Hearth & Home AJ's VaPer

This is a brash and bold VaPer, with the perique having been added by a very generous hand.

The Virginia in the blend provides plenty of tang, with underlying sweetness and breadiness that develop throughout the bowl. The perique often takes center stage, and will grace your sinuses with a peppery punch at every sip. Despite the strength of the perique, it is not overbearing, and altogether in harmony with with the Virginias (although those who prefer only condimental pinches of the stuff may be overwhelmed.).

The addition of unflavored Cavendish is more consequential than mere gimmick, but it is definitely the background player. It provides a bit of depth and makes for a fuller smoke, but doesn't lend much to overall flavor the blend, at least for me. It's possible it contributes a bit of sweetness, but I suspect it really creates a platform for the sweetness of the Virginias to stand on.

I've had this blend fresh and at various ages up to the 10-year mark. Age has all of the usual effects on the Virginia and perique leaf, but the pepperiness remains prominent at all ages, though years if aging does allow the stone fruit of the perique to complement the other components.

The blend itself takes a match well and stays lit with little fuss regardless of packing method. It has some rough edges here and there, but isn't prone to bite, burns quite cool, and finishes down to a fine ash.

I might stop short of calling this an all day blend due to the intense spice, but it's definitely worthy of a spot in any cellar - and worth plenty of shelf space in the cellars of Va/VaPer fans.

Finally , a Hearth and Home blend I like . It's cavendish of some varying color with what seems like a decent amount of Perique . If the Perique werent in it , it would be a cavendish similar to PS Natural Dutch Cavendish , which is pretty good for a simple cavendish . But the fact remains that the Perique makes this sing ! It lights and burns well and the spice from the Perique , along with the other components make for a great smoke . The room note is pleasant and for a cavendish it has decent nicotine , which isnt stout , but it's a cavendish and thats a cool thing to have some nic , imo . It maintains down teh bowl and has a good build . My wife had me purchase her a tin to age a couple years ago , given she heard that an aged tin was excellent . What I'm smoking is fresh and damn good . I'll have to bug the wife to pop her tin 🙂

This came as a surprise gift, a one ounce bag out of seven different blends. I decided to go for this one first. Partly bc I like va pers, and partly bc I have recently discovered I like red va tobacco.

Very black in color, not much to look at in the bag. Smells good though, kind of sweet and peppery. Some ribbon, some finer. Packs easily, takes fire well. That may be because it came in a bag as opposed to a can. On the charring light, I get an initial full taste of red va. The perique didn't come out much till about the halfway mark on the bowl. The flavor built in strength from there. It's a good va/per. And the sweet reds are the star in this one to me. They come through beginning to end. The cav isn't very present, but I guess that means it was blended well to help marry the other flavors.

All in all, I like this one a lot. I may well have to buy some more after I get through the little collection I have right now to smoke.

I just got a 8oz tin of this stuff in mail today from P&C.. First off, I'm a fan of VaPer, and this is my 4th different blend of the VaPer incarnation I've smoked.. Reviewed in a GBD Shoreline Blasted bulldog.. This is a first impression review.. Cut is a fine ribbon, with lotsa shades of browns, a touch of redishness, and just a little mix of black. The tin note is sweet, and slightly musty, but not a whole lot of scent coming outta the tin. Packs and lights effortlessly. Sweet virginia's are the forefront flavor here.. It's alittle darker then that grassy hay like virginia, but not so much that you can't taste it.. The Perique included it's raisiny/plummish accents to the smoke but there is very little spicy/pepperiness that can be detected by me. The smoke is rich with a nice mouthfeel, and no bite what so ever..Just enough Vitamin N to be satisfying without leaving your head spinning, though YMMV on that. The only reason i didn't give this a 4 star rating was because I like a little pepper in my VaPer, and this doesn't really have that. Other then that, I could really see me buying more of this and would like to see this blend land in my rotation as a regular.

Same general taste as Russ' Louisiana Red - i.e. seems to be the same virginias. Not as much perique (or maybe different perique), not as spicy and I didn't notice the perique backnote so much. The black cavendish must have a smoothing and slightly sweetening effect, and occasionally came out tastefully alongside the virginia. Overall tasty but mellow flavor. Decent nicotine kick. Bite wasn't a concern. It seemed like the full flavor profile came out better in a wider gauge bowl, whereas a narrower bowl accentuated the sweetness... at times almost too sweet for me in the narrow bowl. Good stuff and well put together I say. Thanks Russ & AJ.

I have really been liking Vapers of late and have been trying many of them. Iwas sent a good amount of this blend to sample and review, and I find it a very enjoyable smoke. It is a multicolorwd blend going through the gamut of light brown to dark brown. It has a nice musky aroma in the pouch which made my mouth water. it is a Vaper with an unflavored black cavendish muxed in which gives it a smoothness and body. It comes a touch wet to my taste and is better if allowed to dry for a few hours. I find Russ's blend tend to be a bit green right off the bat but do age to very good blends after a few months. This one I would imagine will follow that. I have put some away to cellar and will return to it. So my review here is with the non aged blend. It does load very nice in the pipe and is easily lit with the light char light method and maintains a nice, slow, burn. It is very mild at the start of the bowl but it does gain strenth as it burns down, becoming quite tasty towards the last third of the bowl. It burns very clean in the pipe smoking down to a dry gray fluffy ash. No dottle left at all. It has a nice sweet, spicy, flavor and is very enjoyable. I would prefer it not have the black cavendish as it does lessen the perique flavor and strenth. It has the wonderful musty room note that perique produces and I love. This is a noce blend and Ai can't wait to try it with some age on it.

I like this tobacco. The cavendish gives it a bit of sweetness, and the bright Virginias make it zesty. With a bit of spice from the perique, it's got a lot of good flavor. Nice cut, easy to smoke.

I'm only giving it three of four stars because I can't figure out if I like this more or less than Virginia Spice (adds cigar leaf) or Anniversary Kake (way more complicated flavors) from the same blender. They are all excellent in their own right. Russ clearly knows VAPers.

A good VaPer, but I would certainly recommend SG St. James Flake or Rattray's Marlin Flake above it. I rate it highly especially for the price, but SG StJF is equally as reasonable and leagues more satisfying.

This is a very good Virginia with a noticeable amount of perique, I've been smoking this for the last six months and is just keeps getting better the packaging is easy, the lighting is easy and keeping it lit it's not troublesome, the flavor is sweet virginias most of the time with the perique very lively from middle of the bowl, great stuff, not very overpowering but letting you know that is there, nothing but white ash at the bottom of the pipe my only gripe about it is that you have to be careful because it has a medium tendency to bite but overall not that different to most virginia blends. I f you can try to age it for at least 3 months to really get the virginias going.