Tobacco Review: Eastfarthing — Sutliff Private Stock

Eastfarthing — Sutliff Private Stock

Recently, I reached out to Sutliff Tobacco Company asking if they had a tinned tobacco similar to my favorite — their 504C Aromatic English. They responded that they didn’t have anything similar but suggested I try Eastfarthing from their Private Stock series. I found that Pipes and Cigars carried Eastfarthing however they were out of stock at the moment but it was on backorder. I submitted my request to be notified when it was back in stock. I got my notice but waited a couple of days before going to Pipes and Cigars. When I got there, though, I saw that they were already running low — they only had 5 on hand — so I quickly placed my order. My package arrived on a Saturday and I tore into it immediately, but I waited until Sunday morning to have it with my morning coffee.

For those of us who don’t know, Eastfarthing is one of the four farthings from the Shire in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novel. It’s been said that Sutliff’s Eastfarthing tobacco is some sort of “fill in the gap” left behind by the no longer produced Frog Morton series of tobaccos by McClelland. Incidentally, Frogmorton was a village in Eastfarthing so that might be what Sutliff is going for with this blend and why they chose that name.

Packaging

Most of Sutliff’s tobaccos come in bulk but some of them are in tins. The Private Stock series come in tins. The packaging of the Private Stock series is beautiful and Eastfarthing is no exception (well, except for the hideous warning label). It’s a black label with a beautiful nature scene of some islands partially hidden by fog.

To either side of the picture is an image of a stamp with “Pipe Tobacco Tax Class L” in two lines. This appears twice — above and below the words “Pipe Tobacco” in the center of the stamp. On the back of the label is a QR Code on the left (that takes you to Sutliff’s website), a barcode in the center with information about the tin (weight, distributor, etc.), and another warning label on the right. And then there’s the warning label in a white band with black letters that takes up the bottom third of the tin. This tin would be a perfect score if not for the ugly warning label.

Rating: 

Contents

Eastfarthing consists of red Virginia, stoved Burley, and aged Cyprian Latakia with a touch of Vanilla (liquor?) topping. It’s a beautiful ribbon cut blend consisting of mostly brown, dark brown, and black tobaccos with the occasional bright golden ribbons, too. The moisture content is as close to perfect as one can get. After opening the tin, one would probably need to jar it so it doesn’t dry out too much.

Rating:

Tin Note

The first thing I get from the tin is a deep vanilla scent — like a french vanilla. And maybe just a hint of cocoa that adds to the depth of the vanilla. Then there’s a deep, damp, earthy smell. I really can’t smell any of the Latakia. Overall I find the tin note very pleasant.

Rating:

Smoking

As I found the moisture content to be spot on, I didn’t let it dry any before loading my pipe. Of course, there might have been a very slight drying to it since I popped the tin the previous afternoon, but I really couldn’t tell it. I smoked this in my Peterson’s Mark Twain; it’s a System pipe. Eastfarthing packed well and took to the flame without issue. There were no issues with neither the charring (or false) light nor the true light.

The taste was nice, too. Nothing too harsh; a mild to medium taste that was similar to the tin note but only barely. I got some wafts of incense from the Latakia that were all but absent from the tin. Comparing this to their 504C, I would say 504C is stronger in the flavor department with more Latakia coming through.

The nicotine feel is very mild. As I was smoking this first thing in the morning with only some coffee as my companion, I was expecting more of a “nic-hit.” I’m pretty much a lightweight when it comes to nicotine so I was expecting that familiar, but unwanted, dizzy feeling — it never visited me. There’s virtually no tongue bite or harshness with this blend.

Eastfarthing burns down to a nice white ash with virtually no moisture in the bowl. All in all, it’s a mild to medium blend which could very easily be an all day smoke.

Rating:

Overall rating

(3.75)

Eastfarthing (Sutliff Private Stock) comes in a 1.5 oz tin and, as of this review, can be purchased from Cup O’ Joes for $8.55 and Pipes and Cigars for $6.04 (currently on backorder).