HU Tobacco Great Dixter

The Virginias provide tangy ripe, sugary dark fruit, earth, wood, a little tart citrus along with a little grass and a hint of spice. They form the base of the blend. The dry, nutty, very woody, earthy, lightly floral, barely spicy white burley is a background player. The deeply rich geranium is very perfumy, floral, and soapy as the star topping. The fruit toppings underscore the geranium, and all sublimate the tobaccos, and though they weaken just a little after the half way point, the flavors have a lot of depth all the way to the finish. As bold as the tobaccos are, the last half is when they assert themselves to the previously mentioned degree. The strength is medium, while the taste is a step or so past that mark. The nic-hit is almost medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has just the slightest touch of a rough edge at times. Well balanced and complex with lots of nuances, it burns cool, clean and slow as broken flake blends will do. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. The after taste will linger a bit. Not an all day smoke, and this blend can ghost a pipe.

-JimInks

I really wanted to like this one as I usually love blends that have a floral sauce much like the old style Scented Tobaccos from the UK. This one is soaked in geranium oil, I know this because my ex-wife was an essential oil freak and always reeked of some kind of oil mixture. To me, geranium tastes/smells more medicinal or herbal than it does floral. I prefer blends to have rose or some other kind of singular floral note or if geranium is used, I like it more as a minor player like it’s used in Hadde’s Best Irish. Some of my favorites are in this same line; Sissinghurst, Daddy Gefftl and of course, Hadde’s Best Irish. This one is of course made from quality leaf and is expertly blended so for that I will give it 3 stars, for my personal tastes it’s a 1 star as it’s just too potent with that medicinal geranium. It’s a one trick pony, not a very complex sauce as it strictly tastes like geranium and only geranium. I will say it very much reminded me of GH&Co’s Grasmere Flake (also heavy on geranium) so if that’s you than I would definitely recommend you try this one, I’ll be sticking with the three I mentioned above. There are a lot more HU blends that I look forward to trying, Hans is not only a master of non aromatic tobacco’s he’s mastered the Scented/aromatic genre as well!

Mild to medium in body and nicotine, medicinal/herbal roomnote that I don’t find offensive but it won’t win you any friends either.

My first impressions: a typical Virginia/Burley blend of Irish genre; A typical parfumy tobacco from the "soapy" or IRISH tobacco family. And indeed Great Dixter has that floral, geranium like aroma, quite similar to the SISSINGHURST, but the odour profile is a little bit different. Sissinghurst has aroma that is floral, sweet, sugary and well in background. Great Dixter is more floral- GERANIUM (better Pelargonium) like, citrusy. The aroma is more pungent sour-fruity like.

The blend is indeed not a NIC bomb. I would rate it as mild to medium (on the upper scale of that category)

An all day Irish tobacco of a fine quality. And I admit to adore this type of tobacco blends (like Sissinghurst, Haddes best Irish, Grousemoore, Ennerdale flake, St. Bruno, Erinmore flake etc.)

I think Great Dixter has less body than his brother Sissinghurst...or Haddes best Irish.

The ready rubbed Virginias in Great Dixter are sweet and citrusy, with a fair odour of earth. Virginias dominate in this blend and provide a base, body to it. The burley is nutty, creamy and stays always in the background. This is indeed typical virginia/burley blend of fine Irish tradition (not an aromatic one!) and probably (along with Sissinghurst and Haddes best Irish) the best on the market today.

The floral, flowery topping is very mildly noticeable in every puff without distracting from the inherent properties of the tobaccos, and is a little less obvious by the time you get to the last third of the bowl. However the topping of Great Dixter is more pronounced, compared to the aroma of Sissinghurst, which is more settled, round and more smoky version (it contains Kentucky burley!)

Overall an all day, every day, perfect Irish blend that is not too sweet, that is round, moderately flavoured. It is an extremely well balanced blend. I taste the complexity of creamy flavors in every puff all the way through. Burns cool with very few relights and will never bite you.

Great job again, Hans Wiedemann.