Dan Tobacco Holly's Discovery

I was browsing the Dan Pipe Tobaccos and comparing my private journal to what I had already reviewed. About 10-years ago, maybe a little less, I was on a Dan Tobacco tear has purchased 50 different blinds over the course of a year to samply. Holly's Discovery received my perfect 10 rating and it was because of the rich, smoky flavor I received while at the same time detecting a smoothness and sweetness provided by the Virginias employed. An exemplar!

Pipestud

Highly recommended for Laktania's fan... Outstanding i store a KG from it on my cellar for future 😉 ;-);-) after pirate cake it's my second favorite laktania I advice you to taste it if you like the taste.

I love this tobacco! This smokes cooler than cool and very dry for me. It is a bit monochromatic, I think, but since that constant flavor is delicious it gets four stars in my book! It is sweet and smoky and wonderful!! At first the broken flakes looked like a major pain to me, but they are easy to rub out and get into the pipe. I'm not sure if there are any orientals in here. The tin says "Finest virginias and latakia tobaccos pressed & matured for a cool & dry smoke." This is my desert island tobacco.

The fragrant, musty, incense-like Cyprian Latakia produces a lot of smokiness, earth, wood, and leather along with some sweetness and spice. It is the driving force of this blend. The Virginias provide a lot of tart and tangy citrus, some grass, earth, wood, bread, mild sugar, a little tartly sour lemon, light floralness, spice, tangy ripe dark fruit, and touch of acidity. I suspect that the light creamy sweetness comes from a couple pinches of sweetened black cavendish. The strength and nic-hit are a step past the medium mark. The taste level is a notch past the center of medium to full. No chance of bite or harshness, but it does sport a few small rough notes. Burns cool, clean and a tad slow with a very consistent, deeply rich, sweet and very savory, zesty campfire flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingers after taste. The room note is pungent. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, but requires some relights due to the tobacco being a little moist, and how it’s cut. Not an all day smoke. Four full stars.

-JimInks

Dan Tobaccos may not always be on everyone's lips but they sure do have some knockout blends. When they get it right, they're really right.

Pawing through my tobacconist's shelves I found a "selected Virginia and Latakia" flake. The owner mentioned that it had a decent amount of age having put in a large order for Dan tobacco products about 5 years prior to my purchase.

There's a very strong Latakia scent. I don't know the proportions but I would suspect it's at least a 60-40 ratio for the dark leaf. There are some flecks of lighter leaf in the fake but it's dark. I forgot the word for cigars that have prickly wrappers but the flakes kind of reminded me of that. Not a completely smooth flake like a Gawith, but some grip so to speak. Very easy to break up but I prefer to fold and stuff my flakes. Lighting this stuff is very easy and if you get a decent char it will stay lit for most of the smoke.

The first 1/4 of the bowl yields mostly dry smokey latakia. It's good but nothing to write home about. After a bit the VAs really surge forward and add the most wonderful sweetness I've ever experienced in a Lat Flake. The balance between the dry smokey Latakia and the wet sweet VAs is simply put, craftsmanship at its best. I even get some black cherry vanilla ice cream notes similar to the Star of The East flake. But there is less spice in this smoke. The absence of the tangy orientals makes this a wonderful dichotomy of two very workable flavors.

Despite being a flake this tobacco needs a large bowl to really breathe. 7/8 wide and about 1 1/2 deep bowls are when I've had my best smokes. Pot shapes really let those VAs sing. Where my smaller 3/4 tend to keep those sweet VA notes held back.

If you are a fan of MacBaren's Latakia Flake or Star of the East Flake, you should get some of this immediately.

I will be succinct in this review. As we mourn the passing of the great blend OLD IRONSIDES we must simultaneously celebrate Holly's Discovery.HD is a wonderful alternative to OI. A tad sweeter but not quite as smooth.Almost identical blends. I loved it!3.5 stars.

Holly’s Discovery is an awesome flake and a must try for Latakia lovers. Smokey, rich and deep flavors await you with that discrete natural VA sweetness in the background. At the same time it is unbelievably smooth and mild on your tongue. I taste a pleasant creamy spiciness, lacking that sour note some oriental mixes add. I prefer HD rubbed out and without filter. It burns slowly to bright powdery ash. Thank you Holger Frickert for this flake!

The aftertaste is pleasant and vanishes quickly; the room note does not help you find new friends in your surrounding though.

This is a Latakia lovers blend for sure. So much so that I find it difficult to find the Orientals. As others have pointed out, there is some sweetness to the blend but I am not sure if it actually comes from the Virginia's. It tastes to me like it may be manually added. Unlike other Latakia powerhouses, this blend gets a bit monotone for me. As a result I won't be buying more, but three stars for Latakia lovers.

The rectangular flakes are mostly dark mahogany, chestnut, and the occasional white stem. They are worked by the fingers into a medium ground with relative ease; the fingers dusty with fine Latakia earth. The unburnt aroma is dry and woody, yesterday's bonfire, a cold fireplace.

The Cyprian Latakia is foremost and remains so throughout. There is an attractive uncombusted petrol waft, oil shale and creosote. The Latakia is smooth, velveteen, with a moderate roundness or fullness of body.

The Virginia has an earthen mineral cleanliness, like cold coffee grounds. On the tongue there is an ethereal but consistent sweetness creating the impression that the Virginia (or another unlisted ingredient) was partly stoved or processed in an unsweetened Cavendish style. It's possible that the Latakia may have imparted a slight sweetness to the ensemble as well.

The flake does not bite but may warm considerably if smoked impatiently whereupon the finesse and subtleties are subdued somewhat by the more assertive wood and creosote. Drying a little may help tame the heat, although it's not a prerequisite for a consistent and sustained burn.

This is one of the better Latakia flakes on the market and in this case the Latakia is dominant while the Virginia supplies heft and backbone. In some sense this reminds me of a very slightly sweet Cuban coffee.

This is one of my all time latakia must have tobaccos. If I have lesser than 50 grams in my cellar, I will become crazy...

This tobacco has no alteration at all during smoking a bowl. What's the point? It's a VA with lot of latakia. Nothing more but nothing less. It burns cool and dry and flatters the tongue with the well known taste of dark VAs paired with the dark side of tobacco, smooth latakia. Smoky, a little bit tar and a deep dark sweetness I mean.

The room note is like a burnt-out roof, as I my wife said. But hey, that's the way I like latakia. 🙂

The smoke of aged Holly's Discovery is even more smoother and really, really creamy.