Missouri Meerschaum Luminaire

The Katerini Orientals offer plenty of earth, wood, herbs, floralness, vegetation, stewed creamy sweet and sour, tart and tangy citrus, spice, some smoke, mild darker fruit and light incense as the lead components. A notch behind them is the spicy, earthy, woody St. James perique which also dishes out a lot of dried, tart plums, figs, a little floralness, and mesquite. The aged red Virginias provide a lot of tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, mild sugar, tart citrus, vegetation, floralness, and small spice and vinegar notes. They are in the third position, but not much behind the perique because of the depth of their inherent fruitiness. A couple of notches above the condiment line is the sugary sweet stoved cavendish which heightens those qualities here, and tames a majority of potential rough notes. The strength and nic-hit are in the center of medium to full. The taste edges past the center. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. This broken flake blend is mildly moist, and I saw no need to dry them. Well balanced with subtle nuances, it burns cool, clean and a tad slow with a mostly consistent tangy sweet, fruity, spicy, floral, mildly herbal, creamy, sour, lightly smoky flavor that extends to the pleasantly long lingering after taste. The room note has some pungency. Requires a few more than an average number of relights. Leaves very little dampness in the bowl. Not an all day smoke. Four stars.

-JimInks