Sutliff Tobacco Company Paradoxical

The very nutty, bready, sugary, earthy, woody, cocoa-ish, slight molasses-like burleys takes a small lead much of the time. The rugged Nicotiana Rustica offers a fair amount of earth, wood, toasted bread, vegetative grass, floralness, herbs, sugar, spice, mildly zesty tart and tangy citrus, a little peat, leathery cigar, tea, tartly acidic sour lemon, and smoke. It’s a strong supporting player that occasionally shares the lead with the burleys. The stoved Virginia produces a fair amount of stewed dark fruit, earth, wood, sugar, bread, mild floralness, and light spice. It’s a couple of steps behind the Rustica. Not far behind the stoved Va. is the red Virginia, which furnishes some tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, mild sugar, floralness, light vegetation, spice, and touches of smoke and vinegar. The strength and nic-hit are in the center of medium to strong. The taste edges past that center. There’s no bite or harshness although there are a few light rough notes. This easily broken apart, mildly moist crumble cake needs no dry time. Deeply rich with some complexity, it burns cool, clean and a tad slow with a fruity, sweet, nutty, floral, mildly spicy, sour, savory flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is pleasant to tolerable. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a few relights. It’s not an all day smoke, but it is certainly repeatable. I suggest a wide bowl, e.g., pot, egg, or apple to capture the multiplicity of nuances as crumble cake blends rarely have a totally consistent flavor profile. Four stars.

-JimInks

Sutliff Tobacco Co. - Paradoxical.

There's two slices of kake in the tin, not a single block or many slithers. Yes, some is already crumbled, but not enough for a bowl. The pieces are mostly medium brown in colour, with a few lighter specks over them. This tin's moisture level suits me, a tad moist yet not 'wet'. The blend crumbles easily, to a coarse consistency, as I like.

The smoke? Beautiful. Easily ignited, cool burning, and so tasty. The Burley is rustic and nutty, giving a lot of chocolate. Synonymous to C+D Haunted Bookshop Cake; although unflavoured it tastes like it has a mild flavouring! As there's a chocolate-note from the Burley, the very sweet, fruity Virginias pair perfectly with this flavour. Now, the Rustica. The Rustica really beefs up the smoke. Literally, It gives a 'meaty' flavour to it, adds a rather inimitable quality.

As I said, the burn is perfect, creating a bite-free smoke.

Paradoxical? What a smoke! Four stars:

Highly recommended.

The final release in the Birds of a Feather is here and it was worth the wait. It’s hearty and flavorful paradox indeed and a rich enjoyable complex balanced smoke. It’s a bit hard saying which exact strain of tobacco adds what to the flavor but they all work very well together to make for a very good smoke!!!

There is a goodly amount of some fine Burley with its classic flavor profile of some nuttiness and brown sugar/molasses, cocoa and a sort of a dark bread or sort of a good bran muffin taste. The Rustica is right behind it and supporting the Burley with its woody, earthiness, herbs, some spice, toast, Timothy hay, a bit of good Maduro cigar, and almost a truffle sort of a taste with a touch of Earl Grey Tea with a touch of that lemony note. Between the Burley and Rustica you have a nice smokiness and a wonderful rich mouthfeel and good solid amounts of smoke perfect for blowing smoke rings! Between the Red Virginia and the Stoved Virginia and maybe a touch of some Navy Flake style Virginia you have multiple more layers of flavor and I can’t be sure which adds more of what but there is dark fruit like plums, more bread and floral, some nice sweetness, and a little vinegar.

It comes looking very delicious in a crumble cake form that breaks up easily and rubs out to a slightly moist easily packed form. It is smokeable as is but a touch of drying time may be beneficial to both flavor and to lessen the few extra relights. It won’t bite and I doubt you could make it bite. The nicotine is medium to strong as is the flavor, there is no topping. Room note is always hard for me as I most often smoke alone but I would say it’s tolerable for most and downright heavenly for me. It forms an amazing mouth feel that I find satisfying and as I said makes for some lovely smoke rings. A bit more complex in flavor and variety of flavors than I expected and burns cool with a satisfying richness that just makes for a very enjoyable smoke. Could almost be an all day smoke but the nic might catch up with you. So well balanced and nuanced as to make it a very enjoyable bowl full that I highly recommend. 4 out of 4 stars for me.

Dave da Dragon

Tin note of peaty vegetation, spices and mild honey like note. Tobacco is a Krumble Kake of marbled brown, dark brown, black and a little bit of tan. Moisture content is great. Kake breaks apart and rubs out easily. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium and nic is medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and mostly consistent, with notes of peaty vegetation, spices, herbal floral, sugar, dry, slight bitterness, cigar, rich earth, toasted bread, very wood, spicy, mild citrus, molasses, orange peel/zesty, a semi-sweet nutty background note, and a very peppery retro. Burley is leading with Virginia and Rustica supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Paradoxical is the last-to-be-released of six Signature, Birds of a Feather tobacco blends that were developed for Sutliff by master blender Per Jensen over just 4 days! I mean, 6 signature blends in 4 days!?!? Who can do this!?!? I watched Sutliff’s development video and I still can’t wrap my head around it. The tobacco in the tin has been chopped into small bits, blended, and pressed into mottled crumble cakes that are light reddish brown, to dark brown, to black. It’s fairly dry, right from the get-go, . The initial tin note is whatever fragrant topping was used. I still can’t place it, but it’s fairly restrained, very much in keeping with Per’s insistence on overall balance, and it also contributes substantially to the initial scents and tastes off the inaugural light. This effect was less noticeable during the second smoke, and it was almost gone thereafter. Prep, loading, and lighting are easy, and P smokes down easily, as well. For my first smoke, Paradoxical came across as a “luxury” VA/Bur blend, very soft and civilized, well balanced, and non-threatening. To be honest, at this point, I was as much disappointed as I was at ease. I guess I had hoped for something “bigger”, along the lines of Per’s HH Rustica. Although Paradoxical does get richer over the course of a bowl, it is much milder, and it’s much less of a statement than HH Rustica. Oh, well. Perhaps this will please more smokers than it puts off, but I had to stay focused, not to down-rate Paradoxical for being what it is rather than what I hoped it would be. First tobacco scents and tastes are amply cased stoved red VA and dark Burley that has a slight lead, with the fairly docile Rustica trailing. Overall, there is very low dark fruit compote well under woody, hazel nutty, fresh whole wheat bread, and very low, ephemeral vegetal/orchid/floral notes that I suppose come from the Rustica. Strength is medium. The topping note decreases in proportion as the tobacco scents and tastes ramp up, and the lot goes from mild to medium and just past that over the course of a bowl. Nicotine is medium. Room note is OK, and aftertaste is a sweet, drawn out best of the smoke.

OK, Ok, I admit again that I bought Paradoxical hoping for a riff off Mac Baren’s HH Rustica. And now I am lukewarm about trying the 5 other blends in this series that I missed by waiting too long to order them. Given this admission, how do I rate Paradoxical? I have tried to find four stars, and to be un-biased, also honest. Paradoxical does keep the tobacco blender’s version of the oft-misstated version of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. And it’s not bad. Although I’m not sure I will smoke all of this, I can’t really fault it. In this case, 3 stars seems about right.