A & C Petersen Caledonian Melange No.466 Grand Reserve

This is a nice Latakia laden blend in thick, ribbon cut form but still burns more quickly than some offerings. Because Latakia is big on flavor and low on strength, a little Burley has been added and the cavendish eases the throttle on the burn rate - but not much.

There is good depth of flavor here (due to the fine Cyprian latakia leaf & Virginia employed), and the presentation is a little on the unusual side due to the Virginia addition.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

I would swear there is also burley in this melange! No 466 is a distinctive latakia offering, with a coarse cut. The proportion of Latakia is rather modest, making it more a light condiment. I find it is fairly mild for an English.

Old non-flat tin in the C&D style. Color runs light to black, with some chunky pieces among the ribbons. Tin nose is latakia up front with some enticing orientals to the rear. Overall kind of non-descript. I ended up not drying this as much as usual. Some noticeable moisture was best, but a half hour dry time was about right.

First impressions were the obvious ones. The latakia was light in taste but was the most noticeable flavor until about mid-bowl when the orientals made a push. The Virginias held it all together but also provided a nice sweetness, although there may have been a topping present as well. It was a bit sweeter than I'm used to from just Virginia, but I could be wrong about that. Second impressions was that this struck me as tasting a lot like the Sillem's London Blend I recently smoked... except that one contains perique, burley and Cavendish and this one does not. I certainly can't explain that, and I didn't get the wispy flavors those constituents added to Sillems. But this one brought the taste of that one very much to mind - even the cut was the same. I'd have to dig deep to tell these two apart in a blind test, granting that I don't have the most discerning taste buds in the world. I wish I had saved some of the Sillems. At any rate, this was an interesting but predictable English blend of the lighter variety in a crowded field. Good but not outstanding, and as it's out of production, it's hard to recommend. On the other hand, I doubt it would sell for much money on Ebay so if you stumble across a tin and are curious, give it a shot.

There's a soapy note in this wonderful tobacco, unfortunately no longer distributed here in Italy, that makes 466 cool, spicy, perfect for an all-day smoke. 4,5/5 in my personal rating system.

I rarely give a 4 star but I must say that this blend is impeccably well balanced. The tin is small and quite lovely and of the screw on/off type which I find keeps a better seal. When I popped it open I must admit that the smell was pleasant and quite unexpected. It was reminiscent of Miss's Vicky's sea salt and malt vinegar potato chips, a more fruity and sweet smelling vinegar. Tastewise, it is as already stated perfectly balanced with just enough spicy coolness from the Lat and Oriental and a nice sweetness. An absolute gem of a English. Diolch

Sweet and cookie-like flavour for this blend, orientals leading the game and VA and Latakia in the back row.

Latakia is very light in percentage and Orientals smell of a country farm kitchen. Anyway, a balanced blend, not too deep in taste, gives a clean and dry smoke.

Always cool and sweet, it has only a big fault in my opinion: it is way too light in Nicotine, much more than I expected. I smoke it with a little percentage of Samuel Gawith Brown Rope or Italia Kentucky Blend to add some punch and earthy taste too.

It reminds me of Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, with some more spice and a little less taste. It reminds me of McConnell Oriental too, which I like more, because of a major "cheese" oriental smell.

My tin was a spare one from an unknown tobacconist in town, it must be at least 3-4 years old; it is not too dry, lights and stays lit well and is still packed with different flavors.

Recommended mixture for those who seek for a not too strong EM in every department enjoying anyway some good good leaves.

This is a cased "à la danoise" latakia mixture. This is really too light of an english and more of an aromatic in my view.

A light Latakia mixture that burns cool with interesting notes. A tin was offered to me by a fellow pipe smoker and while I could say that it has a light Latakia presence, the Oriental and Virginia complement this mixture quite nicely. There is a topping that shows up once in a while but it doesn't deter from the experience. All in all a balanced choice for a Latakia beginner and a change of pace for the Latakia journeyman.

Virginia lover

This is an excellent introduction to English mixtures if you can get some.

The latakia is not the dominant player but detetctable. The VAs are amazingly tasty and tangy.

It's a nice, big cut mixture that burns rather slowly.

This is one of the few Latakia blended tobaccos that can be safely smoked in public; the Latakia, though, is barely noticeable. It is quite mild yet very flavorsome, and as I can recall it has a certain topping (not so much as an artificial flavor but a kind of herbal spice) that provides a muted sweetness and a very woodsy aroma. Remember: we are dealing here with a Danish (luxury) blend.

Indeed, if smoked aggressively it can lead to tongue bite. But because the cut is sort of coarse (wild?), it burns rather cool. I would classify this as an elegant blend, polite, fresh. Latakia hounds may not fully appreciate it, but as a change of pace, in the mild side of things, this is recommended. I prefer this to the red tin melànge, and it's equally good as the blue and the black tins (the latter with a rather noticeable Perique component).