Upcoming VaPer Showdown

[Darth Smoker]

Originally Posted by hagen

....i'm getting still more skeptical about those descriptions, really......

HH Ann Cake must have a ton of PG and Chocolate syrup, I'd smoke my first bowl but I am still waiting it to dry out.

[Slow Triathlete]

Originally Posted by Darth Smoker

HH Ann Cake must have a ton of PG and Chocolate syrup, I'd smoke my first bowl but I am still waiting it to dry out.

I noticed that when I had my sample. I don't think that it is PG though. After pressing my own mixture I learned that it is best to press the tobacco when it is slightly moist so that all of the flavors and oils mix together. But because of this when you press it into a cake it is extremely wet when it comes out from the compression. Plus, unless you rub it out, it takes a long time to dry out.

Try rubbing it out to dry. Also, check the humidity of the room that you are drying it out in. A hygrometer from your cigar humidor will work if you have one. If it is above like 55% in there your tobacco won't dry out fast in there. This happened to me because I was trying to dry out my tobacco in a room that didn't have much air circulation and there were a bunch of indoor plants in there. I took out my hygrometer and learned that I was trying to dry out tobacco in a room with a RH of 75%!!

You live and you learn.

[Big D KC]

According to an interview with Russ Oulette on the Pipe Talk podcast (now defuncd) he absolutely does not use PG! Furthermore according to him, his philosophy is he believes in "drier tobacco is better tobacco" so I don't think that anything is purposely put there to keep anni kake moist. I think it's just like ST says, its just a by product of pressing that all that good stuff all together!

The 4oz sample I just got is fairly moist in the cake form also. I've just been grabbing a slice of the cake breaking off about 1/2 of it and rubbing it out, let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes under a lamp and its ready to go! Good stuff! I just placed an order for more so I'll compare it for moisture content when it arrives.

[nate560]

the ann kake is always on the moist side i do the same as big d kc i rub it out let it dry for about 30 minutes and its ready to go. good stuff but every order has been very moist i dont think he uses anything artifical to keep it moist. so dry and enjoy

[Slow Triathlete]

Here we go with a discontinued Dunhill brand, Elizabethan Mixture. I have been lucky enough to put a few tins of this away and have had some loose in a mason jar for sometime. However, I have not smoked this in probably a year. I thought that it was time to bring this out and enter it into the VaPer Showdown.

Here is the tin description:

A distinctive flavorful blend pressed, darkened tobaccos with Perique added for character.

Not very descriptive, is it?!?! Well, let me elaborate on that. The blend comes in the traditional round tin with paper folded over the top of the blend. Upon first opening this tin you are greeted with a wonderfully sweet aroma paired with a bit of spiciness. This blend comes ribbon cut with colors ranging from bright yellow to dark brown with the brownish/black perique littered here and there.

Now I will let you know that when I first smoked a few bowls of this blend I could not figure out what all the hub-bub was with this blend. I found it to be a good Virginia blend, kind of boring with some perique mixed in. It wasn’t until I got around to about the 10th bowl that I noticed subtle characters and flavors coming in and out. There are several different Virginia tobaccos present in this blend and they all play a role in the finished product.

A lot of people have stated that this blend has a lot of perique in it and it isn’t for the faint of heart. I think that those people are wrong. While this does not have a minute amount of perique in it, it isn’t a perique bomb either.

The first 1/3 of the bowl was dominated by the flavors and sweetness of the Virginias. They came in and out with a hint of the perique in the background.

The middle 1/3 seemed a bit stronger with the peppery/spiciness of the perique,

The last 1/3 of the bowl everything seemed to come together and play off of each other. Towards the end the Virginias soured a bit but it added another flavor to the profile.

I really liked this blend and I find it hard to believe that Dunhill discontinued this blend. Oh well, that is just how it goes sometime. I do know that Altadis has come out with an “Elizabethan” substitute although I have not yet tried it. I think that this blend can take over the 11th place spot without any argument.

