I have been planning to seriously re-evaluate the Frog Morton line of tobaccos, and I'm curious as to what others think of them. I used to like them a lot, but for the past few years I've been smoking almost exclusively heavy balkans (Abingdon, Odyssey) when I wanted a latakia fix. When I want simplicity, I tend to gravitate toward burleys; when I want to smoke something heavy with orientals, I tend to like full, complex mixtures -- or that's what I thought. While I've always believed the Frogs had their place in the continuum of English-style mixtures, primarily as a good introduction to new smokers, I had personally pretty much given up on them due both to their mildness and their lack of nuance (although I kept a few tins cellared). But something unexpected happened a few weeks ago. I started craving some Syrian latakia and cracked open a tin of FM Across the Pond dated from '04, as that was all I had handy containing that leaf. The stuff was freaking awesome, and nowhere near as flat as I'd remembered. Maybe I'm just more receptive to a one-note mixture like these than I was (or perhaps it was just an exceptional aged tin), but the bottom line is that my rather jaded, "sophisticated" taste buds wound up jumping up and down for joy with the stuff ....
Anyway, it's been a long time since I've really given this line a chance, and I've just cracked open one tin of each of the Frog Morton blends. I intend to smoke/review them side-by-side, so I can really evaluate them on their individual merits (and maybe even compare them to some of my more robust favorites). I also opened a tin of McClelland's Anniversary (my first) because the component tobaccos sound similar in concept. Has anyone else here ever done this or something similar, by way of comparison?
Anyway, it's been a long time since I've really given this line a chance, and I've just cracked open one tin of each of the Frog Morton blends. I intend to smoke/review them side-by-side, so I can really evaluate them on their individual merits (and maybe even compare them to some of my more robust favorites). I also opened a tin of McClelland's Anniversary (my first) because the component tobaccos sound similar in concept. Has anyone else here ever done this or something similar, by way of comparison?
