Branzig Reviews: Dark Birdseye
Tobacco: Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Dark Birdseye
Pipe: 1950's LHS Willford
Prequel: I be in search of some vitamin N kiddies.
Tin Note: Big bold tobacco flavor in this one. This thing reeks of dark, fire cured tobacco. I know it is a little controversial as to whether this is topped at all with anything, and I can safely say that my nose tells me that yes, it is. A very light, sweet lavender smell is very apparent to me.
The Smoke: Birdseye comes in what I would call a shag cut. I found it to be the perfect moisture content and ready to smoke. I packed my pipe with the air pocket method, as I usually do with a shag. The charring light was actually a bit tricky, but after I got it lit and going it stayed lit flawlessly and burned down in a nice grey ash all the way to the bottom with only 1 relight. The tobacco produces A TON of wispy light white smoke that is actually very fun! Another thing to note, this stuff is a quick burner. The entire time it smoked extremely cool, however; the tobacco in this is so strong that I could tell puffing to hard would result in a good case of tongue bite! I packed a decent amount into my LHS pipe and was kind of shocked how quickly it smoked down. It was lit and gone in well under 20 minutes.
Flavors: Right from the charring light, I could taste a topping. It is very mild but it is definitely "lakelands." A very sweet lavender, but not soapy whatsoever. The first 4th of the bowl was dominated by the light topping flavor and a strong, fire cured Virgina and what I am quite certain is a decent amount of burley as well. Also, I don't know if any of you have "tasted" nicotine before, but to me it was very apparent from the get-go that the vitamin N was strong with this one. Getting into the half way point the lavender taste takes a back seat and the fire cured tobaccos take over. It has a very satisfying smokey character to it, not like latakia camp fire, more like a burnt marshmallow. By this point the nicotine was starting to ramp up, mouth tingling and all. The final 4th held true to the same flavor profile that the half way point did. Lots of fire cured goodness and whenever the "essence" would poke through, I would get that burnt marshmallow flavor again, very delightful really but by no means a complex smoke. Once again, as I found in Kendal Flake, it was very obvious that GH&Co use top notch tobaccos to make this blend. As for the nicotine content, very pleasing indeed. I have a very high nicotine tolerance I have found, and while I didn't get that "I'm sweating and need to sit down NOW feeling" that some people describe, it certainly packed a good punch that I could feel. The aftertaste left in my mouth was also very light and quite pleasing.
Conclusion: Dark Birdseye is a no-nonsense, straight forward smoke. You won't find layer upon layer of developing tastes or complexities here. What you will find is a great quality VA/Burley blend that has tasty fire cured qualities and a light sweet topping. It smokes very coolly and quickly, like a dream all the way down and has a decent nicotine hit. And as a bit of a warning, while the topping was extremely mild, almost in the vein of a navy flake, it was still there and I am sure will stick around for the next 5-7 bowls...it is HG&Co after all, so if you are planning on smoking this, I wouldn't do it in a pipe that you have dedicated to any "pure" blends.
