Ok, here's my report on the sauciness of the Ennerdale I just received, with respect to the sauciness which made Ennerdale famous (or infamous) in years past:
The pouch note was just what I remembered. Overwhelming rose geranium. It got me excited, wondering what I did to deserve this blessing -- this full force of grandma's panties -- while others were getting them toned down.
My confidence that this is just what I'd had in the past was maintained through the first minute or so of the smoke.
Then, very soon into the smoke, it began to disappear.
Don't just tell me that aros do that... I know that some aros do that, and I know Ennerdale. I know what flavors, and how much, I got from Ennerdale in the past, and for how much of the bowl. With a previous batch, I got rose geranium well past the half-way point.
In this batch, the flavor was fading after a minute, and after another minute it was all but gone, although it did make teasing little appearances here and there through the rest of the bowl.
My impression is that the sauce used to saturate between the layers of leaf, whereas now it just tops the finished flakes.
This gives the impression of just as much sauce, up front, and it's not until you smoke it that you realize it was all on top.
One thing this meant practically is that I had to use better technique. When it was more saturated with sauce, you could sort of haul on it with bad technique and the sauce masked the overheated tobacco.
Now, the base tobaccos turn acrid much more easily with incautious puffing.
But, with very careful sipping just on the verge of going out, the tobaccos do yield some nice Virginia flavors (although noticeably different than American VAs).
It's good for what it is. But what it is isn't the Ennerdale I remember. Too bad.
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