Hearth & Home LJ Heart Virginia

I like some of H and H blends but some are just too green out of the pouch. This is one of them. With aging, I think it will improve and will do so. This tobacco blend also arrived to me very much on the dry side but actually about the dryness I like it. It is an all brown blend with hints of a dark brown mixed in. It smells nice and tangy in the pouch with a musky backdrop of the perique. It loaded quite easily and was very easy to get lit. It stays lit very well and produces a perique dominated figgy taste that is very mild. In fact, my sample the perique dominated the blend very much and the VA was almost non present for the first half of the bowl. It provided very little of the sweet hay like taste that I like. Once I hit the halfway point in the bowl, it bloomed for a little while and offered a sweet, creamy smoke that I love. but just as I was really getting into the great flavor, it disappeared again and became very ashy and bitter tasting. I feel this is a very green blend and needs to be aged awhile. I am going to cellar the rest and come back to it. So, based on my smokes of it early on, I cannot recommend this blend.

Like most of the other reviewers, I find LJ Heart Virginia to be an excellent Virginia tobacco. It is very favorful with a good amount of Perique, although a little less sweet than most Virginias that I have tried. Also as noted by the others, it is extremely easy to smoke, lighting easily, with no bite, and leaving only a fine ash in the bowl. It is also priced right.

My only criticisms (and I know I'm getting a bit picky here) are that the aroma of the unlit tobacco is less intense than with most Virginias and that it is a bit on the weak side, nicotine-wise.

Despite these slight imperfections, I have made LJ Heart Virginia one of my regular smokes.

To my tastes, this is a fine VA tobacco. As with Mr. Dottle, the taste of the perique eluded me, but that may be just my pallet. I received this initially as a sample from Frenchy and that was extremely dry. I ordered some directly from pipesandcigars and that had a perfect level of moisture. I put some away for a year, and that made a tremendous difference; the flavors seemed to blend and the sweetness of the VA really came out. There is still a little tang, but the sweetness predominates. I'm giving this 4 stars with the warning that it takes some aging to reach the 4 star level. As received from the blender, I give it 3 stars.

This is a blend of coarse ribbon cut VAs with perique added that I thought was dry as received but still smoked cool and without any condensation or bite. An effortless smoke without relights resulted. I didn't sense much influence from the the Perique but the taste was still enjoyable although the strength was less than my normal VAPER preferred flakes.

Nothing fancy, just a darn good Virginia blend that keeps its promises - no bite, a little sweet, a little tangy, and it smokes like a dream - just like LJ's pipes, dry and cool. The longer I smoke, the more I enjoy blends like this that are easy to approach, yet leave me completely satisfied.

This is a delicious, mild to medium VA with a subtle and constant sweetness that doesn?t disappoint. It pretty much matches the description although the ?whisper? of perique eluded my palate. It burns cool with no bite and has good burning qualities. Try this with a fresh, clean palate and a ?cold one.? It?s superb! LJH is not a particularly complex blend but as the old TV commercial stated, ?The simpler things are, the better I like them.? This is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying VAs I have smoked.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this blend 9.9 out of 10.

Exemplar sweetness and tang, just as advertised. A little bit try - needed a coupla drops of water. The taste is wonderful. For a bulk virginia, this is great stuff.

Images evoked include a rabbit skeleton hopping merrily through a beautiful hilly landscape.

I received 5 or 6 bowls worth of this blend from Frenchy, after purchasing a pipe off his site. The contents of the bag were quite dry and I decided to smoke 'as -is'. A myriad of different cuts can be seen: cube, ribbon, coarse and long. I also detect the presence of a decent proportion of perique. Bag aroma is a subtle virginia, somewhat redolent of McClellands, but muted overall. Lightup is spicy but not hot and the piquant flavor calms almost immediately. Taste is straightforward, unsullied va/per. Not exceptional but certainly worthy of your attention. I may order some. Of note: the residual room aroma is rather acrid, for me.

I guess my taste buds are shot...or I got a bad batch, but I have to strongly disagree with the other reviews here. The sample I recieved was "very" dry - which may have resulted in a bad experience. The lit bowl started out OK, but the further down I smoked the fowler it got and by the end I could barely stand to finish it. Spousal note - her initial smell test indicated it was light and had an OK room note, but toward the end she said it smelled like I was smoking dog poo. After 25+ years of pipe smoking...I would have to say this ranks close to the bottom of the blends I have tried. If you are considering trying this one...definitely get a small sample first.