WO Larson Signature Vintage Mixture

[Slow Triathlete]

Bear with me, this is my first "official" review.

Here is what it says on the website:

"Vintage Mixture is a supurb Danish Mixture blended to perfection with natural Virginia from the best areas in Malawi and Virginia in the United States and ripe burley from Mexico and Kentucky. To achieve the delicate mildness they have added mild black cavandish. The burley tobaccos have been pressed into cakes and matured, and after cutting the slices are rubbed up. The Virginia leaves have been cut in a broad cross cut to please the eye and palate. The unique blend has been enhanced by a subtle note of natural sweetness yeilding a mellow rich smoke."

Pre-Light Info:

I got this blend as a freebie sampler from my shop. Upon opening the pouch this tobacco was fairly moist. Not wet, but damp. I left it in the pouch for about two weeks and it seemed to dry to the perfect level. The aroma of this tobacco is great. My wife, who thinks all pipe tobacco smells like raisons, commented that this one smelled "different". More like dried fruit, citrus to be exact with a little chocolate mixed in. This blend is ready rubbed and is very easy to pack in the pipe. The tobacco itself is all different colors. It is a mixture of black (cavindish), gold (virginia) and brown (everything else).

First Half:

This tobacco lights really well and stays lit easily. Again, I give merit to the thorough drying of this tobacco. It's hard to nail down the taste of this one. The taste is sweet, but not light a heavily cased sweet. More like a refreshing sweet. The sweetness is not covering up the actual tobacco taste. Instead it only seems to be adding to it. It also maitained this taste all the way through the first half of the bowl. My wife also complimented the room note, and that almost never happens. No tongue bite at all.

Second Half:

I've had to relight a couple of times but I blame that on me being relatively new to pipe smoking and not the actual tobacco itself. And I'm also smoking it in a newer pipe without a lot of cake buildup. The flavor is the same surprisingly. I haven't had an aro blend that actually maintained the taste and aroma all the way through until the end like this one has. I can't believe that there wasn't the slightest bit of tongue bit throughout the whole bowl.

Overall Impression:

I really liked this blend. It was a very relaxing, smooth smoke all the way through. I will purchase a tin and smoke through that and see if I feel the same way throughout. If I still like it then I will buy a couple and lay them down to sleep for a while. If you like aromatics even just the slightest bit then I would definitely give this one a try. Better than most aromatics that I have had.


Can anyone else comment on any of the other Larson blends? I'm eager to try some of them now.

[mparker]

Great review. Thank you for taking the time and giving us your opinion.

Do you really compete in triathalon's? If so does smoking your pipe effect you in any way?

[Slow Triathlete]

I do compete in triathlons. Ironman distance to be exact. I just competed at the Hawaiian Ironman Championships this past October.

I've never had any issues with the pipe or cigar smoking effecting my performance. As a matter of fact, I got tested at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute this past year and did a secret, covert experiment of my own. The first day they did a VO2 Max test on me. Which is where they measure how much oxygen your body can absorb during peak exercise. That night I smoked a maduro churchill sized cigar (Gatorade did not know that I did this). We repeated the VO2 Max test again the next day. The results were the same.

Now granted, I won't smoke the night before a race or if I have a key training day the next day.