Folks have already pointed out the great price point for this bulk blend and they are right. You can buy a pound of it, put some back and smoke the rest. Unlike the supple pressed tobaccos from G&H, 2020 is rougher and a bit more challenging to prepare for the pack. A mild inconvenience in the scheme of things.

I recommend this blend.

Since my initial review, I have probably gone through another three pounds of 2020 and it's a consistent performer. I love the tangy virginias with the oriental kicker. It is still highly recommended.

Aroma: Definitely an English/Oriental blend. Background of matured Virginia, with spicy notes of Oriental, and the smokey/sweet aroma of Cyprian Latakia.

Packing: Pack easily into medium and large pipes. Haven?t tried it I smaller bowls, but it should be no problem if well rubbed out . Like any bulk flake, the flakes WILL be broken when you get it, so don?t count on a fold and roll method. For a long. Slow smoke, take a clump of pieces and make your own mini- roll. Works fine.

Lighting: Lights with relative ease, depending upon how rubbed out you like it.

Initial flavor: Taste is similar to Penzance at first puff, only not as intense. However, Penzance increases in flavor, while this settles down into a medium value. All the components register on the palate, with the Virginia and Latakia being the key players. Nice balance and layering of tastes.

Mid-bowl: Continues to show good manners, not at all boisterous. The layers of taste keep it from being monochromatic in flavor. Burns well for a flake, and no gurgle.

Finish: A few relights at the end, a bit of harshness at the very end, but nothing unexpected. Leaves a gray ash coating in a dry pipe.

Summary: Quite a surprise, as I usually prefer McC Virginias to their Orientals. A good choice for the middle of the day or for the evening. Also a good choice for outdoor smoking.

I was recently sent a sample of #2020 with a tobacco order. It is rough on the palate, bitey on the tongue, and underwhelming in its entire presentation. Just not much flavor here. With so many quality Virginia/Oriental offerings on the market today, life is too short to be puffing on this stuff.

Rich, nutty and somewhat earthy in taste. The oriental really comes out big in this blend.

Unlike the above/prior reveiws, I preferred the 2nd half better. The top caught me by surpise with a tangy/sour beginning. By mid bowl and beyond, the tang and sourness subsides and the earthy, nutty and richness slowly takes over.

Nice and unique change of pace.

Physical Charististics: uniformly dark, and a rather mixed cut. Packs easily, due to the mixture of sizes in the cut.

First Light: Lights easily, and burns nicely. No trouble keeping this lit.

Notes: There seems to be very little latakia here, mostly orientals and virginias. However, the latakia that is present lends too much sour taste, and not enough smokiness for my taste. The sourness at least could probably be remedied with cellaring for a few years. As the bowl moves on, the sour/sweet interplay becomes more interesting, and the overall taste begins to develop somewhere inbetween the two extremes.

Appearance: The tobacco is composed of broken flakes of fair thickness, probably 60% dark brown and black, 30% medium brown and 10% orange and yellow.

Packing and Lighting: I've rubbed it out slightly but left in a considerable number of big chunks to slow the burn. I not packing too tightly because I'm smoking it in a Ser Jacopo Maxima pencil shank stacked billiard; I find deep pipes to smoke better for me this way. It lights well and easily so long as I take the time to allow the tobacco to warm up and dry as I puff slowly.

The initial smoke is slightly sour and sharp but this quickly gives way to a nice burst of Latakia flavor underlaid by some caramelly VA notes. It's still got a slightly sour, acidic note to it which makes for an interesting combination of flavors. It'll be better when everything integrates a bit more, and would probably be quite pleasant with a few years on it.

Exposition: OK, five minutes or so have passed; now that things have settled down a tad and the flavors have melded a bit I can pay more attention to the melange rather than the earlier competing flavors. The smokiness has subsided to a nice level just beneath the caramel sweetness and the acidity has dropped off to the point that it serves as a sidekick to the other two dominant tobacco flavors. This is nice! It's complex enough to keep my interest but not something that I feel compelled to smoke in a quiet, dimly-lit room to minimize distractions.

The Story: I hate to sound repetitious, so I'll just say that the flavors have remained completely steady through the whole middle of the bowl. This is one of the steadiest tobaccos I've ever smoked; this is both a pro and a con. I like some change during the bowl to keep my interest, but I don't necessarily like to feel like I've loaded a different tobacco in the bottom 1/4. This is good, but definitely not a "treat" tobacco. Rather, it's good for smoking while working or listening to music - good enough to satisfy but not distracting. One really enjoyable aspect is the room aroma: the smokiness and the sweetness are VERY well balanced and leave a wonderful smell in the air and on my clothes and hair.

Denouement: The tail end of the bowl has turned just a bit sour and "swampy", but that might be either me smoking a bit too fast or the effect of a tall, narrow bowl. Still, it wasn't unpleasant so much as it's a welcome diversion and an indication that the end is near. The bowl walls were left clean and while there was a tiny bit of dottle left, it was nothing like my aromatics used to leave.

The room aroma is very nice, and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. I have something similar on my tobacco shelf and I'm waiting to see if it's what I think it is.

Pros: Good clean burn, nice room aroma, simple but enjoyable flavor.

Cons: Had a tendency to bite a little, smoked a bit wet toward the bottom and wasn't as interesting as I would have liked re: flavor changes as the bowl progressed.

I also smoked this in a Parker 831 Canadian, sort of a Gr. 4 size with a more "normal" bowl geometry. The moisture problem (and thus the dottle) was solved by this, but otherwise the experience was nearly identical. Definitely good, but not overwhelmingly so.