Ken Byron Ventures River of Deceit 2023

The bright and orange Virginias provide plenty of tart and tangy citrus, bread, sugar, some vegetative grass, floralness, mild tartly sour lemon, earth, wood and spice along with slight darker fruit, smoke and acidic aspects. In an important role is the sugary, bready black cavendish which also helps maintain the obvious blackcurrant, prune, and black cherry toppings. There are a few very light fig notes along with a dark fruit casing, too. The strength and nic-hit are a step shy of the medium threshold. The taste just reaches that mark. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. Has a few minute rough edges. Deeply rich, it burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a very consistent tart and tangy fruity, mildly floral flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room is notch stronger. Barely leaves any dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke. Three and a half stars rounded up to four.

-JimInks

I'm not a big aromatic guy. But the picture on the label was pretty cool. And I figured why not?, After all Ken Byron has quite a reputation for quality. Turns out, I like it. Fresh out of the bag I smell vanilla, fruit and a little bit of sweet Virginia behind it. The description says bright, orange and black. So it is. Halloween colors. The casing flavors come through very nicely, and they don't smell or taste cheap. Retro hale is extremely pleasant. There is a legit fresh Virginia flavor, but totally controlled and kept in the back. On each puff, a tangy smoothness on the back of the tongue making it very easy to sense it's presents before expelling the smoke. Speaking of which, the smoke doesn't hang around long and form a layer floating in the room you're in. It seems to dissipate right into the air. Leaving nothing but a very pleasant smell for anyone else near you. 3/4 of the way through the bowl I noticed a little bit of nic. How nice...right? Jim inks is correct about having some rough edges. But I think it makes this blend much better. River of deceit is not as mild as the old legendary McClellan blends, which have been the gold standard of aromatics for a long time. But it tastes better than a lot of the old McClellan aromatics. ROD seems too good to just refer to it as an aromatic. It's a little more than that. Classy maybe? Yeah, I think this blend would suit a man well when he is wearing a sport coat. This blend is also probably an effective female attractant.
All in all, this isn't your typical aromatic that you smoke just to make other people around you happy. A real tobacco smoker can actually find some enjoyment and a little bit of satisfaction in this blend. This is as good an aromatic as I have ever had. It's better than 3 stars, so I'll round it up to four.