Here's my full report of all the blends including edited versions of what I had previously posted:
A: Ribbon cut. Sweet fruity wine note. Nice smoke. Topped with a sweet maybe fruit flavor. Very smooth, no harshness or bite, perhaps due to a cavendish component. Latakia is not dominant and on the light side; it gets lighter as the bowl progresses. The topping dominates but is pleasant.
B: Ribbon cut. Light stink. Light sweet bag note. No discernible toppings. Lots of brown leaf and less dark latakia. Slight acrid bitterness that increases as the smoke progresses. Sweetish. No bite. Not much latakia, maybe less than A, not much BBQ smokiness. Light hints of caramel and vanilla on the retrohale. Relatively simple. I thought I had been narrowed this to a couple of possibilities but after Butter Side Down's disclosure that it contained Syrian latakia, I realized I was completely wrong. I've had 5 blends with Syrian latakia and B is like none of them as best as I can remember).
C: Ribbon cut. Fruity, smoky bag note. Possible alcohol topping. Smoke hints of burnt caramel and licorice. Smooth, albeit with slight numbing of the tongue. Hint of floral (not topping). No bitter. Medium complexity.
D: Ribbon cut. No fruit or discernible topping in the in the bag note, which is smokey. The leaves were dry to the point of crispiness. I re-hydrated it in a ramekin draped with a wet paper napkin for an evening and then removed the napkin and sealed the ramekin with saran wrap overnight. There was a slight bitterness at light-up that increased at the end of the bowl. Light hint of floral incense. The latakia is subdued and likely well aged, a pattern in all samples so far. Smooth, no harshness or bite. Light hints of caramel, vanilla, and cinnamon on the retrohale. Light hints of higher complexity.
E: Shag cut with no apparent topping. Smokey bag note. The most appealing of the samples so far for my tastes. Smooth without bite. Light hint of caramel. Latakia is subdued and possibly well aged again with a medium-light degree of smokiness. Medium complexity. No bitter, nice mouth feel and pleasant on the retrohale. There aren't many shag cut latakia mixtures but I've not had them all, so I'm not exactly sure which specific blend this is. I don't think it's among those that I've previously smoked.
F: Broken Flake. Very fruity note. Possibly topped. This is delicious. It tastes of sweet smokey licorice (though I cannot tell if it's from a topping or inherent in a particular leaf). Hints of dried stone fruit and floral. Light hint of cinnamon. Well balanced but changes before the quarter to a lighter less smokey flavor where the licorice/anise predominates. This is my favorite of the lot. Like shag cut latakia blends, there aren't many latakia blends that are true flakes or broken true flakes (as opposed to crumble cakes that may or may not be advertised as flakes), so the possibilities are limited, although I'm again not exactly sure what this one is.
My preference, in descending order: F, E, A/D, C, and B.
My profuse thanks to Butter Side Down for his tremendous generosity and energy to arrange for this tasting. I can't wait to find out what the blends are.
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