Drucquer & Sons Trafalgar

(3.90)
A classic mixture, Trafalgar sets smooth, exotically spicy Turkish tobaccos in perfect balance with a variety of fine bright and red Virginia leaf, and just enough Latakia for an elegant "English" style, with a crisp, dry taste and a subtle campfire-like aroma. The result is a rich, stylish tobacco with lots of character, and enough complexity to keep the smoker engaged throughout the bowl, and throughout the day. - Gregory Pease

Details

Brand Drucquer & Sons
Blended By G.L. Pease
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type English
Contents Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 3.5oz Tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium to Full
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.90 / 4
18

2

0

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 20 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 30, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
The earthy, woody, tangy dark fruity, bready red Virginia also has a touch of vinegar, sugar, tart citrus, and spice. The tart and tangy citrusy, lightly sugary, toasty, floral and grassy bright Virginia is a shade less obvious. The buttery sweet, dry, sour and floral, woody, earthy, herbal, vegetative, musty Turkish adds a little spice in an important supporting position. The smoky, woody, earthy sweet Cyprian Latakia plays a complementary role. A whisper of perique provides raisins, plums and spice, though it’s often not very noticeable. The nic-hit is a shade closer to medium than it is to mild. Medium in strength, the taste level is a step above that. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. Well balanced, you’ll observe nearly all the inherent aspects of the tobaccos in every puff. Burns at a moderate rate with a cool and clean, deeply rich, fairly smooth consistent flavor. Requires an average number of relights, and leaves little dampness in the bowl. Not quite an all day smoke, but certainly repeatable during your smoking day. Has a full after taste, and a smoky campfire room note that may chase your mother-in-law away. You may be grateful for that.

-JimInks
48 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 03, 2016 Strong None Detected Full Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a very enjoyable Full English. When opening the tin I can smell the Latakia but its not as apparent as some other English blends I have smoked. The taste of the Latakia is there in spades once lit though. Not a Lat bomb but refined to the palate. The taste is pure English as there are no sour notes which to me denotes a Balkan. I find this slightly Fuller than Levant. This is not to take anything away from Levant - sometimes I want a classy smokey refined English - while others I want to get a down and dirty earthy Balkan. Think of it like comparing Ale - if Levant is a Double IPA - Trafalgar would be a Guiness. This is a Delicious, Complex and slightly Chocolately. A Great Fall/Winter Blend. Highly Recommended!
Pipe Used: Chacom Pipe
PurchasedFrom: Smoking Pipes
Age When Smoked: New
24 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 19, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
I rarely smoke two pipes full of tobacco in a day. I did with Trafalgar. I bought this before knowing that it was blended by Greg Pease. I would have guessed this based on the quality of the tobacco. It has a typically English, woody and musty tin aroma. It immediately reminded me of what Rattray's Seven Reserve USED to be when I smoked it every day. It is bit stronger than that, but mild enough to keep my tongue from chapping. This is truly an all-day smoke. The character is wonderfully sweet and spicy, and the room note like a small campfire. I love this tobacco. I have a 100 gram tin opened and stored in a sealed jar and put another 200 grams in the cellar. I also bought several other Druquer & Sons based solely on the taste of this tobacco. I smoked it a Bruce Weaver Lovat. The tobacco lights on the first try and is of perfect smoking condition right out the tine. It required only one re-lighting and burned to a fine gray ash. I can't say enough good things about Trafalgar. Admiral Nelson would be proud of the blend! : )
Pipe Used: Bruce Weaver Lovat
PurchasedFrom: Smoking Pipes.com
Age When Smoked: Brand New from Tin
17 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 28, 2019 Medium None Detected Full Tolerable to Strong
I have been an enthusiastic fan of Caravan for 15 years, and this blend has the same quality: dry, tangy, full of Oriental character... but with a little bit more in terms of intensity. While a bit too intense and flavorful for an everyday smoke (which on the other hand Caravan could be, if Westminster were not even better at that game), this intensity and richness (which doesn't translate as "heaviness") also makes it bolder - while at the same time not losing any finesse.

