Triple Reviews from OnePyroTec's Not Your Average Type Of Trade

**Tobias Lutz** · 02-19-2015, 01:58 PM

(originally posted by @JustTroItIn )

Shortly before the demise of Puff, @OnePyroTec was kind enough to send out some baccy to people for review. Per his request, I'm recreating the thread here. While I still have some baccy and still may need to review it again, I was able to recover some of my reviews using the cache from Puff that Yahoo still has. Thanks to @Emperor Zurg for bringing the cache to my attention in a different thread.

I'll start out with the premise for the review originally posted by @BryGuySC

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First, the backstory. @OnePyroTec initiated a "trade" - 3 tobacco samples in exchange for a review of each sample. He requested all of the reviews be placed in the same thread. This is that thread!

Each reviewer got the following:
1) Peter Stokkebye Peaches & Cream that was jarred in 2008.
2) Jose Gener La Escepcion. It is from the island south of miami, it is harsh, it is old...no idea how old.
3) A random sample of something else.

**Tobias Lutz** · 02-19-2015, 01:59 PM

(originally posted by @JustTroItIn )

This is the only one of my reviews that I could recover so I will be smoking me some P&S Peaches and Cream and Jose Gener La Escepcion for a repeat review within the next week or two.

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Tonight I'm reviewing Butera's Royal Vintage Golden Cake dated 1993. I was a Sophomore in high school when this tobacco was purchased. Golden Cake is a broken flake Virginia. The tin note smells slightly of Vanilla. I have smoked three bowls of this sample. One in a Savinelli Alligator 310, another in a Grabow Lark, and the last in an MM Patriot cob with Forever Stem. I think the cob did this tobacco the most justice.

I found the strength to be on the mild to medium side. The flavor is sweet, uniform, and had notes of honey. I would occasionally get a tangy flavor on the tail end of exhale. This tobacco has a consistent flavor all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Virginia's can be bitey and the years haven't taken the teeth out of this blend. Even smoking as slowly as I could without allowing the fire to extinguish I would get that tingle on every puff.

Overall, I found it to be an excellent Virginia flake. The only draw back for me was the potential for tongue bite if I wasn't paying as much attention to the bowl as it deserved.

Thank you very much for the sample!

**Tobias Lutz** · 02-19-2015, 02:45 PM

My third:

Peter Stokkebye Peaches & Cream

Thanks to the wonders of PG, this was still very moist after 6 years. I placed mine under a lamp for a couple hours to dry it out a bit. The bag note was what I consider quintessential bulk aromatic…i.e. fruity Cavendish goodness with a bit of “zip” or “twang” to it. I don’t really smell the crème in the pre-light, but the peach is most certainly there. This reminds me of the McClelland Georgia Cream blend. I smoked my first sample in a MM cob with Forever Stem. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this tobacco was “flat”, but it definitely mellowed out a bit. I thought the crème flavor actually had a bit of nuttiness to it, and the peach tasted much less like a chemical concoction, and more like the leaf had really been soaked in peach nectar. The burn was cool, and there was nothing bitey about the blend. The room note is still excellent (in turn, leaving a pleasant “moustache note” as another reviewer put it ) This might be the oldest aro I’ve smoked that I could really compare against itself fresh in my mind. I realize this blend actually has some Virginia in it, and so it might weather better than a pure Cavendish, but I wouldn’t say this gained anything with time. I seems more a matter of losing a bit of sharpness and becoming more homogenized flavor wise. I think it is a tossup as to which one I prefer (old or new).

I actually dug up a thread where I reviewed a fresh batch of this in June:

3. No. 303 Peaches and Crème
Similar to the Highland blend, No. 303 is comprised of Virginias grown exclusively on the African continent, black Cavendish, and some milder Burley. My first pipe of tasty aro was “Mellow Moonshine” from the Gatlinburlier which features a peach brandy topping. As such, this is another somewhat uncommon pipe flavor that I still gravitate to over ten years later. This blend certainly has the scent down- if I close my eyes I can smell the peach juice running down my wrist when I take a whiff of the bag. True to nature, there is also the slightest fruity zing to it that keeps it from being a purely sickening sweet odor. No. 303 quickly declared itself the winner in the “who gets smoked first” contest and was loaded into a Chacom Manet. From the first char, this is the stuff room-note dreams are made of I felt guilty smoking it without anyone around. This seemed moist but stayed lit, though some gurgling did occur towards the end of the bowl. The peach flavor was evident from the first puff, walking a thin line between natural and artificial/chemical but trending towards the former. The sweet crème flavor in the retrohale was pleasant but was played down by the bit of tartness in the fruit topping. I can see this blend biting if puffed too hard. Overall- a reasonable peach aro, but certainly not the best on the market. C+

**Branzig** · 02-19-2015, 03:20 PM

Tobacco: Jose Gener La Escepcion

Pipe: A Cob and A Irish Whiskey Pete

Prequel: Continuing on with the three review series, I decided it was cold enough here that maybe smoking a little Cuban leaf may just warm me up! I have smoked 3 bowls of this stuff and had to switch up pipes at one point to make sure that my pipe wasn't ghosted by something because I was skeptical of what my taste buds were telling me!

