Solani 763: White and Black

UPDATE: 1-16-08 It would be nice to have an explanation on what is going on with this blend. I gave this tin 5 months to transmorph back to what it was supposed to be. NOPE it didn't. The trash is the only proper place for this. What ashame and what an unforgivable mistake!



Original review 7/20/07 Unfortunately this blend is inconsistent which is entriely unaccaptable given the premium price. A year ago I smoked two 50gram tins that were absolute heaven. A few weeks ago I bought a 100gram tin. The disappointment of that first bowl is overwhelming. It doesn't taste like the same stuff. Given the comments of others in this forum and my now own matching personal experience I must conclude that there are more than a few "bad" tins floating around. I will not be risking any more money on this blend. What ashame!

I suspect, like Redneck and Mr. Dottle, that I also bought a tin that made it past quality control. I've had perhaps one and half dozen pipefuls of this tobacco and have been disappointed with each smoke. I've tried it in Ardor pipes, a Cavicchi, a Dunhill size 5, a Ser Jacopo with a huge chamber and a Tsuge bent; in each pipe it has been underwhelming. I have tried smoking it right from the pouch, unrubbed and moist, and have tried it rubbed to a fare-the-well and I've tried it after cutting the mixture with scissors and dried almost to the crackling point. In all instances it has been underwhelming. I've puffed it fast, puffed it slow, and tried various loading techniques, including the Frank method with a hefty wad of the tobac acting as a "plug" at the top of the tobacco chamber. Still underwhelming, at times almost tasteless and definitely insipid. Visually and tactiley it is a high-quality tobacco; the pouch aroma is fantastic... it just has not lived up to the expectations intimated by the relatively high price. On the positive side, it burns very well, bite (after a good drying) is nonexistant and I have learned that a lengthy DGT (like maybe twelve hours or more) will improve the taste somewhat. I might stove what is remaining in the tin in the hopes that I can salvage something out of this purchase.

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I've got to say ... K&K did a pretty decent job again. Let me explain. While this is an English Mixture, it needs to be said that this blend is Virginia-forward.

Tin note is the fruitiness, sweetness, and yeast from the VAs, mixed with the smokiness of the latakia. The broken flake is nice and thin. Rubbed out fully and packed well.

The smoke itself is pleasant. Virginia on the front, latakia in the background, but the black cavendish adds a lot of sweetness to the smoke.

Smoking mechanics are fine. No issues, very few relights. It didn't bite or turn on me. The smoke was cool.

Solid three stars

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Tin note Laticia with some sweetness and spice my tin was 2016 vintage. Needed a bit of drying time, ready rubbed flake. At first light its sweet and spicy more than I expected, perhaps the VA with age added more sweetness defiantly not topped. All tobacco flavors working together. The Laticia is forward but its in balance with the cavendish and the VA. I found this blend to be absolutely wonderful not a Lat bomb at all. The course cut required a few relights. But in all a very smooth blend. If you like Laticia blends that are smooth and balanced with the other tobacco. This is a really great one. Nic hit is a bit below medium no bite whatsoever.

This broken flake comes with a musty, smoky, bready tin note. Needed minimal drying and packed well. Slow and cool brining, and very creamy. The Virginia is matured and offers. The Latakia is truly condimental, enough to add interest throughout the smoke. My tin needs to be dried out for a bit, it’s a nice slightly sweet. Burns clean and cool - no bite whatsoever for me. I find it to be a nice fall English blend when you are sitting in the autumn sun and drinking a glass of tea or coffee.

This is not a tobacco that I normally would have purchased. Neither the blend description nor the tin art would have attracted me. But as luck would have it, there were a couple of tins of 763 in a box of ten year old tins of tobacco that I was given recently. So I decided that I would give this a try and if I didn't like it I'd toss it out and there would be no loss. I have to say I'm glad I tried this. It has turned into one of my favourites and will be one of my regular smokes. Others have done a good job of describing the taste profile. I know our tastes and perceptions of taste vary, but this hits the spot form me. It strikes me as being a very cultured smoke. It's sort of aromatic, sort of English, and sort of Virginia. The virginia and latakia and cavendish are blended together so smoothly that I can't tell where one starts and the other stops. I'm assuming this is because of the age on the tin. The only way to know for sure is to check out some fresh tins of 763, which I will be doing.

