Appearance and Tin Aroma: Beautiful medium cut ribbon. Lots of reds, browns, and black. It smells delicious! It reminds me of a delicious filet mignon cooking!

Packing and lighting: C&D blends are usually a bit dry, but this one was a little moist. Packs easily as the ribbons are not too long.

Initial Flavor: Delicious! This blend reminds me of Raven's wing sans the Syrian.

Mid-Bowl:A delicious fullness, every leaf can be tasted, there is a nice spicyness from the red VA.

Bottom of Bowl: It develops flavor strength in a quick crescendo and all that is left is a gery mottled ash. You immediately want to pack another bowl of this fine blend.

Overall: For a bulk blend, this is a good choice. It is on the fuller side of English blends with it bordering on being a Balkan blend. Nevertheless can be smoked all day without fatigue. It does taste very similar to Raven's Wing, but does not fatigue me like that blend can. Because of the quality of the leaf, I think this blend will lend itself to aging very well and now that it comes in 8 oz. tins will make it to my cellar.

While SOTE is not as profoundly smooth and creamy as Penzance, it has replaced Penzance as my favorite Latakia blend. Something no other Latakia blend has been able to do for the past five years. A winner and a solid 4 stars!

------- I tried this blend in a C+D sample pack based on the reviews above. Particularly the good Captain proclaiming that it could satisfy him in the absence of Raven's Wing...a high, high compliment.

Other reviewers have given this an excellent assessment. I will only note a few observations from my own experience.

I taste far less of a sweet note and far more musky/woodsy turkish and latakia. I don't find this bad but was hoping for something slightly more sweet. However I am aware that the C+D blends usually take a couple of months to really "plump up" in full taste range - particularly when dealing with freshly blended red VA. So I look forward to trying more of this down the road.

I will agree that this is an excellent blend - closer to the Balkan range than English in my opinion. Having tried several balkans I believe this to be one of the best to date - overtaking even the sasieni line and Carvan in excellence. There is simply much more robustness and a more even handling of flavors than in many of these blends. Where Odyssey is a thick, heady trip into an unknown land - Star of the East is an inviting visit to the courts, bazaars, docks and parlors of the near east. It is rich and deep yet not deadening to the taste buds. A smoke leaves you satisfied but not so blasted that you can't have another soon after and enjoy it.

So....order a pound, stow it away and enjoy.

At 50% Latakia, this is a full blend. Rich and smoky and full of flavor. The Latakia used is of a good quality. With the high content of Latakia, you might think that it would dominate the taste, but you would be wrong. The Oriental and even the Virginias play a major role in the flavor. The stoved red Va adds a dimension to the blend that makes it a very worthy smoke.

Need I say that the room note will not make friends of non-smokers? Star?s subtlety is in the form of the interplay of flavors as you smoke it. There was none used on the room note. Fans of English blends, however, will love it.

Star is a very good smoke in all respects. Clean burning, easy to maintain. Actually, it burns so well, there isn?t much maintenance to it.

If I couldn?t get Raven?s Wing, or Odyssey, I?d be happy with Star of the East.

Available only in bulk (to my knowledge), the tobacco is quite dark w/ occasional lighter flakes. The smokey, woodsy aroma of the Latakia is most noticeable. The ribbon-cut leaf looks, feels and smells of high quality.

Upon lighting, the unique character of this tobacco is immediately evident. There is loads of Latakia flavor, exquisitely balanced by the Virginia and Turkish leaf, but it is very... refined? Strong and full-bodied but not heavy, I don't know how else to describe it. The Virginia provides a wonderful but not overwhelming sweetness, and the Turkish adds a great aromatic quality to the smoke. I absolutely love the room note (the Mrs - not so much).

I was totally caught by surprise by this one. Since that first bowl, No. 66 has become one of my favorite English blends; my personal trinity, including GLP Renaissance and Jack's Moose Scat.

I wanted a LOT of that smoky, woodsy Latakia, and the sugar sweetness of a Virginia (I think Craig had just started stoving Red VA back then) and the mellow nuttiness of Turkish. I had bought several single tobaccos from Craig to experiment with and came up with this blend. So I gave the desired ratios of the 3 tobaccos to Craig and Star of the East was born.

I just opened a jar that I had cellared for 5 years and the tangy, almost fermented smell of the Red VA burst forth. The moisture was perfect and I couldn't wait to pack my Tinsky Big Boy. When I first got this pressed pound back in 1998 it was really fine, but 5 years of aging has really melded and deepened the flavors. I would rate this up there (maybe higher??) than my alltime favorite English blend - Esoterica Margate mixed half and half with Esoterica Penzance.