Epiphany/Revelation

[Frost]

A comparrison review of C&D Epiphany and Revelation Smoking Mixture. Epiphany is a blend presnted by C&D as being similar to Revelation. The Revelation came to me by way of a sharp eye towards the shelves during a visit to a B&M store in maryland, and the Epiphany came to me by way of a generous sample from Brother Natch, along with a goodly amount of various other exciting samples. With the samples brother natch sent to me with the Epiphany, along with samples he sent to me last time, added to a ridiculous amount of samples obtained from multiple other generous BoBs at various times, I could probably smoke nothing but samples from fellow forum members for the next year or two.

Important note: It came to my attention during the course of writing up this post that that Epiphany is supposedly only supposed to be similar to the original Phillip Morris version of Revelation and not the House of Windsor version.

Both of the tins of Revelation which I came across at a B&M in Maryland are no longer in my possession (one was traded away before opening and the other recycled since the contents were transferred to a jar), but my best guess is that they were the House of Windsor version. This of course means that this comparrison is kinda pointless, but what the heck. Might as well finish what you started, right? As you will soon see, your friendly neighborhood Frostman never let a minor thing like the obvious pointlessness of comparing two blends which really aren't supposed to be matches for one another get in the way of writing up a needlessly wordy and convoluted forum post and adding pictures just to use up a little extra bandwidth or whatever to boot. :lol:



Pics:

Left is Epiphany, right is Revelation. Brand new unsmoked cob for Epiphany, and the cob for Revelation has only had Revelation smoked in it.




Close up detail of Epiphany pile:





Close up detail of Revelation pile:





**continued in next post**

 

[Frost]

*Part 2*


As you can see, there are some differences in the appearance of the two tobaccos, but they are relatively close. The Revelation appears more chunky and has more nuggetlike bits, vs the Epiphany being more "leafy" and "ribbony".

The jar/baggie note difference was similar to the visual difference, in that they both smell kind of sort of a little bit like eachother, but were definitely two distinct presences.


As far as the heart of the matter (smoking the stuff), I personally found these two blends to have very little in common flavor wise, which of course makes perfect sense assuming that the tins I had were the HOW version of Revelation. There is some minor similarity in "personality" and "style", and the perique does sort of provide a theme between the two, but the feature flavors and predominant tastes are markedly different. Another similarity is that even though both apparently contain latakia, I did not detect any Lat presence during the smokes at all. Lol.

The Revelation seemed to me to have as it's primary characteristic a sort of earthy/nutty and slightly bitter (but not really in a bad way) flavor from the burley, with some noticiable presence of the stronger, almost hinting at harsh but not quite kentucky type flavors, with Perique making things interesting and lending it's fragrant spicy tingle into the mix. The periques presence in the Revelation was relatively minor and was most noticable when french inhaling and exhaling through the nose. There were only very very subtle hints of the fruityish sort of topping during the smoke, slight enough to make me question whether i was actually noticing them or not.

The Epihpany on the other hand was a much brighter smoke, with a noticable tangy/tartness upon lighting that stuck around for the first 3rd of the bowl or so, before dimming a bit but never going away completely. The earthy/bitter type flavors were in the background, and kentucky flavor was absent altogether. In the middle part of the bowl, with the tartness having subsided somewhat the Perique tingle made itself known a little better and started coming through clearer. The presence and role of the Perique would be about the most comparable feature of the two blends in my opinion. At this point the Epiphany is getting a little bit closer to maybe almost possibly having something a tiny bit in common with the Revelation, but the Epiphany is still wat too bright and tart and lacking the darker, bitter earthy/nuttiness.

I have not really seen Oriental metioned with either Epiphany or revelation, but I have to say that Epiphany definately smokes and tastes like there is a significant turkish/oriental presence there. With my limited knowledge of such things, if I had to guess I would bet that the larger leafy bits in the picture of Epiphany were orientals of some sort. I have seen similar leafy bits in some other oriental/turkish featuring blends. The fragrant sort of tangy sweet/tartness that I get from some Virgina/Oriental blends is a pretty overt presence and feature of Epiphany. The slightly smoky tartness reminds me of some '07 GLP Cairo that I have been smoking recently. My smoke meter is in the red and needs time to cool back down from 5 back to back bowls of Epiphany and/or Revelation, otherwise I would have thrown a bowl of Cairo in at the end of the session just to double check my memory.

As an overall impression, I enjoyed both of these blends in and of themselves with Epiphany being my preference of the two. I do very much like earthy flavors from burleys and kentucky type blends, but the sort of smoky tartness & tang of the Epiphany just was a little more enjoyable than the revelation and the Epiphany seemed to be just better overall quality. Perique is almost always a plus and was one of the features I liked about both blends.

If you took the time to read all of this, I humbly thank you for your indulgence and simultaneously applaud your persistence and patience while begging your forgiveness for taking up so much of your time with my wandering drivel.
:cheers:

 

[CLRV]

Great comparison Frost, very interesting.

 

[Natch]

Great review. You write well and clearly, presenting comparisons and touchstones that I would expect from one double your age.

But five bowls back to back :affraid: ! My mouth would be fried for a week.

Natch

 

[Frost]

1st bowl - Revelation in the revelation cob

2nd bowl - Epiphany in the epiphany cob

3rd bowl - revelation in the epiphany cob

4th bowl - epiphany in the revelation cob

5th bowl - revelation again in the revelation cob to refresh my memory and double check my notes.

I had a 6th bowl of Uhle's perfection plug later on in the day as well. Spent most of the day smokin' in the basement. Was a good Sunday...since I don't go to church much I figure smokin a pipe is the next best thing to prayer/worship. :lol:

 

[nosenhoj]

GREAT REVIEW FROST.
Since the "whatever happened to Revelation" post I discovered a 14 0z tub dated 01 on the bottom.
Don't know if I should open it, or sell or trade it. I know where it sits now, what ever I decide.


"There's a Story in every Bowl"

 

[nosenhoj]

Hey Natch;
When you're 32 years old you can do almost anything. :lol: :lol: :lol:


"There's a Story behind every bowl"

 

[nosenhoj]

That baccy looked so good, if you photographed it on a plate, someone might be inclined to eat it. :suspect: :suspect: :suspect:


"There's a Story in every Bowl"