Welcome to another episode of Tasting Notes. I am extremely excited about this one, and this is a historic day. In fact, I'm happy to say that for the first time in the American market, thanks to our good friends at Kopp Tobaccos and your friendly neighborhood Laudisi Distribution Group, Smokingpipes is proud to present HU Tobaccos. If you've been a tobacco nerd for any amount of the last five or ten years, you've probably heard about these blends.

Originally made as shop blends in the German market, these are some of the most desired and revered blends. We are super happy to finally be able to present these to our customers in the US and to be able to smoke them and stock up on them ourselves. I will be smoking through the entire HU line over the coming months, but to start today, I have picked the infamous Director's Cut.

Director's Cut: An Aroma For Everyone

Director's Cut is maybe the most well-known and most desirable of the HU blends. I first heard about this and sampled it many years ago when somebody on one of the forums had organized a group buy, and I was able to get my hands on a sample. This is an extremely unique and complex blend.

Let's talk about the blend itself. The tin note is dynamic. It's also a pretty good indication of what you can expect when you actually smoke the blend. It's rich, deep, earthy, spicy, tangy, and sweet. It's maybe a little bit fruity and there's a little bit of some fermented hay grassiness, baked goods, and brown sugar. It has nearly something for everyone.

Intriguing Cuts

The cut of this tobacco is also very dynamic and interesting. It is effectively a Virginia/Burley/Perique mixture but it's made up of several different cuts. The blend's base is these absolutely gorgeous little Virginia and Perique spun-cut coins. These are the old-school coins that you would remember if you ever smoked the original Three Nuns. It's like the size of a dime. They're loosely spun around a core of Perique and then aged in ropes and sliced. To that, a little bit of loose-cut Virginia is added for a little more sweetness and to round out the blend. And then you also have chunks of pressed Burley that are added to this.

So, again, a really interesting cut. I think that depending on the size of the chamber, how you prepare this can vary. You can rub out the flake pieces and leave the coins relatively intact, you can rub out the whole thing for a smaller chamber or if you're smoking indoors like I am right now.

First Light: Rich Spice

At first light, it's immediately spicy and rich, and there's a fair bit of sweetness as well. This one really takes some time to get going. And as you smoke through the bowl, even in a smaller chamber, you're going to notice a lot of change throughout the smoke, which is awesome. I think for fans of complex Virginia blends, it doesn't get much better than this. The notes that stand out to me the most in the first third of the bowl are a lovely level of spice.

I'm getting the Perique for sure. It's not heavy-handed, but it's present enough that you feel the spice, the dark fruit notes, and the interplay between the Perique, the fruitiness, and the spice, and the woodiness of the Kentucky tobaccos through the retrohale.

There's a really interesting aromatic wood quality to it and then I think below that, the supporting base of Virginias add enough sweetness and prop up the spicier and richer flavors. You do get a little bit of a citrus zesty quality, but mostly I'm getting notes of baked bread and baked goods.

Deep Yet Bright Complexity

As the smoke progresses, I start to notice a little bit more molasses or brown sugar sweetness. The interplay between all these tobaccos is so interesting. I really think mixing the spun-cut processing, the flake pressing, and the loose-cut Virginias does a lot to give you the best of all of those worlds. You have the added depth and maturity that come from pressing and spinning tobaccos, plus the youthful, bright, and exuberant sweetness from a loose-cut Virginia mixture.

The other thing about Director's Cut that makes my job a little bit difficult right now is trying to pin down the flavors and articulate what I'm tasting. It's like a moving goalpost. This is so complex and so dynamic of a blend. Depending on if I really back off my cadence or if I really puff — which this mixture is actually very forgiving of a faster puffing cadence — the flavor profile changes wildly, all of which falls into the spectrum of what my personal preferences are as a Virginia smoker, a Virginia/Perique smoker, and a Burley smoker. This is going to be something that keeps you intrigued bowl after bowl.

Today I'm smoking HU Director's Cut in a little sandblasted Tomato by J Alan. This is actually a Scandpipes 25th Anniversary pipe, so congratulations to our good friend Per Billhäll on Scandpipes.com's 25th anniversary. I just wanted something with the perfect Virginia chamber dimensions for my personal preference. And it is loving this mixture, although I do think the nature of the cut here allows you to manipulate it to suit a variety of chamber sizes and situations.

I'm gonna be experimenting with Director's Cut for a long time. I think this is one of those blends that not only will I cellar deep and enjoy for many years to come, but I will be trying to wrap my head around for maybe the rest of my life.

Second Half: Intriguing Depth and Woodiness

The second half of the bowl is really interesting. Things definitely get a lot more rich and the complexity is still there. In my opinion, the Perique spiciness fades into the background a little bit. And also the zestier, brighter, and sweeter Virginia notes do the same. What I notice is that the darker Virginias and the Kentucky come forward a lot more. You're getting a lot more of that woody quality, a little bit of earthiness, and that deep vibe somewhere between molasses and dark chocolate.

I'll say it again, this is an extremely dynamic tobacco. This is one that will take a lot of experience, a lot of different pipes, and a lot of different contemplative moments to actually wrap my head around. I'm really excited about this, not only because it's been a long time coming since these have not been available on the US market, but if the rest of the line is anything like Director's Cut in terms of its quality and complexity then I'm going to be keeping myself entertained for a good long while with these. This is one of the most interesting pipe tobaccos I've smoked in a long time.