Fader's Balkan Blend

Good balkan style blend, and inexpensive in bulk. The cut is a little wild but packs and lights well. Room note is strong and the flavor is good for the price.

Pre light: Smells like a light latakia blend, but it smells a little sweeter and not as musty as english blends with heavy orientals. Some latakia is clearly present, but not heavy latakia. I think it smells great. I huffed it for a good while before and after smoking it. The LSW?s not crazy about the smell. About 15% dark tobacco, 10% lighter, blond tobacco. The remainder is medium to dark brown. A little lighter than milk chocolate. Sort of a chunky, ?wild?cut. I like it. It packs easily. A little dryer than the normal blend I smoke, but not ?dusty dry?.

During/after the smoke: Chars well. Tamps down flat, and lights evenly and easily. Volumes of white smoke, I like that. Initial impression is again that of a light latakia blend. Not as heavy a true english blend. Some light sweetness gives way to a nice, toasty tobacco taste. Not fancy, but rewarding. I tend to blow the smoke thru my nose, and it?s mildly spicy and tickles my nose in a nice way. The flavor doesn?t change much down the bowl, but that doesn?t really bother me. It did get less sweet after the first third, and no amount of appreciable sweetness was evident after that. Towards the bottom of the bowl it gets an interesting, slightly salty characteristic along with the toasted tobacco taste. Burns really well. Not hot, but not what I?d call really cool either. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is mouth scortching) I?d rate it a 7. Not rough on the tongue either. It?s not terribly strong, either. On a scale from 1 to 10 (where 10 is my head is swimming in mud), I?d give it a 3. Burned to a mottled, light and dark gray fluffy ash with no dottle. Left the walls of the pipe clean. I used three pipe cleaners, but that?s only because I?m not a dry smoker. Not the tobacco?s fault. I?m left with a pleasant tobacco aftertaste. No odd aftertaste at all. My assessment: I like this tobacco. Not an ?all day, everyday? thing, but one that I?ll keep in the rotation. Sort of a no nonsense light latakia blend. It?s relatively inexpensive to boot.