HU Tobacco Sissinghurst

The ready rubbed Virginia flake is tangy dark fruit sweet with a drop of sugar, and a fair dollop of earth, wood and bread as the lead component. The bright Virginia offers tart and tangy citrus with grass and hay notes in a support role. The brown Kentucky is smoky, woody, earthy, herbal and spicy sweet as a potent back up player. 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. I think there’s a light fruit topping or casing, too. Well balanced, you’ll taste the complexity of creamy flavors in every puff all the way through. Burns clean, smooth, and cool at an reasonable rate with a fairly consistent sweet, spicy, floral flavor. Requires very few relights. Leaves just a trace of moisture in the bowl, and won’t bite. The strength and nic-hit are mild, while the taste is medium. An aromatic that works well without being boring for a pleasing all day experience as well as a dessert smoke. Has a delicious after taste and sweet room note.

-JimInks

This is a Virginia flake with some Kentucky influence . It resembles and smokes like other GU offerings such as Sunset and Haymaker but with one huge difference : this is clearly an aromatic .A rather noticeable floral scent has been added which makes it a whole different story . True enough , the excellent quality Virginias come through but the floral scent overpowers them . It must be noted that I am not an aromatic smoker . I reviewed this one because I wanted to see if HU made superior aromatics in line with all og it's other great tobaccos . It does . I gave samples to a few friends who smoke aromatics and they were impressed . I will not smoke this tobacco in the spring time for fear of being attacked by bees . If you are an aromatic smoker this is clearly excellent .

This is one of my favorite blends in the HU line up. It's very similar in style to the old fashion scented tobaccos like St. Bruno and Condor. It doesn't taste like either of those and stands out on it's own merits but I'm starting to like HU's scented blends even better than GH&Co's blends and that's saying a lot because I adore several of their blends. This one has a great base of excellent, flavorful Virginia's with slightly woody/smokey Kentucky Dark Fired. It's topped with a very complex sauce of stewed fruit and bright florals with a touch of sweetness that I perceive as honey. It's sweet and sour, bright and dark, the highs balance out the lows and altogether it's an absolute masterpiece in my opinion. This is full in body and flavor, medium in nicotine and it makes for a perfect all day smoke. If you like the classic British scented tobacco blends you owe it to yourself to try this one out. HU tobaccos are well known for their non-aromatic natural blends but Hans is proving himself as a master blender on every level within every genre. This will ghost a pipe so try it out in a cob before you try it in a briar. If it turns out you like it, I think you'll find it worthy to dedicate a briar to this blend. The moisture level is perfect straight out of the tin, just pop the lid and load on up. This stuff is brilliant and made my list of essentials.

Irish somehow...

The tobacco tastes like a bunch of flowers but in a nice way. It's like a sweet women's perfume. The sweet flower taste is never overwhelming. The natural tobaccos are allways there and the main actor.

Tin note: Great floral smell, with some fruity notes and a bit of vanilla.

Room note: Amazing! Like all.day.smoker beautifully said, “it's like a sweet women's perfume.”

Presentation: A combination of ribbons and ready rubbed (I found some which look like they were part of a crumble cake), yellow and brown with only a bit of dark leaves.

At first, there’s not much taste/flavor, and needs some relights (after the third match, I went for my Bic) but once it’s properly lit, it smokes quite well. Delivers a smooth smoke, there’s the sweetness of virginia and a bit of woodiness and spiciness from the kentucky (I can’t feel the smoky characteristics in this one) and just a biiiit of floral essences, almond and vanilla. This is great because many tobaccos are presented as tasting like almonds or like this or that but they don’t really taste the way they are presented. This one really does have notes of floral essences, almond and vanilla. They are subtle and they play well with the natural flavors of the tobaccos.

It’s mild yet complex. It’s a blend that needs some attention in order to catch its treasures. It can be an all day smoke, but it can also be for a lazy afternoon, when you’re sitting alone contemplating in silence. Goes well with some citrus based cocktail, like an Amaretto Sour.

I’m not an aromatic fan, but this is quite nice. 3.5 stars from me. 🙂

Overall a very good tobacoo. The only complain I have is that, in my opinion, it changes the nose from opening to jarring a few months down the line. When firstly opened one can get the smell of a sweet, citrusy, almost honey like Virginia, with a slight note of vinegar. As time passes by, when I open the jar I get hit by this vinegary sweet smell, almost yeasty. The smoke itself, no comment there. The broken flake is brown, earthy looking, with a sweet taste of citrus, sweetness, a tad grassy ... and if I didn't know any better a flowery casing makes its presence felt, somewhat of a very distant reminder of a Lakeland. Like I said, there is little complain on the smoking department. Complex, but not overwhelming, no tongue bite - in spite of the sweetness, nicotine friendly ... I guess it could be an every day smoke if you can get over that vinegary smell. 3.5 just because of that, otherwise a 4 star without question.