Color, chroma, size of the leaf, uniformity, and a whole host of other characteristics. One of the hardest thing for people to grasp is that tobacco is not graded into Bad, good, better, best. It doesn't work that way. Every tobacco crop has a use, to some extent, but one being "better" than the rest has nothing to do with it. It's definitely not graded like a school, A - F.
I can't believe we are arguing the existence of Small Batches. I mean, if you don't want to try one, don't. It's just something different that is unique enough for C&D to decide that people might want to try it. Sure, sure, there's lots of other leaf out there, but I've damn near tried them all, all that I would be interested in trying, so a new blend that has something different about it, I'll give it a whirl.
No one is twisting your arm to buy it. There's no reason to feel guilty or anything for not trying it. But, in this world where a vast majority of people see no value in smoking and want to take that away from us, and with pending laws that might make small batches or even a new release of a tobacco impossible or way more expensive, either celebrate the Small Batches, or just let it pass by. If they had of made an aromatic Small Batch, there's no way in hell you could get me to give my money for a fruity tooty, but I wouldn't put it down. Heck, I've never bought one of their Christmas goopys, but I didn't harp on them for releasing one. If this were a chocolate, peanut butter blend, I wouldn't diss it, I'd just appreciate that people do smoke that sort of stuff. And, I'd be happy that someone could release something like that in today's anti smoking climate.
