HU Tobacco Aus dem Krater Nr. 4

The lemon and orange Virginias offers a range of flavors, including a touch of grass and light spice, some earth, a bit of tart and tangy citrus and tangy ripe dark fruit, along with a hint of tart lemon, wood and smokiness. The sweet toppings are caramel, honey, and a light vanilla. They don’t tone down the tobaccos that much, but you’ll notice them in every puff as the flavor is very consistent from start to finish. The nic-hit is just past the mild mark. The strength is in the center of mild to medium, and taste level is a step past that threshold. The square flakes are not thick and are mildly moist, but they break apart very easy. Mildly complex, it burns at a reasonable pace, cool, clean and fairly smooth with no dull or harsh spots. Won’t bite or get harsh. Requires few relights and leaves almost no moisture in the bowl as it easily burns to ash. Has a sweet, slightly spicy after taste and decent room note. An all day smoke with a fair amount of flavor. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks

This is a clone of W.O. Larsen No.32. Very nice mild smoke. Very nice virginia square flake produced by Kohlhaase&Kopp. Many german Tobacco/ Pipeshops have this blend as houseblend. The taste is sweet and creamy/buttery with a hint of citrus and caramel. If you smoke the baccy slow you get the whole flavourprofile. It can easily be an all day tobacco.

Pretty sure this is "W.O. Larsen No. 32 Curly Cut" in a different tin. Since they both are produced by K&K it's not too far fetched I guess!

Anyhoo... this is some top-notch stuff! Opening the tin you're greeted by a distinct aroma of "Butterkeks" (I guess english speakers call it 'shortbread', cookies made with butter, very straightforward, and 'cozy' taste, every kid eats them at one time in their life I guess...), with a hint of vanilla to it.

The flake's cut speaks for itself... can't get any better than this! Don't be fooled, this isn't an aromatic as most of you will think of, but moreso a "semi-aromatic"... I smoke without 9mm filters (which most of the european/german aromatic blends were designed for these days) and it's ever so gentle and balanced.. there's plenty of Virginia goodness underneath the very, very tasty toppings (I perceive all three of them, Vanilla, Caramel, Honey... resulting in a "Butterkeks"-ish aroma). The Virginia qualities that stand out the most to me in this blend are the citrusy and bread-y, almost earthy qualities! They are of very rich aroma and have a gentle, yet pleasing spiciness to them.

Someone chose "Ginger" as topping for this blend, but according to HU the flavorings are: Vanilla, Honey, Caramel, and since "Ginger" stands right above "Honey" in the list I'm guessing this was a mistake! For a second one might be fooled and think there's ginger in it, since the Virginias offer a very pleasant citrusy note, that - in pairing with the tobacco's spiciness - might fool one to think there might be ginger in the mix...

For me this is an All-Day-Smoke at it's best, and I enjoy it right now as my first bowl of the day. But also in the evening time, after a good meal, this is a very fitting desert - that's not too sweet though, mind you! This isn't sweet Créme Brulee... this is finest handmade pastry, paired with unsweetened tea... it's not gooey caramel syrup on top of your fancy Choco-Mocco-Latte from Starbucks... it's a slight coating of caramel on the edge of your cup o´ Early Grey tea... (there's a reason I'm bringing up the tea-comparisons, as I feel the Virginias develop a somewhat tea-ish quality whilst progressing through your bowl!)

I could rave all day long... and I'm really not an aromatic-smoker... at all! Reason being too few aromatic blends being like this one! So this is a fitting addition to the HU Tobacco sortiment, as HU is widely known for their "aromatics, but not really aromatics" (or as I like to call them: "Semi-Aromatics", and I think the real term is: DANISH aromatics (in comparison to German Aromatics, which are strongly flavored and practically are un-smokeable without a 9mm-carbon filter in your pipe))

You guessed it... 4-star, all-time-favourite!