Hearth & Home Virginia Spice

What an odd smoke, but a very good one.

Who would have thought to put cigar leaf in with a VA blend???

It really works though. It is really spicy, but whereas some of these blends tend to taste like hay and burn hot if you aren't very patient and they haven't been aged well, this one has a forcefield around the heat due to the cigar, and its not a heavy cigar either, so its very clever in that you full hard and get the absolute best from the spicy and tangy VA's, but then the cigar adds that creamy richness and it combines into a very nice smoke.

The smoke it easy, dripping with flavor, aroma-rich, and inviting.

It warms up and develops as it goes, my only drawback is its a little mono, and I expected more to keep happening as the bowl went on, but it didn't change much.

If you want to take this into the stratosphere, soak a wood stave in Johnnie Walker 10 year for week and fasten it into a mason jar with the Virginia Spice. The result will blow your mind.

Alone, sometimes I get a little too much cigar, but the Virginia-Perique taste is very nice. This one may change every time you load a bowl, as it's a very heavily mixed tobacco, seemingly with different types just sort of tossed together. That's okay of course, that's how you blend tobaccos, but I prefer one that's been pressed or flaked, as the different tobaccos have a chance to mix better, to sort of flavor each other. The way this is, sometimes it tastes like a cigar, sometimes like a chocolate cherry, sometimes like grass. One word of caution, I was smoking this stuff one day and it made me a bit woozy, so something in there is strong, but I'm not sure what. It's good but not that good for the price, which I think should be a little lower for what you get, not that it's bad at all.

I ordered this blend based on the cut indicated above and there was no detail in this respect @ pipesandcigars.com. What arrived was clearly labeled as this blend and even had pieces of the cigar leaf visible. However, in my view this blend consists of wide ribbon cut yellow to brown VAs with some Perique and cigar leaf added. This difference impacts the burning rate which is much too fast for my habits compared to my normal true flake preferences. Although it smoked dry and without bite I felt that the cigar influence on the taste was greater than I would choose although I didn't detect it in the room aroma.

I found this blend to be pleasant enough, a good flavor and smoke altogether. I will definitely be smoking more of this. I was slightly disappointed with how little I could pick out the cigar leaf in the blend. But then again, maybe I’ll notice it more the more I smoke it and the more it ages.

Creamy, mellow, slightly sweet base smoke performs the bed for a nice addition of Perique lending a healthy note of spice as well as dark, plummy fruit aroma like berries hidden in dark chocolate. Not heavy handed in any component. Well balanced. Very enjoyable for a VaPer smoker. Whatever is added by the cigar leaf, which I can’t pick out specifically, must be part of that mellow creamy base that provides the foundation this blend is built upon. 3.25 stars.

The VA's definitly lead the way in this blend. They are sweet and tangy. The reds have that dark fruit note that I love and are slightly earthy at times. The brights are a little grassy with citrus notes here and there. The CT cigar leaf is present. It remains a constant in the background throughout the bowl as a mild smokey note. The perique was added with a light hand. It comes in and out and I pick up a plum note and a very mild faint spice that moves in and out. There is a mild fruity topping here as well. It is light and sweet and stays on in the finish for a long while. I think it is a little on the heavy side personally. The nic hit is mild to med. the overall tobacco strength is at the bottom end of med. Nothing really wrong with this blend I enjoyed it initially but I found myself growing bored with it as I progressed throughout this 2 oz. sample. There are just other blends that hold my interested better.