Solani 763: White and Black

I opened a 13year tin of this the other day. The tobacco was dark brown with light brown broken flakes. It had a wine/berry essence to it though it says there is no flavoring. The paper doily was darkened from the years of tobacco pressed against it. My question is what is it? An English, Aromatic, Virginia or all three. My taste buds are not that refined so with that being said I could not taste any Latakia. A slight bite at times but nothing drastic. This one just confused my palate too much to really get a good feel for it.

Solani - 763: White and Black.

An early review I decided to delete and do again. When I re-read I didn't think it was too helpful.

The blend's a mixture of dark and medium browns, and unlike the current description it's a broken flake. The moisture of the tin for this review was perfect.

The tobaccos seems well balanced, none of the them particularly race ahead of the others. The Latakia gives a woody flavour, with some fruity Virginia, all brought together by the black Cavendish. Although the B.C. is quite sweet, it seems a little more rustic than some: not 'sticky'. As others mention, there seems to be a light topping present, giving a slight berry sharpness, and a touch of acidity/sharpness. I don't find the burn too good: yes, it's stable and consistent, but unless the pipe's puffed with ease the temperature can creep quite high.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not a fan.

763: without the topping this would get a higher rating, but it reduces the score to two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

Sorry, I just don't get this one. For that matter, I haven't had any VA/Lat combos (except GLP Picadilly - with Perique - that ring my taste meter, so keep that in mind in this review.

The tobacco is obviously high quality, mostly dark, and the tin aroma is great. Moisture level was high, this does need drying before smoking. If taken right from the tin, it will smoke wet, and can be hard to light. Care is needed to avoid bite. Even after drying out, it finishes with a damp bowl. The taste is just ok, early on it has a nice, sweet caramel flavor, but there just isn't enough Latakia to cool the dominant VA. The cavendish doesn't add anything, and the Syrian is overwhelmed. On the whole, I think it would appeal to a VA enthusiast looking for a change, but for Balkan/English buffs like myself it just doesn't cut it. A big disappointment, especially in view of it's super premium price.

Unfortunately my tin was primarily cavendish. I sure wish I tasted some Syrian.. any at all. Nada, none. It's okay, but after reading the other reviews I understand the mistake. A true pity.

Upon first smoking thing blend I absolutely hated it. I found it had too much bite and the flavor, which was very pleasant, was gone after 2 puffs.

I put it away for a week and tried again with various pipes and various amounts of rubbing. In the end I found that this tobacco smoked best when rubbed out a decent amount. I let the first wad fall loosely into the bowl and pack the top half of the bowl tighter. The flavor of the black and white is creamy but comes and goes. The flavor is better when sipped and this also keeps it from biting.

The latakia was really hidden in the background. This tobacco would probably be better without it.

All in all, I found myself wishing for more flavor and working too hard to find satisfaction. I'm not sure I would bother with this again. But I will look for the same flavor in another tobacco.

First let me say that Solani produces some of my favorite blends. I love Silver Flake and Aged Burley Flake. This one, however, missed for me. The tobacco rubbed out easily from the broken flake and was very moist requiring some drying time (this is a good thing, I have found that moist tobacco ages much better than tobacco ready to smoke) and the tin aroma was marvelous. Once dried to my preference and loaded it took to the match without difficulty. There is a topping here wine perhaps. The topping seems to mute some of the complexities. I do get the delicate smokiness of the Syrian Lat. a brown sugar note that comes from the cav. but only hints of the VA here and there. The VA's seem to have a dark fruit note or maybe it is that topping mixing with them. Not really an overly sweet smoke despite the cav and VA. The mouth feel starts out smooth and it does not bite but by mid bowl it has a rough texture to it. Again it did not bite no matter how larger of a bowl I used but the change seems a little odd. The topping does linger on my tongue for quite sometime, in fact one could say that the tobacco finish is short but the topping remains. It is not a bad blend overall but I am not sure how to really recommend it. I would not suggest this blend to someone looking to find the difference between Syrian and Cyprus Lat. nor would I suggest it as an English Aromatic blend to someone looking to try one. Still for those looking for a different change of pace from their established rotations this might fit the bill and you may find this enjoyable. It just missed for me.

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.

i got this just because of the latakia,i also got the gold label which is much better in my opinion.this one is ok but not as good as solani gold label. in my opinion flakes or broken flakes do not burn as good as ribbon cuts,and i have to relight it but it might get better when it gets dry.i would give this 2.5 stars if i could i expected more!but still its not a bad tobacco its smokable!