Smoking review: I have been smoking raw leaf tobacco for several months now and finally can say I am never going back to commercial tobacco. The only cigarette tobacco I hadn't tried from WLT was the fire cured. For years I was under the impression I didn't like it, mostly because I don't like drum. I recently bought some blue Bali shag and I loved it. This is what convinced me to finally get the fire cured tobacco. I got the light to start, it has a strong smell of hickory and smoke out the bag but the taste is milder than the smell.
The blend itself is phenomenal. Smoked a few and it's very similar to the blue Bali shag, a bit more complex because of the super tasty red Virginia. At the ratios I used this is good for everyday smoke, not overpowering and I don't see myself getting taste fatigue from it. Nicotine level high but not too crazy, burns well and is well balanced.
I used Dark Horse black tubes, they don't have a paper taste and let the tobacco flavour shine through. I strongly recommend light fire cured tobacco for anyone that likes European blends like drum or Bali shag. You can play around with the ratios to fit your taste. I recently read somewhere that drum is 50/50 Virginia/fire cured. For me in the 20% range is plenty because I add some dark air to add kick and nicotine.
I put 25% red Virginia, 25% bright leaf Virginia, 25% Maryland 609, approximately 20% light fire cured and 5% dark air cured plus a small extra handful of dark air.
