This goes on sale April 23 at 6 p.m. EST.
The Cyprian Latakia provides a lot of earth, wood, smoke, vegetation, floralness, herbs, sour, and some leather with mild sweetness and spice as the lead component. The floral, spicy, smoky, sour, earthy, woody, herbal, incense-like, vegetative, mildly buttery sweet Turkish is a supporting player. The perique produces a fair amount of spice, dried plums, earth, wood, raisins, and floralness. It’s a slot below the Turkish, and plays above its percentage in the blend. The red Virginias offer plenty of tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, sugar, mild tart and tangy citrus, grass, floralness, vegetation, and light spice. They are a level behind the perique due to their inherent sweetness. The very nutty, earthy, woody, bready, sugary burley is a couple of steps above the condiment line. Occasionally, it’s a tad more obvious than that. I notice a light sugary citrus casing in the mix. The strength and nic-hit almost reaches the center of medium to full. The taste is in that center. No chance of bite or harshness. Has a few small rough notes. This mildly moist crumble cake easily breaks apart to suit your presence. As is my custom, I did not dry it for review nor did I see a need to do so. Deeply rich with a little zest and some complexity, it burns cool, clean, and slow with a sour, spicy, smoky, floral, tangy sweet, nutty, campfire flavor that extends to the pleasantly long lasting after taste. There is a light inconsistency in the overall flavor that commonly occurs with complex crumble cakes. The room note is closer to tolerable than it is to pleasant. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three and a half stars out of four.
©Jim Amash 2024.
The Cyprian Latakia provides a lot of earth, wood, smoke, vegetation, floralness, herbs, sour, and some leather with mild sweetness and spice as the lead component. The floral, spicy, smoky, sour, earthy, woody, herbal, incense-like, vegetative, mildly buttery sweet Turkish is a supporting player. The perique produces a fair amount of spice, dried plums, earth, wood, raisins, and floralness. It’s a slot below the Turkish, and plays above its percentage in the blend. The red Virginias offer plenty of tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, sugar, mild tart and tangy citrus, grass, floralness, vegetation, and light spice. They are a level behind the perique due to their inherent sweetness. The very nutty, earthy, woody, bready, sugary burley is a couple of steps above the condiment line. Occasionally, it’s a tad more obvious than that. I notice a light sugary citrus casing in the mix. The strength and nic-hit almost reaches the center of medium to full. The taste is in that center. No chance of bite or harshness. Has a few small rough notes. This mildly moist crumble cake easily breaks apart to suit your presence. As is my custom, I did not dry it for review nor did I see a need to do so. Deeply rich with a little zest and some complexity, it burns cool, clean, and slow with a sour, spicy, smoky, floral, tangy sweet, nutty, campfire flavor that extends to the pleasantly long lasting after taste. There is a light inconsistency in the overall flavor that commonly occurs with complex crumble cakes. The room note is closer to tolerable than it is to pleasant. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three and a half stars out of four.
©Jim Amash 2024.
