Cup O' Joes Adirondack Mardi Gras Pipe Tobacco

The musty, leathery, floral Cyprian Latakia provides of wealth of smoke, earth, wood, herbal incense, some sweetness, and light spice as the lead component. The fragrant Orientals offer a lot of earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, floralness, some buttery sweetness and tart sourness along with mild spice. They are supporting players. Right behind the Orientals is the smoky, woody, earthy, spicy, lightly nutty dark fired Kentucky, which also has a obvious sweet and sour barbecue essence. The earthy, woody, spicy, plumy, date-like perique is a couple of notches above the condiment line. The Virginia produces some tart and tangy citrus, grass, bread, sugar, vegetation, and light floralness. It’s the base for the other varietals. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the medium mark. The taste level is just past the center of medium to full. No chance of bite or harshness, Has a few rough notes, though fewer than expected. Well balanced, deeply rich and complex, it burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a very consistent sweet, floral, spicy, moderately sour, savory campfire flavor. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. Requires an average number of relights. Has a long lasting, pleasant after taste, and a pungent room note. Not quite an all day smoke for the veteran. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

Cup O' Joes - Adirondack Mardi Gras.

Up until now, today, I've been smoking a few of my more formidable blends, the ones containing Kentucky. I often find Kentucky a bit heady for me, so decided to have a day where I faced my fear! After this, it's going to be an afternoon/evening of soft aromatics!

The aroma from the pouch is indicative of a large proportion of Latakia, but there's also a slight 'dustiness'. Moisture's good.

The flavour fluctuates throughout. At first the Latakia has more vigour, but after a quarter the Kentucky kicks in. The Perique increases the strength of the blend, and kicks the flavour up a notch or two; it's strongly added, becoming more potent over the duration. The burn from it's steady, but can become too warm.

Nicotine: strong. Room-note: quite full.

Now, although the Perique improves the flavour as the bowl goes on, I couldn't pipe it regularly.

Somewhat recommended.

The note from the bag that this came in (Cup O' Joes was generous enough to include a small sample) was the wonderful campfire smell of a good portion of Latakia. Cut was a thin ribbon - moisture was spot on for most folks, but I prefer my tobacco a little drier so I let it sit for 10 minutes. The first light and subsequent 1/3rd of the bowl brought out the incense of the Latakia and a little bit of sweetness from the virginia grades. At this point I may have stated that the blend tasted similar to C&D's Star of the East, likely a testament to the Latakia content. And then the Perique hit, and boy did it hit! At this point, the Perique became the dominant force in the blend, moreso than I've experienced in anything remotely similar (and I can't really put my finger on anything quite like this one). The spice added a wonderful dimension to the character of the Latakia, and this one does get a bit spicy! In the final third of the bowl, the dark fired starts to emerge in its sweet-and-sour form, taking over where the Latakia is receding, and mingling with the Perique. The tobacco burned down to a fine white ash with minimal dottle.

Overall I was very impressed with this blend! The Perique may be a bit much for some people, but I very much enjoyed this quantity of it in an English style blend. I was really blown away by how much was going on in this tobacco and how strongly each component lent its character at different times. I will definitely be buying this again, and in good quantity!