Tsuge Premium Pipe Tobacco Winter's Embrace

This one just did nothing to thrill me from the very start, although at the start the topping was much more apparent than it was a little more than a year after I popped the tin. The topping definitely lessened over this time, but the tobacco never got crunchy, so it never made it into a jar.

What was left behind from the topping was a very light Virginia, and although the toppings list burley, it is not a dominant player. While it is not so light as to have a cardboard type taste, there is very little tobacco flavor at all. This one ends up suffering from that hot air curse that plagues so many aromatics after the topping starts to flash.

The blend is very much like a European aromatic in that it is Virginia dominant. I would say it is a little like Davidoff's Danish Mixture just not nearly as good. DDM has much more topping than WE, but the problem with a blend like WE is that a light topping does not really work when the underlying tobacco flavor is so weak.

To give it some props I will say that the tin art is beautiful and may be the reason I made the purpose. And sticking with the packaging, it has an odd plastic coaster atop the tobacco and folded under the coffee filter enclosure as opposed to the heavier paper stock that is typically used. At first I thought this was pretty cool, but it tends to draw a lot of tobacco to it everytime you pull it out to pack a bowl. It is novel, but I prefer the paper.

In the aggregate, If this is smoked quickly one will enjoy it much more than I did after it sat awhile in the tin, I do remember much more presence from the topping in the beginning. Kind of fruity and honey sweet and it wasn't bad. So I am leaving this at two stars, but will always opt for a tin of Danish mixture or even Peterson Gold blend before I would pick up another tin of this.