I've had a lovely experience with a recent trade of some tobacco with a forum member who had an aged tobacco he'd lost his love for. He very generously included a few samples, among which were a few bowls of Hearth and Home Virginia Spice, circa 2016.
The bag note is mild and sweet-smelling, more brown sugar in bread than raisins...but those raisins are lurking in the background. The tobacco came ready to smoke, still soft and pliable, but not palpably moist. Left no moisture on my fingers, no staining, and didn't clump at all when pinched.
I loaded up a cob, and got back to work (working from home has been very acceptable to me, lol). Right off the bat, this is a sweet, sweet Virginia. Like, mmm yummy, keep puffing sweet. I didn't get much pepper or spice out of the perique (that I can clearly see is definitely in the blend). Just a hint every so often in the back of my nose. Absolutely no peppery spicy burn in the retrohale, like in some more perique up front blends. I'm guessing that the perique got a little more mild and sweet with age. Interestingly enough, the cigar leaf that is in the blend is either so subtle that I couldn't detect it at all, or has mellowed so much that it's just filler now.
The first bowl burned right down, very quick like a dry aromatic. Fortunately, even though it burns fast and I was a bit greedy, I haven't struggled with bite at all. In bowl two, about 3/4th of the way through, I got a very mild almost booze like quality that started to crop up on the retrohale, and I wonder if that was the cigar leaf showing itself in an uncharacteristic way.
All in all, this is quite nice! Big shout out to Jwebb90 for his generosity, and for introducing me to another tasty blend!
The bag note is mild and sweet-smelling, more brown sugar in bread than raisins...but those raisins are lurking in the background. The tobacco came ready to smoke, still soft and pliable, but not palpably moist. Left no moisture on my fingers, no staining, and didn't clump at all when pinched.
I loaded up a cob, and got back to work (working from home has been very acceptable to me, lol). Right off the bat, this is a sweet, sweet Virginia. Like, mmm yummy, keep puffing sweet. I didn't get much pepper or spice out of the perique (that I can clearly see is definitely in the blend). Just a hint every so often in the back of my nose. Absolutely no peppery spicy burn in the retrohale, like in some more perique up front blends. I'm guessing that the perique got a little more mild and sweet with age. Interestingly enough, the cigar leaf that is in the blend is either so subtle that I couldn't detect it at all, or has mellowed so much that it's just filler now.
The first bowl burned right down, very quick like a dry aromatic. Fortunately, even though it burns fast and I was a bit greedy, I haven't struggled with bite at all. In bowl two, about 3/4th of the way through, I got a very mild almost booze like quality that started to crop up on the retrohale, and I wonder if that was the cigar leaf showing itself in an uncharacteristic way.
All in all, this is quite nice! Big shout out to Jwebb90 for his generosity, and for introducing me to another tasty blend!
