Side question: What is the flavor profile of red Virginias? And what are the other kinds of Virginias and their flavor profiles?
Yes, the most distinctive Reds, to me, have a dominant acidic tanginess with an underlying semi-sweet dough-y-ness. Sometimes the tanginess morphs into hints of vegetal notes (as in Edisto). Sometimes there are dark fruit notes, but they're minor in Reds, and different than the kind you get with a brown VA.
Yellow or bright VAs are either good or they aren't. I know that's true of all leaf, but I feel it's especially polarizing in Yellow VA. The not good stuff has a way of quickly turning ashy and cigaretty. However, the good stuff tastes like semi-sweet fermentive silage, or else relatedly hay or grass. It can be like a freshly mown lawn, or else like a sweet hay loft, or else like a silo, all depending on the leaf.
Many people also mention lemon notes, but I don't think I've ever tasted this in a tobacco. Not sure why I don't get that one.
Brown VA Flakes are my favorite. They can have sweet, dark fruit notes, like Christmas pudding, figs, dates, raisins, with a sweet bread (or more like sweet bread dough) character supporting. Sometimes there are also quasi-carmelized notes in there too, or toasted marshmallow. To me these seem the most complex and the most varied.
