Thanks for the welcomes again ~
Cornwall Ontario. I was wondering if you, bring in Canada, had free range to order from UK vendors.
Ah Cornwall Canada, my mistake, my brain is still in the UK with placenames. I wish I could order directly from UK vendors. If there's something I'm missing let me know. I usually order it from here (online with a UK vendor - I use the Black Swan Shoppe) with my card, get it delivered to a friend/relative in the UK and then get them to bring it or ship it over. The usual game of hurdles with the post and border control.
@Casual - I'll be going to Blatter et Blatter next week so I'll take a peek (let me know if there's anything, in particular, you'd like to know), I also have a few pipes from them (great smokers) and I'd like to see what tins they have available. My local tobacconist in Little Italy (mostly a cigar shop) has some tins of Balkan Sobranie on the shelves as well as a couple of 2015/17 tins of Nightcap.
@hobei1dog - From various tobacconists in the UK I was told that 1820 and Rich Dark Flake were UK production versions of Penzance and Stonehaven respectively. The difference apparently was the topping ingredients for Esoterica products were banned in the EU/UK, which was given as the major reason why the Esoterica line wasn't distributed domestically. So (if that is indeed true) they should be fairly similar.
@mikefu - I'm drifting towards RDF if I'm honest after smoking some Brown Flake today.
@sgh - HH Acadian Perique was nice, I liked it enough to buy another tin - notably, it didn't burn hot or bite and was a fairly sweet smoke (I think it has some honey cavendish in there). It was also less heavy on Perique than I thought it would be. My initial tin was dated 2012, so it had a few years on it before I cracked it open, and based on its ingredients it will probably age well.