Just compare this blend with similar offerings from other makers (even historical ones): others with such a composition always have a hint of muddiness, a thick kind of heaviness. Trafalgar has none: intense but clean and focused.

I have never tried the original blend, of course, so I can't say if this "homage" is close to it or not. For sure, it has a distinctive G.L. Pease signature (which means it's great as all his Latakia mixtures are).

A large bowl of Trafalgar, sipped slowly (perfect cut, perfect moisture, which makes it a joy to pack and light), is a marvelous experience.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 01, 2019 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Tolerable
Starts off as a real mild English, smooth and elegant with no rough edges. The orientals and Virginia work together to create a woody sweet flavor backed up by smoky notes from the Latakia. The perique is light and almost non existent at this point. (Luckily this changes later.)

The smoke is thin and wispy, delivering a nice cool smoking experience. Just enough to taste the tobacco, but not enough to overwhelm and linger on your palate. I have smoked the Levant mixture by D&S and this is quite a bit lighter and much more smooth.

Midway through the bowl the strength picks up to in between mild and medium. The orientals start producing a Peaty flavor similar to a macallan scotch. The perique comes now in a big way , creating a tingle in my nose and adding a plumy sweetness to the retro-hale.

Onto the finish - full of plum and figgy fruit flavors taking over the smoke. At this point I had to scratch my head ... wondering if this was an English. The tobacco now has adopted the fruitiness of a navy flake.

I absolutely love the progression of flavor this tobacco delivers! It doesn’t need age to perform well, you can smoke this now. Four stars without a doubt!

- Jan
Pipe Used: Radice Rind Lovat
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Fresh
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 15, 2020 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I am on an Oriental kick lately, maybe because I like them. The two tobacco's I didn't quite "get" as a novice pipe smoker back in the day were Oriental/Turkish and Burley. I have figured both out. One I am in love with and the other is very mood dependent. This is a really great blend. I have found solid Oriental blends hard to come by with McClelland exiting the building, GL Pease and C&D are a go to for all things good, my biggest problem there is that they crank out too many for me to choose from. This is a stand out and if this was an early creation of Mr. Pease, well then that speaks to his prodigy like strength as a blender. Tin note is quintessentially sour Oriental, slightly smokey from the Latakia the VA's are earthy and the Perique is not noticeable (I find this to be true through the entire smoke, although it may contribute to the nic strength). The flavor is fantastic. This is a well balanced, sophisticated tribute to tobacco blending. No topping or casing to rely on, only the natural flavors of the leaf. The Oriental/Turkish tobacco's are the lead players. They are spicy and buttery, buttery is one of the things I love most in a good Oriental. It is what gives the "malt" to Balkans and when done well in an Oriental forward English, like this, they provide that wonderful dairy land addition to my pipe! The smoke is dry, like a white brut sparkling wine. The flavors open up as dry, light spice from the Orientals and earth and sweetness from the red VA. The Latakia provides some slight sweetness and smokiness. The combination of the first 3 noticeable components provides a mineral like flavor or more of a sensation. I am hesitant to make references to the taste of blood or a penny but there are those earthy minerals that add an element to the blend that tends to bolster the woody and spicy elements of the Orientals. This is a complex blend if you take the time to reflect on the smoke, or you can go about your business and get a straight forward light English. I like that: solid and flavorful when distracted, nuanced and layered when you are in the mood to think about your experience as you let the day wind down. One final note: I get a sense of nostalgia while smoking this blend, it is a modern blend by a modern blender but it is seems to adhere to the most basic elements of tobacco blending one that relies on history, experience and the passing of knowledge from apprentice to master. It is what is so great about pipe smoking and what separated pipes form cigars.
Pipe Used: Briar’s and cob’s
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 17, 2019 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Wow. Just wow. I love this tobacco. (I also love Nightcap, Quiet Nights, Father Dempsey and John Cotton’s Number 1 Mild -- not comparing, just saying -- but does it get any more quintessentially English than Trafalgar)? Westminster is a Greg Pease Balkan that’s been reviewed and highly rated (revered) as an English. I’ve been dating Westminster off and on for almost five years now -- I just got around to reviewing Westminster -- and I could only just render it 2-stars (notwithstanding the 58% of reviewers who awarded it 4-stars ). No matter how hard I tried, Westminster has always been a 2-star gig for me. I undergo one bowl of Trafalgar and -- BAM! – I’m absolutely head over heels in love with the stuff. (I appreciate the brazen sophistication of Quiet Nights – another Pease master blend – but then I find the Trafalgar taste to be slightly more elegant, its flavors more favorably refined than the Quite Nice). Being only the fourth one to review this blend (which is really hard to fathom, given Trafalgar’s release date) and with the first three reviewers having already said pretty much everything there is to say about Trafalgar, the only thing really left to say is that Trafalgar is as classically English as its name. Highly recommended; not to be missed. 4-suns.

