BriarWorks International Country Lawyer

Tried this stuff for the first time today. Now.... perhaps....... I am a little biased because I am actually a lawyer- but this stuff is GREAT. Very strange cut when you open the jar (love that it already comes jarred) but that weird feeling quickly passes. Right off the light- a sweet taste of what you love of the cigar wrapper. This settles in, but always remains. There is a constant sweet and smoky flavor that comes through, all the way to the bottom of the bowl. The flavor stays with you for quite some time, which is something I also love about cigars. This tobacco may require a bit of drying, but it burns smoothly and evenly. I was prepared to not like this blend for sure, just seemed kind of kitschy to me. I was dead wrong. I have every intention of loading up on this stuff and having it around. Get it.

The spicy, woody, earthy, floral, dry and sour Izmir is often the lead component, but it gets strong competition from the earthy, woody, herbal, leathery, musty, smoky, lightly sweet cigar leaf. Also in the mix for first place is the spicy, woody, earthy, floral, very nutty, dry, smoky dark fired Kentucky. There are times each varietal shows a little dominance. The grassy, citrusy, slightly dark fruity and woody Virginia ends up being mostly a condiment. The unsweetened black cavendish helps to tame rough edges, though this blend has a few of them nonetheless. The strength is medium, while the taste is a step or two past that mark. The nic-hit is closer to medium than it is to mild. Won’t bite. Burns fairly cool, and clean at slightly faster than a moderate pace. Has a deep, rich, filling, inconsistent, complex, nuanced, lightly sweet and very savory, floral flavor. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. Requires an average number of relights. The strong after taste and room note linger a little. Not an all day smoke, but some veteran smokers may consider it to be in that ball park. Three and a half stars, rounded down to three because of the taste fluctuations of the tobaccos. The wider burning surface of a pot or an author will help some with that problem.

-JimInks

A fairly stout and tasty blend. The core of this consists of the earthy, nutty, woody, and smoky notes of the DFK, Orientals and Cigar Leaf. Those are surrounded by notes of hay and dark fruit with a fair amount of sweetness and spice. A wide array of flavors and nuances. Burns a little quick, but stays cool enough. A lovely smoke.

Body is mostly medium, but pushes the upper limit. Taste is medium to full. No added flavorings. Near perfect burn.

Ive been enjoying cigar-leaf blends lately. This jar is from 2016 and has developed substantially from the first few smokes. The charring light has a rich syrupy note from the black cavendish but settles down. The musty/earthy cigar leaf is present in every puff but is complemented by the floral notes of the Izmir and woody notes of the Kentucky leaf. The Virginia is sweet and earthy. Originally I found the black cavendish out of balance in this blend but after some time in the mason jar it has evened out. It helps keep the smoke cool and adds a nice brown sugar sweetness. There's some spice to this blend with cinnamon and black pepper notes popping up now and then. Better room note than most cigar-leaf blends too. This blend really grew on me and now I'm constantly chasing that exotic cigar leaf flavor!

I'm an English/Balkan aficionado (EMP, Exotique, etc.) who also enjoys the occasional cigar and wanted to try something completely different. However, I guess I just wasn't prepared for something this far out of left field.

Upon opening the jar, one is greeted by a big, natural tobacco scent; something like equal parts Hershey's Syrup and barbecue sauce drizzled over a pouch of Red Man. It's fairly strong and perhaps overly sweet, but still pleasant. And... holy St. Francis, what a change is here! No latakia!

I've smoked a pipe for many years, yet I smoke only a few times per week. So when I do, I'm fully committed to the experience and want to get the most out of it. Unfortunately, I just can't say that I enjoyed this. To my palate the flavour is almost completely dominated by a flat, heavy, mushroom-like mustiness; earthy to the point of being muddy; organic -but in the way that molds and fungi are organic. This lends a decidedly "ancient" quality to it, as one might imagine tobaccos of the 17th or 18th centuries.

...Or, perhaps it just tastes like it spent the last 350 years in a dank cellar. It completely lacked that rich softness that I've become so desirous of as an english smoker and letting it waft through the sinuses produced a decidedly dirty impression rather than the creamy, incense-like ambrosia I've become accustomed to. In any case, as a lover of strong cigars, I didn't find it to be particularly cigar-like, save for its lingering aftertaste (which is certainly not my favourite aspect of cigar smoking anyway).

Let me stress that despite my less than glowing enthusiasm, Country Lawyer is not repugnant. But as an infrequent smoker, I just can't afford to waste time with smokes that I don't personally find outstanding. This could find use as a kind of bolt-from-the-blue palate cleanser for those looking for something really different. Some may even actually enjoy it. No doubt, I'll eventually smoke the rest of it and maybe it will even grow on me. At the very least, it won't bite you at all. Looks like it's back to latakia for me.

This is unfair on my part but I wanted to get this out there...as it is based on a single bowl...so call it an "initial impression" rather than a review. This blend falls into one of my favorite genres...what I call a Turkish melange. In other words a mix of base plus condimental tobaccos, in this case VA as the base plus Turkish (likely Izmir) and Cigar Leaf. It reminds me of several John Patton blends, notably Crossroads, Oriental Dusk & Darkhorse. The VA is there in ribbon and Flake so the burn is slowed (note: very long burn with a good volume of smoke) and the flavor notes of the Turkish and Cigar Leaf play back and forth. Delightful. Slight salty flavors, a iittle sharp as opposed to round. But yes, the Cigar notes were pretty much ever present. Comes dry and burns well. Although the flavors were evident I didn't feel this was a STRONG blend in that regard. I thought the N level was medium or a bit lower. Not a blend for everyone...but for me, gangbusters. No Latakia! Loved it. Very impressed with the tobaccos used, the jar & the balanced touch. Very nice.

