Ken Byron Ventures Verge Engine RetroDrive

The tangy, dark fruity, earthy, woody, sugary, bready, lightly floral and spicy fourteen year old red Virginias take a very small lead over the other components. The stoved Virginias provide a lot of sugary tangy stewed fruit, wood, earth, and some tangy dark fruit as a strong supporting player. Even though the mildly tart and tangy citrusy, grassy, floral, bready, lightly spicy and acidic bright Virginias play a secondary role, they aren’t far behind the stoved Virginias in terms of their effect. The spicy, stewed raisiny, figgy, plumy, date-like, earthy, woody perique has a little force, being twenty percent of the mixture. Has an extremely mild red wine and apple casing. The strength is medium, and the taste level is a step past that mark. The nic-hit is almost medium. Won’t bite or get harsh. Barely has a rough edges. The combined tobaccos spent some time in a fermentation chamber before they ready for market. Well melded and balanced, you’ll notice virtually all of the aforementioned nuances in every puff. It burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a very consistent tangy sweet and spicy flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste and room note. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and repeatable for the less experienced.

This is Verge Engine Overdrive with a deeper, older Decade perique in the mix. One difference I notice between the two is that the perique has a richer, sweeter, tangier flavor, and that causes it to play a step higher here than in the Overdrive version. The other difference is that the spice content is tad less potent, though it that may be due the extra sweetness of the perique.

-JimInks