Bufflehead Emperor Goose

Emperor Goose was another bulk blend that Windsor had on his price list. An in your face Latakia strong blend that was subdued only by complimentary and rather monochromatic Virginia that never interfered with the unrelenting waves of the smoky Latakia. A little too heavy on the Lat for me, but a quality smoke.

Pipestud

this is a pretty simple blend, with only latakia and virginia tobaccos. the appearance is mainly dark flakes with a few lighter virginia ones. the pouch aroma is kind of sour and vinegary, not particularly appealing but i don't buy tobacs to smell them. there is some moisture, about the same as any mcclellan blend. packing and lighting are average, and it burns down to a bit of dottle in the bottom of the bowl. some drying time might make it better in this aspect. the above comments make emperor goose sound bland, but the taste is very appealing to me. it's a mild tobacco, perfect for an all-day smoke. there's a hint of sweetness, along with good smooth latakia flavor. best of all is the room note. my wife loves the smell of this one. this solves a long search for me, a straight english blend with an appealing room note. this one is a keeper for me. three stars.

This one was a sleeper for me. On first smoking, I thought "Where's the latakia?" It's like a chocolate shake without chocolate." But, on second and subsequent smoking it has a nice warm character of it's own, its really a pleasent smoke. And speaking of smoke, it makes its presense known visually. Billowing clouds of grey. A bad choice to sneak a smoke in the back of a New York resturant. You'll send the antis screaming for the door. David Windsor has a quiet winner here, clean, light, tastefull smoke. It goes in my good drawer.,

Another good effort by Bufflehead. My counterpart, mparker, commented on the sweetness of this blend in a negative view. I can understand this because it is an unusual flavor that I have experienced only in other Bufflehead blends and in PCCA's Full Balkan Reserve-Syrian and Syrian Star. Of the three Bufflehead English blends I have tried to this point (Barrows Goldeneye, Snow Goose and Emporer Goose), this has the least of this sweetness. It also has the least strength of latakia, so maybe it is the latakia that offers this sweetness. I know that in PCCA's Full Balkan Reserve-Cyprian there is no hint of this same sweetness and I understand that the only difference between FBR-S and FBR-C is the latakia. All these blends are made by McClelland.

I happen to like this flavor as a change of pace, but I do find that I tire of it if I smoke it too often. Emperor Goose is basically a medium latakia blend that has that hint of sweetness, but there is not much else that comes through, just the latakia. If you like this flavor, I suggest Barrows Goldeneye as it is the strongest of this flavor and has more depth of flavor.

All of the Bufflehead English blends I have tried are mostly a flake cut with just a small amount of ribbon and they burn just slightly hotter than average. Like most McClelland blended tobaccos, they come on the damp side and must be dried somewhat to get good burning qualities.

This one smelled pretty good in the bag, but has a strange, unpleasant sweet taste, sort of a vinegary caramel. Despite the bag aroma, it had surprisingly little latakia flavor, but did produce volumes of smoke.



I'm pretty sure this is a McClelland product -- I've got an old Levin-labeled tin of Bombay Court that has that same strange taste (although in much lower levels), although I've never noticed it in any other McClelland blend. With Bombay Court, this taste dissipates within a day or two of opening the tin, but after several attempts over five days, I haven't noticed it waning at all in Emperor Goose.