Hearth & Home International Pipe Smoking Day 2011

The smoky, woody, earthy, musty, leathery, sweet Cyprian Latakia is the main component. The smoky, woody, earthy, floral, very spicy, dry, sour Orientals take the second slot, and provides some competition for the Latakia. The matured Virginias offer some tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, a very light tart citrus, and a few blades of grass. The strength is just past the center of medium to full, while the taste level is full. The nic-hit is a step past the medium mark. It won’t get harsh, but the high spice content may stomp on the tongue of a fast puffer, so there is bite potential. This blend necessitates a slow smoking cadence. Burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a deeply rich, very consistent, mildly sweet and sour savory, spicy flavor from start to finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. The after taste matches the experience, and lasts a while. The room note is pungent. Not an all day smoke. I deducted a star because of the bite potential. Three stars for the flavor, though.

-JimInks

This blend was not what I really expected. I bought this tin off a friend who was consolidating his cellar a few years ago. As the tin was going on 9 years and contained latakia, I figured it was ripe to be smoked.

Upon popping the bulging tin (it was clearly blended by C&D for H&H) it looked very C&D-like in both cut and moisture level. The tin note was of mild spice and of latakia on the decline. It is hard to explain the smell or taste of latakia when it starts to go flat, it just seems to soften and lose its edginess. To my tastes, it often improves blends as I find I am becoming less and less fond of latakia.

This review makes many assumptions on what this blend was like when it was fresh; unfortunately, it is something that will not be known unless more information comes to light. As it stands, it has just been added to the TR database, so anyone who does review this either just smoked it or is going from a very old memory of smoking it fresh. I am curious, however, if like the 2012 IPSD blend, this also later re-emerged as a regular blend for H&H.

I imagine that this had more latakia and oriental punch to it when it was fresh based on my experience with other aged latakia blends. The oriental component also seems to be very mild to my tastes, but the Virginia has certainly benefitted from the age as it tastes, to me, sweeter than normal for C&D virginias of that time. This could also be indicative of a topping of some sort which would not surprise me. The sweetness of the Virginia, combined with what is left of the oriental and latakia almost gives this a feel of an American English blend to my tastes.

I found it to be a very pleasant, albeit, mild blend. I also felt this could easily be smoked all day. In fact, I did smoke it all day a few days up north hunting a few weeks back. This is another nice benefit to aged latakia, I can't smoke any fresh lat blend back to back as fresh latakia is taxing on my tastebuds.

With all the variables it is hard to give this an objective rating. Because it is a rare aged tin, a seller may be tempted to shoot for the moon on the price of a tin. It is not worth spending more than $20 IMO, as there are many available blends that can provide a similar smoking experience. But subjectively, for me, it merits three stars. I enjoyed smoking it and could do so back to back with pleasure.