Review of HU Tobacco: OWB Director's Cut

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samcoffeeman

Can't Leave
Apr 6, 2015
441
4
The description from the website:
If you are talking about traditional tobacco blending, twisted tobacco has to be mentioned. In
former times, tobacco was spun into an endless roll and then cut in order to increase durability.
Nowadays this special production process only plays a significant role with regard to taste.

The traditional Virginia/Perique Curly Cut forms its basis, being in prime condition as a rope,

before cut into curlies. The very expressive and sweet Virginia grades in connection with a

strong Perique core of the Curly Cuts make an interesting blend, together with the Burley grades

and the sugary Virginia Loose Cut. Underlining the robust and elemental character of this

Director's Cut, a whiff of fire-cured Virginia renders the final touch to this blend.The result is a

slightly sweet and spicy blend, surprising with tremendous varieties in taste. The Director's Cut is

attractive for those who are looking for the very special taste adventure. …strong, spicy, multi-layered
Nicotine: 4

Aromatisation: --

Flavor: natural

Chart: 1 (light) to 6 (strong)
001.jpg

It comes in a 100g tin with an interesting pop lid feature which is recloseable. I don't believe this is vacuum sealed but it is airtight so far as I can tell.
002.jpg

The tin aroma is a little sweet/fruity, a little spice with an afternote of smoke. The smoke note is most interesting, it is different than latakia leaf aroma, very light but noticeable right at the end of a sniff.
The cut is one of a kind. As noted from the description, the base is the curly cut, which are quite small, perhaps 1/2"-3/4" diameter. Also mixed in is the Virginia loose cut as well as some broken flake, which I imagine is the fire cured virginia and/or burley. This will make for perhaps some flavor variation depending on which parts you pack more of in a bowl. You can see all the different parts in this picture:
003.jpg

It does not come very moist but the fresh smoke revealed it did need a bit more drying time. I dried it for a couple hours, occasionally stirring the cuts to expose them to the air.
I packed up a Grant's Tanshell straight bulldog, which has a wide open draw and has been a good smoker for me. I grabebd a couple random pinches with the different cuts mixed in and finished off the top with some of the loose cut. The tobacco lights easily with an initial sweet flavor, one good char and then a true light. Gee, I packed the Virginia loose cut on top and that is what I tasted first. I'm a genius!! 8O The virginias are very good quality, sweet and more to the golden color that I like. In the first third, I'm tasting mostly the loose cut virginia sweetness with perhaps a little citrus, and then a background flavor begins to come into play. Must be my first coin burning! In the second third, there is a richer deeper flavor developing. I get my first sneeze, which is an indicator of perique for me. The up front sweetness is dwindling while the deep notes are growing. I begin to notice the nicotine a little. In the last third, the fire cured virginia starts to impart a burelyish nuttiness, which I quite enjoy in this case. I don't particularly enjoy a whole bowl of nuttiness but it melds well in this, coming in the last third and mingling with the deep/rich notes that started in the second third. I don't have a complete grasp on the nuance flavors yet, without enough experience with the blend yet. Just to re-emphasize, due to the different cuts, this will vary from bowl to bowl depending on how you pack it. I did really enjoy it with a little of the ribbon on top which kickstarted the bowl with the Va sweetness and made it easy to light. I give it a medium/medium on the flavor/nic scale. Excellent burn characteristics, and easy on the tongue. This blend is every bit as good as the initial reviews have promised.

 

antbauers

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 12, 2013
675
0
That does sounds good. The variation in cuts also intrigues me. And I love the tin. Pruss recommended this one too and seemed to be his no.1 out if the HU tobaccos. Can't wait to restock Makhuwa and add this to the cart.
Thanks for the review. Great job!

 

pruss

Lifer
Feb 6, 2013
3,558
370
Mytown
Nice review Sam.
I just dug up the snapshot review I did on this last year, and found this... It looks like we had similar experiences and that Hans is delivering consistent flavours in his blends year over year.
-- Pat
"Tobacco Aroma: Out of the bag this tobacco delivers deep resinous, sweet notes like prunes, anise and port. The spice notes are heavy and suggest a rich smoke. Others have suggested a grassy or mown hay aroma on the tin note, but this was absent in my sample in favour of a rich, deep and intensely spiced sweetness.
On instruction, I did not rub this tobacco out, but stuffed a VERY large meerschaum pipe half full, and tamped the tobacco until I had a steady but even draw. The sweeteners diminished slightly on the charring light and was replaced by the pepper and spice notes (I am assuming that this was the Perique?). After true light the complexity of the smoke came back and the sweetness returned. This was a delicious bowl, from top to bottom, it burned evenly and gave up layers of spicy sweet-fruit flavours until the end."


 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
@ JiimImks finally said something.

I'll get Director's cut and some more old Fredder next time :puffy:

To my knowledge, HU does not produce their tobacco but mainly provide the blending formulae. Their tobacco (at least the handful of tins that I have and I came across) as read from numbers of the tiny seal labels should be produced by K&K and Dan's.

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,852
553,819
Menuhin: I did write a review of Director's Cut early on, but I didn't think it appropriate to post it in a thread where another man has written a review.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
@ Jim

Thanks for letting me know, I'd crawl it out to have a read.

:puffy:

 

andystewart

Lifer
Jan 21, 2014
3,973
3
Nice one Sam! Excellent review for a great blend, although my real favourite by Hans is Dockworker Flake. OMG I could eat that stuff, the taste is that good. I also enjoy Director's Cut's stablemate, Edward G. However, Director's Cut is the signature blend for HU.
Andy

 

jkrug

Lifer
Jan 23, 2015
2,867
8
Looks like a very interesting blend for sure. Another one for the "must try" list. :puffy:

 

ericusrex

Lifer
Feb 27, 2015
1,175
3
Thanks Andy,
This blender is new to me. Hopefully someone in the US will pick up his line of tobaccos so I can try a few.

 
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