Esoterica Penzance

[dmkerr]

Originally Posted by blackcalx

After my first tin of Penzance I was ready to crown it my life-long favorite blend. The aroma in the tin, the greasy paper liner, the crumbling flakes and the way I could still taste it days later - it was heaven packed in briar. But something happened between that first tin and large package that replaced it. We had a falling-out, I guess, and it felt like something was missing. Perhaps it was because I was so used to Dunhill's Nightcap as my go-to English tobacco, or perhaps it was the pipe I chose to dedicate to Penzance, but to make a long story short I gave three quarters of my 8oz package of Penzance away and went back to Nightcap.

Having tried Penzance some months later, along with a number of similar blends (Seattle Pipe Club's Plum Pudding, for example) I have been unable to recapture the thrill that the first tin gave me. I understand why people love it, I just wish I still could.

Interesting.

A long time ago when Balkan Sobranie was as rare as dust mites under a bed, I had a tin of their Virginia #10 with cigar leaf, and I loved it. I gave out enough for a pipeful to several people, including a few that had tried it and hated it in the past. Everyone agreed that it was ambrosial. None of us were able to recapture that flavor with subsequent tins.

You just got a tin that hit you right. Perhaps it was aged or the components were a little different. Hard to say. But it does happen. No need to fret about it, as there are many, many English blends out there, and I understand Nightcap may be back in the U.S this fall.