Tin Description

Fully matured Virginias, Ready Rubbed Burleys, Latakia and a touch of Fire-cured Cavendish is the recipe. We added one of the world's finest 30 year old Scotch whiskies, Glenfarclas. The natural flavors from the tobacco and the delightful taste of the Scotch marry perfectly, so when smoked you experience the mellow taste and subtle smoky note of the tobaccos combined with the overtone of a fine scotch.

This has a very interesting taste at first light. It is a very familiar almost caramel candy-like flavor that I believe forms from the combination of the tobaccos and Scotch whisky, certainly not any aromatic component. Aside from the whisky this is straightforward tobacco. Once the ember is going this unique taste slides behind the expected flavors of the tobacco.

Be careful to take your time lighting this one. This is not a blend you want to burn hot. I have to really watch my smoking cadence with Mac Baren blends else I wind up bitten. With Highland Blend’s inviting but reserved character I can easily get carried away puffing a little too greedily, chasing more of the flavors.

My guess is this blend will appeal more to those who generally steer clear of the heavier Latakia-laden blends. While an English or Balkan lover may like this in his rotation as a change of pace, it bares little resemblance to the typical English blend in character and body.

The taste from the component tobaccos throughout the bowl is very dry, crisp, and almost sharp. While I detect the sweetness from the Virginias I cannot think of this as a sweet blend.

The Latakia is also always present but applied very delicately. Highland Blend is a textbook example of the blender using Latakia as a condiment rather than a component. The way the Latakia coaxes the sweetness of the Virginias out from behind their tang and zest is artful. It plays well with the whisky too.

The Burley and Cavendish has a welcome but fairly nondescript role in the Highland Blend, especially early in the bowl. Maybe the Burley is what brings the crispness to the blend’s character. As the bowl passes the halfway point the Burley begins to stand out more and contributes an increasing amount of body and depth. Very nice.

Mac Baren is a must-try if you are comfortable with the disciplined and observant smoking. For me, the strength of the blend is in the complexities. I cannot fully enjoy it as an all-day smoke. It needs too much attention. Anyone willing to give this tobacco enough attention will be rewarded an incredibly interesting experience.

Video Review of Mac Baren Highland Blend

A light, naturally sweet blend created for renowned pipemaker, Lannes Johnson, who selected this mixture to send as a sample to his pipe customers. Two diff- erent types of nutty Burley are laced with an unusual cube cut Virginia and a Burley-based natural toasted Black Cavendish for a splash of non-flavored sweetness. Now available to the general public for the very first time. If you're looking for an all-day blend that isn't wet or overly sugary, give this one a try.

Expect this tobacco to arrive well on the dry side. I recommend leaving it as is before smoking. The overall taste is slightly sweet with a healthy tang. Maybe its my imagination but I'd swear I taste a little Perique, but the blend description doesn't mention it.

The base of burley is easy on the tongue but deserves a careful smoking cadence to keep off any bitterness. This is a clean medium bodied that won't win any rewards for complexity and likely never sought any. The blend was created for an all-day pipe smoker, and an all-day blend it is if you share LJ's preference for a straightforward tangy smoke.

It is a light English blend of Virginias, Burleys, Latakia and Perique and is topped off with a bit of Wilke's unique fermented black cavendish. Truly a social English.

This is a very agreeable blend in all ways. While 193 does lean to the lighter side, I find the flavor and body entirely satisfying and I can enjoy this any time of the day. The foundation of Burley, Virginia, and Latakia is not obscured by the smidgen of Perique or the fermented black cavendish.

This amount of Perique is perfect for adding a tidy amount of zing to an English type blend of this sort. The fermented black cavendish is either not overly sweet to begin with or applied sparingly enough to twist in an additional layer of flavor without getting in the way of a clean finish.

Like all the Pipeworks and Wilke blends, this arrived plenty moist and required some drying to reach a moisture level that appeals to me. Once there it loads and burns beautifully with no bite. I expect this easy-going blend will appeal to most pipe smokers unless they have no tolerance for Latakia or Perique in any amount.

Blender's description:

One of the oldest Wilke recipes. Virginia and Burleys are mixed with a non-aromatic Black Cavendish tobacco and topped with a generous amount of superior Latakia creating a traditional medium strength English blend. A rich mellow blend in the true British tradition.

This blend has a medium amount of Latakia. I wouldn't want any more in this blend because I might miss the tangy sweetness from the Virginia or that faint toastiness from the unflavored black cavendish. The burley is applied just enough to round it out with some body.

This blend is well behaved and well balanced.

Tin description:

A spicy aroma along with a subtle Oriental flavor. Orientals (other than Latakia) and a rich Virginia base along with two Cavendish tobaccos make up this special blend. Lightly aromatic!

