but nothing overwhelms here. With so many different tobacco leafs, you might think there would be too much going on. Not with this one. Slightly smoky, slightly sweet, slightly nutty. Run, don't walk to get some of this. Highly recommended.

This blend aged very well. After sitting in a decanter for 2 years, each bowl I've had is very smooth, no tongue bite. Rich, smokey, savory, filling, like a fat Sheppards Pie.