Charatan Virginia Three Year Matured

I'll preface this review by noting that this is the only one of the Charatans Dunhill tributes that I did not smoke the original of. I'm rather wishing I had now: this is a tobacco that on first impressions when opening the tin, I didn't expect to enjoy quite as much as I have, but it turns out its rather good! It has a distinct, berry topping, but the underlying Virginia tobacco is of good quality and offers enough flavour that the overall taste is derived from a combination both the tobacco and its topping. Its been a real change of pace for me and I've quite enjoyed it!

Tin aroma: blueberry muffin! Berry aroma, sweet, bready and very slightly yeasty. The moisture content is at the upper end of OK, I didn't bother trying to dry it out but the last of the tin was a bit drier and smoked a bit better.

The flavour straight from the match is sweet and bready. As it progresses the taste of yeasty freshly baked goods increases. The berry topping only really joins the flavour around halfway through the bowl, starting out fresh, then becoming more of a cooked flavour like a blueberry muffin. It becomes quite strong towards the end of the bowl, and there is a noticeable dose of nicotine.

In its moist condition from the freshly opened tin it seemed to need some help to stay lit, with more relights than usual. The dottle got very wet in a Falcon, but wasn't too bad in an old meer. It has a very slight tendency to bite.

Overall I think it's similar to Peterson University Flake in its berry topping, but I think this is a much better smoke: more flavour, and more contribution from the tobacco itself. University Flake was like smoking steam to me, this is much more satisfactory.