Well, I caved in to the hype and bought myself a tin of black frigate. I'm currently about halfway through my first bowl and... I can honestly say I'm pretty much blown away. So much so that I'm inspired to write my first review.
The descriptions I've read made it sound like I would at least be able to enjoy this blend, I'm a fan of latakia and Turkish in almost any measure, as well as just about anything sweet; thus adding a bit of lat and some oriental to a nice sweet cavendished Virginia base, sign me up. However, this blend was even greater than i anticipated.
Upon opening the tin I was greeted to the pleasant view of a soft brick of mottled black and browns, ribbon cut and then pressed together, my first ever crumble cake. A beautiful presentation to be sure. However the smell accompanying this site was not quite as nice. The tart, almost acrid scent of the orientals/latakia make an odd accompaniment to the sweet-boozy scent of the Virginia rum mixture. It's not a good or bad scent, more-so one of those odd things that you want to continue taking sniffs of. I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into at this point.
Then the lighting, almost immediately I was welcomed to the slightly bitter/tart taste you sometimes get when lighting up, especially blends with lat/Turk leaves. After getting a bit into the blend I noticed that this taste wasn't quite going away, it was more so blending with the ever so tummy flavour in the background, ebbing and flowing into the foreground and the background, that black boat being bobbed up and down on the sea.
Closer to the midway point of the bowl this tart flavour begins to fade more into the background as now the slight plummy, raisin sweetness of the Virginias come in. That rum note is still slightly present in the background, but now it is complimenting the sweet virginias. When it came to the orientals and the rum, it made an interesting conflict, making the tartness of the oriental seem more complex and interesting, whereas with the Virginias the run tends to just enhance the flavour making it seem more round and full. Another thing I notice about this point of the bowl is how cool and smooth this entire experience has been, even in my excited, minorly quickened pace. Truly a wonderful smoking experience. Highly recommended to anyone.
Lastly, for those concerned about latakia, it doesn't really tend to impart much of a flavour (at least not one i could really pick out) to myself it just seems to make the experience seem more full, rounded out in some way, not the typical Smokey flavour you'd expect in a blend containing lat. Highly recommended!
The descriptions I've read made it sound like I would at least be able to enjoy this blend, I'm a fan of latakia and Turkish in almost any measure, as well as just about anything sweet; thus adding a bit of lat and some oriental to a nice sweet cavendished Virginia base, sign me up. However, this blend was even greater than i anticipated.
Upon opening the tin I was greeted to the pleasant view of a soft brick of mottled black and browns, ribbon cut and then pressed together, my first ever crumble cake. A beautiful presentation to be sure. However the smell accompanying this site was not quite as nice. The tart, almost acrid scent of the orientals/latakia make an odd accompaniment to the sweet-boozy scent of the Virginia rum mixture. It's not a good or bad scent, more-so one of those odd things that you want to continue taking sniffs of. I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into at this point.
Then the lighting, almost immediately I was welcomed to the slightly bitter/tart taste you sometimes get when lighting up, especially blends with lat/Turk leaves. After getting a bit into the blend I noticed that this taste wasn't quite going away, it was more so blending with the ever so tummy flavour in the background, ebbing and flowing into the foreground and the background, that black boat being bobbed up and down on the sea.
Closer to the midway point of the bowl this tart flavour begins to fade more into the background as now the slight plummy, raisin sweetness of the Virginias come in. That rum note is still slightly present in the background, but now it is complimenting the sweet virginias. When it came to the orientals and the rum, it made an interesting conflict, making the tartness of the oriental seem more complex and interesting, whereas with the Virginias the run tends to just enhance the flavour making it seem more round and full. Another thing I notice about this point of the bowl is how cool and smooth this entire experience has been, even in my excited, minorly quickened pace. Truly a wonderful smoking experience. Highly recommended to anyone.
Lastly, for those concerned about latakia, it doesn't really tend to impart much of a flavour (at least not one i could really pick out) to myself it just seems to make the experience seem more full, rounded out in some way, not the typical Smokey flavour you'd expect in a blend containing lat. Highly recommended!