TOM December: GL Pease Haddo's Delight

[kheffelf]

Put your reviews here for the tobacco of the month for December.

[IHT]

1st!!!
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alright, last night i cracked the 8oz tin from '05, scattered some out on a paper towel, let it sit for a couple hours. i had a bowl of Three Nuns beforehand, just to remind me what a real Va/Per should taste like.

quick impression of Haddos Un-Delightful:
big wide ribbon cut. when dried out, became harder to pack due to thickness and width of baccy. a LOT of "black" ribbon in there, who knows what that is, i'm hoping it's the perique. tin aroma reminded me of MacBarens Matured Virginia with a dash of NyQuil (or Erinmore Flake w/ maple syrup - you get the idea).
on the flavor front, there's something in there that just bugs me. first, it's not a Va/Per, it's got sh*t in there that should not be in there. enough about that. what i could only think of a way to describe this is thus: take MacB's Matured VA, dull it down a notch, leave a hint of that sweetness/maple syrup taste, add in a heapin helpin of pipe tobacco ash (y'know, when you draw on an empty, but not cleaned out pipe that has a bunch of ash in it), and that's what you have.

i'll try it in a few different pipes. hopefully give it another 3 tries or so like that.

[DubintheDam]

I've just finished a half bowl of Haddo, so the taste is still on the tongue. This is by no means a remarkable baccy. It's on the top ten of smokingpipes.com, why, perhaps because it is quite ordinary in a pleasant way.

The smell from the tin is a very distinct Balsamic vinegar, quite where they get the figs and raisins description from on the label, I do not know. There is a little hint of fruit but more a rotten apple.

To me its like a mix of Prince Albert and Marlin Flake, albeit a very mild Marlin Flake. It has a burley nuttiness to it (but it contains no burley), it has that sweet, sour spiciness of Marlin Flake, also a dark color like that of marlin. It has a slight casing similar to Prince Albert, something you can't really put your finger on. It has a very mild cigar taste similar to Three Nuns (the Perique of course) also.

The baccy is quite moist, I have an open tin for a few months now and it has hardly dried at all, so some sort of moisture additive there me thinks. The leaves are broad, both long and short, light to dark cigar leaf colors and black cavendish (not sweetened).

I get balsamic vinegar with subtle hints coming through of nuts, cloves, cigar with a slight flowery perfume taste. I do like this baccy, but it is unremarkable, again its middle of the road quality and it's "can't quite put your finger on the flavor" is its strongest points. I thinks it's worst point is it staggering inability to dry out. I have another 8oz tin so I'm just going to have to like it, to me Marlin Flake is it's big strong brother, I find this mild to medium in strength, where they get off calling it 'stout' is beyond me.

A good medium baccy with a balsamic vineger taste. Will I buy, trade more? No. But I will gladly finish and enjoy my 8oz tin.

[IHT]

dub, it reportedly does have burley, cavendish, and it's topped with something as well, which may be why it takes forever to dry out.
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nice review though, wish i could put tastes/thought to words like some of you can.
this tobacco is, how do you say, "middle of the road"?

middle of the road.

indeed.
nothing stands out. i'm in amazement this has such a following as well.


edit: hope everyone is getting their samples by now. damn 1st class mail is working at 3rd class speed lately.

[ultramag]

Originally Posted by IHT

edit: hope everyone is getting their samples by now. damn 1st class mail is working at 3rd class speed lately.

FYI, I received mine Friday I think it was. This baccy has a very unique smell IMO. I need to break out the baggie again, but I think dubs rotten apple comparison may be right on. I'll fire a bowl up next week sometime. I recently just crawled back out of the humidor after the last KC herf and figured I'd give the tastebuds a week or two before I make my pathetic attempt at a review.

Thanks again for the sample Greg.

[EvanS]

Well well well, finally some Haddo Delight. I'll stipulate all of the above-stated descriptions of the cut, look, feel and aroma. On to the smoke...

First bowl I ever had (thanks Greg) I loved it!!! Dried it out quite a bit and it tasted just like Butera's Kingfisher, which is basically a Bur/Per. Nutty and deep, Perique nicely blended...smoke it all day!!

