This is supposedly Sutliff’s attempt to match Peterson’s Early Morning Pipe blend. I ordered an ounce from Smokingpipes.com to see if it’s close or not. I really enjoy Early Morning Pipe, as well as Consummate Gentleman, when I’m in the mood for a little of that smoky Latakia flavor.
The tobacco is ribbon cut, a little more “stringy” than EMP. I found a couple of chunks of leaf in there – nothing alarming or inconvenient, it’s just a different cut than the Peterson branded product. It needed a few minutes’ worth of drying time, again nothing out of the ordinary. It’s not excessively moist or too dry. I loaded up the bowl of my recently refurbished meerschaum lined Tinder Box pipe.
First, to address the main question: I don’t think the flavor is really that close to Early Morning Pipe. There’s not really enough Latakia for that. It is however quite nice. It burns well with no tongue bite. I didn’t dry this lot out quite enough, I guess, because the tail end of the bowl got pretty soggy and I had to cut my sampling short. Just based on what I’ve smoked so far, I would characterize the flavor as being closer to a Balkan than a Latakia-forward English blend. I also didn’t get much of the more exotic Oriental notes, but I’ve still got a bit of a head cold that’s not helping me at all with tasting things. It’s still early, and I reserve the right to change my opinion as I have more experience with this blend. Overall so far I like it. It’s not an EMP clone but it is quite nice; it’s mild, not overly smoky,