1) McConnell Scottish Cake
2) Samuel Gawith’s St. James Flake
3) Escudo
4) GL Pease Filmore
5) H & H AJ’s VaPer
6) Low Country’s Waccamaw
7) Peretti’s Park Square
H & H Rolando’s Own
9) H & H Anniversary Kake
10) G & H Louisiana Flake
11) Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture
12) C & D Night Train
13) H & H Louisiana Red
14) Reiner’s Long Golden Flake
15) Treasures of Ireland - Limerick
16) Dorchester
17) Luxury Bullseye Flake
1 McClelland Bulk 2015
19) GL Pease Telegraph Hill
20) Kajun Kake
21) Luxury Navy Flake

[Slow Triathlete]

Solani 633

Now here is a blend that I cannot believe that I forgot to put into the Showdown before now. In truth, I purchased a 100g tin of this and smoked over half of the tin and put it into a mason jar for a little longer term storage. Well I just found it the other day and the label on top says 14Mar2008. So this blend has a little age on it so it should be better than I remember it.

Here’s what the tin description states:

A matured virginia, pressed flake, with premium perique.

Pre-Light
The tin aroma is very nice. I reminds me a lot of Robert McConnell’s Scottish Cake in that I has a very heavy and sweet dried prune/fig aroma to it. And of course with just a hint of spice from the Perique. Very good. This comes in flake form in the tin but it looks like I rubbed the whole tin out before I put it into the jar. Whoops I don’t usually do that but oh well. I will say that when rubbed out it resembles Hal O The Wynd as far as shape and length of the strands.

Since these are pretty long strands I chose a pipe with a deeper chamber. I picked a Kurt Huhn Zulu shape.

First ½For the first 15 puffs or so this blend bit my tongue a bit. Not sure if my tongue was ragged out already from another blend or not but the biting eventually went away. The taste of this blend is almost purely Virginia. There is a bit of Perique whisping about in the background but it is certainly not a major player as of yet.

Second ½
The blend really hasn’t changed much throughout. The Virginias are still very dominant. The strength slowly builds in this blend topping out at about a medium strength.

Summary
Well I know that I am going to make some people mad with this summary but I did not particularly care for this blend all that much. Let me explain as there are several factors involved. First off, the blend to me was kind of ho-hum. Yes, the Virginias were very tasty but I think that I was expecting something more. The Perique amount in this blend is very low. It really doesn’t add much to the blend and it certainly was not enough to keep the blend from biting in the beginning. I know that this blend is some people’s cup of tea but it is not mine. Second, for most of the Solani line you can only buy 100g tins. I really never like not having the option of trying a smaller amount of a blend before I commit to buying a larger tin. For this blend, that decision is pretty much taken out of your hands. Occasionally you can find 633 in a 50g tin but you have to look. Also the price for this blend is pretty high. The 100g tin hovers somewhere around $20. This puts it in my eyes as more of a boutique blend or something that I would reward myself with every once in a while. For it to be like that for me, it would have to be a much better blend. I feel that there are much better VaPer blends out there for a better price.


1)McConnell Scottish Cake
2)Samuel Gawith’s St. James Flake
3)Escudo
4)GL Pease Filmore
5)H & H AJ’s VaPer
6)Low Country’s Waccamaw
7)Peretti’s Park Square
H & H Rolando’s Own
9)H & H Anniversary Kake
10)G & H Louisiana Flake
11)Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture
12)C & D Night Train
13)H & H Louisiana Red
14)Reiner’s Long Golden Flake
15)Treasures of Ireland - Limerick
16)Dorchester
17)Solani #633
1Luxury Bullseye Flake
19)McClelland Bulk 2015
20)GL Pease Telegraph Hill
21)Kajun Kake
22)Luxury Navy Flake

[RJpuffs]

Originally Posted by Slow Triathlete

Solani 633
...
but I did not particularly care for this blend all that much.
...

I agree. Until I read this I didn't even realize that it was a VaPer - I thought it was a straight VA (who reads labels!). I found it flat and boring, sour in taste in fact, and it bites like girl puppy.