The stoved Virginia offers a fair amount of fermented, sugary tangy stewed dark fruit, bread, a lot of earth, wood as the lead component. The red Virginia provides fermented tangy ripe dark fruit, light tart and tangy citrus, plenty of earth and wood, some grass, a lot of bread, and touches of vinegar, sugar, spice and floralness as a competitive supporting player. The earthy, woody, spicy, plumy, raisiny, prune-like, figgy St. James perique slots in at third place in the proceedings. The Turkish Orientals compete with the perique for attention with these qualities: floralness, earth, vegetation, herbs, mild spice, leather and wood, a light buttery, creamy sweet and sour savoriness. They occasionally leap over the perique for the third position. The brown sugar from the unsweetened black cavendish helps tame many of the rough edges, though a few small ones remain. The strength and taste levels just reach the medium mark. The nic-hit is a couple of steps behind that threshold. There’s no chance of bite or harshness no matter how much you try to push it. Well balanced and complex, this easily broken apart crumble cake requires no dry time. It burns cool, clean and a little slow with a mostly consistent, sweet, mildly spicy, floral flavor that translates to the pleasant, short lived after taste, and lightly stronger room note. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and necessitates some relights. Can be an all day smoke. Three and a half stars out of four.
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