Peterson – Summertime 2015

“The Peterson Summertime 2015 is a refreshing blend, made with tobaccos from two continents. Virginias and Burley from Africa and South America are blended in a unique way. On top of this one of the Virginias from Brazil is gently transformed into a deep black and mellow Cavendish. When smoking you will experience a natural tobacco taste, together with hints of exotic fruits.” – Peterson

I consider myself a serious pipe collector.  i love artisan pipes (even though my wallet does not love them as much as I do).  But, as a tobacco critic, I have a much stronger affinity for collection and smoking fine tobacco.  Since I am a young man, which means I have a relatively young cellar, until most of my tobacco’s reach about 10 years of age, I look forward to the limited edition releases from the big companies every single year.

The Peterson 2015 Summertime was one I was very excited to try.  I kept seeing advertisements about it online, and the tin art alone was enough to send the excitement butterflies fluttering through my gut.  As my package was in transit, my excitement continued to grow.

What I hope you get from this review is an extra dose of excitement.  No matter how good or bad this blend performed, which we will get into, all serious pipe smokers need to try limited release tobacco; and the Summertime is a great place to start.

First Impression

Not only is the art of this blend incredibly modern and attractive, but the book style tin is a wonderful touch from Peterson.  And to continue on looks, the ribbon cut blend has a nice and even variety of Burley, bright Virginia, and Black Cavendish; which is incredibly pleasurable to look at.

The instant tin note of this blend screams sweet fruit.  Based on guess alone, the note I kept coming back to was a pomegranate syrup.  There were also citrus notes masked behind the sweet exotic fruit notes, but is definitely in the minority.  The heavy fruit flavors give evidence to the blend being moist, and it was.  I think it would benefit the smoker to let the tobacco dry out for around half an hour, and then store in a jar.

One thing that is odd is that the Burley and Virginia were very consistently sized.  The Black Cavendish however was seriously inconsistent.  This made packing a pain in the butt.

The Peterson 2015 Summertime tobacco was blended in Denmark.

Smoke

And so the bad news begins.  But first, I have to admit that this blend has some excellent flavor.  So often with exotic fruit flavored tobacco, the flavor is so mild that you can barely taste it.  Luckily, the sweet fruity notes were clear.  Well, at least they were clear for about a third of the bowl.  There seems to be a specific point where the fruit flavor is lost and the blend immediately begins to taste ashy.

Here is my biggest problem with the blend: tongue bite.

I would like to think at this point in my pipe smoking journey I have established a hardy and tough mouth; able to handle most tobacco.  But for some reason, every single time I smoked this pipe, I felt the raw burn on my tongue for an hour after I smoked.

What I can say I liked about smoking this blend was that it lit easily.  It also stayed lit throughout the smoke, giving me large pillowing clouds of smoke.  This just made smoking it more fun!

Room Note

This is an area where the blend doesn’t disappoint.  The note emitted from the blend is full of sweet fruit, and perhaps slightly more citrus than in the tin note.  This was an excellent blend to smoke in the car.

I must criticize this blend though, because the room note wasn’t very strong.  Personally, I wanted this blend to permeate the room much more, it just didn’t.  This could be a good thing, however.  It is indeed a summer blend and is intended to be light.

Pairing

I enjoyed smoking my Summertime blend with a bottle chilled green tea.

The light body of the tobacco matches the light body of green tea.  I also felt as though the organic, citrusy base of the tea elevated and promoted the fruit notes of the tobacco.  A chilled green tea is also pleasant to sip on during the summer, making it the practical choice as well.

Strength

There is no doubt in my mind that Summertime 2015 is a mild/medium strength tobacco.

Using light bodied ingredients with a light flavored topping, it should be no surprise that this blend smokes easy and light.

Overall Score

As with all tobacco I review, I check other reviews.  I like to see what others think.  I was shocked when I read some of the reviews.  People love this blend!  It has an incredibly high rating!  I don’t think this is a garbage blend, but with all the tongue bite and ashy flavor I got, on every smoke, I am surprised others are accepting of this.

If it wasn’t for the bite and the lack of enduring flavor, I would give this blend a much higher score.

I give the 2015 Summertime blend a 4 out of 10.

Even though this blend has some serious issues, I believe it will bring you some serious enjoyment.  Order a tin of this limited tobacco from a great site like TobaccoPipes.com and experience it for yourself!

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Tobacco provided by TobaccoPipes.com for the purpose of an un bias review.

Pictures provided by TobaccoPipes.com and Peterson.