Smoke King Steeplechase mixture

Smoke King - Steeplechase Mixture.

The actual mixture is made of quite large cuttings of tobacco and fairly even in the selection of the varieties. The smell being given off is a fairly standard one for a blend with Latakia in it. As I found with the other Smoke King.com blend it is perfect in the fact it is not too dry or overly damp. Now, once the bowl is filled and it comes to lighting it up I have to say it is amazing in its speed of ignition, it takes the flame on the first attempt and does not dictate that you keep re-lighting it. The smoke is brilliant in both thickness and flavour. Thickness first: just right as it's neither too heavy nor borderline anorexic! Now flavour: a great compilation of all the tobaccos without ANY being too steadfast or weak in the taste. You get a delightful balance of each taste where if you try to distinguish a specific one of them you can pick it out with prodigious ease. Pleasant as normally you find a blend with Latakia in it will be mainly Lat in taste but this gives some freedom to the others to have their moment of glory! Tongue bite? Again this scores well, not any from start to end. Room note ?.... Splendid, like the taste you can identify all the tobaccos in it but also none of them are too heavy. For me the most pre-eminent area that this exceeds in is inhalation, for a few reasons: 1: slips down with ease. 2: when exhaled through the nose the flavour is sublimely amplified. 3: nicotine is spot on for me as it is about Rattray Bagpipers Dream level which did not disappoint me nor overwhelm me.

I think this is a super blend from a "not so well known" name and for this reason I only wish I could give it 5 stars instead of 4!!

This is a really nice smoke that I think will benefit from a little aging. The Lat is light enough for all the components to come through nicely. The Virginias are mildly fruity with a little sweetness. The Orientals lend a mildly sour spice note. The Cavendish is sweet with a note of vanilla. The Latakia is smoky and woody and has just a slightly acrid note to it. Acrid may be too strong a word for it, but I don't know what else to call it. I sometimes get that note from Latakia and have noticed that it generally gets tamer as time goes by. As a constant retrohaler the note is probably a little more pronounced for me than for those who don't retrohale as much. I'm going to let what I have left of this age for a while and see if it gets a little better. I'm thinking it will. For now I can give this 3.5 stars. It's very good and I think some age will bring it up to 4.

Medium in body and taste. Burns perfectly. Same results in cob and briar.

This comes in a 25 gram non-vacuum-sealed tin with a hinged lid that you flip open. The tobacco inside was of a good moisture, ready to smoke. A pretty standard English mixture, well-balanced, not a Latakia bomb, with a medium body and a low-to-medium nicotine strength. It's mentioned here that it has Cavendish, but I didn't pick up on it. A thoroughly enjoyable smoke.