MATCH Edgeworth Ready Rubbed

Due to the arrival of Lane's re-introduction of Edgeworth, I wanted to give it a try but not commit to 14oz, so I went with 2oz of this blend to get a feel for the genre. Glad I did. Whether or not this matches the original or not I do not know, and, well, I don't care. This is your run of the mill a typical floor sweepings packaged, topped with something to hide the odor of BO and sent to WalGreens or Safeway and called pipe tobacco. It's stuff like this that gives burley a bad name. How something that is all but flavorless, can taste this bad defies logic. It's flavorless and bites. My goodness does it bite. It burns, it creates ash and smoke - so I suppose it's tobacco, we'll leave it there. Did I mention it bites? It is so alkaline that its just one long painful flavorless tongue lashing. I've tried and tried and tried, I still cannot finish a bowl. Not just that it takes an entire box of penny matches to keep it lit, I just can't stomach it long enough, even after the tongue has went entirely numb and the nerves shut down for self preservation. Note is nice, cocoa and nutty. The leaf itself looks appealing, dark mahogany, coarsely cut, feels great in the hand, packs nicely. Niceties all ends there. This is, well, garbage. I'd say it's very similar to Velvet - but I might be knocking Velvet. This is actually worse than Velvet. If, this is an authentic replication of the original Edgeworth - then Edgeworth is officially in my book the absolute worst of all the OTC blends. Go with PS cube cut burley, or McClelland X90 is you want a nice quality old style burley. The remainder of my 2oz of this is now on the way to the compost bin. At least there it might serve some purpose. No knock against "Match" - they did their job here. They tried to replicate garbage, and did so flawlessly. Other "Match" blends I've enjoyed - see Revelation. It's not the maker - it's the blend.

Yes this stuff did arrive dry, very smokably dry. For once I didn't have to dry out a tobacco before lighting it up. This is pretty close to Edgeworth, at least the Lane incarnation of it. The Larus Bros version had more of a molasses casing to it IIRC. What we have here is well worth the money. It's a great burley tobacco with a flavor and aroma that is enjoyable. Be wary, that although I can stand nicotine, this packed a little punch and had me woozy smoking it on an empty stomach.

Edgeworth is one of the blends I used to sneak a puff from my dads stash. Until I ordered this blend I had only ever had it in flake. It brings memories flooding back to me. The flavor I don't remember so much, but the heavenly smell, it is dead on. The notes of cedar are so pronounced and pleasing that I can't imagine not keeping this on hand.

This is a must have in your rotation! A very fragrant (cocoa) that burns evenly and easily on the dry side with no toungue bite. The flavor is a gentle and rich tobacco that smokes well being rubbed out already any time of day with any beverage but especially well with a strong coffee. Get a pound and set out 4ozs for smoking and cellar the rest, it only gets richer with age. Cob or briar is just great but I prefer my a Briar bulldog with this one.

An enjoyable smoke. Close to the original Edgeworth. The only negative comment would be that it arrived in a very dry condition.