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Old 06-05-2009, 08:49 AM   #40
Slow Triathlete
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First Name: Scott
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Default Re: Virginia/Perique (VaPer) Showdown

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 even 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 ½
For 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
8)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
18)Luxury Bullseye Flake
19)McClelland Bulk 2015
20)GL Pease Telegraph Hill
21)Kajun Kake
22)Luxury Navy Flake

Last edited by Slow Triathlete; 06-05-2009 at 09:03 AM.
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