First up is Ye Olde Signe.
This is a straight virginia blend displayed in a shag cut. I smoked my first bowl in my Sasquatch billiard.
I smoke a fair number of straight Virginia blends, and I am often quite surprised at the different interplay of flavors that emanate from blends that are ostensibly made from precisely the same leaf. Many I like, but some I find a tad monochromatic. I am sure the differences between straight Virginia blends are the result of many factors, including how the leaf is processed and the type of cut, among others. Notably, I tend to prefer the taste of flakes markedly greater than blends with a shag or ribbon cut. As George Orwell famously wrote: ““All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The question for me, then, is whether Ye Olde Signe is more equal than the many other virginia animals.
It is at this point in the review that I wish I could descend into an orgy of adjectives to describe this blend, because that would be ever so cool and impressive for a newby tobacco reviewer like me.
I wish I could say, for example, that Ye Olde Signe is a gorgeous blend that coats the palate with the beguilingly lush and subtle taste of raisin and captivating plum sauce notes, with anise and lapsang souchong tea dancing expressively in the background.
I wish I could say that the smoke presents a striking amalgam of green tea and almond scent that, on first light, rises penetratingly and seductively from the bowl, while hauntingly beautiful, yet subtly different, notes then reconvene at the bottom third of the chamber for a symphonic performance for the palate that is at once creamy (nay, almost buttery) in texture, making the mouth electric in its bright, mouthwatering citricity.
If I said that, some of it would be true, but most of it would not.
In truth, my first bowl of this blend does not, admittedly, leave my mouth agape and my salivary glands pumping. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good blend, but it doesn’t present anything to me that I haven’t tasted before (and, in some cases, to better effect) in numerous other blends. There is no oscillating complexity or vibrant layering of flavors here that would allow me to say that this is in any way a game changer in this genre.
No, this is just a basic, well done straight Virginia blend – nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
Or at least that is what one bowl tells me.
Three stars out of four for a good rendition of a straight Virginia blend.