Welcome to another episode of Tasting Notes. I am back on my quest to smoke through all of the HU tobaccos, and today I am smoking HU's English Breakfast.

HU is a brand that was previously available in Europe exclusively, and due to the overwhelming demand by US consumers, it was finally brought stateside by your friendly neighborhood Laudisi and Smokingpipes. I made the promise to myself to smoke through all of the available blends as I could get to them. So I've done a couple so far, and today I'm going outside my normal comfort zone and smoking something that caught my eye based purely on the name: English Breakfast.

English Breakfast First Impressions & Tin Note

I have long been obsessed with tea and outside of fine Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese teas, I also love a cup of English breakfast tea every once in a while. That's not what this is, clearly, but in my journey of being a pipe smoker, there was a period where my preferred blends were Latakia, Oriental, and English-style blends. In that family, the ones that I leaned towards were the lighter ones in terms of flavor and influence from Latakia. Peterson Early Morning Pipe is the most notable. Samuel Gawith Skiff Mixture was my favorite out of their line; it was a little more Oriental forward and a little less heavy on the Latakia. The old Dunhill London Mixture as well.

English Breakfast caught my eye for that reason, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. There's a couple of surprising things about this one for me. I was shocked when I opened the tin to see how much of the composition for a lighter English was dark leaf.

Those of us that have been following along know that more Latakia and dark leaf doesn't necessarily mean more strength itself. It can absolutely mean more body and more flavor but Latakia, being a very fire-cured tobacco, is intimidating looking. It takes a significant amount of time to produce it. It is strong in aroma and flavor, but the fire-curing process does do something to tame down the actual strength of the blend.

The tin note itself is truly intoxicating for an English smoker. It's spicy, but it's on the tingly, hot, peppery, and even smoky, mesquite, spicy side. It's spicy in such a comforting way, like a mulled wine or cookies at Christmas time. There is a faint hint of something sweet in here, and I do get that in the blend itself. It's lightly fruity. You definitely have some woody notes, some smoky quality, and a little bit of a caramelized kind of a flavor. It's really interesting. I could get stuck on the tin note for quite a long time.

English Breakfast Components & Initial Light

English Breakfast is comprised of Bright and Red Virginias, Oriental leaf, and Cyprian Latakia. It is right up my alley, English wise. It's really aromatic in quality, and not just on the smoky side, which I think is what we expect most out of an English mixture. I think that most of those qualities come through in the smoke.

The Latakia is the varietal and the processing that I typically associate more with woody, mesquite, and campfire notes. I think some of the floral, incense-like qualities, and a little bit of earthiness is coming from the Oriental varietals. In this case, the Bright and the Red Virginias really provide a supporting role with just a hint of added sweetness, bringing out the inherently sweet and light qualities from the Cyprian Latakia, in both the tin note and the smoke. Really good stuff.

The leaves in this blend feature a lot of darker leaf, a little bit of some medium chestnut, some brighter leaf, and what are clearly some Red grades. It's a perfect cut, and it lights and packs super easily. The moisture content out of the tin is perfect. I didn't even give this any real aeration.

I do recommend this, personally, in a Group Four chamber or above. This is one that is easy to enjoy. It's definitely full of flavor, but not necessarily strength. I think you will want to get the nice evolution of these flavors throughout a very good-sized bowl.

Initial light is exactly what the tin note promised: A faint, almost intangible sweetness. It's definitely floral and incense forward. I feel more of the influence of the Orientals than I even expected based on how much of what appears to be Cyprian Latakia is in the blend. It's soft, pillowy, and creamy. It's dense on the palate.

This is the kind of English mixture that is not just campfire. It has a really broad range of aromatic qualities, and I'm talking natural aromatics found in the tobaccos, of course. Even the sidestream, I think, is actually very pleasant. The room note is surprisingly inoffensive for a mixture that contains this much Cyprian Latakia. I think you might be able to get away with this one in mixed company. At the very least, it's a treat to the smoker from the sidestream.

It's medium plus in body and flavor, and a shade below medium in strength. I really wish I had a cup of coffee right now. This is absolutely perfect for that sort of a pairing. One of the most remarkable things here is the retrohale and the mouthfeel, honestly. I typically associate Cyprian Latakia with that creamy, pillowy, really dense smoke. This is like velvet. It is just smooth, and through the retrohale, I get almost no tingle, but a lot of spice. This one's all about that sort of incense, aromatic quality, and the woodiness from the Cyprian Latakia and the Orientals, with just a touch of sweetness from the Virginias.

The Perfect All-Day English Smoke

My preferences for English mixtures are that they are all-day smokes. It's very rare that I'm looking for a lot of complexity and additional condimental leaves, which technically takes you into Scottish blend territory if you're talking about Perique in the mix. This is an English I could smoke all day. It also has a very clean finish, which is unique for me when I'm talking about Oriental blends or blends that also contain Latakia. I think this rivals Early Morning Pipe. I have been doing this for a long time and very rarely have I come across English mixtures that I think could possibly dethrone some of those classics that we all have loved and enjoyed for decades.

I am blown away by HU's English Breakfast. It might be the perfect all-day English smoke. I'm smoking HU's English Breakfast in a J. Alan Billiard that's been dedicated to English pipes for over a decade. Perfect performance in this pipe.

There's nothing I would change about this blend, from the cut to the moisture content to the blend itself. I highly recommend it, and it might get me out of my Virginia rut and into some English blends going forward.