Sutliff Tobacco Company Paradoxical

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.