Aromatic Tobacco » Esoterica St. Ives Tobacco Reviews

A once grand blend gone bland

I should say I am a huge fan of Esoterica tobaccos and have been for some time.  St. Ives used to be a classic cross over blend, part English, part Aromatic and it use to be a great if not unusual blend.  It was mild, smooth and tasted like an English with an Aromatic topping of berries   I ordered a half pound of it last year and for whatever reason, whether it be reformulating or simply a bad batch, it has completely lost its charm.  It doesn't resemble the wonderful Englishes Esoterica is famous for creating and has no semblance to an aromatic.  It's just dull, bland and completely without character.   I wasn't able to detect any latakia in the blend and its aromatic qualities were not present.  The only positive result was that it made a nice blending tobacco for cutting down some other overly aggressive and biting aromatics.