Sutliff Tobacco Company Aberrant

The potent Nicotiana Rustica provides a lot of earth, wood, spice, peaty vegetation, floralness, sugar, mild tart and tangy citrus, a little cigar, tea, smoke, leather, incense, and a small sour bitter note. While it is the lead component, it doesn’t dominate the proceedings. The red and bright Virginias are a little more obvious than the stoved as strong supporting players. They offer plenty of tart and tangy citrus, tangy ripe dark fruits, earth, wood, sugar, bread, vegetative grass, floralness, some tart sour lemon, light stewed fruit, and small touches of smoke, vinegar and acidity. The dark fired Kentucky produces some earth, wood, floralness, spice, sweetness, vegetation, mild sourness, herbs, smoke along with some barbecue and light nuttiness. It’s a couple of notches above the condiment line in the third slot. The strength and taste levels are in the center of medium to full. The nic-hit is step behind them. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. It does have a few small rough edges though not as much as expected. I attribute that to the sweet casing. The easily broken apart crumble flakes are mildly moist, and need no dry time. Well balanced, nuanced and deeply rich with some zest, it burns cool, clean and a little slow with a mostly consistent sweet and sour, fruity, floral, herbal, spicy, smoky, light nutty, barbecue flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note has a little pungency. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke. Four stars.

-JimInks

Dark fruit and earthy notes are forward. Some breadiness from the Virginias, the brights offering grass and citrus notes, subtle but giving a wider complexity to the profile. Floral and smoky accents from the Kentucky contrast with the Rustica earthiness very nicely. A fair peppery feel in the sinus. Aberrant is a blend with a lot of body, a lot of flavor, a lot going on—yet all in balance.

Sutliff - Aberrant.

Robust and delightful!

The tin holds 4 slices of kake, they're rather firm but a tenacious hand can rub some into chunky ''ribbons''. My blend has a good hydration for smoking straight away, if anything it's a little too dry; just a tad.

The Rustica is slightly sharp and spicy, giving a pleasant ''abrasive'' note at the top of the smoke. The smoke is then sweetened by the Virginias, the red outweighs the bright, to me. The fruity-sweet red gives a more buoyant character to the smoke. The dark-fired Kentucky gives a smokiness, this pairs lovely with the spicy Rustica and fills the smoke out. It burns nicely, hasn't got a bite in the mid-temp smoke.

Nicotine: strong. Room-note: not good.

Aberrant? A nice, inimitable blend, for sure. So, four stars:

Highly recommended.

Abberant is a very high quality blend. Perfect strength does not bite at all when pushed very nice balance of sweet and spicy. In a Meerschaum I swear I get hints of cherry from the reds. A+

Tin note of sweet, tart and tangy, and vegetation. Tobacco crumble cake is a marbled brown and tan. moisture content is good, and tobacco breaks and rubs out easily. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium to strong and nic is medium to strong. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and mostly consistent, with notes of spicy/peppery, very woody, very earthy, leather, cigar, toast, bitter vegetation, citrus peel/zest, dry, floral, vinegary, acidic, tangy ripe fruit, spice, a sweet bread and nutty background note, and a peppery retro. The cigar like Rustica is leading with Virginia supporting. Kentucky is lingering in the back. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is good.