Gallaher Limited Special Virginia Rubbed Out

I haven't smoked this for many years, it was still very much Mellow Virginia then. Back then it had a very distinctive room note, very sweet and reminiscent of caramel. If anyone was smoking this within a few yards of you there was no mistaking exactly which blend they had fired up. I quite enjoyed it back then until I developed a taste for Condor. These days it's still Condor as first choice for me although I like to try many different blends but I keep coming back to the darker. "meatier" blends. Today, on a whim, I thought I'd try something completely different and picked up a pouch of Special Virginia. Packed it using the Frank method and couldn't get any sort of ignition going at all, much too tight. Emptied it out and tried again with a fresh batch taking care to pack it as lightly as I could and Bingo! At first I thought it tasted the same as all those years ago but the room note wasn't just as sweet and appealing but after a few minutes I got it back, exactly the aroma I remembered from decades ago. It's a very good and very distinctive tobacco and a welcome and flavorful break from the darker Lakeland blends. There may be better tobaccos out there but there are a lot more which are worse. For my taste, it will never beat the Lakeland blends but it offers a great contrast if you ever want to mix up the rotation a bit. I'll be buying another pouch when this one is done.