.gif)
For the past few weeks I've been limited to smoking Prince Albert and Carter Hall, so when my order of 10 tins of English blends arrived, I was excited to get back to tinned tobacco. Seven of the blends are crumble cakes, which are new to me. The tin I decided to try first was C&D's Bow Legged Bear, because the name intrigued me. Upon opening the tin, the words 'steak sauce' came to me. As I smoked it, I thought of Christmas. Evergreen? I'm no expert on descriptions of flavors, and cannot distinguish varieties in a blend, so my impressions are probably idiosyncratic. I'm a big fan of Nightcap and other Dunhill Latakia blends. I'm also apparently immune to nicotine, so if this is strong in that, I can't tell. The pipe I'm using is a Savinelli 611 KS Bent Dublin, which is one of my Latakia pipes, mainly because it's one of my favorite pipes, and Latakia my favorite in a blend. This blend has VAs, Turkish, Latakia, Burley, and Perique pressed into a crumble cake. I smoked it without drying it, just rubbed it out; and it smoked without relights to the bottom. It's a smooth, creamy flavor. Not harsh, and without bite. It reminds me a bit of Barling Tradition 1812 and like a lighter Nightcap, although my memory for flavors probably isn't trustworthy. The date on the tin is 6-25-2015. I like this and would buy it again.
