Dan Tobacco Okapi

The pricier of some of Dan Tobacco's aromatics. I have to say this one fascinated me for a long time, until I finally got around to buying it.

The tin looks great with an Okapi gazing back at you from the jungle. The aroma from opening that tin was incredible. I mean this just blows you away and is up there with the likes of Larsens's Danish blends and Davidoff's Blue or Danish and, dare I say, it the king of aromatics, Firedance flake. It's smells like a school pudding : a hot toffee sponge with custard and dammit you don't know whether to eat it or set fire to it.

Unfortunately the smoking is a big disappointment. We all know that tin opening aromas only rarely come through in the smoke and this one happens to be one of the worst for this. There is only a faint tincture of what might have been, a ghost of toffee vanilla. It's only barely detectable and only on the first draw. The rest of the smoke is like sucking air.

Oh, and it's so dry, really dry. Ready rubbed flake it says, well I don't know about that, not that it matters as it doesn't really, but in this dustbowl of tobacco shards lie lumps, shavings and I swear what looks like pencil sharpenings. Even my best meer can't drag anything worthwhile from this one. It's going to be yet another long plod through this one that's for sure.

I can't recommend this blend except to the most sensitive of aromatic smokers or those with a vivid imagination.