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Shortly after our last Mystery Tobacco post Adam, Eric, Susan and I agreed that we'd had such a good time doing it we would give it another shot. Before long Susan had bagged up Mystery Blend #2. We all got around to smoking it a lot sooner this time. Enjoy!
Adam's Notes:
I've been given another sample of tobacco and can clearly see finely-cut ribbons in the bag. It appears to be about 60% dark tobacco and 40% golden. Still keeping it in the zip bag, I can tell it's moist, but not overly so. Time to open it. Sweetness of sugary-fruit and soft spice (cherry, vanilla, and others) take over my nose. My olfactory senses take me back to opening a plastic container of Play-doh (not sure why), but maybe it just has that marzipan quality about it. Not overly candy-like, but a noticeable aromatic. This appears (and feels) like a Peter Stokkebye product, though my betting chip would also be on the line of Gawith Hoggarth. From what I can see, feel, and smell, this is a quality aromatic that won't gunk up a palate or pipe (at least it appears this way).
The thin ribbons load very easily into my Ashton XXX, and the interlocking ribbons keep it all in place. This lights very easily with just one match, and tamps evenly without effort. I can hear some crackling in the bowl, hinting that flavorings or oils might be popping from the leaf. Unlike my experience with most aromatics, I can actually taste some delicious flavors! Gently puffing coaxes sweetness out of the blend, and I think pitted fruits linger in the air. Cautious as I am with all tobaccos, especially aromatics, slow puffing is yielding the best results with no blistering palate to worry about. There is some heat on my tongue, though, and this could be from the steam in the tobacco, alcohol-flavorings coming through, or my eagerness to puff more regularly after the delicious first few minutes. Like nearly all aromatics, there is that lingering 'flavor' in the smoke. When tasting food grilled over charcoal, the lighter fluid flavor doesn't completely go away, and agents in aromatics have something similar that lingers, though it's not lighter fluid, of course. You understand what I mean. I would guess this to be a mix of black cavendish, golden virginias, and don't believe any burley to be in the blend. Better tobacco flavors concentrate after half a bowl, but the lingering sweetness from the beginning is still a ghost. Toward the last third, it all but fades away. This would be nice to try in a Peterson System pipe, meerschaum, or gourd calabash, I think. I dumped the last third after all of the flavors went away (except for that lingering one which stuck with me until a fresh cup of coffee could overtake it) and wet dottle fell out. Not bad, but it started off with greater promise than it ended with.
Eric's Notes:
Having lollygagged long enough (and, for the record, attempted to cheat only once) today I packed my Luciano dublin with this week's mystery blend and lit up. Immediately I was greeted by something light and sweet, which just as quickly retreated to the background, a subtle golden note to the easy smoothness of this blend. A hint of vanilla and/or caramel appears to be lingering in there somewhere, poking its head out now that the initial shot of sweetness has receded. This blend seems very light to me - lighter even than the straight Stokkebye virginia I often smoke when breaking a pipe in. This may be due simply to the blend's coolness, and the fact that it takes some deliberate puffing to get even the beginnings of tongue bite. Either this blend burns quite easily, or I packed it too light, but I was through the first third of the bowl before I knew it. Whatever this is, it's for the most part a very easy smoker, though I it did develop a bit more bite mid-bowl, only to smooth out once more, with the vanilla/caramel flavors gaining more weight to compensate.
Ted's Notes:
Just looking at the tobacco I’d say it’s not something from the U.S. The strands of tobacco seem too uniformly long to be so. I’m leaning towards Danish or German, but this is a guess. After a good long whiff of the tobacco I’m terribly reminded of Sillem’s Black. It’s a very similar topping. Again, I’m thinking this is German.
Looks like black Cavendish, latakia, bright Virginia and possibly an oriental leaf of some kind. It’s dry enough for me to smoke, so I’ll do that now.
Lights up easy enough. I can taste a lot of sweet casing right off the bat, but it eases off pretty quick. The sweet flavor kind of reminds me of Lane tobacco, actually, but only for a moment. I sense an oriental presence and a subtle latakia component that adds depth and texture to the blend. The dark, sweet, creamy flavor moves in and out of focus, each time reminding me of the kind of Cavendish-style tobacco the Danish and Germans use.
This is pretty good stuff. If I had to class it I’d call it an aromatic, or perhaps a cross-over blend. I wish the latakia element were a little more robust and the sweetening additive a little less pronounced.
Conclusion:Seems like Adam was closest this week. I was way off. This stuff is Peter Stokkebye's Optimum. It's certainly an aromatic and the product description reads thus: One of our most successfull blends. Developed from the fields of the flue-cured tobaccos of Zimbabwe, Malawi. Blended with sweet processed Black Cavendish and mild Burley tobaccos. Medium to coarse loose cut.Anyone at home have any of their own thought's on this aromatic blend?
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