HU Tobacco Night Owl

The earthy, woody, very nutty burley also sports a little molasses and a fair amount of creamy cocoa as the lead component. The red Virginia provides a burst of tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, mild citrus, hints of vinegar and floralness along with a few blades of grass as an important supporting player. The perique offers earth, raisins, figs, plum, prunes, and dates, and is just above being a condiment. The woody, earthy, nutty, floral, herbal, slightly spicy and sour Kentucky is in the background. The strength and taste levels almost reach the medium threshold. The nic-hit is behind that mark by a razor’s edge. No chance of bite or harshness, but it does have a rough edge. Well balanced and complex, it burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a mostly consistent, deeply rich creamy sweet and spicy flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste and room note. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Despite its inherent strength, it can be an all day smoke for the veteran and easily repeatable for the less experienced.

-JimInks

HU recently came out with two new tobaccos , Dark Moor and Night Owl . The Dark Moor contains Virginia , Kentucky and perique . So does the Night Owl but with the addition of burley . Both blends look similar in the can and both have a similar tin note . One might theorize that HU simply took the Dark Moor base and added a decent portion of burley . Not to second a guess a great blender like Hans , but these blends are at least cousins , if not brothers . The Night Owl is a very burley forward blend with a nutty sweetness that is a real pleasure to smoke . Delivered with the right moisture content , this is a smooth smoke that will not bite . Night Owl delivers a burley sweetness that is present for the entire smoke . The Virginia , Kentucky and perique help to show case the burley . This is an excellent treatment of some very fine burley that brings out the natural taste of the tobacco . I had mine with some almond liqueur which seemed a fitting accompaniment .

Reminded by JimInks review, that I haven't reviewed this wonderful blend yet, here are my two cents:

I like the tin art, almost like it's printed on unbleached cardboard paper. The idea of the Night Owl appeals to me and I can't help but to make associations to Cornell & Diehls Haunted Bookshop, but we'll get to that later on.

A tin note of chocolate, cocoa and dark stewed fruits with some teasing spiciness underneath. This is your typical HU blend, if you loved blends like Makhuwa, Nashville County or Nyala this might very well be just as lovely to you - yet it has its distinct charme, setting it apart from the other three blends named.

Whilst Haunted Bookshop (HB) is "a lil rough round the egdes", just as any C&D burley blend (and the very reason I love those blends) the Night Owl strives through the night much more elegant, with more sweetness to it, maybe a little more casing (which I'd think is some sort of chocolaty and/or fruity one, yet it is - as usual with Hans' blends - very light handedly and skillfully applied, or rather melted with the rest of the components) but with plenty of tobacco goodness to be found.

A Virginia/Burley based blend, seasoned with Perique und Kentucky and both applied in just the right amounts. The Perique stands out a tad more to me, whilst the Kentucky is just a smoky-woodsy whiff of extra-spice to round things off.

Maybe I'm led to think so due to the name, but to me this indeed is the perfect blend for night owls... I like smoking it at late night, the tin art, dimmed light, the rich aroma, the medium+ strength.... just an honest, good smoke!

Dark, earthy, nutty, savory, rich smoke. This to me is the epitome of what I would call a "stout/hearty smoke". Noticeably high quality tobacco and enjoyable taste, smell and tin note. My point of critique is that to me it's often too strong - not in terms of nicotine content but in taste. I can barely finish even a small bowl because it's just too overbearing, even on the coldest of days. I would compare it to only eating the outside of a brisket. It just gets too much with time. The taste profile definitely reminds me of rich, well-seasoned, tasty gravy, though. But if that's what you look for, this blend will blow your mind and satisfy your desires. Great burn qualities, smokes clean and dry.

I prefer the very similar but better behaved, more balanced and more agreeable HU Nyala.

Oh MAN. What gorgeous tobacco. So far HU’s blends that include DFK have all been astounding to me. Somehow the delicate, fruity flavors of Dark Fired are brought out in these blends and Night Ow is no different.

The tin note is ripe fruit and stewed fruit sweetness with a touch of cocoa from the burley.

The smoke is sweet, flavorful, Virginia and Dark Fired that just work so well together. A sight tang to offset the sweetness and a substantial amount of oomph and body to balance everything out. This is how Dark Fired should taste.

This is a real winner.

This tobacco was released as an autumn tobacco, but I was able to smoke it throughout the whole year. I was even able to smoke it on hot summer days. The tin note is tangy dried fruits, chocolate and overall a bit sweet but at the same time spicy. After the first few puffs, I thought that there is a good portion of perique added. I taste a lot of dried fruits like raisins, figs and plums. There is throughout the whole pipe this typical pepper spiciness of perique as well. The next obvious tobacco is the very expressive Burley in this blend. You can taste very distinctly nuts and chocolate. Moreover, there is a sweetness but the Virginias probably add their mark as well to that. The Virginias add some earth, gras and sometimes some citrus fruits. The Kentucky is just a condiment and shows up from time to time with woody taste and a faint smokiness. As a lover of bolder tobaccos, this one could be an all day smoke. Overall, a quite smooth tobacco with just enough rough edges to keep me interested.

Night Owl is a unique blending that doesn't fall into any traditional category. As expected from HU, this blend is impeccably balanced, no component overpowers the others. The husky Burleys lead the charge giving a wallop of nutty and woody flavours that hit the tastebuds with force, then immediately tamed by the caramel sweetness of the Red Virginias, which assist the cocoa notes from the burley in making their appearance. Just when you think that was all this blend has to offer, you are introduced to stewed plums and a little pepper spice from the Perique. The Kentucky is more apparent on the aftertaste leaving a pleasant smokiness on the tastebuds, which settles nicely with the cocoa notes from the Burley. A retrohale will give you the Burley and Perique at full force. Nicotine sits at a comfortable medium and the room note is surprisingly pleasant for such a brawny blend. This blend really does swoop down like an owl in the night, unexpectedly it bears the gift of HU tobacco in its talons. 4/4 — a gem of a blend.

This is my last of 6 samples that were mailed to me from a friend. I found this to have a slight odd but pleasantly mild chocolate tin note. Not sure if it is a casing or just the natural tobacco. This took to a match quite quickly and about a third way down was kind of a sweet smoke. This settled down to a medium taste and honestly cannot tell which blend is the lead component, I will leave that to the experts. The taste is interesting and not sure why the blend type is listed as other as I would classify this as a Burley/Virginia blend if I were to guess. The tobacco itself looks to me as a shredded flake (Ready Rubbed) as described with a few cuts a little wider and thicker than the rest. A good blend, I had mine with coffee sans the beer and enjoyed all four bowls in rapid succession.