I'll take on the other two...
I imagine Black Mountain/Balkan Sobranie doesn't do it for you for the same reason Joyce's Ulysses doesn't do it for me. It doesn't matter how good the blender(author) is, or how much people rave about something, there is a subversive side of my unconscious that refuses to go along with what all arrows point to as being a good thing.
As for the reviews...I will never trust anything that comes from someone who assigns themselves a moniker including the word "stud"![]()