Criss Cross Original Blend

I bought a bag of this stuff about two months ago. Since then, I've been periodically poisoning myself with this shit. Don't interpret me wrong though, I'm not saying that in a typical anti-tobacco advert way. I'm all for good tobacco, but even Saddam Hussein wouldn't allow his people to smoke this stuff for fear of human rights violations and a direct infringement on the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Firstly, when reviewing the aesthetics of this blend, the great irony is that this tobacco looks like it has terminal cancer. The color is a pale brown (similar to pencil shavings) and looks so faded that I have to wonder if part of the aging process of this blend involved sitting untouched in someones backyard for a couple summers. When the leaf is in the bag, it looks much closer to the material you use to line the inside of a hamster cage than tobacco. Come to think of it, this stuff might be pretty good at absorbing rodent piss if nothing else. In terms of flavor, the title "Virginia Blend" is fitting because this stuff tastes like 200 years of plantation style slavery. If you're looking for a "smooth draw" then this is not the blend for you. After a few tokes the harshness made me question if I was smoking out of the can of Pbr that has been sitting on my patio for the past couple months. Ideally, I don't like to feel like I'm smoking out of an aluminium can like a group teenagers trying to get high in some suburban park somewhere, but perhaps I'm just not keen on nostalgia. All in all, I paid $6.99 for this bag of mediocrity. Despite the terrible quality of this blend, I have to commend the fine gentlemen at Criss Cross for distributing a tobacco to perpetuate the addiction of their less financially blessed demographic (myself) while still managing to craft a product of such poor quality that makes me hate myself even more than before I've smoked it.