Sutliff Tobacco Company Bosphorus Cruise

Blind test blend #2 - 5 bowls worth. Interesting looking with kind of a reddish hue to it. Bag aroma was of some of the juiciest orientals I've ever smelled. Almost made me want to eat it. But common sense came back and I fired it up. It leaned in the direction of "balkan" with the orientals out front and the latakia next in line. Tasted like mostly red virginia for the base.

The problem with this one was the flavor didn't match the aroma's power. I liked what flavor there was but it was just too faint, too bland. I'm not sure how they were able to make it smell so potent and taste so mild. I guess I conclude that it's more of a "beginners balkan" to start someone off slowly on their way to the pleasures that genre affords. I wasn't really aware that Sutliff made latakia blends, so I leaned more towards Peter Stokkebye, but wasn't really comfortable with that guess, either. This is a perfectly serviceable mild balkan but it failed to excite me. Worth a try if you're starting out with latakia and orientals or if you simply want a very laid-back version, perhaps for early mornings. No objective faults with this one - it just didn't have enough going on for my tastes.