Sasquatch
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2008
- Messages
- 991
- Reaction score
- 1
Well.
This is a review of the current incarnation (Made in EU) - the plastic baggied stuff. My memory of the UK produced stuff definitely clouds my impressions, but I'll try not to be one of those "Oh they've wrecked it!" harbingers of past glories.
Presentation: loose cut mixture, eccentric cuts including black bits, some golden virginias, and what appear to be maybe some small .5 cm x .5 cm cuts of cigar leaf.
Tin note: a fruity, deep virginia smell (maybe some perique, huh?) mixed with the leathery notes of orientals. I detect no latakia, but the smell is nowhere near as sharp as either Red Rapparee or McClelland's Arcadia, the two closest mixes.
This stuff is wet. Not damp, wet. It makes Sam Gawith products look dry. An hour on a plate makes the stuff smokeable.
Light it up, and there's that old friend. A deep, sweet mixture that has an "english" attitude but smokes like a Va/Per. Yum.
I don't really detect any topping in the smoke - if anything, it's REAL subtle. I get the tangy orientals, the sweet virginias, I think there's some perique giving it body. You want smoke? My god, this stuff is dragonian, to coin a term. Billowing clouds.
The wife does not appreciate the room note (and stale, it's bad... just, ... sweaty socks or something) but there are worse smelling tobaccos. This is for the smoker though.... tons of flavor without the campfire latakia business. Woody, plummy, sweet and spicey.
This kicks ass on Arcadia, and probably Red Rapparee too. It's smoother and fuller, and has no acidity or sharpness that really mark both Arcadia and RRR. I remember why I used to smoke this stuff.
I don't think it's the same as it used to be. But maybe I've just aged, too. I haven't smoked presby in some time, and I return to it as a much more experienced smoker, so it's tough for me to judge what is and what used to be. But what is, is a seriously tastey smoke that offers a little of everything... a middle ground between all styles of pipe tobacco, perhaps, and one that deserves it's niche (and it's pedestal for those who think highly of it).
Having this tobacco open at the same time as many others really reminds me how good it is. Once again, I will finish a tin of Pres, and then reluctantly finish 20 tins of other stuff, and forget how good the Presbyterian was. But maybe that's the point - the stuff's a treat.
This is a review of the current incarnation (Made in EU) - the plastic baggied stuff. My memory of the UK produced stuff definitely clouds my impressions, but I'll try not to be one of those "Oh they've wrecked it!" harbingers of past glories.
Presentation: loose cut mixture, eccentric cuts including black bits, some golden virginias, and what appear to be maybe some small .5 cm x .5 cm cuts of cigar leaf.
Tin note: a fruity, deep virginia smell (maybe some perique, huh?) mixed with the leathery notes of orientals. I detect no latakia, but the smell is nowhere near as sharp as either Red Rapparee or McClelland's Arcadia, the two closest mixes.
This stuff is wet. Not damp, wet. It makes Sam Gawith products look dry. An hour on a plate makes the stuff smokeable.
Light it up, and there's that old friend. A deep, sweet mixture that has an "english" attitude but smokes like a Va/Per. Yum.
I don't really detect any topping in the smoke - if anything, it's REAL subtle. I get the tangy orientals, the sweet virginias, I think there's some perique giving it body. You want smoke? My god, this stuff is dragonian, to coin a term. Billowing clouds.
The wife does not appreciate the room note (and stale, it's bad... just, ... sweaty socks or something) but there are worse smelling tobaccos. This is for the smoker though.... tons of flavor without the campfire latakia business. Woody, plummy, sweet and spicey.
This kicks ass on Arcadia, and probably Red Rapparee too. It's smoother and fuller, and has no acidity or sharpness that really mark both Arcadia and RRR. I remember why I used to smoke this stuff.
I don't think it's the same as it used to be. But maybe I've just aged, too. I haven't smoked presby in some time, and I return to it as a much more experienced smoker, so it's tough for me to judge what is and what used to be. But what is, is a seriously tastey smoke that offers a little of everything... a middle ground between all styles of pipe tobacco, perhaps, and one that deserves it's niche (and it's pedestal for those who think highly of it).
Having this tobacco open at the same time as many others really reminds me how good it is. Once again, I will finish a tin of Pres, and then reluctantly finish 20 tins of other stuff, and forget how good the Presbyterian was. But maybe that's the point - the stuff's a treat.