The time had come... #5 was drawn from the sleeve. Slicing it open, this one was different than the others. More simplistic, more straightforward. I knew this smelled like something in particular, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I must've taken a dozen deep breaths before it hit me... cranberry! This smelled like cranberries, sweetened. Every year, I make my own cranberry sauce around Thanksgiving because I hate that canned shit and this smells just like the post-boiled sweetened cranberries before I add spices to the mix.
I didn't immediately assume any level of aromatic because the aroma of cranberry could very well be natural to Red Virginia leaves. I slipped the leaf from the baggie and what I found was distinctly ribbon. There were a couple broad slices here and there, but it was predominantly thin-cut. This, as far as my limited experience goes on bulk leaf (or ribbon, as I'm a hot-pressed prude) would suggest C&D. The Sutliff product I've seen has involved more broad-leaf-per-capita. Having purchased C&D's Red VA bulk in the past to try blending at home, I began to wonder if I hadn't stumbled upon the identity of this packet. Still, I tried to restrain judgment on the matter. I loaded Alex and myself a Burner's worth. It was time to try it.
As per our temporary usual, Alex lit up first. This time, I detected nothing but the bready cloud of Virginia wafting my way. Whatever this was, it wasn't an aromatic. It was straight leaf, but in a respectable and approachable manner. I knew I wasn't to be disappointed.
And I wasn't. Lighting up, I tasted nothing more and nothing less than what I know to be VA. It's my personal favorite component - about half of everything I smoke is a straight Virginia blend of one kind or another. It burnt hot, but that's the unfortunate nature of the ribbon cut, and it's why I tend to avoid it. Still, it was a pleasant all-day-until-you-get-tonguebite smoke.
"This is the best I've tried yet," Alex said. I asked if he was sure, because I felt pretty damned certain that this was C&D Red VA, and that we had at least a quarter-pound of it locked away in our blending mixes at that very moment. "Wait..." he said, "We do?" I nodded.
It's not that I disagreed. Of the samples so far, #4 has been my clear favorite, but this wasn't far behind. For him, this seemed to run somewhere between a 4 and a 4.5 on a 5 scale. For me, we're talking a 3.5. Had it been hot pressed instead of ribbon cut, I'd have been all about it. Whether this is C&D or not, it's one of my hopes for their future... that they acquire the old-world machinery needed to take their pressing to the next level.
There we sat, discussing shit that's not really worth posting here. But we were toking away without a second thought on the blend which satisfied us both, with nary a complaint amid our myriad discussions. "It really is this simple," he said at some point, "isn't it? We've tried so many things, but this is as good as any of them."
I didn't agree. But I didn't disagree either, and maybe that's something.
I didn't immediately assume any level of aromatic because the aroma of cranberry could very well be natural to Red Virginia leaves. I slipped the leaf from the baggie and what I found was distinctly ribbon. There were a couple broad slices here and there, but it was predominantly thin-cut. This, as far as my limited experience goes on bulk leaf (or ribbon, as I'm a hot-pressed prude) would suggest C&D. The Sutliff product I've seen has involved more broad-leaf-per-capita. Having purchased C&D's Red VA bulk in the past to try blending at home, I began to wonder if I hadn't stumbled upon the identity of this packet. Still, I tried to restrain judgment on the matter. I loaded Alex and myself a Burner's worth. It was time to try it.
As per our temporary usual, Alex lit up first. This time, I detected nothing but the bready cloud of Virginia wafting my way. Whatever this was, it wasn't an aromatic. It was straight leaf, but in a respectable and approachable manner. I knew I wasn't to be disappointed.
And I wasn't. Lighting up, I tasted nothing more and nothing less than what I know to be VA. It's my personal favorite component - about half of everything I smoke is a straight Virginia blend of one kind or another. It burnt hot, but that's the unfortunate nature of the ribbon cut, and it's why I tend to avoid it. Still, it was a pleasant all-day-until-you-get-tonguebite smoke.
"This is the best I've tried yet," Alex said. I asked if he was sure, because I felt pretty damned certain that this was C&D Red VA, and that we had at least a quarter-pound of it locked away in our blending mixes at that very moment. "Wait..." he said, "We do?" I nodded.
It's not that I disagreed. Of the samples so far, #4 has been my clear favorite, but this wasn't far behind. For him, this seemed to run somewhere between a 4 and a 4.5 on a 5 scale. For me, we're talking a 3.5. Had it been hot pressed instead of ribbon cut, I'd have been all about it. Whether this is C&D or not, it's one of my hopes for their future... that they acquire the old-world machinery needed to take their pressing to the next level.
There we sat, discussing shit that's not really worth posting here. But we were toking away without a second thought on the blend which satisfied us both, with nary a complaint amid our myriad discussions. "It really is this simple," he said at some point, "isn't it? We've tried so many things, but this is as good as any of them."
I didn't agree. But I didn't disagree either, and maybe that's something.