Tin Note: Very strong cigar leaf scent, not robust but definitely cigar leaf. Nice hints of leather and earthy aroma, everything that I would expect to smell in a Cuban leafed pipe tobacco.

The Smoke: Perfect to smoke straight from the bag. Zero problems packing or lighting. Once lit was very easy to maintain and to keep smoldering. Was, however, a very quick burner and required more tamping than I thought it would! Light wispy smoke that left a semi "slick" mouthfeel. The tobacco burned down into a flaky black and grey ash.

Flavors: Right from the start I noticed a typical, but noticeably lighter, cigar flavor. A lot of earthy goodness and leather. But then something odd hit me on the tail end. A flavor that I can only describe as geranium. Lakeland. Very odd. It was something that I wasn't at all expecting. As the bowl warmed up and I was well beyond the half way point, there was a lot more earth and at times a peppery zing that was quite enjoyable. All the way through the remainder of the bowl the earthy tobacco and twang notes reigned supreme, but the sweet geranium always seemed to there on the aftertaste.

Conclusion: Well, a very interesting tobacco indeed. So interesting that I had to go back and smoke this in a different pipe, just to make sure that I hadn't accidentally selected a cob that I had smoked a Lakeland blend in. After switching up to a Peterson that I know I had never smoked anything tainted by essence in and still receiving the same results, I knew it was the tobacco and not the pipe for certain. Overall, I actually really liked this tobacco and I didn't find it harsh to smoke at all. It is something that I think I would smoke again, if not for it's character and individuality alone. It almost reminds me of a Dark Birdseye but with less strength and more of an earthy taste...I may be alone on this one, but I think it was quite good.

**Tobias Lutz** · 02-19-2015, 02:01 PM

(originally posted by @BryGuySC )

I had my reviews saved in my Google Drive!

Date: 01/05/2015
Tobacco: Peter Stokkebye Peaches & Cream
Pipe: The Pipe.
Age: 2008
Tin Note: Very little peach. Very mild scent.
Prep: Straight out of the bag. Sprinkled tobacco with light tamp, three times.
Smoke: Very smooth and light. Absolutely no bite. Even the retrohale was smooth.
Flavor: Flavors are very mild. There is definitely a hint of peach. More of a canned, sweetened peach than a fresh peach. You have to look for it on the draw, but I can really smell it in my mustache. I get a nice, sweet, peachy smoke smell out of my mustache. Every once and a while I get a hint of leather.
Other Notes: All-in-all, this was a pleasant smoke. I liked that the peach was subtle, but did wish I could pick out some other flavor notes.
Paired with: Sweet Tea. They went together very nicely!

Date: 01/12/15
Tobacco: Balkan Sasieni
Pipe: Missouri Meershaum
Age: 2004
Tin Note: Mild, light smokiness, with a stronger sweetness.
Prep: Right from the jar into the pipe with the Frank method.
Smoke: Smooth and mild
Flavor: Leather, light smokiness, a peaty mustiness, pepper, spices, and an occasional hint of something like perfume.
Other Notes: This is my first balkan blend. It is subtle with more spice notes than I expected. Not sure if this is specific to this tobacco, or balkans in general. It smoked well - no gurgling or burn problems. I don’t have the experience to compare it with the fresh version of this tobacco.

Date: 01/16/15
Tobacco: De Jose Gener La Escepcion
Pipe: The Pipe
Age: OLD
Tin Note: Very fruity, peachy apricot; but not sure if it picked it up from the PS Peaches & Cream during shipment. Tobacco sounded very dry when I shook the jar.
Prep: Separated all three tobaccos into their own containers as soon as I received the package. Left tobacco out for a while.
Smoke: Very cigar-like. I did not get any of the peachy scent during the smoke. Smoking this smelled very much like smoking a mild cigar. I picked out hints of leather, and several different levels of “burning wood.”
Other Notes: The tobacco started with a very easy draw. As the ash settled the draw got tighter. Even the lightest tamp (barely touching the ash to flatten) tightened the draw even more. I loosened the tobacco and resettled, which helped. The tobacco smoked very quickly, and a bit hot. This is not something I would seek out, but I’m glad for the opportunity to try it, and will finish the sample. I’ll update my review with anything new from subsequent smokes.