Wessex Classic Virginia

Upon first opening the tin of this tobacco, the buyer is greeted with a nice, medium-colored broken flake. The aroma is attractive, with fruity overtones. The tobacco itself is slightly on the moist side for my tastes. The charring light of Wessex Brigade Classic Virginia is a bit problematic. I usually get a good char with a couple of passes of the butane flame, but this blend took me several more. In fact, after tamping one of the bowls I found that I needed to re-char and re-tamp before I could get a decent burn. However, the flavor of the charring light is quite nice, with a really interesting fruitiness coming through. The early flavor is nice, but puff lightly! While there is a nice sweetness to the tongue, it could be because of this sweetness that the smoke seems almost excessively hot. Tongue bite in the first quarter of the bowl seems like a real possibility unless you sip at the smoke rather than puff it. I also had a bit of trouble keeping one bowl lit during this part of the smoke. Deeper into the bowl, the hot nature seems to lessen considerably, yet the sweetness remains. Some of the fruity overtone also disappears, making the flavor a bit more one-dimensional. The overall taste isn't as creamy as some Virginias, but is quite pleasant. Toward the bottom of the bowl I found that some of the sweetness disappears. The flavor is still that of a decent Virginia, but somehow muted a bit. This changes, though, at the very end of the smoke, where the fruitiness surprisingly reappears and the sweetness returns as well. All in all, Wessex Brigade Classic Virginia is about average. There doesn't seem to be anything special about the smoke, and I don't expect to go shopping for it. There are many, many fine Virginias on the market today which are a better selection than this blend.