Review of the Day - Union Square

9th October, 2009: Posted by glpease in Review of the Day

Union Square has been on the shelves for a while, and the reviews, both public and directly sent to me, have been very positive, overall, and often quite wonderful to read. Today’s caught my attention in particular because I really appreciate the use of language here. Putting words to something that is entirely sensory is always challenging. Adjectives are too often overused and diluted to the point of meaninglessness, and it just ain’t easy to find fitting metaphors that really do the job well. But, it can be done. Here is an excerpt from a lovely review penned by Wosbald that proves the point. It also really made my morning.

The flavor is of purely cane-sugar-sweet VAs without silage or funky ferment. The gold VA’s are dominant at first light while the reds ascend as the bowl burns down. The flavor profile is generous, yet tightly focused and elegantly crisp.

A fantastic straight VA, Union Square is laser-clean and flavorsome. A nobly aesthetic creation, it is highly complex within a tightly focused range. Though it will undoubtedly age well, it is remarkably smooth with only a month or two in the can. This went best in narrow to medium gauge chambers.

After reading this, I wanted to set down the Chelsea Morning I was smoking to grab another, filled with Union Square. He managed to express the blend in a way that almost brought the taste to my tongue. Granted, I’m somewhat familiar with the blend, so triggering my own experiential memories isn’t difficult, but this did more than that. The phrase “highly complex within a tightly focused range” describes perfectly what I set out to do with this blend. I’m really happy to know that the tobaccos came together to accomplish this. If there was room in the budget, I’d consider hiring this guy to write my label copy. Bravo!

I hope he likes Chelsea Morning as well.