I don’t often feel compelled to write reviews on tobaccos, so forgive me and please grant me a modicum of tolerance as I have no idea what I’m doing.
As some of you have seen, I ended up with way more tobacco than I know what to do with, apart from cellaring, and I’m slowly working my way through it all.
A bit of background - it’s July 4th and I decided to make an Old Fashioned after a few comments on the Kentucky Bourbons thread earlier today. George Dickel 12 was the bottle I reached for after the interchange, and given the flavor profile, I thought I’d accentuate it by using some Traeger smoked simple syrup. To enhance it a bit more, I added about a teaspoon of real maple syrup from a friend in NY who makes his own and sells it. I’ll admit, I’m a bit heavy handed with the Angostura bitters and tonight was no exception. Rather than including the orange, I just squeezed a bit in the glass and tossed the wedge. Also, to hell with cherries. I know, blasphemy. But, I’m fancy and I have those big ice balls for my Old Fashioneds and don’t like all that extra jazz in the glass.
Coincidentally, I had been reading about Rattray’s Exotic Passion earlier today and had recently heard from a buddy that the bags inside the tins weren’t sealed and neither were the tins. That prompted me to go ahead and vacuum seal the bags inside of some vac bags since I got a new chamber vacuum sealer recently and like playing with it. After a quick seal, back into their tins they went (interested to hear your feedback on effectively introducing an anaerobic environment to the cellaring process without first giving the tobacco time to age aerobically).
The tin note on that particular blend was so overwhelmingly inviting that I decided, regardless of how many other blends I currently had opened, it would be my smoke for the evening. So, I proceeded to grab my MM Emerald and head outside with my Old Fashioned.
Now, I’ll add a quick note pointing out, as I mentioned before, that I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t claim nor pretend to. Folks like @jiminks and @musicman (I really like his reviews) have the gift of gab and clearly enough experience to point out the subtleties of the blends they try and subsequently review. I don’t have either of those gifts, so bear with me here.
When I first lit the bowl, I was immediately struck by how similarly it matched the tin note. In my brief experience, this is more often the exception than the rule. I was met with a citrusy, passion fruity, floral aroma that was upstaged only by the brown sugar, maple-vanilla aroma that lingered a bit longer. I let it rest for a bit before tamping it and giving it another light, this time in earnest, with dreams of, coincidentally, dreamcicles on my mind. They were quickly dashed as the vanilla faded into the background, playing second fiddle to the now much more pronounced maple flavor that paired nicely with the pervasive citrus note. While clearly tearing up the dance floor, it’s important to note that these flavors were merely present at the event hosted by Virginias. I don’t have a ton of experience with Virginias, but their presence in this bowl was quite obvious.
As I worked my way through, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t require a few relights. However, please don’t take this as a rule as it’s more than likely attributable to my amateur status in your world. More importantly, and most assuredly noteworthy, is the fact that, in spite of being an aromatic, this is the first bowl I’ve ever smoked that I was able to smoke all the way down to nothing but white ash. I think that’s evidence that with either more drying time or a more skillful hand, this blend would require minimal relights, if any, at all.
As I progressed through the bowl, I couldn’t help but to share some parallels with Santiago. Was this the crowning point of my involvement with pipe smoking? Am I able to truly enjoy it alone? In spite of the battle, is it truly the pinnacle of my life? Are the sharks going to show up at any time and start eating this bowl? These thoughts were likely brought in by the Old Fashioned I mentioned earlier, while failing to mention that it was the third of its kind.
You see, in my ignorance, I’d created quite possibly the perfect experience. The citrus from the cocktail, the smokiness from the simple syrup, and the maple I’d added combined with the caramel, vanilla, and brown sugar notes in the George Dickel 12 to make an amazing drink. When experienced with a bowl of tobacco that quite literally mirrored the flavor profile, the result was sublime. When I initially realized what I’d done, I somewhat expected the drink to bastardize the bowl, and vice versa. However, the interplay between the two was nothing short of angelic and, if only but for a moment, the clouds parted, the sun shone, and there, up in the bright blue sky, Hendrix melted a guitar, Neal Peart, through a blur of arms and drumsticks proceeded to shake the mountains, leaving Jaco Pastorius to complete the trio as he did to a bass that which only he could do.
As I said when I started, I don’t often feel compelled to write a review; in fact, hardly ever. But this was such an experience that refraining from sharing it; no, immortalizing it, would be both criminal and a sin.
