Barling Garnet

Typical mottled latakia blend in ribbon cut. Tin nose was of old dirt with a combo of fruity and cigar leaf. I'm not really familiar with "Java" leaf but I'm told it's either cigar leaf or "tambolaka-like" in nature.

This is a case where there were too many ingredients in the stew. Different flavors popped up at different times. If ever there was a tobacco that was too balanced, this is it. Nothing asserted itself much and instead it was just sort of mushy with no real overall flavor or character. Occasionally the Java leaf jumped to the fore but it would recede just as quickly in the base. The Syrian latakia was usually difficult to assess. Again, I think there were just too many components here. The perique and the java may very well have come close to cancelling each other out, but the burley and Virginias didn't pick up the slack. In looking for the word that best describes my smoking experience with this one, that word is "bored". Not enough going on here for me... or is it too much?

The first thing that I noticed after opening my tin of Garnet, was the topping. Fortunately, it really doesn't appear in the smoking experience. In the pipe Garnet, to my taste, the problem with Garnet is that it is unbalanced. I enjoy Java (cigar leaf) in many different blends, but here it adds a “dryness” (not to be confused with dry burning) to the smoke that tends to dominate the other component tobaccos. It burns cool and offers no bite. It could be the newness of the tin, but for me, Garnet falls pretty far down the list of cigar blends that I enjoy. I’ll finish the tin, but doubt I will add anymore to the cellar.

Have you ever had a first bowl that you thought was going to be love at first smoke – but by the second bowl discover you really despise it? This was one of those.

First smoke, pinched fresh from the tin: “Wonderful tin note, almost like an Aromatic English, with a definite creamy undertone of mottled cream and sassafras. Very light Latakia smokes more like a mild English than the medium described, burns cool, good harmony of the various ingredients. Makes a for a pleasant, gentle, nearly perfect morning smoke.”

Two weeks later after being jarred and allowed to settle: “Whoa! WTH? Effusive jar note of cream raspberry. First puff was like a sweet raspberry wine. Hard for me to focus on anything else but after the garish casing formula the next most prominent flavor is of burning twigs and rustic Indonesian Tambolaka (which doesn’t go at all with raspberry!), and every now and then some citrus-tinged Virginia comes forward which turns the sweet raspberry into a more tart pomegranate note. Obviously these bright red fruit notes do not derive from the Perique, which always has a dark, stewed or dried fruit character.

I went on to smoke only five more bowls of this over the following year, in the dogged hope that the flavoring might fade away. But I finally gave the rest away with proper warnings. But speaking of warnings, I don’t feel that Planta was being forthcoming enough in providing a suitable description of the product. And I don’t feel that the other reviews here, except for TallPuffO’Burley, have given a proper characterization of just how domineering this flavoring is. So, since I don’t care for berry flavors, and didn’t rightly expect to find them here, this gets a lowly one star for me personally. But if you don’t mind the fruity flavors, or the odd rusticity of the Tambolaka, I can see this being worthy of at least two stars.