Esoterica Tobacciana Kingsbridge

Esoterica wins again! These guys are Pros. This is definitely the best they offer in the Va range. Burns cool and easy, and needs very little drying out. The flavor is just wonderful Va smoke with a bit of casing that tastes like perique minus any spice or hotness. You could easily smoke this blend all day and never tire your palette. A winner for sure!

This was the last of my recent trials of heat processed VAs and also the best. This bulk blend was slightly dryer than I prefer but this might have been a supplier problem. The rubbed out flakes were deep brown to jet black without any predominant pouch aroma. Initially, I had repetitive difficulty in packing that resulted in multiple relights or a hard draw or clogged air hole. Once mastered, an even, cool smoke resulted without the harshness of the others in this category that I've tried. However, I still prefer true VA flakes for their slow and even burn rates. If this was just sweeter in natural taste, I could use it as an all day smoke. If you prefer a matured, natural VA taste, you might enjoy this blend.

Pouch produced for Butera Pipe Co vs Arango Cigar Co. Package note of dark fruit and cooked vegetation. Tobacco is a Ready Rubbed of black with white crystals or powder. Moisture content is great. No drying/prep needed. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of licorice. I'm leaning in the direction of licorice due the sourness, bitterness and sweetness. Flavoring seems to run fairly constant. Taste is medium and very consistent, with notes of bread, tangy sweet dark fruit, licorice, sugar, savory, fermented sour, woody, herbal floral hay, earthy, lemon grassy, orange peel bitterness, a spices and tart citrus background note, and a peppery retro. Virginia is leading with Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is good.

I received in a trade a few oz's of Kingsbridge. My go to Esoterica has been Pembroke.

The flakes are really dark but obviously a broken up dark flake. Reminded me in appearance of Dark Star.

I found it easy to pack in my Canadian and was easily burning on the first light.

Taste wise I pick up on the anise/licorice that others have mentioned. Its not overwhelming by any means. I was able to taste the sweetness of the base tobacco.

To me, this is one of the hidden treasures of the Esoterica line.

For me, the topping was off-putting. I didn't like or enjoy it and won't try it again.

I have had this blend for two years aging in a mason jar. It was very wet when I first purchased it and aging didn't do much for that. I dried it out and packed it easily. It lit up fairly well. The tobac has almost no flavor to speak of. It's very mild. The one noticeable aspect of it is it's very sweet on the tongue. Overall I cannot recommend this.

I found that this won't burn well for me and leaves my trusted pipes soaking after even half a bowl. The flavor that comes through is high and sweet, but nothing close to Dark Star or Full Virginia Flake.