Grand Croupier Double Down

The burleys lead with a nutty, molasses flavor along with a touch of cocoa and earth. The Virginias are citrus, grass, hay, and a hint of earth and wood as a strong second lead. Has a mild nic-hit. The cut is irregular with a few stems, ribbon, small flake and coarse cut, but it burns at a slow to moderate pace, cool, clean and smooth with few relights. Leaves little moisture in the bowl and easily burns to ash. Won't bite. As noted, the blend changes periodically, so there's no telling what you will get from batch to batch, though I figure my basic observations would hold in different proportions, unless they change the kinds of varietals. An easy all day smoke, though this batch hasn't much depth of flavor or body. I give this three stars for effort, idea and price point, though this particular batch is two stars. Reminds me a little of a tamer Smoker's Pride Rich Taste.

-JimInks

This one is a challenge to review because by its nature it changes depending on when you buy it. Here are some comments about the one I am smoking. It is a very irregular cut with a few hunks of torn large bits a half inch wide and a stick or two. It is slightly sweeter than Pegasus and is a very good smoke. It seems to be fairly slow burning and the earthy burley shines.

The pouch smells as if it "might" have some orientals in there, but I can't taste them. I taste a little cigar leaf from time to time, but this might be my imagination.

I realize it will vary from batch to batch, but I like this one. At the price it is a steal if you like VaBurs.

9/19/17 Latest batch has a lot of burgundy colored tobacco that must be red Virginia, also detect a tinge dark fired and the burly / perique, as always, are present.

1/25/17 More bright Virginia in this latest batch and of course the Burly is top notch. Still a real good smoke. After purchasing 4 or 5 pounds of DD I have never had a bad batch. OH, and thankfully, I've never found any black cavendish.

6/22/16. This is my third 1lb order of DD. It seems to be pretty darned consistent. This last batch has some small chunks of recognizable C&D blends. Some Briar Fox for sure. Some Pease Jack Knife and some small chunks of Night Train. I hope this hodge podge never runs out because I would go broke trying to reproduce it!

Grand Croupier - Double Down.

Because each batch can vary I suppose this review may be redundant in a few months! Ahh well, here's what I think:

My pouch of Double Down has an aroma that's customary for a VaBur, and the moisture's good; this may partly be because I've had it for a few months. The bag contains lots of ribbons, but there's also a few clumps and a fairly high proportion of recognizable flake pieces; some of these still need a bit of a rub, for my preference.

My first comment's rather generic, I guess: quality. The smoke is clearly of a high quality. Where the actual flavour's concerned the Burley leads: rich, nutty, and slightly chocolaty. The Virginia's liable for far less flavour, I'd say about 25-30%. Again, tastes superior to other blends of this price, but doesn't begin to shine until a quarter of the way in; it's still easily second to the Burley, but adds more character to the smoke. The burn from D.D. is good: few re-lights, a medium speed, and I get no tongue bite from it.

The room-note's nice, and it's ameliorated by the weight of the actual smoke: light. And finally, I find the nicotine medium.

This batch is a four star one, I only hope other people get one as good!

Highly recommended.

This is a fun blend. I bought four ounces for "Poops and Giggles" a few years ago and finally got around to trying some. Overall, I enjoyed my time with it, but I can't, in good conscience, give it more than a 2 star rating as it is most assuredly going to be a different blend for each customer who gets it.

It is also for that very same reason that this blend is so damn fun. Each bowl you have will give you a different vabur experience. Sometimes you get this nutty four star experience and sometimes you get a flat bland cardboard tasting blend. The cut is all over the place and you will find some large chunks that need to be rubbed out, or not. It is up to you and how much fun you want to have.

There are some other obvious reasons why this blend could easily rate at three stars for someone. A. It is cheap. B. It would make a great blender. I never actually used it to blend, but, in my experience, VaBurs in general, blend well with anything.

So, buy some of this, particularly if you like Virginia and Burley, and see if you have as much fun with it as I did.

It is pointless to review this tobacco as it is the spin of the wheel, just like it says in the description, what determines the ratios and different components comprising your blend. Mine came in the post the other day and it contains long strips of broken flake and a mixture of ribbon cut tobacco in different lengths and sizes. I detect a topping of some sort, so I am not very happy about that, but the blend is smokable. This blend comes straight out of the master blenders Frankenstein's tobacco jar, and pretty much this is what you gonna get as "Grand Croupier." I am rating it with 2 stars because if it is a spin of the wheel that determines what you will get, a spin of the wheel should also determine how many stars this blend is going to get.

I won't go into the fine details of flavour etc because your batch will probably be a bit different. But probably not much. If I was told I could only smoke one blend for the rest of my life it would probably be Double Down - I don't usually rate so ... highly. I almost feel I want to chew the smoke and swallow it down, it's that good. Very interesting, lots of fun, seems relatively available and the price is so low. If you are looking for a blend with consistency then it would be worth finding a different blend. However, if you are looking for an all time any time blend that fits almost any occasion, then you should definitely try this.

There's no point in giving a detailed analysis of this blend as no two batches are alike. There is no recipe because it's all just scraps thrown together. But at $20 a pound, you aren't likely to be dissatisfied. If you enjoy American Virginia and Burley blends, you'll enjoy this. I've never had a bad batch of Grand Croupier blends.