True Kentucky

Ever since I filtered and mixed up my Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired NET, I knew that Kentucky was going to hold a special place in my tongue’s heart. One of the things that really jumped out at me was an almost smoky BBQ flavor. It was very familiar.

INW Smooth Leaf tastes pretty spot on, but it’s really tricky to work with. Too little, it’s lost. Too much, it gets a bit too BBQ sauce-ish. It’s very bold and in your face, but also brings this strange mouth feel along with it. When I first tested it and tried playing around with it, I decided pretty quickly it was going to be one of those “never use” flavors. Then I decided to try to make an accurate Kentucky Tobacco, which pretty much forced me in to finding a spot for it.

I threw a little FA Black Fire in there to give it a bit more of a “Fire Cured” vibe. This brought along more top notes than I really wanted, so I tried to tone those down with some INW DNB.

I usually suggest using DNB at whatever percent you’re comfortable with, but in this one it’s less of a condiment and has a bit more of a vital role, so keep it at .5%.

The base here is a combo of FLV Kentucky and FR Woody Tobacco. The Flavor Revolution tobaccos are actually pretty damn good. I used Woody because I wanted it a little earthier and there’s a hint of some smoky wood in there. FLV Kentucky giving a bit of body and punch.

This is one of those recipes that probably not a lot of people will be able to mix up because FR Woody Tobacco is only available at Nicotine River, and they don’t seem to be too popular, and INW Smooth Leaf isn’t sold anywhere that I’ve seen in the US. But I could have made it easy to make, or I could have made it as authentic as I could. I went with the latter.