W.O. Larsen Old Tradition

I bought this some time ago, for the fancy tin. I opened it, smelt it, shrugged and put it away. I just wasn't in the mood for yet another Eurotrash banana-mango-maracujá concoction of the type that often gets packaged into showy multicoloured presentation tins. But then the other day I wanted some novelty, so I semi-hydrated some Old Tradition (the old tradition that fancy tins can be sold notwithstanding what crap you put in them) and stuffed it into a new Butz-Choquin junior calabash?breaking in new pipes is no fun, we might as well make it into proper Lenten penance by really frying the old glossy with dried-out aromatic nitroglycerine.

It was surprisingly peppery and not-so-surprisingly bitey to begin with, with some unexpected fire-cured Burley weight. By smoking very carefully, it settled into a pleasant, cool-ish, biscuit-y Virginia, nutty Burley experience, certainly a lot better than the tongue-murdering Larsen Classic.

So, if you must have the tin, and are a slow puffer, rest assured that you can make old tradition into a mildly pleasant exterience, if you let it dry somewhat and nurse it into civilised behaviour.