Erik Stokkebye Resolution

The Carolina Mahogany and Canadian bright Virginias provide plenty of tart and tangy citrus, grass, bread, some sugar, sour lemon, floralness, mild vegetation, light spice, acidity, and a honey note. The Greek and Turkish Orientals offers a fair amount of earth, wood, floralness, herbs, vegetation, bitter sourness, spice, and mild buttery creamy sweetness. They are strong supporting players that occasionally challenge for the lead with the Virginias. The slightly syrupy, very sweet hazelnut topping moderately tones down the tobaccos. The strength, nic-hit and taste levels are a couple of steps past the medium mark. No chance of bite or harshness. It does have a few small rough edges. The easily broken apart flakes are mildly moist and need no dry time. They burn clean, cool, and slightly slow with a fairly consistent fruity, sweet and sour, floral, spicy, nutty, slightly syrupy, rather savory, zesty flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room is pleasant to tolerable. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires a few more than an average number of relights. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three stars.

-JimInks

Now that Mr. JimI has described the various tastes from this blend so perfectly I will add my experiences. This is a flake blend that arrives ready to smoke from the tin. After a little rubbing out I packed and charred the top. The char light was flavorful and once I did the second light it was good to go for the remainder of the bowl. Smooth and sometimes tangy and sweet but not too much of either. I did not get the hazelnut taste but found the strength to be just right for me. You can buzz a little with this if you like! No bite and smooth smoking. Really good offering in my opinion. Should age well if mine last that long.

Tin note of syrup, grassy, and spices. Tobacco is a flake of a marbled yellowish tan, light brown and brown. Moisture content is great. Rubs out with a little effort. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild to medium. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of hazelnut that remains in the background after initial light but seems to "flare up" at times. Taste is medium and mostly consistent, with notes of semi-sweet nuts, spices, lemon grass, floral, sugar, zesty citrus, bready, creamy, rich, musty dry hay, wood, savory, herbal, earthy, mildly acidic, mildly spicy, sourness, a semi-sweet nuts and tart dark fruity background note, and a peppery retro. Virginias are leading with Oriental/Turkish and Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Erik Stokkebye’s 4th Generation Small Batch Resolution is a VA/Oriental blend that could hardly be more different than my previous new VA/Oriental smoke, GLP’s Geometrie. While Geometrie is a nouveau twist on a strong-ish, old tyme, contemplative blend, Resolution presents as a “luxury” blend. It is prominently topped, soft, broken flakes that smell great, and it loads, lights and smokes down comfortably, like a traditional luxury blend. I’ll say right away that I like the fact that Resolution is 2 oz. in a tin, because there is the option to age it in the tin, also there’s no premium for a large quantity or a fancy box (and who needs that?). Lighting up the first few smokes, there’s a better, more fragrant version of the tin note, soft and nutty hazelnut and plum and/or berries over damp silage and dry, late spring hay, along with well-melded, sour wheat/rye bread, baking spices, and aromatic woods and resins. After a week, the topping abates and IMO this blend is left wanting it. This is to say that I much prefer Resolution with its topping, as the tobaccos seem somewhat muddled and ultimately not special without it. Puffing lazily is best here, and this way the strength barely gets to medium; likewise the tastes. Room note with the topping is pleasant, and once the topping is gone the room note is barely tolerable. Aftertaste is a fading best of the smoke sans topping, drawn out by the VA.

I had high hopes for Resolution going in, and despite I am finally a little disappointed, it’s held on to 3 stars. While the blend may age well, it seems unlikely that the topping will re-assert itself in the future.