4 Star Tobacco Blends

These are my favorites - the ones I can dig into time after time and always enjoy. I've been smoking some of these consistently for many years, while others are relatively new arrivals. Getting 4 stars means the tobacco isn't just good, but is comfortably good.. Something I can smoke and never tire of.

Samuel Gawith's 1792 Flake - When I first popped a tin of this, my immediate reaction was, "What the hell is this blasphemous mass?" It smells, or reeks, pretty strongly of that characteristic greasy tonquin odor and even the paper it's wrapped in is stained brown. Frightening! However, after smoking it for a while now I have become convinced that this is one of the world's true Great Tobaccos. I never expected this as I normally am not a fan of the soapy, flowery flavored blends that seem to be the hallmark of the Gawith companies. It is delicious in the bowl, with a clear and sweet flavor that lasts throughout the smoke. It's virtually the polar opposite of the latakia blends I usually prefer and offers a creamy smooth experience akin to a rich sugary dessert. It is also one of the most forgiving, bite-free tobaccos that I have experienced. The only disadvantage I've found with it is that it is very pipe-possessive - once you smoke a few bowls of it, the flavor will get into the pipe and strongly affect any other tobacco smoked therein afterward.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill Standard Mixture Medium - The perfect English blend for me! Standard is a dark blend, with a good amount of latakia and oriental leaves cut fairly fine. It may well be the delicacy of the cut that I like as much as anything, since it gives a very smooth and consistent burn for me. It sometimes has a tendency to turn a bit soggy toward the bottom, but overall it provides excellent, and very, very consistent taste and burn from package to package, throughout all the seasons of the year. The taste isn't as outstanding as other English blends I've tried, but I have yet to find anything which matches the cool and friendly smoke that Standard delivers. For the best possible experience, dedicate a new English pipe to this tobacco alone and smoke nothing else - years down the road, you'll be glad you did so every time you taste the rich flavor from this faultlessly genteel tobacco.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill London Mixture - The other perfect English blend for me. London Mix is a little easier on the tongue than Standard, and more likable to beginning smokers. It also offers a more crowd-pleasing aroma and is in general a friendlier tobacco. It's lighter in color than Standard, and I suspect it contains less latakia as the flavor is sweeter and spicier to me. It offers all the advantages of Standard as far as cut and consistency goes and tops it in many ways.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill 965 - This is perhaps the friendliest "heavy" tobacco I've smoked; sort of the Guinness of Stout beers. It's so well cut and such a smooth and cool smoke that the flavor of the heavy latakia content is prone to pass right by. To some, it's the sort of English blend that drives innocents from the room, but when smoked it's such a docile partner that I never find myself conscious of its potency. Comparing it to Frog Morton or Pirate Kake is much like comparing being asked for a charitable donation to being mugged - it delivers the same effect, albeit in smaller doses, but is so polite about it that you're prone to underestimate the experience. It is, however, still not a tobacco for the beginning smoker, and definitely not for the smoker accustomed to light aromatics... this would be much like going from Bud Light to, well, Guinness Stout for flavor shock value.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture - I've had a love/hate relationship with this one. It's very potent. In fact, it's strong enough to occasionally give me the queasies, but it's also very good. It's a bit like the now-unavailable Three Nuns in flavor, with a bit of perique mixed into what looks like Virginia. Amusingly, others have called this "subtle" and "weak", but I suspect my system just doesn't normally agree with Virginia tobaccos. The smoke is flavorful and rich, and has a rather musty, grassy tone that turns toward Perique as the bowl drops. Very dry and easy, and an excellent introduction to Virginia/Perique blends for those who are leery of them.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Friedman & Pease 1998 Winter's Tale - Absolutely delicious! It usually takes me several bowls to decide if I like a tobacco, but this one got me on the first few puffs. Better yet, I'm still smoking it after many bowls and it's only gotten better. In truth, it reminds me of Silk Road with a shot of Viagra... it's as smooth as SR but has more flavor and "oomph". There are so many flavors in this it's hard to even comment. It's a bit like eating a triple-decker chocolate ice cream and fudge cake - RICH. It's also a limited edition, so buy it if you can!
No longer available.

Three Nuns - My newest favorite. This is a Virginia/Perique blend pressed and cut into small slices, making it a very different smoking experience. It can be smoked crumbled or in pressed form - the latter by simply stacking the little discs into the bowl. I prefer it stacked, as the burn is very controlled and cool, and the flavor is beyond yummy. It's very strong and sweet, with the Perique wafting in and out all through the smoke like some ethereal spirit. This is another blend that's vanished from the US due to litigation fears, and this is an incredible crime.


Syrian Reserve - (Reviewed by Jeff Folloder) Every now and then there's a tobacco that makes you realize why you started smoking a pipe. This is one of them. Unforunately, it is no longer made and if you get to try some you must consider yourself extremely fortunate. The label reads: Limited Vintage Syrian Reserve, Extra Matured Balkan Mixture and is one of the Levin Pipes tinnings. It is an English blend with a medium fine cut that is composed of dark brown to almost black colors. The tin aroma is redolent of deeply smoked latakia in the grand old style of days gone past. When you can get Syrian Latakia these days it is fantastically expensive and tasting this you'll know why. Lighting is extremely easy and the first few puffs fill your mouth witha n earthy and smoky blend that is almost soft enough to make you say "so what's the big deal?" Then you start to understand why Brahm's Lullaby has endured. The taste is soft, but it is so because of all of the flavors marrying perfectly into a simple, yet seductive melody that satisfies immensly. Certainly Latakia and just the right combination of accompanying Orientals, but the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. One can contemplate the reasons behind the demise of many of the great tobaccos. This is one of them. If you are an English fan, you must smoke this blend before you pass your pipes to the next generation. It is that simple! Truly ***** out of five.
(Trever's Comments) I agree with everything Jeff said. This is an incredibly delicious tobacco!
No longer available.

