Sutliff Tobacco Company Voodoo Queen #523

The mildly grassy, tart and tangy citrusy Virginia is the base of the blend and not a major player, but it does give a light balance to the overall smoke. The nutty, woody, lightly molasses sweet, earthy burley plays an important support role. The spicy, raisiny, plumy, earthy, woody perique is noticeable without wrecking the balance of the product. The smokey, woody, earthy, musty sweet Cyprian Latakia is ever present as a competitive lead component. The chocolate-coffee taste from the Mocha slices mildly sublimates the tobaccos, and tames the perique a tad more than it does the other components. I think a little rum is also present. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is almost in the center of mild to medium. Won't bite or get harsh, and has no weak or dull moments. Has few small rough edges. Burns at a moderate pace, clean and cool with a very consistent, fairly smooth and creamy, mildly sweet and savory flavor. Easily burns to ash. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste, and slightly stronger room note. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

Like perique? Lots of perique? Great! Then jump on board and lets go for a ride.



First, what's in the bag? Seems to be a three part mixture:



1. A rubbed flake similar to Rattrays Old Gowrie, this must be the "Mocha Slices". (Cake Cut - Burley, Virginia, and Turkish with Dutch flavorings added.)

2. The smoky latakia. Big chunks as in Count Pulaski with the same full smell of campfire.

3. Other stuff that may be broken parts of the first or perhaps some of the Perique, Spicy and pungent, sweet and saucy.



The smell is full, rich with the smell of perique, medium latakia smokiness and some topping similar to the anise and rum in Count Pulaski (also seems to be in Sutliffe #5). The rest is? Who cares!





We ain't goin to see an opera at the Met baby, this is Daytona Beach spring break. High compression V8's at red line, the heady smell of racing fuel. Spicy cajun cookin, hot crawfish with lots of red pepper and tobasco sauce. You be in the south now honey. Get the coon hounds and lets go huntin. Ever been to New Orleans Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras? (prior to hurricane Katrina). Well, this is the closest you will get.



Light this puppy up and the perique and latakia great you graciously, a hint of chocolate and coffee as the mocha slices offer a warm welcome. This blend starts out smooth and mild, and ends with your mouth on fire. Sweaty forehead hot, need an ice water hot. Florida in August 105 degrees and 100% humidity hot. Strip off your clothes hot!



Actors on a stage is not the analogy for this blend. This is Cirque Du Soleil in Orlando. The action all around you. Dancers, acrobats, jugglers, music, lights, trapeze, and one arm hand stands 30 feet in the air. All the flavors of rum, latakia, chocolate, coffee, virginia, anise and the rest are there to be enjoyed, but sooner or later the perique takes over. Then the heat starts and all the other flavors go away. Your tongue will light up, along with your lips. Don't confuse the heat of the perique with tongue bite. There is no tongue bite because it stays lit so you don't have to puff like a steam engine. It stays cool, but gets spicy hot.



Is it like Old Gowrie, 2105 or Beacon? Hell no, this is better. More perique, less nasty sharp or bitter virginia. Smooth, high quality. Rich latakia for flavor, a great rough cut you can play with, and that mesmerizing flash of anise and rum flavor unique to Altadis. Super weed, almost as good as a blast of codeine. (oops, scratch that last comment).



Will I smoke it every day? No. But I don't eat pepperoni pizza with a cold Bud every day either. But when the need hits I got to have it.



This is like two weeks of vacation before I retired, I would not miss it for the world, and like a vacation, I do not want the grinding boredom of "sophistication".



Dis be an island smoke mon, hot, sultry glistening with sweat, sexy, the Voodoo Queen. Oh, and by the way, we don't care how you did it up north.

Need more flavor? For you Grabow fans, soak your filter in Captain Morgan 100 proof spiced rum.

I bought a pound of this to sample, and I am probably a couple of ounces into the experience. It is time for a review.

The tobacco is a mostly rubbed out flake with some medium ribbon in the mix. The tobacco is dark - browns and blacks primarily with a few tan leaves thrown in there for good measure. It came maybe on the moist side of ideal. I have been smoking it as delivered. Pouch note is smokey latakia and a tobacco. There might be a hint of rum.

I find the flavor profile to be interesting in a good way. The topping is almost like a little spiced rum in a cup of mocha. This sounds like a lot of flavors, but they work well, and they are fairly mild. There is good tobacco flavor here, and the latakia contributes but does not take over. There is great burley body with a bitter edge when puffed and the Virginia is a grassy sweet when sipped. The perique provides some spice and a nose tickle on the snork.

I liked this and find it to be a good smoke. This is a 3.5 on the scale really. I could see smoking a lot of this. As a bonus it is in stock and does not break the bank to buy some.

I have dabbled very little in English blends, but this has got me begging for more. Though this is not specifically English, it is still amazing.

Upon false lighting I was immediately taken in back the smokiness of the Latakia, a wonderful fragrance. I proceeded to tamp and light for the second time and was amazed by how well this tobacco lights and expands. It expanded so much in fact, that I needed to tamp and light for a third time. This did not bother me, as I was desperately waiting for the flavors to wisk me away...and that they did!

For the first third of the bowl, I was greeted with a smokey/tangy flavor, I am guessing this is the Latakia and "Mocha slices". The flavor is just amazing, albeit I did not actually detect mocha or coffee. No matter.

As the bowl smoked down, I was seduced, entirely, by the spiciness of the Perique, as it mingled with the other flavors. This stuff is gonna do me in, I can feel it!

The Latakia took to the background as the sweetness of the VA/Burley cascaded the spiciness into a somber tang.

I had to tamp a bit as I smoked, the tobacco produces large chunks of ash that need breaking up, given the slices pressed format. (I'm guessing at that.) No relights, no bite, no regrets. Also burns a tad bit unevenly, but it was my first bowl, so who knows...

...but...

I am in love with the Voodoo Queen.

This is going to be a regular for me, and a re-order for sure.

Sutliff Tobacco Co. - Voodoo Queen #523.

This isn't a ribbon, as currently stated on a few websites, it's clearly a broken flake. The moisture's great, and there's no hint of toppings from the pouch-note.

I don't find the flavour of mine too congruent with how I've heard this has a potent blast of Perique. Sure, the presence of Perique is unequivocal, but it doesn't seem too sharp, harsh, and I get zero vinegar tastes/astringency, like I often get from heady Perique blends. The Lat' gives more wood than smoke, again not being too snappy. The Burley is easier to pick out than the Virginia, the Virginia's easily the lighter of the bunch. Where any toppings are concerned, I get more of a chocolate trait, than a coffee one. This works nicely with the natural sweetness from the Burley. The burn from Voodoo's good, and I get no bite; I've been smoking this bowl after bowl all morning, without a nip!

Nicotine: medium to strong. Room-note: just below pleasant.

#523: a nice enough blend, but becomes mundane after a few bowls. Two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

Talk about being surprised!

A Co-worker of mine introduced me to Voodoo Queen. Wow! Smooth smokey latakia, peppery Perique and a Mocha flavor you can taste that really works with and compliments the tobacco. Smokey Spicy Mocha. Great mouth feel, no bite, plenty of flavor and aroma. Quality Tobacco and a very pleasant and unique smoke. Way to go Altadis!

Great non-standard English. There is a subtle chocolate-coffee flavor, but the main feature is Latakia, with a pleasant Perique background.

Really like this tobacco. I bought an ounce of this for some reason (I don’t remember why) and tried it for the first time last week on Christmas Eve. I only had a small bowl outside while cooking, but since I was at a party I didn’t get to savor it. But I knew that it was good.

Decided to have this as my last bowl of 2018, so I packed it into my Peterson lovat and headed to the garage. Super mild and flavorful, it just went down smooth as silk. No bite at all, even though I was puffing away pretty hard. Usually I take at least an hour on a bowl, but I got through this in 45 min. M drink on the side was an iced coffee with a little cream and milk, which was perfect and complemented the tobacco fantastically.

I’m not really that great at picking out notes and flavors, but for anyone looking for a mild, flavorful, and smooth-smoking blend, this should hit the mark. I plan to get plenty more in 2019.

I was given a healthy sample of this a while ago and just recently finished it. I have mixed feelings on this one, but am positive in that I will not be repurchasing more of it.

This blend is unique, so much so, it is pretty hard to put this into any category. It is kind of a lat blend, kind of an aromatic, and kind of a perique blend. It dances over so many genres that it really can't suffice to scratch your itch if you are in the mood for any particular one. What I think it is would be a good change up blend.

I don't really find it to be as overpowering with Perique as many have, but it is definitely noticeable. I find the blend to be very tangy (and a little too tangy to my tastes) and perhaps many take this as coming from the perique. I think it is coming from the toppings. I think this blend would be more appealing to me without the toppings, but that is just my opinion.

I also find this one to be a little bitey and this is something that I would not expect from a blend containing perique and latakia. Once again, I think the topping(s) is(are) to blame for this.

I don't think that this is a terrible blend by any means. It does burn well and has a pleasant side stream aroma. I wouldn't want anyone to take my review to suggest that the topping(s) is(are) overpowering at all because they are not. They are actually subtly applied. I just don't like the flavor they issue. This is likely my dislike of chocolate as a topping as the mocha slices are sure to impart similar flavor notes.

This is probably a three star blend to many and maybe a four star blend to a few, but I really can't go over two for my own impressions on it. I did toy with the idea of three strictly due to the unique nature of this blend, but have to keep it true my own subjective feelings on this one.

The way I've read some review this it's as if they are reviewing a totally different tobacco than what I received from pipes and cigars the other day. I got 4 ounces from them via us mail. It smelled great upon opening the bag. I personally love an English blend that has that sweet smell accompanying the latakia and this blend has that. Being a former cigarette smoker, I enjoy inhaling my pipe tobacco every now and then and whenever I damn well please and this one has that lovely, allusive little throaty hit I so crave in a tobacco. If a pipe tobacco is too mild in that regard I usually don't care for it too much. Voodoo queen is a great tobacco and I'm glad I ordered it. Edit: I've smoked about half of the 4oz I ordered so far and I can tell this tobacco is one I will have to keep in my permanent rotation. It's really good in the morning with coffee, but it's also good anytime of day. It is one of the most flexible, satisfying, and good smoking blends I've ever come across and there's been a LOT of them. Do not hesitate to try this if you enjoy a semi sweet English blend and if you like perique.