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With this month's mystery review, I once again chose something I thought would be outside our test subj... participants' usual course. The key word there is thought. This is an old blend, been around for ages, and I probably should have expected that even those who are in the habit of sitting around, puffing contemplatively over the latest Pease blends and arguing their merits and nuances, would have tried this one at some point. And it is one that's pretty hard to forget.
This is the first time that I can recall Eric writing some advice on the mystery tobacco baggie: "A small pipe perhaps would be best." In light of this warning, I loaded up a group five sized poker with the fine shag cut. The tobacco smells earthy and strong with a slight sweetness. My first thought was that perhaps it was a G&H blend, but the charring light changed my mind. This is a big, full-bodied burley tobacco with more strength than flavor. At first I disliked the tobacco, finding it harsh and unbalanced. I enjoy a strong smoke, but the nicotine punch should be balanced with flavor. This one left me reeling a bit, and thinking that perhaps I should have taken Eric's warning more seriously. In terms of flavor, there isn't very much beyond a slight nuttiness. I smoked a second bowl and decided that I'd been too hard on the blend. This is a simple, stout tobacco, and there's plenty of merit in that, even in the midst of today's blending Renaissance. I'm pretty sure that this is F___ ________.
The sample for this blind tasting came to me just earlier today, by way of Dennis Mann, our pipe manager. He's been a little under the weather and unable to smoke, or more to the point, taste anything when he's tried. As such he asked that I take his place as a participant in this tasting. Not being the sort of guy to ever turn down a smoke, I gladly accepted and began investigating the sample more closely.
I found the cut of the tobacco to be very thin and shaggy, finer even than, say, Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Kendal Gold. More like Bali Shag rolling tobacco. This thinness of cut narrows the playing field considerably, as there are not many pipe blends cut in such a fashion these days. The color of the tobacco is mostly medium brown with flecks here and there of lighter leaf, and the birdseyes of cross-cut stems scattered throughout. This further narrows the playing field, really to one singular blend.
So from the outset of the smoke, I was fairly sure that this was F___ ________. Upon the first puff, the earthy, leathery flavors of dark Burley made themselves readily apparent. There is a deep, yet subtle tang or sourness/ spiciness that occasionally reminds me of Perique, though there is certainly none of the Cajun leaf present. No topping or sweetness here, nor is there much in the way of complexity, just good, old fashioned Burley richness. Heavy puffing yields no bite, but the most flavor comes from slow sipping. The fine cut tobacco burns nicely and the Vitamin N is quite prevalent. A bit of harshness was noted toward the end of the bowl.
Okay, so I've done a few of these mystery reviews now, and I'll admit, 99% of the time, I have no idea what the mystery tobacco really is until Eric tells me. That being said, I'm fairly confident I know what this is.
The cut is one giveaway: an extra-fine birdseye-style shag, about on par with Kendal Kentucky in color. The tin aroma is that of pure tobacco, rich with nutty undertones; yep, another clue. The flavor? Well, it seems to be mostly (if not entirely) composed of Burley, and fairly young Burley judging by the Vitamin-N punch that followed. That being said, there's a nice richness there. The smoke possessed a lot of body, some nice nutty notes, but also quite a bit of harshness as well. It is rather one-dimensional, but there's a nice old school classic feel there, similar to what I experience when smoking certain GH & Co. blends. Suffice to say, there's only one blend that I can think of that matches to the teeth: F___ ________.
Of course, I could be wrong, but I've had a fair amount of experience with the blend and know its nicotine content, flavor, and cut quite well. It's actually one of my preferred smokes, except I usually mix it with other similarly cut shags like GH & Co.'s Dark Birdseye or Kendal Gold. If you're smoking it straight though, I find it does best in smaller pipes, where you can just puff on one pinch of Burley-goodness at a time.
And there you have it, they all guessed what it was, they all guessed the same, and they all... guessed right. The jack!@#es. It's Five Brothers, a straight Burley, fine-cut shag, old-fashioned, all-purpose smoke (and from what I've gathered, in the past labeled as even chew-able, too). It isn't fancy, it sure as hell isn't expensive, and it is, simply, what it is. I can't say I was surprised to run across a review elsewhere, wherein the writer noted that he was introduced to this one while working "...summers in the steel mills of northern Ohio." I can't say I was surprised either that the same reviewer mentioned that he still always kept a little on hand, despite having since moved on to largely smoking more refined English blends. I could relate it, I suppose to the same way, even though I'm now used to driving late-1980s Lincolns with leather seats and power everything (including the trunk latch, for some reason), I still miss the Plain-Jane, zero-options, barn-find '67 Newport that got me around throughout most of my twenties.
Five Brothers, like that particular automobile, is perhaps a little too powerful for the inexperienced, will handle you right into a ditch if you don't steer it properly, and likewise calls for a judicious eye, regarding when you need to start applying the brakes. But, it's also a distinctly American, straightforward classic. And since plucking some off the shelf for this review, and trying a little for the first time myself, it's now become a regular component in my own endless fiddling with shag-cut mixes.
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Comments
It's been years since I've opened a pouch of Five Brothers but don't remember as much dark leaf as depicted in the first photo. If I were going for some strong tobacco, I'd rather dig into a can of Picayune. It has more strength, flavor & cost more but worth the little extra to me.