javajunkie
BoM July '12
(wow, timeliness fail here!)
SO. shortcut. to start off, the tobacco itself. looks almost completely black cav, with less than 5% tan and even golden tobaccos interspersed. out of the box, it appears very wet (to me), and screams sweetness on the nose, with some savory loamy scents behind. medium cut and feels decent in the hand, so loading it shouldn't be an issue, bar overpacking it.
(wow! didn't realize how different that would look against the red mat!)
over the course of feb, i burned 7 bowls of shortcut through 5 separate pipes, at different times of the day, to make things fair. pipes were chosen from my rotation for their abilities with either aros or english, being a true multitasker (cob and brog), or just "hey, i want to smoke my new meer!". left to right, a new low end meer, my pete bulldog, an old sav roma prince, my mr. brog pear wood "kentucky" (had to), and of course a MM cob. in all honesty, it behaved flat in the meer, and got a little wet in the sav. the brog performed OK, and can usually burn anything i put through it. i guessed going in that the cob would win this, but it turns out the petey actually brought out the best of this leaf.
the smoke itself, each time, started out VERY sweet. it didn't really weigh me down, but it was well out of my comfort zone. to me, heavy marshmallow vibe, with some of that peaty lat waaaaay in the back. not too dynamic, until the final third. in the pete and cob especially, at the bottom of the bowl the sweetness dropped off and i got a nice earthy creamy english vibe. never got 100% combustion, but there wasn't much dottle left, and while it had a tendency to not burn around the sides of the bowl, a little maintenance with a tool fixed it readily enough.
this, to me was a crossover, but only barely over the aro line. the vanilla is the dominating force. that said, it was a quality leaf, and i'm glad i tried it, and have some to go back to. for me, it was like a cake with too much icing: the sweet stuff was good, but too heavy handed, but if you made it past that, it was rewarding. next time i may burn it in a smaller pipe, to see if i can wade past the "icing" quicker. o)
SO. shortcut. to start off, the tobacco itself. looks almost completely black cav, with less than 5% tan and even golden tobaccos interspersed. out of the box, it appears very wet (to me), and screams sweetness on the nose, with some savory loamy scents behind. medium cut and feels decent in the hand, so loading it shouldn't be an issue, bar overpacking it.
(wow! didn't realize how different that would look against the red mat!)
over the course of feb, i burned 7 bowls of shortcut through 5 separate pipes, at different times of the day, to make things fair. pipes were chosen from my rotation for their abilities with either aros or english, being a true multitasker (cob and brog), or just "hey, i want to smoke my new meer!". left to right, a new low end meer, my pete bulldog, an old sav roma prince, my mr. brog pear wood "kentucky" (had to), and of course a MM cob. in all honesty, it behaved flat in the meer, and got a little wet in the sav. the brog performed OK, and can usually burn anything i put through it. i guessed going in that the cob would win this, but it turns out the petey actually brought out the best of this leaf.
the smoke itself, each time, started out VERY sweet. it didn't really weigh me down, but it was well out of my comfort zone. to me, heavy marshmallow vibe, with some of that peaty lat waaaaay in the back. not too dynamic, until the final third. in the pete and cob especially, at the bottom of the bowl the sweetness dropped off and i got a nice earthy creamy english vibe. never got 100% combustion, but there wasn't much dottle left, and while it had a tendency to not burn around the sides of the bowl, a little maintenance with a tool fixed it readily enough.
this, to me was a crossover, but only barely over the aro line. the vanilla is the dominating force. that said, it was a quality leaf, and i'm glad i tried it, and have some to go back to. for me, it was like a cake with too much icing: the sweet stuff was good, but too heavy handed, but if you made it past that, it was rewarding. next time i may burn it in a smaller pipe, to see if i can wade past the "icing" quicker. o)