My next 3 bowls were horribly confused. And now I look back and think I know why. It's the Cavendish, just like dub stated, smelling and tasting of over-ripe fruits, like sweet apple going over. As I look back I think that this mix is not, well, mixed very well...or at least my sample wasn't. My first bowl had very little of the dark leaf which I assume is the Cav. My next bowls were full of it. The flavor of the Cav itself wasn't so much bad, but for me it very much did NOT compliment or meld with the blend. Instead it distracted from the VA/Bur/Per. In short it all ended up tasting soggy, musty and vegetal-sweet. Keep in mind that even though I don't normally smoke much of it, I generally LIKE Cavendish.

So my last 3 bowls were smoked with a "correction" to bring it all back into play. That correction was a Latakia-infused pipe. These last 3, all smoked in Lat-only pipes were outstanding!! The Lat seems to have served to counteract the Cav and bring it all together. But that's not really saying much for the original blend, is it?

Overall i would not buy this. Not for me, and I am not quite sure what others see in it. Usually i can understand but this one, based on my sample, was a mess of interesting flavors that did not work together. Dried well it burned fine but left a little moist it really went soggy at the bottom of the bowl.

Next time Greg is free with the samples I will not so blindly take the term "IHT" to mean "I Have To"....cuz i don't...you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me, you can't make me,

[cquon]

Had a half a bowl of this a little while ago, and I second what everyone else above said. It started out nice enough - great tin smell, easy light, burned well. But then, all of sudden, it was like I was smoking menthol tobacco.
Anyone want a tin, -1 bowl?

[IHT]

this is funny, cuz it seemed i was about to be burned at the cross on another board for saying it had extra "junk" in it that kept it from being considered a Va/Per.
i guess i should put Escudo in the light English category with that logic - Haddo's is NOT a va/per, can't be, won't be, never be.

[DubintheDam]

Good review EvanS, good tip on the latakia pipe, I'm glad IHT points out there is Burley in it, assures me my palette isn't completely dead. The two good points I'd add, is, there can't be that many others blends like it, and in general it isn't a bad baccy.

[smokehouse]

Greg thanks again for the sample.

Out of the 5 bowls I had none of them were the same. The Virginia and Burley pretty much stayed consistent through out each bowl. I didn’t notice any topping. The Black Cavendish to me was not over powering. Each bowl was different and sometimes I barley even tasted the Black Cav. The Perique at times was fine but sometimes it would turn into a perique bomb. I think I had one bowl that had the right amount of perique in it for my taste.

I don’t see what the hype is about this blend either. I would not buy more. I am glad I tried it though.

Oh yeah I smoked it in a Latakia pipe too.

OH MAN the words flying around on this one.

I will have to stand and say i love some haddo' D.

To me it stands as a VaPer and stands very well. Sure its got little bits of other tobaccos in it but to me they support the overall smoke, mostly in the body. The Perique in HD flys to the nose in waves and the nic puts rest into your soul. Sweet but not overly sweet with an almost cinnamon finish. With the wide ribbon cut my Nording freehand ,with its large deep bowl, just loves to eat this stuff under flame.

[rehbas21]

Got my sample in from Greg this morning, as soon as I opened the bag this very strong smell of rotting fruit hit me. To be honest it was kind of unpleasant and I wasnt really looking forward to smoking it. Moving on...I laid out a bowls worth on some notebook paper and let it try for an hour or so before packing the bowl. (tobacco seems to hold moisture well) After getting to bowl lit I sat back to enjoy this blend, I was really surprised with the flavor, it was nothing like rotting fruit Honestly I really enjoyed the flavor I got, not that it was all that complex but it's flavor was somewhat sweet with a bit of spice. I'm still trying to develop a pipe palate but I do know that I really enjoyed this blend, so much in fact I believe a couple tins will be added to my next order. So while others may not see what all the fuss is about I think I do. Thanks Greg for the opportunity to help me find another great blend (even if you don't like it haha)

[IHT]

Originally Posted by rehbas21

So while others may not see what all the fuss is about I think I do. Thanks Greg for the opportunity to help me find another great blend (even if you don't like it haha)

ryan, it just means "more for you."
flipside is that it means you won't be buying more of what i want, too.

[CigarGal]

I got my sample today(Thanks Greg) so I will get a review posted soon.

[IHT]

Originally Posted by CigarGal

I got my sample today(Thanks Greg) so I will get a review posted soon.

good to hear that 1st class mail takes a full week nowadays.
maybe they need to charge us more for a stamp?