First class tobaccos in a weak blend, lack of character and personality It need the touch of a Master blender to push out all the quality of these fine tobaccos. Take 20 grams of Cairo from Pease and mix with 100 grams of 763, put in a jar for a week and smoke again, all the colors gone out and you will enjoy a great English blend. The perique and the others orientals open an space where the 763 can express all its quality.

As smokable right out of the tin as my limited edition Public Image Limited cd and quite anomalous.

On the one hand: seemingly fairly well cased and sweet like an aromatic and burns and bites hot like some aromatics do too. But on the other: some Syrian Latakia has been wasted in it as well, quite reminiscent of, but certainly not making it, an English. A fact I'm quite sure you wouldn't need to have posted 200 reviews, of everything you've ever had a little puff of, to fully appreciate.

Slightly 'winey' like some people say but with occasional, smokey Latakia traces which in a fair few tobaccos I've really like in both large and small quantities, but which here just seems to adulterate. Like putting oregano in curry, or barbecuing a strawberry. Which is a very personal take, I admit. Tastes vary. Maybe Solani are the Heston Blumenthal of tobacco producers (he of the 'snail porridge' p.r. masterpiece) and I am just a pedestrian philistine but to me it is not pleasant and it does not appeal.

The heat and resulting pain are worse offences to the senses, though. Some might say 'Oo, this one is best sipped and treated with respect or it can bite'. I say that it's lack of behaviour and 'respect' for my expectations of a fairly cool and smokeable smoke and my fragile, fleshy taste buds is a tobacco crime. My tobacco should yield to me earning it's price and shouldn't have to pussy-foot around it.

There's me trying to strike an effective equilibrium between 'enough drawing to get it to light after the initial char' and 'not enough drawing' so that it won't turn around and injure me like a petulant pup. I think I'm getting somewhere because I've got a plume of reek going that I might potentially be able to smoke in a bit, so I continue my precipitous little balancing act for a good few puffs; trying to edge towards the, normally quite easy to reach, heady plateau otherwise known as 'a lit pipe'. Then I look into my bowl to find a burning bit in the middle slightly wider than the hole in a polo mint, surrounded by a donut of black. No heady plateau yet then. So I pull out my lighter and tamper, pull on the mouthpiece a bit and this irksome prima-donna goes 'How very dare you!' and nips me quite hard in the mouth. Pain is not why I do this, so I let up on it a bit and it's like 'That's better', 'This is all I'll be burning for you', 'A wee bit in the middle as wide as a size 10 knitting needle (or something) for your enthusiastic cheek' and I find I'm the one kind of going 'Sorry, I'm sorry, I'll be nice and just sip you' before thinking, 'Hold on a minute, you're just a tobacco out a £13 tin among hundreds'. 'And you're not even that nice either'. 'I don't need to take this piffle off of you'. Chuck!

2 stars because some intrepid connoisseurs might like snail porridge, because some mad tobacco scientists went to a great deal of effort creating this for the edification of the strange and the morbidly curious, because beauty's in the eye of the blablabla... and because some people may enjoy carefully sipping partially cremated aromatics; without wishing to offend them.

Not that I am calling this one. I obviously don't have a clue because 'Frankenbaccy' or something's what I think.

Being a Serious Pipe Smoker living in Canada..Our Choices are FEW+FAR Between(for Premium Pipe Tobacco)I'm very pleased that "Brigham"Did their homework 2find a Company with Consistent-Quality Lines(that'Renier' Embodies)I've tried ALL Renier Tobaccos that are Avail.in Canada.This English Tobacco is not Unlike H.O.W.(Revelation)or McC's(Frog Morton) I find it smokes best if U rub it out Even more/This weed smokes best in a Meer or Cob.I usually have a SM-scotch or Expresso in my free-hand. Take Ur-Time+enjoy this Complex Character