Sutliff Tobacco Company Fox & Hound

I was given a 2 pound bag of this a few years ago from a customer who used to own a tobacco store. I dumped a bunch in an old carter hall tub and have picked at it from time to time just finishing the same recently. I have no clue of the age of this, but he had told me it was sitting in a storage bin for about 8 or 9 years at the time. The storage was in the bag and wrapped tight with a metal wire twisted around the top. The point being, that storage was less than ideal, so this may have influenced my impressions on this one.

my first thought on this is that the moisture level is perfect. I know we have high humidity in Michigan, but all the amount of time this was left in a bag would leave me the expectation that this would be crunchy, but it was not. To me this says there must be a good amount of PG or some humectant in this blend. I don't necessarily taste a chemical taste per se, but I would agree with Jiminks that there is some topping to this one that I too found it to be fruity, maybe plum or grape. Natural leaf is not capable of attaining this sweetness on its own, so I would say the description is off.

One factor of age and storage is that I would also expect the lat to mellow and fall flat. Indeed, that was my experience. I believe a fresh batch would have a much more robust latakia taste. This may or may not be a good thing based on my tastes. I doubt I will ever know, since my two pound bag minus the generous samples I have given away is still more than I care to have in my cellar.

This blend is not bad by any means. It is an easy smoking blend that is very much like the many revelation knockoffs out there. That is to say it has that American English OTC feel to it. The fact that it has many leaf varieties does offer some different flavor profiles, but the topping, although, lightly applied is there the whole time. The burley seems to be the most pervasive flavor as there is also nuttiness that is there the whole time as well. The perique is detectable, but is applied sparingly. There is not a whole lot of smokiness, but I think this is due to the age of my supply.

On the plus side, it packs, burns and overall performs well and does not bite at all. I don't think it is bad, but I would never actually pay for any. The problem being that there are too many better alternatives out there. For my tastes, I would rather smoke C&D's Epiphany. This is also available in bulk and offers a similar flavor profile that is just more robust.

I found fox & Hound to be a very mild blend. The type of blend that when you finish a bowl, your first thought is what should I smoke next. To me, it just does not satisfy. It is probably best for mindless chores where you really don't want to think about what you are smoking and the cadence you are keeping. When you want to stay active and not be floored by nicotine.

I, personally, like a bit of body behind my smokes and that is where an epiphany, or one of the other many that C&D offers in this genres, fits the bill. So two stars for this decent blend.