Cross overs. What are they? Sacrilige? Scraps put together like Hanover Honey Mustard Pretzel Bits? Well whatever they are - they are delicious in my book. While lovers of English Blends and Latakia mixtures may frown a bit - here is a list of some of the best Cross Overs - I have smoked over the years. For those new to the game - Cross Overs or Hybrids are traditional English Blends with casing - embuing the smoke with a myriad of flavors. Here are my favorites:
Most Unique:
Valle Crucis - Created by 2 Friends Line Cornell & Diehl. Craig Tartler added a unique liquor that embues the latakia mixture with ginger. Creating a yummy English that has refreshing quality of ginger.
Best Balkan Cross Over- 4 Noggins Britt's Balkan - a full bodied mixture with a hint of vanilla that just adds a wonderful smoothness to this tradional blend of tobaccos.
Best Full Bodied English
Sterling/1776 Tobacco - a new kid on block this blend is full bodied, sophisticated and superb. A unique casing trumps lovers of Pipeworks & Wilke's #13. This blend is more full bodied and more complex - can be smoked bowl after bowl. We are talking buttery, leathery, smokey flavors that even have a hint of mint in it. The casing and complexity also reminds me of Esoterica's And So To Bed which used to be my go to tobacco for years.
Best Original Twist - The folks at Uhle's have taken a tradional cherry mixture and added latakia. Blasphemey you say?! Nah - I am sure the folks at Reese's Peanut Butter Factory felt the same way..."Hey you got chocolate in my Peanut Butter.....No! You got Peatnut Butter in my chocolate!"
Most Complex Cross Over Blends
Just for Him - A tie between Short Cut To Mushrooms and Black Magic Woman. Both are delicous for different reasons. STM is an earthy delight. While lovers of jammy raspeberry and chocolate will come to blows over which is better.
Runner Up - Sterling/1776 My Buddy and Bostonian - 2 home runs by Jack Peterson with more flavors in them than you could shake a stick at. We are talking flavors like cigar box, coconut, cola, chocolate , beef jerkey and campfire smoke. Each one is completely different with the My Buddy being a little more stout - since it has a little bit of cigar leaf in it. If you like any of those forementioned yummy flavors - you might want to give them a try.
Best Non Latakia Cross Over - Holiday Blend. I have smoked Hermit Tobaccos for years. That is until they started pressing everything into little hospital size Brownies. Holiday Blend - is or was (haven't seen it in years) a unique mixture taking vintage aromatic tobaccos and mixing them with Virginias and other secret ingredients. A vintage tobacco gets a modern touch. In the past Holiday Blend was released in the Fall - I encourage you to seek this one out if it is available and if you don't like latakia.
So are my favorites...what are yours. Cmon' give us a shout - this how we all get to learn about what's really cool out there.
