W.O. Larsen Larsen's Choice

Larsen's Choice is an atypical Danish tobacco and if it was still in production, I would smoke it regularly. Admittedly, the tins I have smoked were 20 or so years old, so, the aging process enhanced the presentation greatly. Smooth and rich Virginia with a lot of bottom combined with a velvety touch of Latakia and expertly applied Perique to present a wonderful smoke, enhanced by a wee bit of whiskey. A very cool smoke that never bit and always pleased.

Long and hard "short flakes" - kind of flakelets, I suppose. Very hard and very dry and a beautiful dark brown. This is a blend I used to enjoy 25 years ago and apparently which fell out of favor with Larsen's. Very much too bad. I found a tin for sale for a ridiculously low price (thanks to the lack of reviews here, I imagine) and I jumped on it. Oh, and by the way, if you find any, there's no latakia or perique in this mix. Just a lot of Virginia, a bit of burley, and a bit of Cavendish. As this also came in a different tin than the one pictured (mine was the one pictured), I'm guessing this was 20-25 years old, as the tins used to be darker blue.

This was definitely an aromatic pipe tobacco. However, there was no excessive juice or PG and the tobacco flavor shone through with every puff. Yet, the scotch flavoring was in every puff as well - a natural rather than artificial taste. But it was the Virginia that stole the show. It was sweet, full, robust and rich, with a darker, Gawith FVF demeanor. The burley was light in the mix, or else the Virginia just became more prominent with age and drowned out the burley. But there was an air of rawness and earth underneath the Virginia and Cavendish sweetness. This had an inkling of a Mac Baren roll cake but with much more flavor, not to mention easier to smoke. Makes me wonder what happens to, say, Dark Twist, with a couple of dozen years of age. At any rate, the flavor of this was absolutely incredible - mouthfillingly full and rich. The flavoring was lightly applied but well integrated. In short, it was everything an aromatic should be IMHO and nothing it should not be. I wish they still made this. If I find any more, I'm going to scoop it up if I can. Hopefully nobody reads my reviews! 🙂