First off let me say that the review of this blend by jiminks was and is the gold standard in reviewing this new to me blend and what follows is simply my impression of close to a weeks worth of taste testing.
Sutliff is new to me, I've never tried any of their blends prior to being gifted this tin as well as a yet to be opened tin of Westminster that came with an estate pipe I bought from Shantiques.
Tin note: I press my nose to all tins when I pop them to capture that essence of the sealed tobacco. This blend gave me a mild hint of ketchup and sweetness but nothing unusual, nothing that I wouldn't expect from a Balkan/ English blend and that includes the smokey aroma of Latakia and the vinegar like Perique?
Visual notes: I observed mostly what looks to be a truncated ribbon cut with light to dark shades of brown and healthy dose of black. I'm assuming its a combination of Latakia and black Cavendish which the blend carries according to the tin description.
The fun part!: I had recently gone through my quarterly ritual of thoroughly scrubbing my pipes so I had 3 clean and fresh briars that I have dedicated to this type of blend. All in all I am really quite impressed with LBB 759, in fact it's one of the best Balkans I've smoked to date. It's a Lat forward smoke to be sure but not so much so that the sweet Orientals and Cavendish shine through and balance it into a creamy, mouth filling smoke. Jim mentions a hint of Vanilla in his review, I'm not picking it up at all. I typically smoke a Balkan once, maybe twice a day and this one could easily become an all day smoke for me because it has yet to go flat or leave me wishing for something else. This is a very forgiving tobacco blend and I purposely chugged on this tobacco in one of MM cobs over the weekend just to see if it would bite and happily, it did not.
Room note: moderate to mild, my official room note detector did not comment that it "stinks" any better or worse than any other tobacco I stuff in my pipes
Conclusion: Sutliff has hit a huge home run with 759 and even though it's part of their Private Stock line, it's priced very reasonably for 1-1/2 ounce tin. If you are looking to get into A good Balkan blend or just want to mix it up a bit, I highly recommend Balkan Luxury Blend 759. I can't wait to try Westminster!
Sutliff is new to me, I've never tried any of their blends prior to being gifted this tin as well as a yet to be opened tin of Westminster that came with an estate pipe I bought from Shantiques.
Tin note: I press my nose to all tins when I pop them to capture that essence of the sealed tobacco. This blend gave me a mild hint of ketchup and sweetness but nothing unusual, nothing that I wouldn't expect from a Balkan/ English blend and that includes the smokey aroma of Latakia and the vinegar like Perique?
Visual notes: I observed mostly what looks to be a truncated ribbon cut with light to dark shades of brown and healthy dose of black. I'm assuming its a combination of Latakia and black Cavendish which the blend carries according to the tin description.
The fun part!: I had recently gone through my quarterly ritual of thoroughly scrubbing my pipes so I had 3 clean and fresh briars that I have dedicated to this type of blend. All in all I am really quite impressed with LBB 759, in fact it's one of the best Balkans I've smoked to date. It's a Lat forward smoke to be sure but not so much so that the sweet Orientals and Cavendish shine through and balance it into a creamy, mouth filling smoke. Jim mentions a hint of Vanilla in his review, I'm not picking it up at all. I typically smoke a Balkan once, maybe twice a day and this one could easily become an all day smoke for me because it has yet to go flat or leave me wishing for something else. This is a very forgiving tobacco blend and I purposely chugged on this tobacco in one of MM cobs over the weekend just to see if it would bite and happily, it did not.
Room note: moderate to mild, my official room note detector did not comment that it "stinks" any better or worse than any other tobacco I stuff in my pipes
Conclusion: Sutliff has hit a huge home run with 759 and even though it's part of their Private Stock line, it's priced very reasonably for 1-1/2 ounce tin. If you are looking to get into A good Balkan blend or just want to mix it up a bit, I highly recommend Balkan Luxury Blend 759. I can't wait to try Westminster!