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Rattray's - Old Gowrie 100g
Six Years of Aging, but Now I Understand
I bought this tobacco from a B&M back in December of 2019, opened it in the car and I can still remember the aroma: very bready/hay/tea biscuit with a hint of molasses and fig preserves. I thought I was going to melt it smelled so good. When I got this tin, I had only recently started smoking again after a few years and this was my very first Va/Per and nothing I had had (save for McClelland Dark Star, but let's not talk about that) up to that point smelled quite as seductive. So I rushed home to smoke it. Pulled out my pipe, struck several matches and was off to pure, bitter, harsh, and treacherous disappointment. "What the hell happened to my figs!?" thought I to myself as I drank half a glass of ice water to cool my tongue. So I jarred it up and set it in the very back of what would eventually become my tobacco cabinet. At the time, I didn't know much about tobacco aging, but I have always had a problem throwing away even tobacco I don't like. So anyway, I forgot about that jar until I was going through my cabinet last night to check seals and found it, got curious (knowing now the benefits of aging) and set it on my bookshelf. First thing this morning I lit it up and was quite astonished. With now about six years on it, it has lost all of its rough edges, doesn't bite if you smoke with care and intention and is just as sweet as a dollop of jam, though it has also lost almost all spice from the perique while retaining a hint of the flavor which pokes through every third or fourth puff. But I love it. I'm going to smoke the rest of that jar pretty quickly and see how it does, but if I get even a remotely similar experience out of half of those bowls as I had this morning, I will have to buy more and see how it does with even more age.
Cornell & Diehl - Pegasus 2oz
It's Stout, but Oh So Smooth
As much as I love a super juicy VaPer or a deep, dark fired flake, man do I love a good, strong burley blend and this is one of the better ones. This one hits every beat for me. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I can detect seventeen different flavors or aromas because I never can; when I smoke a pipe, I can usually tell you if I'm smoking a straight Virginia, straight burley, VaPer, Latakia or Oriental-heavy mix, but that's about it. To me, good tobacco tastes like good tobacco, and bad tobacco tastes like different parts of the same burnt wet oak stump. This one is phenomenal, and I can really taste the typical dry dark chocolate and slightly pithy walnut flavors associated with high quality burley. There's not much of a nic hit, but I'm also not particularly sensitive to that, so your mileage may vary. Great, slightly spicy retrohale. I Can't taste any of the Virginia and can't really tell if I can pick out the Cavendish or not, but if you like a respectably dense, flavorful, chewy smoke, you are only doing yourself a disservice by not trying this one. It's delightful.