As some of you have seen, I ended up with way more tobacco than I know what to do with, apart from cellaring, and I’m slowly working my way through it all.
A bit of background - it’s July 4th and I decided to make an Old Fashioned after a few comments on the Kentucky Bourbons thread earlier today. George Dickel 12 was the bottle I reached for after the interchange, and given the flavor profile, I thought I’d accentuate it by using some Traeger smoked simple syrup. To enhance it a bit more, I added about a teaspoon of real maple syrup from a friend in NY who makes his own and sells it. I’ll admit, I’m a bit heavy handed with the Angostura bitters and tonight was no exception. Rather than including the orange, I just squeezed a bit in the glass and tossed the wedge. Also, to hell with cherries. I know, blasphemy. But, I’m fancy and I have those big ice balls for my Old Fashioneds and don’t like all that extra jazz in the glass.
Coincidentally, I had been reading about Rattray’s Exotic Passion earlier today and had recently heard from a buddy that the bags inside the tins weren’t sealed and neither were the tins. That prompted me to go ahead and vacuum seal the bags inside of some vac bags since I got a new chamber vacuum sealer recently and like playing with it. After a quick seal, back into their tins they went (interested to hear your feedback on effectively introducing an anaerobic environment to the cellaring process without first giving the tobacco time to age aerobically).
The tin note on that particular blend was so overwhelmingly inviting that I decided, regardless of how many other blends I currently had opened, it would be my smoke for the evening. So, I proceeded to grab my MM Emerald and head outside with my Old Fashioned.
Now, I’ll add a quick note pointing out, as I mentioned before, that I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t claim nor pretend to. Folks like @jiminks and @musicman (I really like his reviews) have the gift of gab and clearly enough experience to point out the subtleties of the blends they try and subsequently review. I don’t have either of those gifts, so bear with me here.
When I first lit the bowl, I was immediately struck by how similarly it matched the tin note. In my brief experience, this is more often the exception than the rule. I was met with a citrusy, passion fruity, floral aroma that was upstaged only by the brown sugar, maple-vanilla aroma that lingered a bit longer. I let it rest for a bit before tamping it and giving it another light, this time in earnest, with dreams of, coincidentally, dreamcicles on my mind. They were quickly dashed as the vanilla faded into the background, playing second fiddle to the now much more pronounced maple flavor that paired nicely with the pervasive citrus note. While clearly tearing up the dance floor, it’s important to note that these flavors were merely present at the event hosted by Virginias. I don’t have a ton of experience with Virginias, but their presence in this bowl was quite obvious.
As I worked my way through, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t require a few relights. However, please don’t take this as a rule as it’s more than likely attributable to my amateur status in your world. More importantly, and most assuredly noteworthy, is the fact that, in spite of being an aromatic, this is the first bowl I’ve ever smoked that I was able to smoke all the way down to nothing but white ash. I think that’s evidence that with either more drying time or a more skillful hand, this blend would require minimal relights, if any, at all.
As I progressed through the bowl, I couldn’t help but to share some parallels with Santiago. Was this the crowning point of my involvement with pipe smoking? Am I able to truly enjoy it alone? In spite of the battle, is it truly the pinnacle of my life? Are the sharks going to show up at any time and start eating this bowl? These thoughts were likely brought in by the Old Fashioned I mentioned earlier, while failing to mention that it was the third of its kind.
You see, in my ignorance, I’d created quite possibly the perfect experience. The citrus from the cocktail, the smokiness from the simple syrup, and the maple I’d added combined with the caramel, vanilla, and brown sugar notes in the George Dickel 12 to make an amazing drink. When experienced with a bowl of tobacco that quite literally mirrored the flavor profile, the result was sublime. When I initially realized what I’d done, I somewhat expected the drink to bastardize the bowl, and vice versa. However, the interplay between the two was nothing short of angelic and, if only but for a moment, the clouds parted, the sun shone, and there, up in the bright blue sky, Hendrix melted a guitar, Neal Peart, through a blur of arms and drumsticks proceeded to shake the mountains, leaving Jaco Pastorius to complete the trio as he did to a bass that which only he could do.
As I said when I started, I don’t often feel compelled to write a review; in fact, hardly ever. But this was such an experience that refraining from sharing it; no, immortalizing it, would be both criminal and a sin.
