The trial by fire tonight is Old Atlantean English Mix. I'm smoking it in a full briar Churchwarden, slightly Arminian in theology but a reasonable chalice nonetheless. Upon applying flame to the offering, the tobacco arches upwards in excited expectation, like a love-stricken female. The first several draws are full, rich, patrician puffs which dissipate slowly into a thinning financial atmosphere. The bowl smolders evenly, a room note of Baroque splendor mingled with late-romantic literary bravado becoming pronounced. The smoke is understated yet extroverted - an oxymoronic haze of blue reverie - borne on unseen currents of doubt. Atlantean Mix smokes well, philanthropically in fact, and sincerely wants to engage the smoker's meditation but lack of money and self-assurance can call for steady puffing to keep it alight. Grace notes and triplets of Mohammedan Latakia begin to play subtle counterpoint to the Colonial Virginias at this phase. Cypriot rebels begin rising up against the Turkish oppressor as the smoke burns lower in the bowl - to tragic memories of Armenian massacres. The room note is intense, slightly dissonant here, but willing to trust in the sovereign providence of an Almighty God. Towards the bottom third of the bowl, a surprising shift occurs; the Mediterranean memories begin to dialectically synthesize new fragrances of nicotine-laden torpor, irrespective of the geological timeline. Now, deep into the bowl, Atlantean Mix begins to yield up her stratigraphic secrets. Uniformitarian preconceptions burn away, leaving only fossilized remnants of antediluvian depravity. The tobacco is now burning into pockets of Pre-Cambrian coal, releasing moans of the non-elect who perished in the flood. Deeper still, the bowl is now murmuring trilobite dreams, singing softly of Edenic mornings in the green glory of the unfallen garden. Just before going out, Atlantean English speaks in glossolalian syllables to the smoker's friends and family (both those present and dearly departed). All in all, I recommend Atlantean English Mix - but be forewarned;this is a serious smoke. You are in for an implosion of the hermeneutic dimension and it is DEFINITELY an acquired taste. Pack yourself a judicious bowl and HAPPY SMOKING to you.