Dan Tobacco's Old Ironsides - Latakia, Latakia, Latakia... to quote the review of this in P&T magazine, "If you want more Latakia than this you'll need an IV drip of it". It's in flake form, which adds an interesting twist to the blend that isn't present in some other strong Latakia mixes I've tried. This is a potent tobacco, not in nicotine hit but in flavor. It's the "triple-decker chocolate cake with ladled fudge" tobacco, and falls squarely into the land of love-it-or-hate-it. I love it, obviously - there's no subtlety here nor deep nuances nor shifting flavors, but it's a really luscious smoke for those times when you just have to have a rich pipe and a Taddy Porter.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill Standard Mild - (Guest Review by Jesse Williamson) I like this one more (than Dunhill Standard). The taste is overall a little "brighter" and somewhat more complex. A very engaging blend, more so I think than it's stouter brother. If I see another tin of this around, it's mine. :>
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Butera's Kingfisher - (Guest Review by Jesse Williamson) Hmmm... it might just be that it's the flavor of the day but I think this is great! A Krumble Kake of Virginia, Perique, and Burley. Don't tell anybody, but it's secret weapon is the burley. The Virginas add a nice natural sweetness, the perique adds a tangy taste that becomes "peppery" as the bowl progresses, but it's the burley that adds the smoothness and body that make this blend really tasty. I'd definitely buy more. As a bonus worth mentioning, the Krumble Kake is pretty fun!
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Gawith's Best Brown Flake - (Guest Review by Jesse Williamson) Here's probably the single most enjoyable Virgina that I have yet had. In the tin there's a great aroma of raisins, currants... great tobacco. It rubs out just right, it smokes well (and greatly encourages a slow pace), smells wonderful (no promises that others will like it, but I imagine that they will), and highly importantly, tastes great. Some may find it a little dull, but I find it very engaging from the beginning to the end! This is a tobacco best suited for very long, slow, meditative smokes. Put it into your Dunhill or Talbert (;>) and enjoy an hour in heaven.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Holly's Non Plus Ultra - (Guest Review by Jesse Williamson) It's very rare to find a heavily-cased aromatic like this one. Namely, one that a) others tend to like the smell of; b) smokes not too wet; c) smokes not too hot; and importantly d) I actually enjoy myself. Well, here it is, probably the only one that I really truly like to smoke that matches the above criteria. The casing is the feature, but it's driven by an underlying synergy with the Virginia base. I very much like the flavor, which is rather difficult to describe, almost a strange flower and nut combination. The P&T review didn't like it, but I certainly do! This is currently the one and only aromatic that I regularly keep "in stock", and I consisently enjoy it.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Cornell & Diehl Black Dawg - I'd wager lots of people will have mixed reactions to this blend, as it's loaded with unique character and falls into the "Love it Or" category. To me, it's like smoking mocha coffee. It's not cased, however, and the flavor is the natural combination of Syrian Latakia, Cavendish, and Perique in the blend. It's quite pungent (in a good way). It has a really odd sort of richness, and I tend to roll my tongue around my mouth a lot while smoking it, trying to pin down just what the flavor is. Imagine the luxurious smell of a can of mocha transported directly to your tongue. The stuff is very dark, with barely a hint of lighter leaf mixed in, and smokes well even in dry form though I normally add some moisture to my C&D blends - Craig is like the anti-McClelland, in that his tobaccos arrive as bone-dry as Frog Morton is gooey. This is not a multi-dimensional tobacco but that's just fine for me, since the direct and clear flavor is such a pleasure.
May be purchased from:
Cornell and Diehl Tobaccos

Cornell & Diehl Baalbeck - This one is the near opposite of Black Dawg. Where the Dawg is direct and strong, Baalbeck is subtle and smooth. It's a fairly large and loose-cut light leaf, and carries a delicate Virginia sweetness with what might be a hint of Syrian latakia (I need to check their ingredients). It's an interesting companion to Dunhill Standard for me, because it's very consistently smokable and always friendly without being loud. As with Black Dawg, it needs a bit of moisture to really sing, but once you've found the sweet spot it's a joy for any pipe.
May be purchased from:
Cornell and Diehl Tobaccos

Dunhill Durbar - Rich, rich, rich! If you've been enjoying 965 and wanted something of equal quality, this is the blend - it's strong, pungent, interesting, cool-smoking, and really jumps around and dances like a good English blend should.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Dunhill Aperitif - If Durbar is an alternative to 965, this would be something the London Mix smoker might enjoy. It's very polite in its manner and very smooth, with hints of spicyness and character appearing here and there... kind of like the ideal waiter, really. This would make a good all-day smoke, and I'd also recommend it to anyone curious to try English blends, especially to a new pipe smoker.
May be purchased from:
Pipe and Pint, (336) 218-8610 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA