Cascadia Pipe Co. Downwind

The burleys offer a lot of earth, wood, nuts, some toast, and a touch of sugar as the lead components. The aspects of the dark fired Kentucky are earth, wood, vegetation, some floralness, spice, nuts, with a mild interplay of sweet and sour. The Kentucky is a little more obvious than Virginias, though it’s not as potent as one usually expects. The Virginias provide plenty of tart and tangy citrus, grass, earth, wood, bread, some tangy dark fruit, sugar, vegetation, mild floralness, a pinch or spice, and a touch of acidity. They are secondary players. There’s a very mild fruity topping that is hard to discern that moderately sublimates the tobaccos. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of slots past the medium mark. The taste level is a notch past that as it falls short of the center of medium to full. It won’t bite or get harsh, though it does have a few rough notes. The plug is moderately dense, and is easy to cut. It may require some dry time, though I did not do that. Burns clean, cool, and slow with a very consistent fruity, nutty, mildly sugary and floral flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is a little stronger than the after taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. Requires a few more than an average number of relights. Not an all day smoke. Three stars and a half stars.

-JimInks

Summary: this plug uses more of the darker Burleys and so has a richer flavor to balance the Virginias and fruity mouthwash flavor.

Someone needs to go to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group labs and take away the bucket of mixed fruit and berry flavors that they seem to adore, with a flavor somewhere between Luden's cough drops and that ill-fated Listerine "strawberry" mouthwash from years ago. The basic plug here, while loose, holds together better than the other Cascadia Pipe Company offerings, and with a range of Burleys in the darker area as well as those nice cheap light young Burleys that form the basis for every low-cost aromatic or RYO tobacco in existence, it offers a roasted and fermented flavor faintly pulsing behind the onslaught of topping and new Virginias, mostly bright but with a fair amount of red. When this one goes on the sale rack it will be worth buying because at a normal price, it would not be a bad deal, and after a few years of failed marketing hype by influencers, the berry assault may have burned off a bit, leaving the leaf which at that point will have aged enough to smoke, which is by itself not bad at all.

I should probably avoid reading any other reviews before I write my own... because sometimes my thoughts on a blend are so dramatically different, that I start to second guess myself. Upon opening the tin of Cascadia's Downwind, there's a dense plug and a lightly fruity tin note. Plug is easy enough to slice into flakes and rub out. First few puffs... it's a fairly robust Burley blend. Not as potent as Cascadia's Vertical Limit, but it's still nice and rich. Just nice nutty Burley flavor and bit of Virginia tang. The topping, for me, is very faint. It's a nice, sharply fruity flavor. But the tobacco flavors are definitely more up front. It has a fair amount of strength, nicotine-wise... again, not anything like one of Cascadia's other blends, Vertical Limit, but still a moderately strong blend. Zero bite, and if it's cut and rubbed out properly, it burns clean and cool. I'm so glad I got these Cascadia blends for Christmas... since I don't smoke all that many Burley-forward blends, but I am really enjoying them.

Bottom line: A nice, smooth Burley-forward blend. It has something about it that makes it an especially relaxing blend. It's a bit old fashioned, at least to me. A solid 3 stars... I'm glad to have found it.

This is everything that one should expect from a Burley/Virginia blend. Plenty of bold flavor, smokiness, sweetness and a good deal of nicotine. Not as potent as it’s cousin Vertical Limited, but after smoking this , ya know ya just smoked a stiff pipeful. If you’re looking to tone it down a bit, I suggest mixing it with some Virginia flake. Cascadia has a mild Virginia plug called Campsite that mixes well with this .

Cascadia - Downwind.

It's a tough old plug, think 3P's, it needs a sharp knife and a bit of force on the knife to ready it for smoking! But the task is worth it; I've smoked only this since yesterday afternoon.

At first I couldn't decipher the topping, but after a few bowls an alarm bell went off: strawberry bubble-gum! It isn't heavily flavoured, but there's just enough to smooth any hard flavours from the Burley/Kentucky. The Virginia is easily outweighed by these, it offers a little sharpness, but any Va fruit is confused with the topping. There isn't to much of a fire-cured taste from any Kentucky, the main player where the tobaccos go is the nutty, caustic Burley. If fully sliced, crumbled, rubbed to pieces it as a predilection to burn a little fast, so I slice it into flakes then cubes. This gives a long, cool smoke. It hasn't got a bite in it; for me.

Nicotine: potent. Room-note: nice.

Downwind? A bit 'unusual', but nice. Recommended:

Three stars.

Nice dense plug in a very big tin.. lots of extra space in there like the others in this series. I picked up a tin on sale with little expectations.

Popping the tin, there was a fairly strong berry smell. The plug is well built but not super hard/firm. It's easy to either cut off a slice or just to break it up with your hands. There is quite a few larger chunks of flake mixed in with the other more diced pieces. The moisture was fairly high starting out, so I learned quickly to give it a chance to dry out after my first couple of bowls.

The berry topping is quite noticeable especially early in the bowl but is pleasant and not over-powering in my taste. The tobaccos hiding under the topping have a nice flavor with a nice nutty end of the burley. It's robust in the nic content to me and I really know I've smoked a bowl afterwards so not something I'd smoke back-to-back. Even with the topping, it burns cool once it gets lit and I have not had tongue bite.

About 1/2 way through the plug, I'm not sure this is something I'd buy again.. but it's nice for a change from my recent diet of Haunted Bookshop, etc...

Cascadia's Downwind, there's a hard plug and a lightly fruity note. Plug is easy to slice into flakes and rub out. nice nutty Burley flavor and bit of Virginia tang. nice fruity flavor. amount of strength nicotine is strong No bite, and it burns clean and cool.

Dark fruit, smokey, and cigar like. Has a faint fruit flavor. Has a deep fermented scent and taste.

I don’t get this plug at all. Smokey and harsh. I cube cut 2 bowls worth. First bowel fresh cut, rubbed out half the bowl to top it. Smoked like smokey harsh red Virginia. Second bowl, same prep after a multi hour dry time. Same result. Did not want to stay lit. Tasted HARSH.

Tin note of spiced plums, figs and mildly pungent. The reddish dark brown tobacco plug is very dense. A sharp knife is needed to cut some flakes/cubes. Rubs out with a little effort. Moisture content is on the dry side. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is medium to strong and nic is medium. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of citrus and sweet fruit, both last most of the smoke, only growing milder toward the end. Taste is medium to full and mostly consistent, with notes of very woody, spices, mildly sweet, very earthy, floral, very spicy/peppery, tangy citrus, vegetation, dry nuts, molasses, tart dark fruit, orange peel, mild cocoa, a toasted bread background note, and a very peppery retro. Burley is leading with Virginia and Flavoring supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is great.