Post by lestrout on Sept 29, 2016 14:33:00 GMT -5
Apologies for just cutting and pasting this, but I wanted to give a heads up here:
Last night's Lehigh Valley Pipe Club's makeup meeting provided a revelation. At previous meetings, we had heard from the great Russ Ouellette about his innovative idea, per "In October of 2015, while spending a day with Mark Ryan at the L.A. Poche Perique Company in St. James Parish, Louisiana. our own Russ Ouellette asked Mark if he had ever thought of trying to process Virginia in the same method as perique. Mark said that he had thought of it, but was told it wouldn't work. After a bit of conversation, Mark decided to bring down some bright, sweet, yellow, Canadian-grown Virginia to give it a try. The processing time had to be much shorter due to the aggressive fermentation due to the high sugar content, but the result, called Acadian Gold, has more depth than normal Virginia with a malty note unlike anything else."
I had nabbed the whole series but to get a sense of what they would do this was the tin we popped. The tin note was very, very unusual. Yes, there was a periquey organic scent that welled up, at odds with the visual of very light ribbons. It sure looked like a young bright VA, but sure didn't smell like one, except for faint hints of citrus. There was little hay like undertones, and not being a red VA, I didn't expect any bready or yeasty notes.
With the first puff, we knew something was indeed different about this, and by the time a quarter of a bowl was combusted, several of us had already decided this was going to prominently figure in the next P&C TAD. Acadian Gold is very tasty, but not overpowering in that department. Nicotine levels were moderate. Progressive puffing revealed the citrus and sweet characters of the Canadian Virginia, but there was no bite. If anything, the blend tasted as if it had a good deal of age on it, but absent the musty earthiness. Acadian Gold burned quite well, even for a ribbon, despite the fact that I didn't dry it out to my customary crispiness.
I need to run this through my usual assortment of chamber sizes and configurations, and also need to check it out in other substrates, starting with meerschaum, clay, morta, olivewood, corn cob and strawberrywood. I'll probably also pull out one of the Ropp cherrywoods to help define the flavor contours. I need to do more study to ferret out the malty notes. Then I might feel armed enough to push out a proper review. But since this may have gotten lost in the flood of recent pre-FDA introductions, I thought it would be good to let folks know that this one is a winner.
hp
les
Last night's Lehigh Valley Pipe Club's makeup meeting provided a revelation. At previous meetings, we had heard from the great Russ Ouellette about his innovative idea, per "In October of 2015, while spending a day with Mark Ryan at the L.A. Poche Perique Company in St. James Parish, Louisiana. our own Russ Ouellette asked Mark if he had ever thought of trying to process Virginia in the same method as perique. Mark said that he had thought of it, but was told it wouldn't work. After a bit of conversation, Mark decided to bring down some bright, sweet, yellow, Canadian-grown Virginia to give it a try. The processing time had to be much shorter due to the aggressive fermentation due to the high sugar content, but the result, called Acadian Gold, has more depth than normal Virginia with a malty note unlike anything else."
I had nabbed the whole series but to get a sense of what they would do this was the tin we popped. The tin note was very, very unusual. Yes, there was a periquey organic scent that welled up, at odds with the visual of very light ribbons. It sure looked like a young bright VA, but sure didn't smell like one, except for faint hints of citrus. There was little hay like undertones, and not being a red VA, I didn't expect any bready or yeasty notes.
With the first puff, we knew something was indeed different about this, and by the time a quarter of a bowl was combusted, several of us had already decided this was going to prominently figure in the next P&C TAD. Acadian Gold is very tasty, but not overpowering in that department. Nicotine levels were moderate. Progressive puffing revealed the citrus and sweet characters of the Canadian Virginia, but there was no bite. If anything, the blend tasted as if it had a good deal of age on it, but absent the musty earthiness. Acadian Gold burned quite well, even for a ribbon, despite the fact that I didn't dry it out to my customary crispiness.
I need to run this through my usual assortment of chamber sizes and configurations, and also need to check it out in other substrates, starting with meerschaum, clay, morta, olivewood, corn cob and strawberrywood. I'll probably also pull out one of the Ropp cherrywoods to help define the flavor contours. I need to do more study to ferret out the malty notes. Then I might feel armed enough to push out a proper review. But since this may have gotten lost in the flood of recent pre-FDA introductions, I thought it would be good to let folks know that this one is a winner.
hp
les
