Watch City Cigar Christmas Present

The very tangy, ripe dark fruity, earthy, mildly bready red Virginia forms the base of the blend. The dark fired Kentucky provides a bit of spice, floralness, wood, earth, light dryness and nuts in an important support role. The nutty, earthy, woody, toasty, very lightly molasses sweet burley is a condiment as is the floral, sweet and sour, herbal, woody, earthy Turkish. The spicy, raisiny, and plumy perique underscores the mixture. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium. Won’t bite or get harsh. Burns cool, clean and slightly slow with a mildly complex flavor that sports a little inconsistency as some aspects rise and recede during the experience. Easily burns to ash. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a little more than an average number of relights. Has a very pleasant, sweet and spicy lingering after taste that may remind you of a spice cake without the bread. Not quite an all day smoke, but it’s certainly repeatable. I recommend a wide bowl for this one.

-JimInks

Mixed cut of ribbon and a sort of cube jumble of browns with a nice tobacco bag aroma and a light Christmas cake smell underneath. Perhaps it's just me but I get this every time I stick my nose in the bag. Ernie would probably shake his head and sigh. 🙂

No cakey taste, though. This is a medium-robust Virginia (red speaks loudest) with a baked burley sidecar and some condiments in the background. The red VA is crisp and the burley is nicely burnt toast, the Kentucky probably providing the burnt characteristic. This would an awesome manly tobacco if this were all it had - not terribly complex but excellent of flavor. But then comes the perique and the orientals. The latter provides this constant whisp of perfume that comes out in the snork along with a very juicy newly baked bread flavor. The perique adds a bit of spice that I mostly notice in the snork but that comes out intermittently at other times. Just when I have this tobacco figured out, it changes its profile - very complex, like a fine single malt. I get this "burly but refined" flavor that changes to elegant, takes a short trip through "Edgeworth with a twist" territory and runs the gamut of tobacco flavors throughout the bowl. I thought it burned a bit on the fast side but that's not a complaint but an observation. This is one killer tobacco! If you're tired of Virginias and VaPers and you don't care for latakia, throw some spice into your life and give this one a spin. Once again, Ernie shows that he's the best blender you've never heard of, and I think he could make a fortune if he tinned and heavily marketed his wares... well... as much of a fortune as a pipe tobacco blender could make, anyway! Avoid his blends at your own peril.