I try a lot of pipe tobaccos and usually a new blend is a variation on a theme - another English, another Virginia/Perique, another aromatic, etc. Once in a while something entirely different comes along - this time its Gotham Court.

When I'm lighting this up my mind is telling me "its an aromatic - see, it says right there in the description," but my palate is saying "but wait a minute, it doesn't have that sweet, doughy, mouth feel."

A lot of the sweetness, what little there is compared to most full-on aromatics, seems to be from the Virginias rather than the topping. The Orientals bring up the rear, sort of harmonizing with the added flavoring, and the cavendish carries the middle.

I'm hesitant to name the topping flavor. Some have called it cloves and nutmeg. I'm not sure that's all there is to it. Hard to say because like all good aromatics, it is hard to tell where the topping flavor stops and the tobacco starts.

Gotham Court also undergoes some changes throughout the bowl. The Virginias get deeper and earthier, but the Orientals and the spice hold their own throughout the bowl.

This is a truly interesting blend and worth a try by any pipe smoker no matter what your usual preference.

Video coming soon.

This is a stout blend consisting of several grades of Virginia tobaccos with a generous measure of long-cut perique. Unflavored Green River black Cavendish and a little air-cured white burley ribbon provide fullness, body, and a bit of extra strength. Finally, an exclusive process darkens and marries the mixture, and gives the blend a subtle tin aroma of cocoa and dried fruit. The flavor is full on the palate, earthy, slightly sweet and intriguingly piquant, with overtones of figs and raisins. A wonderful and unprecedented blend for the true perique lover!

No review on this pipe tobacco yet.

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A middle strength, full blend containing red and lemon Virginia, Latakia, Turkish and black Cavendish

I had been a long time Dunhill 965 smoker but when Murray's closed their doors and Orlik took over blending it I was left out in the cold. After a long search I found this blend and while it does NOT taste like 965, it does offer me what I needed in a daily English Mixture. Listed as a medium strength as was 965, I find it a very satisfying smoke, almost full bodied in the sense that the Orientals give it strength rather than the usual Latakia bomb that "full-bodied" can mean.

Many so called English Mixtures, including some from C&D use Burley to give it the needed strength but not so Stratfordshire. The Virginias give the needed sweetness and the Orientals give it the needed strength and character. Trusting my taste buds I have to say the Black Cavendish is definitely the unflavored variety, recalling to mind the Rattrays of old.

If your idea of an English Mixture is one that has some punch but where the Latakia takes it's rightful (IMO) place as a condiment then this one could be for you.

"1864" is the Perfect Mixture. A modern version of an early successful blend by W.O. Larsen. The 1864 mixture consists of carefully selected Virginia tobaccos from the best tobacco fields on three continents. The balanced Virginia tobaccos are blended with fermented Black Cavendish and premium Burley from the U.S.A., Malawi, and Mexico. We have added a seductive flavor to ensure a generous and delicate taste - truly a Perfect Mixture.

This is by far the best aromatic I have smoked and a masterpiece of a blend in its own right. I don't have a special affection for aromatics, but I do enjoy a good one, and this is by far my favorite. Smoking pipe tobacco doesn't often get better than this.

The balance between quality tobacco and top flavor is perfect. Neither is overwhelmed by the other; instead, they work in harmony with each other to make a wonderful overall smoke.

I can't identify the flavor - at one point I thought it was a combination of orange and chocolate, but now I'm leaning towards something like anise and something else. The flavor is mysteriously familiar but I can't put my finger on it. It's just good.

The base blend of tobaccos tastes like high quality. The burn is problem-free. No tongue bite and I'm a pipe smoker who has to be careful. I smoke this in my favorite briars without hesitation - it leaves no ghost flavors. The blend is at a suitable moisture directly from a freshly opened pouch.

Even if you have been put off by aromatic house blends or over the counter vanilla bombs and have sworn off aromatics, give this a try.

Pennington Gap by Cornell and Diehl

From the tip of Virginia, an all-American blend with a southern accent. Nutty Kentucky cube cut burley and rich black cavendish balance the unique aroma and flavor of Louisiana Perique, finished with bourbon for that touch of southern hospitality.

Every time I reach for this blend I recall the superb treatment one receives when dealing with Craig and Patty Tarlor of Cornell & Diehl. This is a pipe tobacco blend I would not normally have picked out on my own - the combination of tobaccos and the whiskey finish wouldn't have appealed to me. One day I was placing an order directly from C&D and asked Craig to simply pick out something unusual and add it to my order. When I took shipment and opened the box, I found the Pennington Gap.

So often we go into a blend with a preconceived notion of what to expect only to be surprised. This was one of those times. As it turns out, I loved the spiciness, the mellow sweetness, and how well this pipe tobacco behaves.