BriarWorks International - Country Lawyer.

I find this to have a lot more flavour than I expect when the blend's classed as Cigar Leaf Based. The first third's ruled by the dark fired Kentucky, this part of a bowl's too potent for me; fire cured, acrid. But after the initial part the other flavours come through. The Cigar Leaf catches up the dark fired and equals it in weight. The Virginia and Orientals are lighter than the Kentucky and Cigar Leaf for the whole bowl, and the black Cavendish may as well be absent; in fact, my jar contained hardly any black. It burns to a pure white ash but can become warm and be a little fast.

Nicotine: quite strong. Room-note: I'm not a fan.

Country Lawyer? Although there's a lot of four star reviews it's not one I'd regularly pipe. Somewhat recommended:

Two stars.

Although I bought one of each of the Briarworks' blends when they came out, this one stood out the most because I am kind of a country lawyer myself. I live on the edge of suburbia, but do work out in the country. That, and I am a sucker for a blend with cigar leaf. Particularly when it is used well as this one is.

This is a nice smoking blend. Made by C&D it is right at the proper moisture content (surprisingly though due to jarring mishap, more on this later). It is a typical ribbon cut/almost shag and it takes a light nicely and will stay lit to the bottom with a little bit of concentration and attention.

I took a baggie of this with me on the road often as it is one you can easily smoke whilst socializing and not worry about it torching your mouth because you got carried away puffing while not paying attention. This one won't bite and it is not so stout as to impede enjoyment of multiple bowls back to back; however, it does have a decent amount of back bone, so the multiple bowls will likely need the accompaniment of some sugary beverage. This is not a problem with me since I typically socialize with a glass of bourbon in my hand. 🙂

Overall I liked this blend; however, it can get boring and one note and that maybe another reason I tended to enjoy it most when I was preoccupied. What complexity it does deliver comes mostly from the interplay of the oriental and Kentucky. It is funny, but the two of them together had me thinking this also had a small amount of latakia in it, alas, my taster failed me. It did not.

Now to the mishap at which I alluded earlier. I was excited at the idea that someone had finally decided to sell tobacco in the jars that we often end up storing tobacco in anyway. This certainly saves a few steps when storing, particularly, if you are one of those real anal types that opens all your tins and immediately jars the contents (I am not one of these people btw). I was not very happy though when I opened my jar of CL only to find, not one, but two strands of tobacco between the glass and rubber seal in two different spots. This is pretty piss-poor if you ask me. I guess that I was fortunate enough to have opened this soon enough as it was not a tight seal and likely would have led to problems in the future.

This is the first Briarwork's jar I have opened, so I don't know if this is a common occurrence or not. It will not keep me from giving this blend 4 stars as I would not have rated it that high anyway. It just doesn't have the wow factor. This one resides somewhere between two and three stars. I personally would rather smoke CD Purple Cow or GLP Robusto, but I will still up this to three stars. If the jarring thing appears on any more of my jars, I will drop it to two stars as I feel that a bad seal, considering the container they chose to use, is completely unacceptable.

Deep, rich, pure tobacco taste with a hefty nicotine punch. The powerful, spicy orientals are, to me, at the centre off this blend. It's like a camel on crack with some smokiness from the DFK. Naturally sweet from the VA, more earthy and bready than citrusy. The only downside this blend has can give you a rather unpleasant and dry aftertaste. If you're drinking something and puffing slowly it shouldn''t be a problem though. NOT an all-day smoke. Save this one for the evening or after a big meal with some drinks.

Taste remains full & varied throughout the bowl assuming you smoke slowly and don't relight an absurd number off times. Easier to spoil the taste that way than with most blends. If you burn it too hot it starts tasting way too much like a cigarette. Perfect moisture. Mostly burns evenly to gray dust but there's usually a few twigs in there (very few, doesn't ruin anything imo).

Highly recommended for fans off smokey and spicy blends. I have a theory that long time snus consumers like myself (or cigar smokers, but that goes without saying) will enjoy this more than most.

Presentation: I LOVE this packaging. It comes in a 57g (2oz) canning jar -- no need to jar this tobacco! The label is very antiquelike, but that only adds to the charm. It has a drawing of a cigar laying on a leaf.

Cut: Chunky ribbon cut, perfect moisture out of the jar.

Tin note: Smells smoky, chocolatey, and slightly fruity after smelling and thinking about it, but at first whiff I just smelled a cigar.

Tasting notes: Upon drawing it is smoky with just the slightest tinge of sweetness. The finish is earthy and woody. Very cigarlike and also very smooth. Although when I smoked this fresh about a year ago (and a few times in between then and now) I remember it having more sweetness (a fruity red virginia kind) than I am currently detecting.

Mechanics: Many smokes cause saliva when smoking, but this one dries out my mouth. Not a concern for me in the least though, I just have a water on hand while smoking.

Extra Remarks: A very good blend. If you want some cigar leaf in your pipe, this is absolutely a blend worth trying. For me, this a blend I enjoy every time I smoke it and it is a great "once in a while" blend to mix into the rotation. 3 stars.