Sutliff Tobacco Company Presbyterian Reformation

The Turkish provides a lot of floralness, earth, wood, vegetation, spice, herbs, and a mild sour note as the lead components. The nutty, earthy, woody, toasty burleys are supporting players. The Virginias offer tart and tangy citrus, sour lemon, bread, sugar, grass, floralness, a couple of pinches of spice, and light acidity. They compete with the burleys for attention. The cocoa and mocha topping moderately tone down the tobaccos. I also sense a mild raspberry essence. The strength, nic-hit and taste levels are medium. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, but it does have a few rough edges. The mildly moist flakes easily break apart to suit your packing preference, and I saw no need to dry them. Burns clean, cool, and a little slow with a very consistent sweet, floral, mildly spicy, slightly sour flavor that extends to pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is a notch stronger. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and repeatable for the less experienced. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

Prep: Compared to other aromatic blends, this is on the drier side. I let flakes air dry a few minutes but it didnt need much. They break apart quite easily, akin to C&D flakes.

Notes: Quite a nice surprise for a non-aromatic lover like myself. Yes, it's indeed an aromatic, but the natural flavors of the blend aren't overshadowed by the added flavorings. The Burley is more prominent for me, with the typical nutty and molasses notes. The Virginias are brighter tasting, with hay and slight critrusy notes. I really like the Oriental addition, which you don't seem to find in prominent aro-burley flakes like University Flake or Erinmore. They offer additional earthy, spice notes that especially pop in the retrohale, but appear more evident as the bowl continues. The cocoa is quite prominent but accentuates the blend so well, especially with the burley.

A solid addition under the Presbyterian name! Well done Sutliff. 8/10 for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTEzeFsrkpk

What is that old saying? Ahh yes, "A sucker is born every minute!" That saying applies to this blend perfectly. This blend is nothing more than a rebadged version of Sutliff's Mocha Slices ( FYI - these slices are also sold under the Cobblestone brand as Mocha Slices) If you want to be foolish enough to buy a tin with the name "Presbyterian ' for $16, be my guest. As for me, I'll stick with with Sutliff's Mocha Slices bulk which costs about $5 for 2oz. Geez people, talk about a marketing scam.

Sutliff- Presbyterian Reformation.

Not what I expected. From the name I expected an English blend. One that might take a decent number of bowls to form an opinion. But just the tin-note clarified this is a chocolatey aromatic. That said, after just an afternoon my opinion has been formed!

The single row of flakes stretches the entire width of the tin, they're fairly wide. The colour's quite dark and light brown, with the occasional VERY light fleck. This tin has good hydration, just load and ignite.

The smoke? Mainly a chocolate flavoured Turkish and Burley. Not like bitter dark chocolate, but smooth milk chocolate. The smoke tastes a little sweeter for the first quarter. After this point I get a little espresso ''sharpness'' from the mocha, but the mocha and Virginia are the support act. It burns fairly slow, not warranting much attention.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: nice.

Presbyterian Reformation? A good smoke, not amazing though. So, three stars, not four:

Recommended.

Strong cherry tin and room note. Light smoking. Good early day smoke. Pressed flake. Can be a bit dry in the tin. Burns nicely when packed light to medium.

Tin note of chocolate, apricots and a nutty like vanilla. Tobacco is a flake of marbled brown, tan and dark brown. Moisture content is great. Rubs out with a little effort. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is mild, with notes of cocoa, fruit and vanilla. The cocoa and vanilla dissipate quickly after initial light. The berry/apricot fruity flavor remains in the background throughout the smoke. Taste is medium and mostly consistent, with notes of cocoa, vanilla, nuts, sugar, berries/stone fruit, spices, earth, herbal/floral, dry, acidic, molasses, orange peel/zest, peaty vegetation, wood, grassy, a tangy fermented fruit background note, and a peppery retro. Burley is leading with Oriental/Turkish, Virginia and Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is good.

Tin note is quite sweet and fruity with lite coco. The flakes are packed together tight and a bit on the moist side, but come apart and rub out easily. I smoked it right away no drying time hoping the burley would keep the Virginia's in check. This was the case. No bite in this one with a lite cadence. For the first half of the bowl the fruit toppings are more noticeable. The nutty burley is there but in the background. For me it was difficult to tell the difference from the fruit topping and the citrus from the Virginia's. the fruit kind of overshadows the citrus. Its actually much better than I expected. The fruit topping is not overwhelming the tobacco flavor. Once you get past the 1/2 way point the coco becomes more noticeable and still not overwhelming. If you use a slow cadence you can just get the Turkish flavor way in the background. I would suggest not freight training this one, as I am sure it will bite. Nic hit is mild to medium. Not sure I would smoke this all day but a few bowls would be fine. Very nice aromatic tobacco 4 stars.

Oh my does this stuff taste like s&*t. It tastes like a funeral home smells. I don't know how the others taste cocoa or mocha, all I taste is sweet sickly potpourri. I want so desperately to like an aromatic, but this is not going to be my blend! I was able to get through the charring light and few more puffs before I went outside to dump the bowl in my planters. My fingers still have the awful scent from packing the pipe, I'm going to try some Goop to neutralize the odor. I should have know better, it tastes just like it smells in the tin.