What Makes A Great Virginian Blend?

[towhee89]

Don’t forget Buoy Gold, at $12 a pound.

It comes from the heart of the Old Belt in Kinston North Carolina by a family owned business that’s had a tobacco warehouse for eight generations.

The best North Carolina flue cured bright leaf contracts for .$2.05 per pound.

Then it has to age in a tobacco warehouse.

Since my wife got sick I mainly stuff it into tubes for a quick smoke, but the part that falls out into the boxes, is exactly the cut Bull Durham or other cloth sack Virginias were.

Bouy Gold is likely cut with a bit of burley to give it a chocolate richness and also a little Maryland to keep it lit.

But it’s mostly hay and citrus and goooood stuff.

Try aging it at least six months.

Have you compared the Buoy side by side with Windsail Platinum or 3 Sails? I'm really trying to find a brick and mortar blend me and my girlfriend can smoke, we are tired of ordering online. I can get my PA and CH at Ingles grocery, just meaning I have to order in 5 Brothers, but surely I can find Buoy since I live in NC.

 

[dottlejockey]

What makes a great VA blend to me is the addition of perique and kentucky. But then again i've been seduced by far too many bowls of Penny Farthing.

 

[KennethR]

I was part of a panel on another forum that was tasked with updating their "gold standard" list of tobacco blends of different types, 6-7 years ago. With all of the component subbing now going on it's pretty meaningless these days.

Try some of the recommendations that have been given. See what you like. It would be nice if the Pfeifen Huber blends were actually available in the US, but you have to go to Munich to buy them. I'd be buying Pfiefen Huber Virginia Golden Flake.

Blenders are doing the best that they can under difficult circumstances. There's less high quality leaf being grown and there have been climate events that have affected crops. More components are being sourced from different places. That means changes in blends and a level of instability with maintaining the flavor profiles of a great many blends.

So try a bunch of stuff and if you find something you like, stock up on it, because it could be different next batch.

Great insights thank you

 

[KennethR]

Just my two cents on this as I tend to focus on Virginia blends -- while there are many different varieties and ways they can go, what I am always looking for is the development of flavor as I make my way down the bowl. Some blends do this well for me while some are more consistent from start to finish. I don't think there's anything 'wrong' with either, but I am always looking for blends that finish with those unbelievable fruity/complex flavors.

I think the development/end flavor is definitely dependent on the person smoking it as well as environmental factors (ie humidity) ...but, this is what I am always after with Virignia blends.

Thank you for the advice