Having read a few reviews from some of you gents who tried a bowl of this by itself, I smiled at your one- or two-star ratings. This is meant to be a blending product! I'd highly doubt that many in the world smoke this by itself....
Try this for a really nice pound to age: 10 ounces of 5100 Red Cake, 4 ounces of this Stoved VA, and 2 ounces of McLelland's Blending Perique. If you like a stronger VaPer, by all means, add an ounce or more, and subtract it from the 5100. But, leaving the four ounces of 5105 is a key. Obviously, stoving hastens the sugar development, and yields real aging benefits. I have pounds of this aging at present, in varying strengths of Perique. I recently broke the seal on one of my Mason jars and went through a jar of the above blend that was merely 13 months old, and found it to be marvelous already. In a year or two, it'll be special, I believe. Will it be the next Escudo? Nah... but it will be a far more economical everyday go-to blend.
I'm a huge fan of Rattray's Hal-O-The-Wynd, and was happy to learn that Smokingpipes.com is now selling this in 17.5 ounce bags. I bought my first bag, mixed in 4 ounces of 5105, and have sealed the blend in more Mason jars. (Quart-sized) These funny little black sticks of stoved VA will help to soften the HOTW, and I'll bet that when I first smoke it, it'll be marvelous. A year should even make a great difference.
Making our own blends is fun, though highly subjective. But as a blending tobacco, I'm at a loss without 5105. I know of no other bulk stoved VA out there quite like this.