Favorite
This is an English-style blend with strong Virginia character. Some of the Virginias add a slightly fruity taste, but overall their flavour is nutty. Blended with Latakia and Perique, it's flavour is not as rich as the description might make it appear. When I taste this blend's tart note, which is not by any means all of the time, it begins to remind me of Rattray's Black Mallory. Here though, the flavor is less perfumy, less concentrated, and a bit smokier. Although I generally enjoy the flavor, I find it a bit sharp for my tastes and sometimes tire of it. Coarse cut, slow burning. Best smoked slow.

Legacy
This blend is striking in its complexity of flavours. It includes five different Virginias, Latakia, Perique and a hint of Turkish, which keep their individuality, yet come together to create a sweetness that is punctuated by fragran and smoky elements. Coarse texture, including pieces of broken flake. Slow burning. Very much a full-flavored blend, of various shades of dark brown, with a pleasant, heavy aroma both in the pouch and when smoked. Owing to it's smoothness, it is quite relaxing, but it's more piquant components make it somewhat refreshing as well.

New York New York
Dark and medium-brown, coarse cut. A heavy-medium blend. Flavor is similar to Smoker except that here, one tastes the Virginia component more, (Latakia is definitely still present, though). The result is a satisfying full-English smoke that is flavorful although not too rich (not quite enough for me), and sharper on the tongue than many full-English blends.

Olde Virginia
This blend is somewhat along the lines of Escudo, but as a mixture instead of flake form. Semi-sweet Red Virginia competes with strong perique flavour to create an interesting smoking experience. I like how during some puffs I notice the sweet undertones more, whereas at other moments I notice its pepperiness. This is unquestionably a strong and satisfying blend with the capacity to scocrh your tongue. Although I often avoid harsher blends, I find this one worth smoking occasionally for it's flavour. It's medium-large cut helps you smoke it slow, which is an absolute necessity. Reddish-brown and dark brown colour burns well and smokes dry. I love its room aroma, which is pungent, yet somewhat sweet and perfumy.

Red Virginia Supreme
Medium cut, medium and dark brown. Another medium-full English blend, but much better than New York, New York (above). Although it's base is red virginia, this isn't the sweet, aged variety. Mixed with Latakia and Perique, the flavor is meaty, slightly bitter and slightly sharp, but enjoyable in it's own right - - a bit like how a cup of black coffee might taste. Although the Latakia smooths out this mixture somewhat, I find the flavour to be dominated by the Virginia-perique mix. Given the fullness of the flavour, it isn't as rich or smooth as I might expect. Still, I enjoy it's strong taste for a change.

Saint James
Quite appropriately the label on this tobacco showed not only it's name, but the descriptor, "This one will get ya!". I'm not sure, but this may be the most perique-laden tobacco I've smoked to date. Dark brown and black flecked, with medium brown, medium-coarse cut blend so strong, tending toward harsh. This is true on the levels of pouch aroma, room aroma when smoked and flavoured. The Virginia's in the blend add a touch of sweetness, but not enough to counterbalance the intense perique flavour. Likewise, the latakia that is presnt adds body, but not enough to produce a really smooth smoke.The strength, body and lack of sweetness of this blend reminds me a bit of smoking a cigar for some reason. Sometimes while smoking this, I wonder if a similar mixture might be produced by doubling the quantity of perique in C & D's #965 The perique pretty much overwhelms the taste buds; if you're not a lover of this kind of piquancy, you might as well not bother with this blend. I have enjoyed this tobacco late at night, or at a bar with a beer, but I don't find it suitable for smoking during the day. The flavour is consistent throughout the smoke and it burns to a fine white ash.

Saratoga
A ready-rubbed blend of various Virginias, containing about 50% darker tobaccos along with lighter golden and reddish flecks and strands. It's a long and short medium-cut blend that includes the occasional piece of broken flake. One advantage that some bulk hand-blended mixtures have over their tinned counterparts is that the different ingredients remain somewhat separate, which vreates a flavour that is more complex than unified. This is the case here, where there is a wonderful complexity of flavour, t is spicy, tart and fairly sweet, with underlying notes that reminded me vaguely of cloves of cinnamon. The tartness is particulary noticeable during the first 1/4 - 1/2 of the pipe, as it leaves dryness in the mouth not unlike some wines or a glass of lemonade. When I first tried this, the tobacco seemed rather dry (the way I usually like it), so I tried it that way, found that it had quite a bite to it. So I humidified it somewhat and - guess what - it still bites. So I accept it for what it is, It's only a light to medium-bodied smoke that seems to have a fairly low nicotine content, but its distinct flavour makes it seem fuller than it is at times. I can't smoke biting tobacco all that frequently, but this one has an exciting, delicious flavour that makes it nonetheless worth smoking from time to time, and is exceptiionally refreshing on a hot summer day. Despite it's sharpness to on the tongue, it paradoxically doesn't seem all that harsh when exhaled through the nose. When I tried inhaling it the smoke came off more as hot than harsh. The best thing to do is just savour the flavou slowly and keep it just barely burning. This mixture burns fairly well but when it does extinguish, it still tastes good in the pipe, with a pleasant burnt-sugar and spice taste that overrides the taste of half-burnt tobacco. I also find the way that the flavour develops while smoking to be superb. The flavours of the different Virginias meld together to produce a richer, fuller taste, and a lot of the tanginess experienced at the beginning of the smoke subsides. Meanwhile, the sweetness of some of the tobaccos in the blend concentrate and introduce a carmelized flavour that was barely existent earlier during the smoke. This blend would probably be best appreciated by Virginia aficiandos who enjoy tobacco with a bit of bite and lots of flavour. It burns up clean and dry to a fine ash that ranges in color from pale grey to almost black, accompanied by a small amount of dottle. It has a distinctive aroma that smells light and sweet in the room, without being aromatic. For me personally, this is a perfect example of a mixture that is obviously blended with skill, and whose taste I enjoy very much, but which is just too sharp for frequent smoking.

