Thanks for doing this Clickklick. I'm sure I never would have gotten around to tasting this blend if it weren't for your generosity. I definitely wouldn't have been able to try an aged version.
For any of those not aware, clickklick made a couple of post saying basically "first to post gets a sample". Then he took his time, his tobacco, and his money and sent the samples out. His only request for payment was a review posted to the performance.
I wish I had the command of taste and words that others that post here do. Keep that in mind with my humble attempt at reviewing and repaying (in a very small way) clickklick's kindness.
Review:
Summary: I liked it! Just wanted to get that out of the way…
As you can tell from the picture, the tobacco survived it's trip to my house in relatively good condition. It still had a good amount of "strips" you would associate with broken flake.
A circle or two with my palms was enough to get it where I wanted it to pack.
The tin note (in this case the smell of the Ziploc bag it was in) wasn't very strong. Mostly straight up tobacco with just a background hint of cocoa. I say cocoa instead of chocolate because it's not a aromatic type chocolate smell. It's more like that "someone opened a can of Nestlé's powder" kind of smell. It's like somebody sprinkled some in a bag of Carter Hall, but more subtle.
The moisture level was perfect for me as soon as I pulled it out of the bag. It is dry to the touch, but still pliable.
I smoked some in a cob and in a briar. In both cases it burned cleaned. It was easy to keep lit.
I'm not sensitive enough to flavors to give a 1/3rds type of review. I can tell you the flavor got richer and more intense as I smoked.
Mellow, mellow, mellow. That is the best way to describe this smoke for me. It's tobacco with a cocoa taste that I expected from the smell. The part I didn't expect was how smooth it was. I haven't tried a lot of different brands. I have only tried a few burley heavy, so I don't have a lot to compare it to there. I have recently fallen in love with Virginia based flakes. Where they are tangy and peppery to me, this one is smoooth.
I also can't say what the age has to do with it. I haven't tried the recent make of this blend yet. Based on this taste, I'm going to try to find some.
All in all, I'd recommend this to anyone that enjoys tobacco. It finds a nice place between an aromatic and straight tobacco with the cocoa overtones.
I'd give it a 3.5 out 4 for a general overall rating.
…. Thanks again Clickklick