Watch City Cigar Simply VOriental

Full disclosure: I had an advisory hand in the development of this blend, but it is Ernie’s creation. The very floral, fragrant, zesty Macedonian Prilep provides a lot of earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, tingly spices, mild sweetness, a fair amount of dry sourness, and light bitterness and smoke as the lead component. The mature, fermented red Virginias offer tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, sugar, lightly tart and tangy citrus, a few blades of grass, a pinch of spice and a small vinegar note. The stoved Virginia is almost as obvious as the red Va. Its aspects include tangy stewed dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, and sugar. These two Virginias are important supporting players. The bright Virginia possesses tart and tangy citrus, plenty of grass, mildly tart lemon, vegetation, sugar, floralness, toast, a couple drops of honey, and very light acidity. It is a couple of notches ahead of the condiment level. The strength, nic-hit and taste levels are a step past the medium mark. It won’t bite or get harsh, and has few rough edges. The spice content has a little potency, so I suggest a casual puffing cadence at best. I also recommend a wide bowl to fully capture all of the nuances and complexities. Burns clean, and fairly cool at a moderate pace with a very consistent, deeply rich, tart and tangy sweet and sour, floral, spicy, savory flavor that extends to pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is stronger. Barely leaves any dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Not an all day smoke, but it is a filling, repeatable experience during your smoking day. Four stars out of four.

-JimInks

I don't do deep-dive analyses except in legal briefs. The flavor is wonderfully sour. More sour than other VA+Oriental blends in the marketplace. If you love citrus, as I do, this is your huckleberry. Four stars

This review note is based on one bowl from a sample provided by the shop. I would generally agree with JimInks about the overall characteristics of the blend, but I found the Virginia’s playing a more noticeable part than his description.

This is a very complex, well balanced blend, but it is subtle. To my taste, many of the popular VaPers these days are overloaded with Perique, much more so than when it was used as a condiment to bring out the flavor of really good, matured, Virginias. The Oriental is definitely forward, and is a treat given that so many blends have been forced to use blended Turkish instead of varietals, but the end result is not a knock your socks off, one dimensional, flavor bomb like many of the aforementioned VaPers.

It starts off just a tad on the hot side, but settles down quickly and stays lit. It truly can be sipped without worrying about relights, which suits my smoking style. I find it stellar in that regard, especially since I smoked this with less dry time than I usually give blends. I suspect it would burn hotter than the lid on the depot stove if you forced it. The nicotine hit is nonexistent. If I still smoked cigarettes, I would have reached for one after finishing the bowl.

I give this blend 4 stars, but I think it might not be what many are looking for. Very skillfully blended.

I am 10 bowls in and don't really now where to go with this review...other than to say I really like it. Disclaimer: this is going to make no sense to most people: This tastes like a Julia Childs Pop Tart. I get toast, a vague hint of buttered popcorn, vegetal...not sure how to describe this other than it is like the end of sprints at pee wee American football practice. Grass, a sweet green flavor, woody and dry. The description says there is no perique in this but I get a tingle extraordinaire, like I get from first rate perique...not sure if it is this unknown to me varietal of Turkish, but it is pretty awesome. I am a HUGE Oriental/Turkish fan for my first pipe: Bombay Court, Tashkent, Early Morning Pipe (from ages past), AM PIpe, Arcadia, and of course the original Cravens Mixture. This is not a morning smoke for me. This is a afternoon, weekend with a beer smoke, warm weather or vented room in winter. Relights bring me back to pop tart. Love it.

Let me begin by saying that I am not normally one who gravitates toward Oriental tobacco. With that said the description kind of intrigued me so I ordered 4 oz just to try. I'm glad that I did.

The Virginia's definitely seem to predominate, there is a slight note of brightness, I sort of citrus presence that ephemerally flirts in the background. What seems to dominate is notes of roasted wheat, with a slight sweetness.

I do not know if I will get more of this, but I'm certainly glad that I got what I got to try. It made me rethink my attitude toward things with Oriental tobacco.