Last night we had guests, a pipe club buddy and his wife came over, and he brought me a sampler this blend. Quite an interesting one, I tried to research it a bit more, but it doesn't show on tobaccoreviews.com. It comes in a colorful tin, with a merry-go-round on it, and inside there are 100 grams of fine aromatic tobacco. It is heavily cased, so I can hardly tell from the smoke what it is. From the look I am guessing it's virginia rich, and given the sweetness in the smoke and the dark notes in the ribbon cut there must be some black cavendish, but rather about 1/4 - the rest being bright gold leaf. There is hardly anything to say about it, it is just a tasty, sweet - not soapy sweet, tobacco with a distinguished aroma of caramel popcorn, and a pinch of salt. The nose gives away some fruity note, but the taste is quite unique in as far the popcorn, and perhaps after it heats up a bit, mid bowl, it sort of brings back the memory of cotton candy. It can bite a bit, especially if puffed on the go in an unfiltered pipe, but not quite a huge danger in that sense. It remains sweet all the way, you can feel it on your tongue, sweet sweet sweet, no bitterness or burnt sensation. I am not sure what to make of it, it sure is a new generation type of aromatic ... I would compare its casing volume wise with the newly released Ashton - Signature Collection, which I still have a bunch of since last Christmas - I can't really wrap my head around that passion fruit aroma.
