Larus & Brother Company, Inc Jack o' Diamonds

This review is based on a freshly opened 1950s tin. The tobacco was still moist and mostly black with some light strands. The Virginias offer some grass and earth along with a bit of wood and citrus. I also get a touch of savory nuttiness and wood that I usually associate with burley, so I will say some is present. I also suspect a little unsweetened black cavendish is in the mix. The topping appears to be brandy as it tastes like the brandy topping on Larus’ Edgeworth Aromatic (Red). It does tone down the tobaccos to a moderate extent. The strength is a step past mild, while the taste level is in the center of mild to medium. The nic-hit is very mild. Won’t bite or get harsh. Burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a very consistent sweet flavor from start to finish. Leaves little moisture in the bowl and requires an average number of relights. The pleasant after taste lightly lingers. An all day smoke.

-JimInks

Jack O' Diamonds is no longer produced. I had a box sitting in my tobacco "cellar" for many years before recently reaching for it on a whim. The contents were bone dry and I used the moist paper towel trick for 24 hours to rehumidify the tobacco. I find this method, while effective, usually dilutes the taste of a tobacco somewhat. Maybe that's why I found Jack O' Diamonds to be such a mellow smoke.

I'm a sucker for these old school OTC blends and this one has been out of production for a good long while. I only scored about 3/4 oz, so take this review for what it's worth. Blonde-ish ready rubbed that loaded easily and a bag aroma of basic tobacco. My sample was on the drier side but still contained decent moisture.

The blend description here, and Pipestud's excellent review, are spot on. This was about as mild a blend as I've ever smoked. It reminded me of Velvet as well, although substituting a sweeter, more Virginia and less Burley presentation. Soft and mellow but with good flavors of mild sweet tea and citrus but predominately standard tobacco. There may have been a mild casing but I can't be sure. This one made me start musing over why certain tobacco blends didn't continue. Lane's picked up some old Larus blends but not this one as far as I know. Perhaps it didn't sell well but I'm surprised it was outsold by something like Cookie Jar, another old Larus blend that was picked up. I've never seen this for sale anywhere (haven't really looked, though) and the person I got the sample from was loathe to do so, and I doubt I'll smoke this again. But I definitely would. If you like old timey mellow smokes, this and Velvet are two sides of that same coin.