D & R Tobacco Blenders Bench: Katerini

A bright and zesty oriental with a lovely mild earthiness, woodyness, sweetness, some citrus and a hint of pepper and floral notes. Very enjoyable to try alone, despite being a single strain blending component. Very light on the throat if inhaled/used in tubes and blending with Ramback, Ramback Balkan and Penhooker really gave one of my favourite cigarette blends (ever) an extra dimension.

The room aroma is more woody and earthy than some other oriental strains and blends - D&R's Ramback Turkish blend, for example, has a heavier and more musty room aroma and its flavour has a deeper earthiness with stewed fruit type notes.

I was very lucky to manage to get a tub of this excellent Greek tobacco. A thin ribbon cut and low moisture content, though not at all dry and these strains of Oriental leaf smoke better when not overly moistened.