Esoterica Tobacciana Dunbar

Bright gold and sliced into perfect ribbons. This tobacco smells like honey, wood, green raisin,straw, button mushroom, and a slight kind of... unripened cantaloupe. The faintest wet, earth smell. Like a morning walk through a field in early spring. The tufts of dry grass wet with melting snow and thawing soil- a chill breeze blowing, but you can smell life returning with it. Smoking characteristics are ideal: Clean, smooth burn with almost no bite, though my batch was considerably moist and warrants air-drying before packing to avoid moisture or gurgle. The taste is Virginia perfection with an almost incognito level of perique. Layers of lightly sweet Virginia with cool, slight earthy musty undertones of the Perique and subtle fruitiness. I have to admit that this is my first VAPer and that may be bad, as it could set the bar too high for other VAPer blends. I think this may be one of my go-to all-day pipes. Especially outdoors, as the room note is the only thing I don't wholly appreciate about this tobacco. Next trip to my tobacconist will find me not only filling a jar with this blend, but grabbing a few ounces to gift my brother.

The pleasure starts before opening the nice ET tin. On opening, I was taken aback by the aroma. Fresh, natural, wood, honey - can VaPers really smell this good? The cut is rough, shaggy, thick strips, broken flake a bit of ribbon - packs very easily despite being relatively moist. Within seconds of first getting Dunbar going I realised I was in for a treat. A light, naturally sweet Va with a fresh chilli Perique edge, velvety yet spicy, sweet but not artificially so. Lighter, fresher than FVF, fuller, smoother than DNR, cleaner, more natural than Three Nuns or Navy Flake, this is an outstanding VaPer that I have started to crave. Excellent!

Update: I have been smoking this almost exclusively over the summer, it's a great warm weather tobacco: its citrus cleanness and light tobacco touch is just great when other darker tobacco would be like Guiness in the desert. This, along with Tilbury, are my standard mixes now, I no longer feel the need to experiment with other VAs - more than happy with these all day every day.

Lots of tangy, floral and slightly spicy notes to get things started. Small sips of lemon grass and bread. Rich and complex with little nic hit. Flavors mesh mid bowl into delicious and complex flavor. Retro really makes this blend shine. Going into my morning lineup with Telegraph Hill. -Spiral Out

Upon opening the tin, I was greeted with a beautiful fruity smell. The broken flake was the perfect moisture to immediately pack and smoke. As I burned through the bowl I got hints of hay, a bit of citrus, some fig/raisin type fruitiness, and an ever so small amount of spice I can only assume was from the perique. This blend is mild, cool smoking and wont bite unless you really puff it hard. As a regular Va/Per smoker I would highly recommend this blend and it will become a staple in my cellar when it can be found.

I was a bit worried to try this due to the perique but I have been pleasantly surprised. Only tobacco I’ve liked with perique has been bullseye. But in fairness I’ve not given them much of a chance due to my father in law’s opinion about perique being too spicy. I am absolutely loving this blend as I am everything I try from esoterica and Germains! Exquisite Tobacco’s!!!! This bend has easy become on of my favorites and can be smoked all day long!!!

Esoterica Dunbar- A lot of bright Virginia tobaccos with some brown and reds . Don’t see a lot of black perique but it’s there . Kind of a coarse ready rubbed broken flake . I love the light plum fruity taste of this blend . It stays about the same through the bowl but that’s fine with me . Savory and sweet at the same time . All the tobaccos are married together , expertly blended . I can switch off and on with Dorchester and get a much different vaper experience! Dorchester tastes brighter with more Perique and the apricot notes . Dunbar is a deeper fruity plum vaper . I enjoy both and was lucky enough to find them at a local B&M shop . The bags are the way to go for me . Germains makes great tobaccos and Dunbar is one of their best . They have a special touch that no other tobacco producer can duplicate. Worth the effort to find Dunbar in stock ! 4

3rdguy

Went into this tin with high expectations and I was not disappointed. My first full tin of this and it is 3 years in age, I look forward to trying some of my more aged tins.

At first it did not seem to stand out but once I gave it some breathing room it is a fantastic smoke. Damn shame it does not come in bulk considering it is hard to secure and the cost.I have about 5lbs in the cellar and not sure that is enough so I will add a few more. No bite, gurgle, relights...just a pleasure to smoke. Not a daily for me because I would run out of it in no time but I finished this full tin in 6 days which is a record for me.

Highly recommended.

I do not want to rehash the flavor profile for this blend, as there are already great reviews. However, I would like to highlight a few points for why I believe Esoterica Dunbar to be a four star blend in a market full of va/pers.

1) The method in which Esoterica/J.F. Germain processes their Virginia tobaccos is unique. The Virginia leaf tastes like it had been aged for years. As soon as you open the tin/bag, you will notice a sweet aroma. This sweetness follows all the way through the smoke, which I find quite tasty. Additionally, there is no harshness or chance of tongue bite.

2) The perique taste unlike any other va/per I have come across. It is not really spicy. Instead, I find it to offer a complex flavor explosion that ranges from a slight tangy cucumber-esque flavor to a fig-like earthiness. It is strange, but quite pleasant.

I keep coming back to this review and having to adjust it.

First, this is one of my favorite Virginia and/or Virginia Perique blends. The Perique doesn't show up in significant amounts enough to totally consider it a Va/Per, but it is in there.

The reason I have to re-write this review is because after smoking it a good while I have come to the conclusion there's something particularly unique in this blend. Initially, I knew I tasted mostly sweet bready Virginia as the primary body of the flavor with hints of the variety of other lighter virginia components. I almost thing there's a lightly stoved bright or orange type flake in there because it has that baked bread quality. It's just superb. Also, the perique is strands of ribbon cut, rather than granulated or the more peppery. This perique has flavor with nose tingle, but it's not much like other perique's as it always comes with a flavor if that makes sense.

As I've smoked it, and smoked other straight Virginia's and Va/per's alongside it, over time I realized there's something, not really a topping per say, but it may be, imbued in the tobacco. First, the tobacco coloring is just ever so slightly shifted in color. There's a common yellow/green type shade consistent across all the ribbons. That's a little different than the color's of the natural tobacco spectrum that I'm used to seeing. The colors are usually bolder not muted or shaded consistently across a range of color like in Dunbar.

Then, there's something about this flavor. It is very natural Virginia tasting, but there is something imbued in this. Something is enhancing this taste. It's almost ever so slightly flowery and I couldn't pinpoint it exactly (though I tasted its presence) until after I smoked it over a period of time in tandem with other varieties of Virginia's. No other Virginia blend has this. It is slightly in Dorchester and Tillbury as well, but not as prominent as this.

It almost reminds me of McClellan's Vinegar enhancement. Very similar, but not the same. These Dunbar Virginia's have some kind of floral type enhancement, but done in a way that doesn't interfere with the flavor of the leaf or compete with it in any way, it just enhances it uniquely. This is unique to Esoterica. I've been toying with the idea of attempting to recreate this stuff out of blender's that I have so that's why I think it is standing out. It is really intriguing and like McClelland really begs the question as to what process Esoterica is using to treat their Virginia's to add this wonderful nuance.