I opened mine a bit early as we are traveling for Christmas eve. Many thanks to Pat (Pruss) for the wonderful gifts.
The first thing I noticed was the rather avant garde packing material. A quick smell test though confirmed that none of the packing materials had been previously used.
The next thing that caught my eye were two bags of a rather unusual tobacco that I had not previously heard of:
No reviews at tobaccoreviews.com for this one, but it looks like it may be made especially for GQ Tobacco. According to the GQ site ( http://www.gqtobaccos.com/gawith-hoggarth-deluxe-twist-uncut-deluxe-roll-cake/#.VJrXBZ2uAlA ):
Just the thought of “Gawith Twists” gets people’s hearts racing, either in anticipation of the big nicotine hit or the memory of that fist smoke with them. It’s not surprising, they are some of the strongest tobaccos in production. However this Deluxe Twist is a totally different beast, at first glance it doesn’t look it. That dark air cured wrapper is used on all of the Gawith Hoggarth twist, but here it’s the filler that counts.
A blend of sweetened flue cured Virginia is mixed with a little dark fired, for light and grassy smoke. The dark air cured wrapper adds a subtle spicy, musky twang, but doesn’t allow the smoke to become to full bodied. Usually this twist is sliced up and sold as “Deluxe Roll Cake”, but we requested the uncut version.
Thanks to the lack of darker Virginias, this tobacco lacks the oily nature of the standard Brown twist and as a result smokes faster and be hotter. Treat like any gold Virginia and the flavours are beautiful with a delicate flavour.
Can't wait to try the stuff.
My eyes then drifted to this:
Very cool.
And is there a more appropriate gift for one Canadian to bestow on another than this (and from Pat's parents' farm I believe):
And it gets better. I also received my first Falcon pipe, with some supplies, which I am very excited to try.
Do you think Pat was trying to tell me something with the packing materials he used?