Tasting Notes: HU White Horses

February 17, 2026 by Shane Ireland in Tobacco Talk

Welcome to another episode of Tasting Notes. I am resuming my mission to smoke through all of the HU blends. Today I'm smoking HU's White Horses, one of the newer blends that's been imported by Laudisi Distribution Group from Kopp in Germany.

Note: The following transcription has been edited for clarity and brevity.

I picked White Horses today because on paper, not only was it intriguing but it also sounds a little bit different than the normal Virginia fare out there. I think it's definitely something that's up my alley and caters to my personal taste.

It is described as a blend of Virginias, Kentucky, Perique, and a little bit of Havana leaf. I didn't really know what to expect going into this tin. I wasn't sure how subtle some of these condimental components might be but I will say that the experience is definitely unique within the realm of Virginia pipe-tobacco blends. The complexity is high, which is a plus for me, and it's a really interesting tin note and room note.

Zesty Tin Note

White Horses comes in the big HU-style 100 gram tins, which I love. It has a super zesty tin note. There's a lot of piquant and sharper aromas going on here. It reminds me of some other Dark-Fired Kentucky blends that I enjoy, the Toscano kind of a vibe that I like, and a zesty quality that I have always associated with Dunhill/Peterson's Elizabethan Mixture.

There's a milder-to-medium-bodied, more floral, Italian Dark-Fired thing going on. It's definitely delicate and I get a lot of the really earthy, loamy, mushroom-like qualities, which I'm gonna attribute to both the Kentucky and the Perique. There's a handful of Virginia/Perique blends that have that dark fruit and really peppery note, and then there's some that have a little bit of that barnyard funk and zesty note. I think White Horses leans in the direction of the latter, to my taste.

It's definitely complex and full, even from the tin note alone. Also, you have mostly medium brown-to-chestnut pieces in here, with some darker ones. It is a mix of some broken flake and some rubbed out, maybe even like a slightly ribbon cut, so it is nearly what I would consider a wild cut, which is really cool because it makes a blend like this very versatile.

You can pack it directly from the tin in a larger bowl or outside if you're smoking in windy conditions. You can also rub it out and break it up to your preference if you smoke smaller pipes or if you're smoking indoors and you want to be able to control the burn a little bit more.

The moisture content is just a hair on the high side out of the tin, for my personal taste. I did give this one just a couple minutes of dry time and a little bit of aeration before I packed it. It packs and lights really easily and takes to the flame really well.

Complex Yet Modest Flavor

I'm getting a lot of flavor from the first light and that continues to develop throughout the bowl. For me, this is medium bodied and medium strength but it has a lot of flavor and complexity.

I think that HU White Horses stands up really well to later in the day when you've already been smoking and your palate's a little bit fatigued, and pairing it with something strong like a cup of black coffee or a whiskey. There's a lot going on here. At the same time, it is also modest in its flavor profile. What I mean by that is that nothing really sticks out or distracts you. I've said this many times over the years but my favorite quality in a Virginia tobacco is one that feels comforting to me and one that can fade into the background elegantly, yet still give you a little bit of intrigue and keep your attention. If you really focus on it and slow down your puffing cadence, you can get a ton of complexity and a variety of flavor. It's a really interesting development through the bowl.

The interesting thing about HU White Horses, for me, is that even with Virginia/Perique blends or blends that have a little bit of Kentucky or Dark-Fired or Perique, stuff like that, I tend to think of them as falling into one of two groups: the subtle side where the sweetness of the Virginias really shines through, or the one where the condimental leaves and the spicy notes tend to be what you notice the most.

With this tobacco, as I progress through the bowl, my palate gets the sensation, taste, and flavor of the Virginias, and the sweetness, softness, and velvety, pillowy, dense mouthfeel but the retrohale continues to get more intense, spicy, and complex.

Melange of Earthiness

A little further into the bowl, I would say that there's a bit of a shift between the interplay of the Perique, the Kentucky, and the Havana cigar leaf, where I do get a drying sensation on the palate. I can still perceive the sweetness of the Virginias but there's this really cool melange of earthier flavors. The air-cured leaf, the Kentucky, the Perique, and the little bit of spice is not heavy handed, in any sense. They play really well together in this blend.

I'm still getting the loamy, earthy, even mushroom-like flavors, especially through the retrohale. There's definitely some malty sweetness, a little bit of that sourdough-bread quality that I tend to associate with Red Virginia grades, and there's just a little bit of some pepper, maybe less dark red fruit and stone fruit and a little more like raisin. Actually, I may have just convinced myself that raisin bread or a raisin bagel encompasses this flavor profile for me.

I think the strength and body ramp up very slightly over the course of the bowl but this is gonna fit firmly into the medium, maybe medium-to-full category for most smokers. I think if you're a Virginia smoker that likes a little bit of extra oomph in strength, and a little bit of extra body, this is perfect.

A Complex, Spicy Blend For Virginia Smokers

If you are a fan of Rattray's Marlin Flake, McConnell's Folded Flake, Wessex Campaign Dark Flake, or even some of the stoved Virginias coming out of Kendal, such as Full Virginia Flake and St. James, this is definitely gonna be in your wheelhouse.

This isn't always the case for me, but I can actually see myself adding White Horses to my rotation regularly. It has everything that I want in a Virginia blend: complexity, malty sweetness, and a lot of evolution throughout the bowl. It's definitely the kind of thing where you could just go away for a week-long trip with two pipes and one tin of this and really never get bored of it. You'll have a lot of different experiences depending on what time of the day you're smoking it and what you're pairing it with; The complexity that a tobacco like this offers will always keep you interested and on your toes.

Today I am smoking HU's White Horses in a little sandblasted Billiard by Michael Parks. This is one of my more recent acquisitions and I've been smoking it nearly exclusively over the past couple of weeks. It's Group Three, Group Four size, which is perfect for a blend like this. I think any of your Virginia pipes are gonna love this blend.

White Horses really surprised me. It wasn't one of the HU blends that was on my radar from all the years of these blends being hyped up before they came to the US market. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that, as much as I love Director's Cut, this is a little bit more bent to my taste. If you're a Virginia guy, if you like spicy tobaccos, if you like complexity, even if you're coming from the Oriental/English world and you need something that feels a little less mundane and a little more interesting, this is a great place to start your Virginia journey.

This one is going to age well. I believe that the complexity will remain high and it will develop a lot more sweetness over the years. I really can't say enough nice things about White Horses. This might be my favorite HU blend so far.