Welcome to another episode of Tasting Notes. I'm still on a mission to smoke my way through the entirety of the new Summit series by Cornell & Diehl and Jeremy Reeves. Now I am moving on to the second one of the four blends from the series, and that is Hoodoo Ridge.

This is a series inspired by the American West, landmarks in our national parks, and the outdoors in general. All four blends are united by one common factor — all of them are plug-cut tobaccos, which is a seldom seen format these days, originally created as a way to preserve tobacco while they were in transit to keep their moisture content stable for a longer time. It also had the unintended effect of amplifying richness from the pressure applied to tobacco, which jumpstarts that nice fermentation that we're all looking for when we put tobacco in the cellar to age. It generally produces a different effect than if this blend was in whole-leaf or ribbon-cut form.

Rich Plug Tobacco

Hoodoo Ridge has some of the Red Virginia maltiness and some spice there as well. This is earthy and a little bit sweet. I'm getting maybe a hint of baking spices and a hint of dark fruit. It's definitely powerful and rich, and I think that's how I would describe the smoke as well. Even the plug itself is very dense, with lots of dark leaf in there. It has almost an oily feel to it when you're cutting it and breaking it apart.

Of course, like all the other plugs in the C&D Summit series and plug tobacco in general, one of the features is that you have a lot of control over the cut. You can slice it thinner, or if you want it to break out into something that's a little closer to a shag or a finer ribbon, you can slice it a little bit on the thicker side. If you wanted to crosscut it and turn it into a cube-cut Burley, you can do that too and really anything in between.

You also have control over the degree to which you rub out those slices. If you're outside, you can leave them a little bit more chunky, slice it a little bit thicker. If you're inside and you want a little bit of more control over the burn rate, you can go towards the shaggy side of things. I really love that freedom about plugs and it does make this whole thing very interesting. It also makes it really challenging to describe your experience with a product like this because really you'd have to try a ton of different thicknesses of being sliced and packing methods in different pipes and all that good stuff to understand it.

My impressions so far are based on what I think is a medium width of slicing and rubbing out fully and loading it into my standard Group 3 and Group 4 pipes. I did give Hoodoo Ridge a little bit more aeration and a little bit more drying time out of the tin. Once you've done that, it loads very easily and takes to the flame very easily.

Powerful Flavors

The first light in the first third of the bowl or so is immediately powerful in terms of the flavor. This one for me is medium plus in flavor and in body, medium in strength. It feels very balanced right off the bat between the Virginias and the condimental leaf here. I do get some earthiness and floral notes, and the genuine St. James Parish Perique and the Turkish leaf start playing off of one another immediately. Through the retrohale, I definitely get some pepper, a little bit of spice, and definitely a little bit of drier red wine-like notes instead of dark fruit but still something fruity.

I don't perceive very much sweetness, especially on the palate. There's a little bit there, and a little bit of a zesty quality, grainy notes, and some grassy notes from the Virginias that prop up the earthiness, the floral quality, and the spice of the Perique and the Turkish. Really, this is all about richness and spiciness right off the bat.

It is a blend for the Virginia/Perique lovers that are looking for a little bit of a twist on that. The addition of the Turkish leaf, like I said, does really well with some of the spicier tones and the darker fruit notes from the Perique with a little bit of earthiness and a little bit of a floral quality. This one has something for everybody.

Light Sweetness & Complexity for Va/Per Lovers

A little bit further into the bowl, I do get some baked goods, almost like butter cookies. It's lightly sweet, and then the more complex things here that I attribute to the Turkish and the Perique, come through, like a little bit of nuttiness, roasted almond or peanut, pepper, and even something that's approaching a boozy quality, like the barrel character you get in a brown spirit that's been aged in barrels that can almost touch vanilla or chocolate flavors.

This is a really complex and rich blend that is still mild enough and comforting enough to be an all-day smoke for most Virginia smokers, especially Virginia/Perique lovers.

If you're a fan of Sam Gawith's Sam's Flake, which is a stoved Virginia with Orientals in it; Sun Bear Dark Navy Cask with the Bright Virginia and Izmir with just a little bit of that richer rum-cask-finished honey; or even stronger Virginias like Rattray's Hal O' the Wynd or McConnell's Scottish Flake, this is really gonna be right up your alley.

Opportunities for Experimentation

There's enough sweetness there to interplay and balance out the spicier notes. I also think that in a variety of different pipes and playing around with the cut, because you have the fully intact plug here, you have an endless opportunity to experiment, and each of those experiences is likely to be just as complex as what I'm experiencing right now.

I'm smoking Hoodoo Ridge in a little sandblasted Billiard by Michael Parks. It's a little Group 4 Billiard that is lightweight. It doesn't get more simple than this, and I like it as a tasting pipe for that reason. Man, this blend is really singing in this one.