pipesandcigars.com Grand Point

Now, this one is delicious. The base is the same mildly sweet nutty hay as the other blends in the series. This variety of Perique has a sweet dark fruit flavor that is mouthwatering. A little touch of cocoa. The spice is a little stronger than the description implies and isn't quite as gentle as the spice in South Vacherie. Has a little edge to it. This is just wonderful stuff. I'll be smoking a lot of this.

Medium in body. No added flavoring. Taste is just a little bolder than medium so I'll go with medium to full. Burns very well.

Appearance: the tin of this tobacco was released as part of a limited edition of an unknown quantity in 2018. A fine, neatly sliced ribbon blend of a couple varieties of Virginias with no admixture of darker fractions, light burley for about a quarter of the weight, and some amount of significantly darker perique. The tobacco of this series is a bit dry even in the jar, and after six years in the open it dried up quite a bit, but the absence of glycerin made it possible to restore it very quickly - in just three days I could already taste the blend.

Flavor: a mixture of brackish fish, hay, nutty wood and slight hints of plum wine and cinnamon. I didn't notice any cocoa notes, but perhaps they've just weathered with time. The author did not set out to embellish the blend. On the contrary, the beauty of this blend is that it is completely natural in taste and smell, natural and very simple.

Taste: very mild, almost inexpressive. The faint citrus and hay notes of the yellow and orange Virginia blend play the basis for a slightly denser woody and nutty burley, on top of which the perique taste from Grand Point literally rises-plumy and winey, with a slight spicy cinnamon note. Although the amount of perique is small, it is felt very well in the overall bouquet. The blend overheats very easily, so it needs to be smoked on the verge of fading to feel all the notes. The strength is just below average. The tobacco burns out into almost white dusty ash without lumps, leaving not a drop of moisture in the pipe. Aftertaste is weak, slightly spicy.

The smoke in the room is almost imperceptible, has a very faint woody flavor.

Bottom line. It is strange to look for something special in a blend like this. It can be interesting solely from the point of view of familiarity with the peculiarities of perique from different regions, and is of value to connoisseurs and collectors. It is funny, but almost the day after it was given to me, a jar of Grand Point appeared for sale on one of the sites, which perhaps I should have bought in addition to my existing South Vacherie, Belmont and Paulina to make a complete collection of the series.