Pretty innocuous. I mean, look at it.
Wessex Gold Brick is a bit more than a 2 X 2 inch, sort of grayish-brown block with specks of gold and black wrapped in a piece of cellophane. Wrapped like dates at the supermarket -- Not the most graceful presentation, to say the least. OK, lets slice this sucker open. {Sniff, sniff} ... smells like tobacco, maybe a bit of spice ... but where the hell is the coffee?
Oh man, maybe I made a mistake on this. It's expensive. It feels dry. Oh well, let's find a sharp enough knife and peel a couple slices off this sucker. Hmm... slices easily enough, actually seems more moist than it looks. {Chop, chop} ... I like how it cube cuts too... Wow, there is actually are going to be quite a few slices from this 100 gram plug... OK, well now it feels too moist, so lets let it dry 10-15 minutes. La La La. There -- that's about right.
Time to load these cubes in this very pretty Astley Charatan Make quarter bent straight grain dublin panel (the conical bowl should make any cube cut virgina worth it's salt sing)! Packin' it in there tightly; sprinklin' the small crumbled remnants on top and it's time to light this stuff and get this show on the road!
Hmm ... puffs pre-light = still no coffee. But I do like the taste. Char light puffs up the cubes a bit, true light went well and this stuff is burning evenly. There's a little nuttiness (maybe a touch of quality burley?) that compliments the sweetness of the virginias nicely. Also a bit of cream (yes, cream without the coffee). It is burning evenly and cool, leaving a powdery white ash. No goop, no bite, and no complexity to peak of. Damn tasty though. Vitamin N, at the level I experience from most virginia leaves, is higher than expected, which is fine by me.
This Gold Brick (WGB) is burning very slowly -- this Astley is a solid Group 5, and any cube-cut virginia flake won't ever win a race to the bottom of the bowl, but still, this WGB is burning slower than most of my other virginia blends. Not a bad thing.
It's made in Germany, but reminds me of good old time USA virginia. Looks and reminds me a bit of Day's Work (do they still make that stuff?) but IIRC, Day's Work chew was much more moist. Must be the cellophane wrapper.
This stuff grows on you. Sort of like a plain girl you knew in high school that turned out to be interesting and fun to spend time with. Recommended. This could be an all day smoke.
But if someone finds the coffee, let me know what they did with it, OK?
Tres bien mon vieux, alors alon zi!
