Review by bobt
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I Love This Blend!
This tobacco has 4 years of age on it at time of review. It is also from a 500g bulk box. I have smoked this blend in both bulk and tinned versions and I find them exactly the same in flavor and aroma.
The tin aroma smells of Latakia, chocolate, and cocoa with a hint of the Lakeland essence.
The Latakia aroma is light and subdued. The chocolate and cocoa aromas
are also light, but they do stand out. The Lakeland essence is about as
strong as the chocolate and cocoa aromas. There is a difference in the
chocolate and cocoa aromas. The chocolate reminds me of chocolate while
the cocoa reminds me of a richer, darker type of chocolate aroma like
the kind that you would get from cocoa powder that you use for baking. I
don’t detect any vanilla in the tin aroma. The tin aroma is simply
amazing and I love it!
I took a few of the flakes and fully rubbed them out into nice, fluffy ribbons.
After rubbing the flakes out, the aroma is pretty much the same, but it
is more intense. There is also a very noticeable Virginia tobacco aroma
now that makes it smell even more amazing. The moisture level is
perfect for smoking right away with no drying time needed.
At the start of the smoke, I taste the chocolate flavor and also a light Lakeland flavor.
The Lakeland flavor is not very strong and it compliments the chocolate
very nicely. I can also taste the tobacco under the chocolate and
Lakeland flavors. It is a nice, sweet, tobacco flavor that is the
backbone to this blend. There is a very, very light smokiness that sits
very far in the background, but there is quite a bit of body to the
smoke. There are nice volumes of smoke and the smoke seems to fill and
coat my mouth with the flavors. There is also a bit of sweetness to this
blend. The sweetness is not overpowering and is at just the right
level.
At the mid-bowl point, the cocoa flavor has become more pronounced than the chocolate flavor.
As the bowl progressed after the mid-bowl point, the flavors of the
chocolate, cocoa, and Lakeland began to fade out more and more as it got
closer to the end. As those flavors faded, the tobacco flavor was
becoming more pronounced.
This is a great blend and I love it!
It smokes slow, cool, and dry. I have a feeling that this blend could
bite if it is smoked too aggressively. This blend is really nice and
actually taste pretty much the way that it smells in the tin. If you do
not normally like the Lakeland blends, I would still suggest giving this
blend a try because the Lakeland essence is applied pretty lightly in
my opinion. I never tasted any of the vanilla flavor that is in the
description, but that is fine with me. It tastes great from start
to finish.
I Highly Recommend it!
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