7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 22, 2022 Medium Extremely Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
A friend suggested Trafalgar since I'm a fan of old fashioned English blends. Upon opening the tin, there's an immediate musty sweetness that hits me. The scent is reminiscent of C&D's Epiphany... which is possibly the Perique. But it also has a much stronger English-ness about it.

It's a tad too moist for my liking... so I dried it out for about 15 minutes before smoking. First few puffs... sweetness, spice, really nice English flavors. The Virginias are tangy and sweet and a bit spice-y. The Orientals add a really nice dry herbal flavor. And there is just about the perfect amount of latakia in this blend, adding just the right amount of that sweet smokiness. In contrast to other reviewers, I actually think the Perique adds a really important, and substantial flavor. That sort of fermented plum flavor is big part of what I'm tasting in Trafalgar. Overall... really great blend. There's no bite, plus it burns smoothly and maintains a nice consistent flavor throughout.

Bottom line: Great old fashioned blend with a touch of Perique which gives it something special. 4 starts.
Pipe Used: Dunhill Shell Briar
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 17, 2019 Medium Medium Medium Pleasant
I generally prefer aromatics, and have for 40 years. Trafalgar is so superb that I am reconsidering. Tasty, complex, with just the right aura of spice, this is a remarkable blend that personifies the very summit of the English blends. Blender G. L. Pease has written about his memorable experiences in the original Drucquer sore; it must have been an amazing place... Now it is many months later...this amazing tobacco continues to be a favorite. I like it best as I am working on a bottle of wine, as I am doing now. Simply fantastic.
Pipe Used: Various older briars
Age When Smoked: New
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 21, 2020 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
I want to start out with Trafalgar's absolutely stunning tin presentation. Ranging from lemon yellow to orange to tan to a ruddy brown to an almost black component; this blend looked as good in the tin as any blend I've ever opened, and had Greg Pease's signature all over it. Unfortunately, the tin aroma did not quite reach this same high level as the appearance. The tin aroma was somewhat subdued and distant with no one component standing out. I compared it to the only other Drucquer tin I have open, Prince's Blend, and discovered that both the latakia and perique were fainter in Trafalgar. I also noticed the difference the presence of the Oriental(s) make in Trafalgar, as it has none of the grassiness in the background that you find in Prince's Blend. Rather, it has a more subdued and slightly woody background aroma. When I lit this blend up, I found the subdued and distant tin aroma was replicated in the pipe aroma and taste. The top third smoke was of a somewhat confused and weak nature and I couldn't get a whole lot out of it. Fortunately, this all reversed in the middle third and an Oriental-forward light English emerged that was both satisfying and unique to my recent English smoking. The bottom third finished in a more ordinary way with the Orientals now dropping back to a secondary position. All in all, a beautiful and beautifully blended light English that, unfortunately, always leaves me wanting more. I recommend this blend on the basis of it's appearance and that beautiful and Oriental-dominated middle third smoke; three stars.
Pipe Used: Ashton ELX Sovereign Billiard
PurchasedFrom: an Ebay seller
Age When Smoked: two years old
3 people found this review helpful.
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