When I first discovered Latakia, the smoky vixen that it is, I ordered some of Russ' Yule Log. When I first opened up my ounce I was greeted by a great latakia blend smell but a terrible dryness. My first bowl of it was underwhelming when compared with EMP and certaibly didn't hold a flame to Nightcap, but we won't compair the latter as its in a class of it's own in terms of taste. When browsing the forums I saw that someone had rehydrated some leaf with some rum. Not having any rum on hand, I reached for my bottle of Jim Beam. Into a mason jar I put the remainder of my oz of Yule Log and 2.5 tsp of Jim Beam. Three weeks later I opened the jar and wow! The smell of smoky bourbon hit me, and I like it. I gave it some drying time as it was still on the damp side, about an hour was enough. The flavor of the Latakia has really come forward in a nice way. Kind of in the way that salt makes pepper taste better. It is complemented by the bourban not masked. The VAs also get a hand in the sweetness department in that you can taste them now. When I say sweetness though I don't mean in the aromatic way, but that the natural sweetness of the VAs seem to come out more. Overall a really nice smoke and one that I'll keep around, at least untill my jar runs out and then we will see what happens next. Do you have any similar experiments! How have they turned out?
