The Last Bowl

30th July, 2019: Posted by glpease in Tobacco, Enjoyment, Editorial

Some months ago, a friend gave me a nearly full 8oz tin of Montgomery from March, 2005, the first release, saying, “It’s good. It’s just not my thing.” Richard likes stouter blends. He can burn through sequential bowls Haddo’s Delight in record time. If he was a kid slurping Slurpees, instead, he’d be plagued by permanent brain freeze. (In case you’re wondering, no, he has never burned-out a pipe.) Montgomery didn’t get his heart pumping hard enough, I guess. Whatever his reasons, I was happy to be the recipient of his kind donation. Truth told, I haven’t spent a lot of time with Montgomery, myself. It was the first thing I created for the Fog City Selection, and its development informed the rest of the series. It’s definitely on the lighter side, but it has engaging complexity that swirls around the sweetness of the high-sugar virginias, and the beautiful dark-fired leaf offers depth and breadth to both the aroma and the flavors. Once I’d put the final touches on the formula, though, I didn’t return to it often other than for the occasional “check-up” to see how time was treating it, and even that fell by the wayside after a while.

So, a chance to dip into a relatively freshly opened tin, minted early in the blend’s birth year, was not something I could pass up. He offered. I accepted. I’m glad I did.

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