Castello Collection

Golden brown clumpy chop cut ribbon with a tea-like tin nose. Lit easily and burned quickly with a surprising amount of nicotine for a straight Virginia. Made by C&D but I don't know if this is a C&D or a Castello recipe. Reminds me vaguely of C&D Briar Fox with the non-sweet VA flavor, but this one veered too sharply in that direction. Somehow the blender managed to leech out, process out, or otherwise remove most of the Virginia leaf's sweetness and tang for a more "cigarette" approach. Flavor-wise, it seemed that this had some Kentucky in the mix but it lacked the body I associate with that leaf. But it behaved rather like a burley and less like a Virginia.

Puffed at a normal slow pace, there was just a hint of sweetness and even that ebbed away much of the time. The predominant flavor was plain tobacco that leaned heavily toward the burley side of things, with that pervasive cigarette feel. More thin in body than your average burley, however. It also reminded me of Ogden's Gold Block but it's been too long for me to be sure. This might make for a good blending tobacco to tone down heavily-flavored or heavy bodied blends. Smoked by itself, it failed to elevate itself beyond "just ok". Puffed vigorously to see how it performed under pressure, it never got too feisty but it did turn rather bitter and gave me a pretty good case of the "niccups". As a burley would. No tongue bite from the over-exertion, just excessively warm on the tongue... again, my experience with burley. The blender claims this is just Virginia tobacco and I suppose I believe them, but it doesn't smoke much like it. The Castello blends I've tried (both of them) are largely let-downs, but do try this one if you're curious about a very much non-sweet and non-tangy blend.

The mildly earthy red Virginia is just a little dark fruit sweet and hardly tangy. It's rather flat. The other Virginias offer a touch of grass, a slight bit of earth, not much citrus or other sweetness. It has no depth of flavors or taste, and is a very unobtrusive all day smoke. The nic-hit is mild. Won't bite or get harsh. Burns a tad slow with little moisture left in the bowl, and requires a few relights. The flavor is fairly consistent. Has an okay after taste. It may do for the smoker who wants a mild all day Virginia to smoke without thinking much about it.

-JimInks

I smoked the entire lineup of Castello blends years ago when they started coming out. I'm told that Castello wanted a range of tobaccos that would appeal to smokers of all types of tobaccos. This year 2013 compilation by C&D was not a part of the original release blends (and forgive me, I can't remember the blender of those). It was awhile before I was able to obtain Collection and the broken up ribbon burned a little fresh an warm to me. The taste was middlin' and not much strength. Not a bad smoke for me but not really an impressive one either.

A good tobacco, strong in nicotine but not overwhelming, Interesting notes by red virginia give taste of pomace and ripe red fruit. Not an all day tobacco, easy to load and to smoke but without a complex evolution could be too strong in strength and nicotine for a beginner