Sutliff Tobacco Company Crumble Kake Red Virginia

Sutliff Crumble Kake Red VA falls well short of greatness. My take seems quite different from the current reviews so take it for what it is worth. The tin smells of vinegar and nothing else, it is over powering. When I first started really getting into VA's I haunted forums trying to understand as much about them as I could. Those that were interested in home curing their own tobacco all seemed to agree that properly aged VA's have a vinegar/Ketchup/silage aroma to them but it really does not translate into the smoke all that much if at all. McCelland did that and it did not translate into the smoke for me. Other blends use vinegar to treat tobacco (think St. Bruno Flake for example) and I get a note or two occasionally in the smoke but not much. This, however, was vinegar throughout the entire bowl. It's like they have tried to use vinegar to cover up the fact that the reds are not as mature at they claim. The tobacco flavors when able to come through beneath the vinegar are very earthy and vegetative. I cannot find any dark fruit notes that I associate with red VA's probably because I mainly get vinegar. Since others find this so appealing I will leave it as the somewhat recommended mark and avoid the rare not recommended rating but to sum up this blend in one word it would be vinegar. In fact after making in through 1/2 of bowl (and this happens with every bowl I have smoked), taking a sip of coffee the coffee tasted like I had just cleaned the coffee maker with a vinegar solution and should have ran another pot of water through it before brewing the pot.

To compare this with the other 2 red VA's I have smoked since October of this year I like this one the least and it cost the most. I would rather smoke C&D's red VA than this one and far prefer Sutliff's Matured red VA 515 RC-1 to both.

Tin note; Fig Newton, rye bread, red vinegar, pink eraser, Play-Doh

A dark red cake with visible sugar crystallization. Breaks up into fine flake with considerable moisture.

Bowl lit with some difficulty due to moisture content. Char light and early smoke is pure Lipton sweet tea and then develops into a pleasant smoke with stewed fig, dry hay and an unusual Play-Doh note. Minimal tongue bite when smoked aggressively. Above average number of relights due to moisture.

Mid bowl retains some tin notes with a bit of cigarette smoke and a little pipe gurgle. Room note is non aromatic, sweet smoke. Nicotine is on the high side of medium.

Found this enjoyable but, challenging to smoke and hard to keep lit. Will likely dry this for an hour next time before packing and try a different pipe. A talented player, maybe on the roster, but currently not a starter.