Hearth & Home Beverwyck

Beverwyck is a somewhat unusual tobacco and one that i have bypassed many times until recently. Old timey and "American" style versions of English are not phrases which I use when contemplating a tobacco. There is simply a blend as presented by a blender, that's not to say there are not attempts by the blender to capture certain profile flavors, that's absolutely the intent but certain comparisons start to get confusing. Anyhoo, Beverwyck has, at times an incense variable that was unexpected. It's cut, much of which is cubed, makes it a tad difficult to get lit quickly but it does get going eventually. There is a light sweetness in the background which I think is the burley and although the description says nothing about flavoring, some of the burley may have a touch but nothing overwhelming. It's a bit spicy (and I am very accustomed to smoking perique) but the spice can be a bit rough. I will continue smoking my 2 ounces to see how it develops. It's worth trying but probably won't make my must have list.

3/19/14: My initial thoughts on flavoring are incorrect, the sauce on Beverwyck lingers loooonng in the bowl.

This is a nice contrast to hard-core "English" mixtures. I've been off those for awhile, I guess because I smoked them so much when I was younger that I've become tired of the same theme -- a bit of mellow strength from Virginias, tang from orientals, and latakia for a smoky top note. Noting that this one has too much Latakia, that one has too little, this other one is a bit stronger, and the fourth one has too much sweet/sour. Ho hum, ho hum, says me, thinking it's become something like listening to "Take Five" played by thirty different ensembles. A nice tune, but is it that nice?

Below, DoctorThoss sheds some light on the evolution of American Blends, and perhaps this is the first one I've tried, because I thought it was an interesting change of pace. Although it may be an American style tobacco, a phrase popped into my mind from *Brideshead Revisited,* "The fortnight at Venice passed quickly and sweetly - perhaps too sweetly; I was drowning in honey, stingless." That's the experience I had; this is very, very sweet, perhaps too sweet, but the smoking has no bites or sharp angles. If it's the burley, that's even more interesting. I usually notice, with Captain Pete, a "wet cardboard" or (my phrase) "burning paper" taste from burley. Didn't get any of that here. In fact I was surprised after smoking this blend to read the reviews here and learn that there was any burley in it. The Latakia hovers gently around the sweetness, adding some contrast that's pleasant but not jarring.

This is a nice, sweet tobacco with a small zest of Latakia. It's very mild in strength. It's a cup of tea with a good amount of milk and two spoons of sugar. It's Wilma from *The Best Years of Our Lives,* sweet, cheerful and helpful, almost depressingly so. I could see someone who's broadening out of strongly-topped or flavored tobacco going here without a lot of discomfort. I like to take more abuse from my tobacco, and won't be trying this again. But if a stingless honey-drowning date with Wilma is what you're looking for, this tobacco's a fine way to get it.

There are many other blends I'd rather smoke. The cut doesn't work very well in my opinion as the fragments are sized somewhat differently and you end up with a bit of a chaotic mess. It is a bit spicy, and has some decent Latakia notes, but I wasn't terribly impressed from my first smoke. There was a lot of non combustible dottle in the bottom.

Update September 2011 Even after drying it well, it tends to smoke wet. I also get an unpleasant "roof of mouth bite" from it.

Dropping down to 3 stars. Still a reasonably good smoke but tends to bite when nothing else I smoke does. Worth a look.

My day to day smoke is some variation of the cowboy burleys, Granger, SWR, PA and the like. But regularly now I have wanted to reach for something with a little more flavor and oomph. This fills the bill. I ordered this with several other smaller samples. I think this does resemble Country Doctor. Fills and lights easily and tends to stay lit reasonably well. I detect much less casing than, say, Country Doctor or Revelation. This is a very nice, smooth and cool smoke with a great natural flavor. The latakia and perique are there but in small doses and spice up the burley/Va base. Almost sweet, nicely smokey, slow burning, this is hard to beat. I would think a burleyphile or an aromatic smoker would find this interesting as a change of pace. I've found mine consistant and plan to have some on hand. Thanks Russ!

A mild and enjoyable blend. The only issue that I had was that it was inconsistent from one bowl to another.

Although I think this blend might appeal to Burley lovers, it offered me nothing in the way of a return visit. It also seems to be topped with a little something that leaves me cold. In addition, I had "Barking Dog" burnout in my youth, so can only go 2 stars.