Haunted Bookshop

While I've casually spoken of smoking this blend with increasing frequency over the last month or so, I thought that it was time I gave this blend a proper review.

My first purchase of Haunted Bookshop was 8 oz bulk from Habana Smoke Shop. After hearing Matches, Muddler, and Quaffer gush about this blend I thought it was high time I see what all the fuss was about. Even a cursory comparison of the constituent tobaccos of this blend and OJK will immediately gear you to expect something very similar to OJK. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While the ingredients are indeed the same, the presentation, character and taste of HB is an entirely different animal.

While both OJK and HB are certainly modern incarnations of my beloved codger burlies. In presentation, OJK would seem to be a perique blend with large quantities of burley and a little virginia to mitigate what would otherwise be a perique flavored tire iron to the face. OJK is cigary, acrid and borderline harsh, everything that HB is not. Although the ingredients of the two are identical, HB remarkably seems a very different tobacco. No harshness at all here. If OJK is Thai food, HB is meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn with just a healthy sprinkle of black pepper.

The uninitiated have sometimes referred to HB as boring or monotone. I just don't see that. Like it's big brother OJK, HB is simultaneously simple and extremely complex. For me, this blend smokes like a parfait. The top of the bowl is very lightly cigary. Mid-bowl the grassy sweetness of virginia comes front and center with the burley just perceptible enough to make the virginia a bit doughy and totally bite free. Towards the bottom is a grab bag of any taste you've ever heard assigned to burley (i.e. bread dough, chocolatey, nutty, cigary) with the grassy sweetness of virginia peeking in and out just strong enough to be noticed before it gently fades and another burley taste emerges. What about the perique? Well, it just doesn't seem to be a huge part of this blend. At its strongest the perique in HB is condimental. Seems just enough to provide that extra "something" that is neither burley nor virginia but not readily identifiable as perique either. I would compare the perique content of this to something like PS Luxury Navy Flake (i.e. just above invisible). Without a doubt this is an old style burley blend but is light-years ahead of most codger burlies with regard to sophistication and character. It is a smooth, all day smoke which remarkably does not lack vitamin N. So perfect is the balance of burley and virginia that one could nearly be persuaded that there are equal quantities of both in this blend. They just seem to take turns being the tobacco in front. At times, this could probably be mistaken for a virginia with condimental quantities of burley and perique. Other times it is unmistakably burley with condimental quantities of virginia and perique.

In my rotation HB initially was my light change of pace tobacco from OJK. More and more though, I see Haunted Bookshop and OJK sharing my pipe days in equal measure. Haunted Bookshop covering the earlier portion of the day and OJK for the afternoon kick in the pants. I would strongly recommend HB to any virginia lover exploring burlies. Even if body chemistry conspires against you and your are averse to perique, I would think you'd be OK with Haunted Bookshop (this means you Rick!) It's low maintenance codger burliesque smoking manners would also make a great "doing something else" tobacco great for yard work, fishing, driving, woodworking, etc. If your normal fare is heavily latakia'd and smokes like a shredded truck tire, Haunted Bookshop would be a great, light, change of pace without having to contend with the vitamin N depletion normally brought on by most "light, change of pace" tobaccos. This one is a keeper. The more I smoke of it the more I like it. Top Shelf Smoke for sure, Well done Mr. Runowski, well done.