No matter how often I re-learn this lesson, whether spirits, tobacco, or firearms (all the noblest of vices), there's certain products I've made up my mind will be just awful. No particular evidence, but c'mon you just know it's going to stink. And on some dark night, needing a diversion, I break down to try said horrible product just to prove how completely right my omnipotent sense of taste/enjoyment is....and I find "Oh, sh*t this is really good".
Triple whammy discovery really. I started off grabbing an un-smoked Nording rusticated free-hand job that has sat since January. The tenon was slightly miss-shaped with the draft hole mildly miss-aligned....when you see problems like that on a high-tech, very precise instrument that someone dug out of the ground and carved with an industrial lathe you just know it's going to suck. Probably give you three kinds of cancer on the first charring light. Oh.....smokes like a champ right out the gate. No-relights over two large bowls. Well, these chocolate blends have to stink though, right?.....
G&H : Bob's Chocolate Flake : Recent drop - Long smoked both rope and Lakeland product from G&H, never touched the CF. Ordered a pound from one retailer while re-stocking recently, a few tins from another. Cracked open a tin and laid a few pinches out to dry for thirty minutes. Outstanding tin note; not aromatic sweet but a dark baking coca on top of a spicy, mature flake aroma. Once fired up there's just a great interplay between the base tobacco and the mild casing.....just like the aroma it's not artificially sweet but lays on the initial taste like a Mexican mole. Cigars and pipe tobacco are different palate ranges to me, but this strikes me similar to the sweet/earth/red pepper of young Nicaraguan cigars. Maintained that flavor all the way through....not complex but solid in the profile it brought.
Two Friends : Chocolate English : Circa late 2016 8 oz can - Very different tin note than the BCF, but still appealing. A lighter cocoa/malt on top of Virginia citrus. I know all the cool kids have at least a decade on even their Lane Q-1 these days, but in my humble experience 2-3 years is typically enough to start to get a dark-fruit mellowness on a Virginia blend. The label stated there's a helping of latakia (being labeled an English)….but on aroma/inspection it must have been a fairly small pinch. An extremely light English at best, to me more of a seasoned Virginia blend. Nice, light coco 'pop' on draw followed by a well-behaved Virginia backbone. Not sure if pipping fresh would have delivered more hay, but the bowl held a solid citrus/mild tang note that had dark fruit peeking through at times. Mid-bowl it turned fantastically creamy...akin to a well-behaved Connecticut. Not complex, lighter on palate than the BCF, but a very enjoyable Virginia-forward blend with a malt-dry cocoa undertone.
All in all, shocked how well the cocoa notes played over two different blend profiles. I'll be reaching for more of both on a regular basis....really enjoyed them. For pipers out there that may have avoided some of the non-aromatic 'chocolate' blends, give a bowl a try some cool, dark night....it's a unique flavoring that may play better with tobacco than you think.
Triple whammy discovery really. I started off grabbing an un-smoked Nording rusticated free-hand job that has sat since January. The tenon was slightly miss-shaped with the draft hole mildly miss-aligned....when you see problems like that on a high-tech, very precise instrument that someone dug out of the ground and carved with an industrial lathe you just know it's going to suck. Probably give you three kinds of cancer on the first charring light. Oh.....smokes like a champ right out the gate. No-relights over two large bowls. Well, these chocolate blends have to stink though, right?.....
G&H : Bob's Chocolate Flake : Recent drop - Long smoked both rope and Lakeland product from G&H, never touched the CF. Ordered a pound from one retailer while re-stocking recently, a few tins from another. Cracked open a tin and laid a few pinches out to dry for thirty minutes. Outstanding tin note; not aromatic sweet but a dark baking coca on top of a spicy, mature flake aroma. Once fired up there's just a great interplay between the base tobacco and the mild casing.....just like the aroma it's not artificially sweet but lays on the initial taste like a Mexican mole. Cigars and pipe tobacco are different palate ranges to me, but this strikes me similar to the sweet/earth/red pepper of young Nicaraguan cigars. Maintained that flavor all the way through....not complex but solid in the profile it brought.
Two Friends : Chocolate English : Circa late 2016 8 oz can - Very different tin note than the BCF, but still appealing. A lighter cocoa/malt on top of Virginia citrus. I know all the cool kids have at least a decade on even their Lane Q-1 these days, but in my humble experience 2-3 years is typically enough to start to get a dark-fruit mellowness on a Virginia blend. The label stated there's a helping of latakia (being labeled an English)….but on aroma/inspection it must have been a fairly small pinch. An extremely light English at best, to me more of a seasoned Virginia blend. Nice, light coco 'pop' on draw followed by a well-behaved Virginia backbone. Not sure if pipping fresh would have delivered more hay, but the bowl held a solid citrus/mild tang note that had dark fruit peeking through at times. Mid-bowl it turned fantastically creamy...akin to a well-behaved Connecticut. Not complex, lighter on palate than the BCF, but a very enjoyable Virginia-forward blend with a malt-dry cocoa undertone.
All in all, shocked how well the cocoa notes played over two different blend profiles. I'll be reaching for more of both on a regular basis....really enjoyed them. For pipers out there that may have avoided some of the non-aromatic 'chocolate' blends, give a bowl a try some cool, dark night....it's a unique flavoring that may play better with tobacco than you think.
