Hearth & Home Louisiana Red

Now this is one great VA/per! Ultra-premium leaf is obviously used in this blend. If you love the natural soft sweetness of Red Virginia and if you love good real Perique then this is your blend! The Perique spice and Red Virginia sweetness share the front of the stage like a blues jam duet by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. Only in Heaven could you experience that...but Russ Ouellette is the angelic blender that has brought a piece of that here to us. This is one to stock-and-store!

Compared to Anniversary Kake (AK), LR has the same Virginia undertone (Old Red), but without the added chemicals, AK makes my mouth dry, LR does not have this feeling.

Both the AK and LR are gentle V/P for intermission, and for a little more power I\'d go with AJ\'s VaPer.

if your a fan of virginias and perique This is another home run!

Warning... variation through personal blending. My ratings are for MY modified version of this blend.

OK I bought a pound of Louisiana Red a while back at the same time I ordered several blends from P&C. I am a perique fanatic and smoke many different blends that contain it, so I was sure I'd like this one. Well in truth, it was pretty ho hum. A course taste that really didn't grab me. So it sat around in it's little pyrex bowl (I use many 2 and 3-cup pyrex bowls with snap on caps for storage simply for the benefit of easy opening, stacking and a wide mouth that allows easy pipe loading) until guilt finally forced a pipeload.

One day I said, what the heck, I'll cut it 50/50 with 1Q! What a find!!!! The pyrex container allows me to mix blends easily by shaking thoroughly and then I let it simply meld for a few days before trying it. The cut of the two blends is identical, so it is quite congruent.

But the truth is in the smoking... both blends jumped together to form a find that I'll bet you'll love too! I don't say go out and buy a pound of 1Q and a pound of Louisiana Red to try it, but if you have some of each lying around being neglected (simply because the LA is a little rough around the edges and you've read that 1Q is for the newbie or the unmanly)...give this a try! I find myself reaching for the "Louisiana Queue" many times each day now and have yet to find a pipe that didn't just love it.

From Utopia TX... havagoodun!

La. Red is an attractive tobacco in the pouch, with ribbons of medium and darker red tobacco, along with a bit of dark perique. It's aroma is a vinegary sweetness typical of red virginia leaf. LR packs and lights pretty easily, with an average amount of relights.

The first thing I notice when lighting the bowl is the pepperiness of the perique, followed by the tangy sweetness of the VAs. This theme continues through the first half of the bowl, then the VAs begin to dominate. The taste loses some of its' sweetness in the bottom third of the bowl, something I wish would remain.

LR is a very good tobacco, but there are other VA/Pers that I enjoy more, including some in the Hearth and Home series. I do keep a half pound here on hand as I like to smoke a variety of blends.

Scores for La. Red: taste- 15 of 20; lighting and burn- 7 of 10; value- 8 of 10. 30 pts. gives LR a *** rating. Recommended.

Revised review: after my original review, I put up a qt. mason jar of LA Red in the closet and let it set for about 3 years. Talk about a transformation! The VAs were sweeter, the Perique was more complimentary to the VAs instead of dominating them at times and it burned much better. I have to revise my scores: taste-18 of 20; lighting and burn- 8 of 10; and value- 9 of 10. 35 points equals a high **** score for Virginia Spice. Well done, Russ!

Slightly sweet, and a little spicy as the description states. I amazed at the softness of this blend. There is no bite, as if the tobacco is aged already. The room note is very nice, and it's not too strong. The perique just cools the smoke and adds that fruit like sweetness. It doesn't overpower as in Haddo's. This blend is balanced! Highly recommended to anyone who likes a natural, clean and easy-smoking tobacco.

I really like this tobacco! The virginas provide a naturally sweet taste, and then you get that strong black pepper taste/feel on the tongue from the perique. I have had some trouble keeping it lit as mentioned by prisonchaplin, so I tried cutting it up a little as another reviewer suggested; this helped considerably with the burn. It has a nice room note as well, considering it has that Cajun spice taste to it. If you like boiled crawfish (as I do), you will definitely like this tobacco! I give it a 4-star rating.