Sorry, can’t help but chuckle at reading “observing the advice of local health officials” while looking at those horrific warnings on the tobacco
I’m only familiar with ODF and Nightcap, and I smoke them both.
ODF is one of my top favorites since I love Kentucky leaf and feel that ODF is possibly it’s best representation in a blend that I’ve found. It’s relatively strong in nicotine, and full in flavor. Besides the Smokey, woody and tangy notes of the dark fired, I also taste some chocolate and nutty flavors as well and the Virginia used in the blend gives a nice round sweetness to keep the DFK from getting too rough around the edges. While I don’t think the blend is super complex, the flavors do evolve a bit as you smoke-for me, things get a bit sweeter towards the end of the bowl, with a touch extra VA flavors, more floral notes of the DFK becoming apparent while the burley’s nuttiness rides in the rumble seat. The blend goes great with some coffee or hot chocolate and if I were presented with your three choices, Old Dark Fired would be the one I’d chose for my couple of smokes.
Nightcap is delicious, as well, and is a complex blend in my eyes. A lot of people say that they don’t notice the Perique in Nightcap, but for me, the Perique is what makes this blend special. I slightly disagree with the “strong” rating of this blend-as far as nicotine goes, it IS stronger than most English blends, but it’s no Brown No. 4 and some reviews of Nightcap would make you believe that it’ll blow your head off. For myself, the perique is present in just a large enough quantity to really play off the Oriental/Latakia in an interesting way while taming the heat and keeping things nice and cool. I don’t get much VA sweetness, but that’s just my assessment of things. Nightcap is the English I like to bring on fall fishing trips, as I crave both the smokiness of an English and a good dose of N and it delivers solidly on both.
Can’t speak for the Comoy’s, but I know it gets good reviews and it appears that you’ve got three great choices to pick from! Enjoy whatever you decide on!