What is "musty" or "earthy" flavour?
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Burley can be earthy but is usually tempered by being nutty / bread-like at the same time.
As you mentioned, SOME Orientals can often provide a musty flavor, but some are quite floral instead.
Semois will yield the experience of both earthy AND musty.
If you don't have any and would like to try it please feel free to PM me.
As you mentioned, SOME Orientals can often provide a musty flavor, but some are quite floral instead.
Semois will yield the experience of both earthy AND musty.
If you don't have any and would like to try it please feel free to PM me.
"What is "musty" or "earthy" flavour?"
What came to mind when I read the title of this thread is William P. Solomon's Presbyterian Mixture. In my review of this Mixture on TobaccoReviews.com I stated:
"To paraphrase "The Most Interesting Man in the World" who appears occasionally in television commercials for a certain brand of beer, "I don't often smoke English blends, but when I do I prefer Presbyterian Mixture!" To me, it epitomizes the phrase "classic English pipe-tobacco."
The aroma in the tin is delicious: wet leathery, smokey, late fall-woods musty sweet, and cow-barn-like ripe. It's one that, if it could be transubstantiated, I would happily chew on for hours in the same manner that my dog worries her favorite marrow bone.
Presbyterian Mixture's appearance is pleasing, too. Remove the cardboard cover beneath the lid, peel back the clear plastic inner wrap, and you will find substantial strands together with ponderous pieces of light-to-dark brown Virginia leaf, intermixed with Latakia tips that are almost black. It's typically moist, not overly so, but does benefit from some drying prior to use. This is a hefty-looking amalgam that promises solid smoking pleasure.
It does not disappoint. Using the Frank method to fill the bowl of a favorite Savinelli Oscar, it provides me with a good hour of English ecstasy. I find that this tobacco is at its best when smoked SLOWLY, but then aren't they all? I don't mean that you should sip it. Rather, take a deep draught every minute or two and let it drizzle out of your mouth. Take your time as you contemplate its manifold charms and it will reward you. Become distracted (or simply give in to gluttony) and puff too fast, and it will both bite and kick. Nicotine is here in abundance, but will behave if you treat this mixture with gentleness and respect.
Without drying I typically need only two pipe-cleaners per bowl; with drying only one. This tobacco reduces to a fine grey-white ash with little dottle. The room note is comforting in the same manor (pun intended) as that of an old, familiar, and favorite hunting lodge, cabin, or library.
This is a fine English tobacco mixture, and I give it my highest benediction. Amen."
The presence (or not) of Latakia in this Mixture is a subject of debate. Some claim that it has it, others claim there is none. I fall into the former camp. In any event, it is certainly NOT a "Latakia bomb" by any odds.
I hope that you find this to be useful.
What came to mind when I read the title of this thread is William P. Solomon's Presbyterian Mixture. In my review of this Mixture on TobaccoReviews.com I stated:
"To paraphrase "The Most Interesting Man in the World" who appears occasionally in television commercials for a certain brand of beer, "I don't often smoke English blends, but when I do I prefer Presbyterian Mixture!" To me, it epitomizes the phrase "classic English pipe-tobacco."
The aroma in the tin is delicious: wet leathery, smokey, late fall-woods musty sweet, and cow-barn-like ripe. It's one that, if it could be transubstantiated, I would happily chew on for hours in the same manner that my dog worries her favorite marrow bone.
Presbyterian Mixture's appearance is pleasing, too. Remove the cardboard cover beneath the lid, peel back the clear plastic inner wrap, and you will find substantial strands together with ponderous pieces of light-to-dark brown Virginia leaf, intermixed with Latakia tips that are almost black. It's typically moist, not overly so, but does benefit from some drying prior to use. This is a hefty-looking amalgam that promises solid smoking pleasure.
It does not disappoint. Using the Frank method to fill the bowl of a favorite Savinelli Oscar, it provides me with a good hour of English ecstasy. I find that this tobacco is at its best when smoked SLOWLY, but then aren't they all? I don't mean that you should sip it. Rather, take a deep draught every minute or two and let it drizzle out of your mouth. Take your time as you contemplate its manifold charms and it will reward you. Become distracted (or simply give in to gluttony) and puff too fast, and it will both bite and kick. Nicotine is here in abundance, but will behave if you treat this mixture with gentleness and respect.
Without drying I typically need only two pipe-cleaners per bowl; with drying only one. This tobacco reduces to a fine grey-white ash with little dottle. The room note is comforting in the same manor (pun intended) as that of an old, familiar, and favorite hunting lodge, cabin, or library.
This is a fine English tobacco mixture, and I give it my highest benediction. Amen."
The presence (or not) of Latakia in this Mixture is a subject of debate. Some claim that it has it, others claim there is none. I fall into the former camp. In any event, it is certainly NOT a "Latakia bomb" by any odds.
I hope that you find this to be useful.
I don't think it's really a debate anymore. TR, P&C, SP, etc... all list Latakia as an ingredient.
Also, there is this tidbit that I had found in the past:
Presbyterian Mixture also contains Orientals ... strike two for the OP.
Your description DOES make me want a pipe-full of it right now though! :
:
I find 'earthy' sometimes in Virginias. I note earthy along with tones of leather in Escudo.
To me, earthy and musty are two different flavors. I've never found a 'musty' Virginia. I've only found 'musty' Latakias.
To me, earthy and musty are two different flavors. I've never found a 'musty' Virginia. I've only found 'musty' Latakias.
To me, 'earthy' or 'musty', as it were, most definitely brings to mind Latakia. However, the OP stated that he doesn't wish the blend to contain Latakia, and or Oriental tobacco, so... ? As far as a Virginia that is the furthest thing that would come to mind as a 'musty' or 'earthy' tasting tobacco in my mind. More like a fresh, and or grassy/citrus taste which would be the exact opposite of 'musty'. But, that's just my take on it.
What one perceives as musty depends on personal mouth chemistry and the volatile organics being tasted/smelled.
If you go to a deli or oriental grocery where dried black mushrooms are sold, the pungent, sometimes almost yeasty
and gamey odors they emit are what I call musty.
I can understand why you wouldn't want Latakia because of its smokiness, but Orientals shine when it comes to producing mustiness. Virginia blends with Izmir often produce a wonderful musty taste for me. But I find this taste more frequently in blends that contain Perique. IMO the following blends have a musty component that drifts in and out during the smoke in a most intriguing way:
If you go to a deli or oriental grocery where dried black mushrooms are sold, the pungent, sometimes almost yeasty
and gamey odors they emit are what I call musty.
I can understand why you wouldn't want Latakia because of its smokiness, but Orientals shine when it comes to producing mustiness. Virginia blends with Izmir often produce a wonderful musty taste for me. But I find this taste more frequently in blends that contain Perique. IMO the following blends have a musty component that drifts in and out during the smoke in a most intriguing way:
- 4noggins' Prairie Wind; Cool Hand Fluke
Hearth & Home Signature Series LJ Heart Burley
Cornell & Diehl Bayou Morning;
Two Friends Redwood
Rattray's Marlin Flake; Hal O' The Wynd
Peterson Hyde Park
Esoterica Dunbar
McClelland Collector's Series Beacon
I had some "Ridin' the Raid" from C&D that went moldy on me years ago and I tried to salvage it and smoke it. It was earthy and musty for sure but I sure didn't enjoy it.
ODF for example.
The word "musty" describes a slightly unpleasant smell, like an old abandoned and maybe moldy house...to me.
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