Watch City Cigar Fat Bastard

The matured Virginia is grass and citrus, and fermented dark fruity sweet with a little earth and wood. It forms the base for the other tobaccos to play, but it also plays an important part in what you observe as you smoke. The unsweetened black cavendish is toasty, sugar sweet and adds some smoothness in a back up role. The smokey, woody, earthy, musty sweet Cyprian Latakia continually underscores the taste, doing no more than that. Another supporting player is the Smyrna, which is a little sweet, very woody, earthy, herbal, and floral with a minor dry sour note. The raisiny, figgy, spicy perique is a more important ingredient. I have the sense of a very light topping that reminds me of honey, but I can’t determine that for certain. The strength is medium, while the taste is a couple of steps past that mark. The nic-hit is a slot behind the strength level. It never gets harsh or dull, and though it won’t bite, the spice from the perique will tingle your tongue a little. Extremely well balanced, you get all the nuances from all the components in every puff. Burns at a moderate pace, cool, clean, and spicy, sweetly smooth with a very consistent flavor. Requires few relights, and leaves a light bit of moisture in the bottom of the bowl that won’t distract from the experience. Has a very pleasantly lingering after taste, and slightly stronger room note. I recommend a slow puffing cadence and a wide bowl to enhance the proceedings. Can be an all day smoke with little trouble, depending on your proclivity for spice.

-JimInks

"We think we nailed it!"

I wholeheartedly agree. This came as part of Watch City's English sampler. (Curiously, I don't see it available otherwise on their site.) It was largely an afterthought, as there were other WCC blends I was excited to try, and this one hasn't been reviewed here yet.

Affirming my lack of any expectations whatsoever, the blend is fairly bland visually (various cuts from light to dark brown, with nothing standing out in particular) and in pouch aroma (a complex but very mellow aroma with red Virginia most noticeable). It also arrived noticeably drier than the other blends in the sample; no idea if it had a bit more age, or if that's a distinguishing feature. Whichever the case, it was easy to light and keep lit.

Wow!!! This one's in your face right from the get go. Sharp and pungent when lighting, it immediately reminded me of a cigar (and at times an expensive cigarette; all three made of tobacco, go figure). From there, it's a non-stop ride of beautiful, almost overpowering, pure tobacco flavors accompanied by voluminous, billowy smoke. You get occasional mellow moments between the onslaught of rich, full-strength tobacco flavors, but they're very, very fleeting. I can't think of anything to compare the flavors to besides strong, rich tobacco.

This style isn't my cup of tea at this point in my pipe-smoking career, but there's no way I can ding it for that. The fact that this many tobaccos can play this harmoniously is quite a feat by the blender. Beautifully done. Ernie at Watch City is absolutely killing it!

Light to black small chunky ribbons with a bag aroma of... dirt? High quality potting soil, perhaps. No tobacco jumps out with a particular scent. Smoked best with only a slight drying time, and it smoked dry as a bone all the way to the bottom.

Watch City's idea of a Scottish blend is, as stated, one that is perfectly balanced between the various component tobaccos, with no one sticking out. And that was my issue with this one. I could taste all the tobaccos individually but I had to work at it. The Virginias were the base but were to the rear. I liked what the Smyrna and Perique brought to the table but overall this one loses something due to its balance, the very thing Ernie was trying to accomplish. I prefer my Scottish blends to have a lot more Virginia sweetness and a lot more oriental presence. This blend, while high quality, was just too homogenous for my personal taste. It was smoke, it had various flavors, but just as it got into a zone, it moved onto something else, leaving me wanting. 2 stars for my personal taste, 4 stars for achieving design goals and being of high quality, so 3 stars it is. Try it if you like a supremely balanced blend. I guess I don't.

Package note of sour vegetation, mildly smoky and sugar. Tobacco is a rough cut of dark brown, black and light brown. Moisture content is great. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild to medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and mostly/very consistent, with notes of sweet smoky, lemon grassy, savory, fermented vinegary, sugar, toasted bread, spices, tart stewed dark fruit, orange peel/zest, peaty musty vegetation, sour, herbal floral, spicy, a tangy citrus background note, and a peppery retro. Virginia is leading with Cavendish, Oriental/Turkish and Latakia supporting. Perique is supporting from the rear. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.