I tried Red Lion for the first time today in a Savinelli Noce 320. The chamber of a 320 KS is the perfect chamber for this kind of blend, in my opinion, allowing me to better detect the different components in a complex blend.
On first light I received a combination of brown sugar notes I often detect from black cavendish, sweet hay from the virginias, and a light presence of latakia. Relighting the pipe after letting it go out brought the virginias to the front line with perhaps a light hint of peppery perique.
Another relight. Flavor became a bit richer, with burley making a bit more of a show and giving the blend a bit of depth. Also detected more brown sugar goodness from the black cavendish and hay-sweet virginias. Perique seemed a bit more plummy, which I prefer, but the latakia was very light.
Relights tended to change up the flavor profile a bit each time. Next relight the latakia was extremely light, I'm thinking the blend would benefit quite well with some aging on it, but also that the latakia would unfortunately suffer greatly becoming non detectable. At this point I was getting more virginia and black cavendish than anything else, but they compliment each other well.
The smoke wafting to my nose throughout the smoke was reminiscent of chocolate cake baking in the oven (made me hungry). For the most part, I found this blend quite enjoyable, a possible all day smoke and would be great for when I want an English style blend but light on the latakia. Or I could simply add some latakia if I want more. A few relights were no big deal, it mainly burned well, and the chamber was quite clean and dry after a final relight which brought no smoke informed me it was all gone.
I won't call it a favorite blend, especially after just one smoke, but I will call it a very good blend I enjoyed and will likely order more of very soon. For now I'll give it four out of five
s, as just a bit more latakia might have made the blend sublime...
On first light I received a combination of brown sugar notes I often detect from black cavendish, sweet hay from the virginias, and a light presence of latakia. Relighting the pipe after letting it go out brought the virginias to the front line with perhaps a light hint of peppery perique.
Another relight. Flavor became a bit richer, with burley making a bit more of a show and giving the blend a bit of depth. Also detected more brown sugar goodness from the black cavendish and hay-sweet virginias. Perique seemed a bit more plummy, which I prefer, but the latakia was very light.
Relights tended to change up the flavor profile a bit each time. Next relight the latakia was extremely light, I'm thinking the blend would benefit quite well with some aging on it, but also that the latakia would unfortunately suffer greatly becoming non detectable. At this point I was getting more virginia and black cavendish than anything else, but they compliment each other well.
The smoke wafting to my nose throughout the smoke was reminiscent of chocolate cake baking in the oven (made me hungry). For the most part, I found this blend quite enjoyable, a possible all day smoke and would be great for when I want an English style blend but light on the latakia. Or I could simply add some latakia if I want more. A few relights were no big deal, it mainly burned well, and the chamber was quite clean and dry after a final relight which brought no smoke informed me it was all gone.
I won't call it a favorite blend, especially after just one smoke, but I will call it a very good blend I enjoyed and will likely order more of very soon. For now I'll give it four out of five
s, as just a bit more latakia might have made the blend sublime... 