Smoker II
A medium-to-coarse cut Virginia-latakia blend, with a pronounced and agreeable (at least to me) smoky flavour and aroma. A good helping of bittersweet latakia makes this a nice blend to relax to (because it smells like a fireplace perhaps). It is a fairly dark blend, but contains just enough lighter, sweet Virginias to make it quite lively tasting for a full latakia blend. A non-smoking friend couldn't resist a few puff of this one and his impression was that it is shy tasting, but in a pleasant way. It is of medium-full body and fairly smooth, with just a slight bite from the Virginias. This is one of those tobaccos I could smoke practically all day and it's on my best-ever list. Although it is quite a dark blend, it is not nearly as rich and sweet as blends such as McCelland's Frog Morton. It's more in the league of Balkan Sobranie 759, but a little less full and heavy. Absolutely delicious if you like this kind of blend and probably perfect it you like Woodsman or Woodlands but find them a little too dark for your tastes. This blend comes dry, burns well, and clean... to a fine grey ash.

Turkish Supreme
Quite satisfying for a light blend. Mild and pleasant with an earthy, almost sandy, natural and neutral flavour. However, I was surprised that it has none of the heavy, sweet taste characteristic of many Turkish tobaccos. Nothing outrageously exciting, but a nice change of pace.

Woodlands
A dry crumbly blackish tobacco with a few lighter flecks of red and yellow tobaccos. This is a heavy, latakia-dominant blend that is distinguished by a slight sweetness to the smoke, probably furnished by the particular Virginias and Turkishes that are in the blend and perhaps a dash of black cavendish. It's definitely a full-flavoured blend, yet it's slightly lighter in body than it's taste might suggest. The way that it produces a rich, dark latakia flavour without undue bitterness makes it akin to blends like Blatter Reserve (which is slightly smoother and heavier in body, lighter in latakia, more aromatic and more complex in flavour) and McCelelland's Frog Morton (which has a much more unified and sweeter kind of taste). Aficiandos of the two above mentioned blends would probably enjoy Woodlands, and find that it's a little heavier and more lively, and also that it probably contains bit more nicotine as well. Toward the end of the smoke, the underlying sweetness tends to evaporate, and it develops a slight bite, but nothing unpleasant -- probably the perique content at work. Anyone who enjoys dark latakia blends could fall in love with this one. Its dryness makes it burn easy, and it burns clean to a dry, grey ash with perhaps a few unburn flecks of latakia remaining.

Woodsman
This is a dry, blackish-looking blend, with maybe 30-40% lighter tobacco mixed in. Its dark, English flavour and high quality classes it in that category of blends which includes Dunhill's Nightcap and Sobranie's 759.A slight sweetness from Virginia tobaccos and perhaps some Turkish balances the heavy latakia and perique blends to make this an excellent mixture to put in your pipe if you like full-flavoured English blends. It is probably this subtle sweetness and the rich, smoky taste at the outset of the smoke that reminds me somewhat of Sobranies' 759, but it lacks the very smooth, almost creamy aspect of 759. Like a bowl of Nightcap, the sweetness subsides slowly and it becomes darker-tasting and a bit more peppery toward the bottom of the bowl. Overall, it's a little heavier and less sweet and fragrant that Woodlands, and a touch sharper. It's not a bite-free tobacco, but the bite it provides is subtle and pleasant. It also could be compared to Cornell and Diehls #965 - but it has more woodsy, ashy taste, less of the intense leathery pouch aroma, is not quite as sharp on the palate, and is perhaps a little more richer in terms of actual flavour when smoker. Dry-smoking, very satisfying, and burns well to a grey-white ash that sit upon a few crumb of unburnt tobacco.

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