Normally I'd start my review with an elegant introduction to my review, related to the tobacco at hand. However, this time there isn't much of that, as I haven't tried anything like this, and may never will. I'll spoil the ending to this review, it is an absolutely gorgeous tobacco. By all means. It blew me away into a state of fanboyism. And I rarely have said that about any tobacco I have tried. It isn't just the fact that it is unique, but that it is quite good while being unique. As much as it is packed in a humble, rather ugly looking pouch, and when you open you get confused between the overwhelming, complex, aroma and the poor cut that has no name, It's basically a few long flakes pressed together to form a hybrid between a cake and a plug. Yet the tobacco itself is rich with colour, texture and aroma. It is a bliss to look at, touch and smell. It is easy to cut as well if you plan to store it in smaller jars. And I recommend you do store it. When you get to smoking itself, the tobacco is wet. It isn't moist, it is wet. And requires a considerable amount of drying time. For me it took an hour, and even after, it was still a bit on the moist side. However, to my surprise after the initial light, it stayed lit and smoked excellent. And speaking of the first light. It's an explosions of flavour, one that I haven't even got from the most cased of aromatics. It is a bit overwhelming even. You get sweet, sour, tangy, incense, fruity and in different flavours of fruit, a bit of licorice and a bit of sweet liquor. If I haven't read about this tobacco and examined it thoroughly I'd have said it was drowned in casing, but it was not. But it is a mixture of different oriental tobaccos that is well pressed together using traditional methods that seems to have married the tobacco well. It stays like that for a little while before tobacco starts to play solo. You get a mix of sweetness and fruitiness for a while, like eating dried figs or plums. And it is well complemented by the least of spice, more like a spicy herb than a peppery one, just teasing and tingling with your tongue rather than hammering it with peppery taste. This stays for a decent amount of the bowl, and just when I think it will be monotonous, it switches to a licorice like taste, underlined with a bit of tangy sweetness like fresh molasses. It feels almost like dark rum without the alcohol. And it keeps doing that switch between profiles till the near end of the bowl, in which it returns to a non apologetic sweetness. It turns so sweet and fresh that I feel I am smoking grass or hay rather than tobacco. I haven't had such taste even when having straight bright Virginia tobaccos. Through all that, it required 2 relights, and it never went out, I just wanted to preserve its magnanimous smoke body. And despite that it remained cool and smoked well throughout the ball, without harshness, or biting whatsoever. Just around the end of the bowl it started a bit of overheating. But I won't complain about it after over a 100 minutes of pure joy. It's only drawback if we may call it so, is that it can turn goopy, and I mean a gurgling system pipe goopy. But that was rectified by a pipe cleaner through the smoke hole once or twice and was not a nuisance at all. I think for some reason I regret trying this tobacco, as it is so good yet so scarce that I feel bad when I finished the bowl as it means my small stock of it is a bit depleted. As of this moment, it is only produced and distributed in Turkey. But I surely hope it will go global any day, as it is a delight to have
Pipe Used: Peterson system Ebony XL315
Age When Smoked: Three months old
Purchased From: Local B&M in Turkey
Pipe Used: Peterson system Ebony XL315
Age When Smoked: Three months old
Purchased From: Local B&M in Turkey