Ken Byron Ventures Uzumaki 2019

The stoved Virginia offers a lot of tangy, fermented stewed fruits, dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, and sugar as the lead component. The tangy, fermented dark fruity, earthy, woody, bready, lightly floral and vinegary, sugary and spicy red Virginia plays a rung above the perique, and a couple of slots below the stoved Va. The earthy perique is very rich in stewed raisins, figs, plums and dates along with a fair amount of spice and wood in a support role. The woody, earthy, floral, herbal, dry and lightly sweet yenidje is a secondary player that also sports a little “unflavored soda” quality that I always associate with this varietal. The tart and tangy, citrusy, mildly grassy, lightly earthy and spicy, sugary, mildly floral lemon and bright Virginias are noticeable, but tend to get pushed down the flavor scale due to the richness of the other components. They are around the same level as the yenidje. The strength and taste just reach the medium threshold. The nic-hit is a couple of steps behind them. No chance of bite or harshness, and has a light rough edge at times. This is an easily broken apart, moist crumble kake that really doesn’t need much, if any, dry time. A well balanced, complex and nuanced rich blend with a lot of depth and body. Burns cool, clean and a tad slow with a very consistent dark and stewed fruit sweetness with a mild floral quality that translates to the lightly lingering after taste, and room note. Not quite an all day smoke. I recommend a wide bowl for this one.

-JimInks