Ken Byron Ventures Dark Fired Cherry 2023

The dark fired Kentucky cavendish provides a fair amount earth, wood, floralness, smoke, sweet and sourness, some, herbs, vegetation, spice, nuts, and barbecue as the lead component. The red and bright Virginias offer some tart citrus grass, bread, sugar, mild dark fruit, earth, wood, floralness, and a couple pinches of spice as supporting players. The toasty sweet black cavendish is mostly a flavor holder. The tartly sweet and lightly sour cherry topping is a little more than moderate in effect though the tobaccos are still noticeable. The strength is a step past the medium threshold. The taste is a notch past that mark. The nic-hit is a slot below medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has few small rough edges. It’s a tad moist, and though I did not dry it for review purposes, your mileage may vary. Burns cool, clean, and slow with a very consistent tart cherry, floral, mildly nutty, smoky, spicy flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is pleasant to tolerable. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three stars.

-JimInks

This tobacco has a heavy casing. It's darn near moist out of the package. That also led to a little gurgle in my pipe, no biggie. Out of the tin (actually a plastic bag that looks like something astronauts keep their food in) you smell a strong cherry and smokiness. It kind of remind you of a black forrest cake. It takes a few minutes after lighting for an excellent cherry flavor to move to the front. And there it will stay for the majority of the bowl. Very often a familiar flavor of dark fired Kentucky will peek through. Delightful. There is a good deep tobacco flavor in the background that never changes, and adds richness. 2/3 of the way through the bowl the cherry flavor will start to diminish by about 50%. The dark fired Kentucky stays present but grows more faint, and the whole thing starts to seem a lot more like a straight Cavendish blend. But I'm not complaining, it's just how this tobacco develops and I would always rather end a bowl on a smooth and rich note than a sharp and sour one. Never got rough, only smoother. The last 30% of the bowl required many relights, but I didn't care because I was enjoying this blend. This plan is a nice change of pace for a non-aromatic smoker, it pleases the crowds, and it still has some very recognizable and enjoyable tobacco flavors. Your palate need not fear only outright abuse could cause this tobacco to burn you. Enjoyable and sweet, with some nice mature elements thrown in too. Some real thought went into the composition of this blend and it's a nice result.