Tsuge Premium Pipe Tobacco Fujin - The Wind God

Opened a new tin today at lunch. Smell on opening is very mild. Packs with 3 pinch. Lights slow but burns once lit. Smoke is heavy and you can taste the burley. Middle of the road smoke that is nothing to write home about. Strongly feel that they have tried very hard to make an all day smoke with this. I like the smell and taste. Will be in and out of my rotation as long as it is on sale. Purchase price of tin is 4.99

The spicy, woody, earthy, dry, dark fired Kentucky is the main component. The mildly spicy, woody, floral, earthy, herbal Orientals are supporting players. The grassy, citrusy Virginias are condiments in terms of effect. The smoky, woody, musty sweet Cyprian Latakia under scores most every puff in the background. The spice from the perique melds with that of the Orientals, leaving mostly plum and raisins as noticeable aspects that waft in and out of the mix. The strength is medium, while the taste is just short of the center of medium to full. The nic-hit is almost as potent as the strength level. Won’t bite, but this blend has enough spice that I recommend a slow puffing cadence. Burns fairly cool and very clean at a reasonable pace with a mildly inconsistent, moderately sweet, more savory spicy flavor that translates to the lingering after taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Not an all day smoke, and I suggest a small to medium size bowl for this one.

-JimInks

This is a pretty nice smoke. Mostly Kentucky and Perique providing a smoky earthiness and a plum spice respectively. Can only taste the Lat on occasion. It mostly just adds to the smokiness of the DFK. The Virginia adds a nice sweetness, but little flavor. The Burley adds a little background nuttiness. Has enough strength to satisfy. Good stuff.

Medium in body. No added flavoring detected. Medium to full in taste. Burns very well.

Put me in the Good Rev. Rizzo's camp. This extraordinarily good stuff. It delivers what I consider to be the Mark Ryan flavor profile found in Picayune and Cockstrong: Smooth and full-flavored in the mouth, mellow on the tongue but spicy in the nose, a tingle developing into a zing. This is an English style mixture which enhances the spicy essence with the smokiness of latakia. It also has that D&R piquancy due to the combination of perique and Kentucky. But the quality of the sweet Virginia has to be the main component here. This would be for me a unique English latakia mixture if it were not for Ryujin which is somewhat similar. The room note to me resembles the smell of incense. I have no idea how this could improve with age. I smoked fresh from the tin on delivery. I am impressed.

Dry plum smell out of the tin reminiscent of Nightcap. Amazingly beautiful various cut styles of the baccy itself looking like an artwork. Smokes ok out of the tin, but is a little too moist and will really open up and grow on you after some time in the jar and some venting, otherwise 1/3 of the bowl you might just be working through the steam. Taste profile is somewhat similar to Nightcap with the tangy dominating, however, Fujin provides a much more complex and satiating smoke, where every element surfaces as you work through the bowl - you get tangy per, smokey la, some sweet but not too much from va and a bit of zest from kentucky. It doesn't bite, it's not peppery. Top shelf stuff that grows better with even just a month in a jar. I have to stress again - this is an orchestra kind of English. Burns clean, no dottle, a fine and original take on the genre. Nic is solid mid.

Absolutely the finest looking leaf presentation I've ever seen, I obtained a sample at the Chicagoland Pipe Show. Holy smokes, a total knock out. The Virginia is amazing in this. Remarkably sweet and highly recommended.

This may be the best of the Tsuge god series. It's a pretty decent blend! Got a lot of different flavors going on, and I think with some age it will just get better. The latakia sort of takes the backseat to the orientals, just like I like it. It peeks its head forward now and again, but for the majority of the smoke I get predominantly orientals. Smooth, spicy, tangy orientals, with just a tad of sweetness off the Virginia's. The perique is noticeable intermittently bit mostly just serves to beef up the low end. The blend is faintly similar to black house with a more orientals forward design. Although technically a ribbon cut, there are some big chunks of leaf in there. I like that, shows you what you're working with. My tin needed a little dry time due to some dampness in the perique. It smokes well with no harshness or bite. I'd recommend trying this one. Out of the god blends it's probably the only one I'll add to steady rotation.

Tsuge Premium Pipe Tobacco - Fujin - The Wind God.

I'm not particularly taken with this, from opening the tin to ditching the ash I'm not impressed.

The initial disappointment was the lack of tin seal. There was no hiss when I levered the lid open, and I was met by a dry blend. The ribbons are fairly coarse, but as well as course ribbons it includes some twigs.

The main taste from the smoke is strong Kentucky: bitter, smoky, acrid. The Latakia? Where is it? I get some flavour from the Perique, about a third of the way in, and to be fair, this improves the character, a smidgen. The Burley and Virginia are also right down the scale. giving very little. I find the burn appalling: too hot and too quick.

Nicotine: medium to strong. Room-note: not it's worst point!

Fujin? I won't re-order and the rest of the tin's going in the bin. Not recommended:

One star.