Good morning Guys,
I have never been a real Virginia Flake kind of guy. Straight Virginias never really turned my crank. But, I have to speak up about Rattray's HAL O' THE WYND.
It's a rubbed flake, medium moist, "strong, sharp aged red Virginia blend".
There is no casing, or topping going on here. The Rattray's HAL O' THE WYND's character shines through, created during the air curing process.
Whoever hung, then cured this tobacco should be enshrined in the Tobacco Curer's Hall of Fame.
It is just a straight forward tobacco taste that is nothing short of excellent. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed such an straight forward unadulterated tobacco taste. It doesn't try to be anything but good tobacco. Simply superb.
The Pouch Note is excellent.
The Room Note reminds one of days-gone-by.
In my minds eye: After a fill from a draw-string tobacco pouch hung from his belt; I see it being smoked in long clay churchwarden next to a stone hearth, by one of our Founding Fathers with his feet on the fender and a pint at his elbow on a cold winter's night, engrossed by the fire, and bathed in a bronze colored light from the flames and candles filtered through a smoky haze. Blissfully unaware of the hubbub of the Public House going on around him
This is as good as it gets.
