Craven Craven Ready Rubbed

Craven - Ready Rubbed.

I reviewed this years ago but as my wife picked me up a selection of tobaccos from a local store, of which this was one, I re-piped it and thought I'd re-post.

Unlike the majority of previous reviews I don't find this that bad. Great? No. Horrible? No. Mediocre? Yes.

One of the biggest issues I found was the dryness. Because it felt a bit crispy the speed of the burn was too much. But, although this is a negative I find the rest relatively positive: the Virginia forms the backbone of the smoke, followed by the Oriental/Turkish, with a slight amount of Latakia wood; the Lat's maybe a touch stronger to begin with. I don't get bitten by it, and despite the dryness of the blend it doesn't feel too hot.

The nicotine's medium, and I don't find the room-note too bad.

If it weren't for the dryness I'd recommend this, but mainly because of that I'll somewhat recommend it.

Two stars.

Firstly I can't agree with the constituent parts as listed above. Certainly no Latakia or Orientals. Virginia yes, plus the nutty flavour of Burley and a background sweetness of what tastes like honey. Not a bad smoke.

25g pouch

This pouch was dried out old, but for me I always dry out my English/Balkan/orientals anyway. To be honest its perfect moisture in that regard like something I have let dry half an hour ready to smoke. Its a tidy fine ribbons cut of dark brown ,tan & golden mix and easy to load and pack.

I avoided smoking this for so long because I was expecting it to be a typical OTC aromatic but I was wrong; its an OTC light English as good as anything else I have smoked of that genre..

This has I believe by taste, Virginia, light latakia, light Turkish, and some definite burley in there giving a seeded nutty breadyness, kind of like a milder version of HH Latakia Flake. It smells in the pouch like its lightly toasted and there is no sour or raw grassy factors.

If I had known there was an English mixture I could get OTC from the supermarket I would I been smoking this years ago.

The virtue of this is no bite at all, you can puff and abuse it and it doesn't get hot. Its like a lighter OLD DUBLIN which you can go all day on. Craven ready rubbed is a total all dayer English that doesn't spoil your mouth over continuous sessions.

I have been doing some real English/Balkan/Oriental side by side, back to back tests lately and testing pipes and bowl shapes to find the golden ratio and goldilocks zones, so my memory and tongue has fresh accurate comparisons standards to judge by.

Craven Ready Rubbed has a good smokey smoke like toasted yeasty bread, mild spice, and gentle oriental which doesnt savage your tongue like a hot curry over longer sessions. In a certain way it reminds me of a thicker cut Gauloises roll up tobacco. Some thing else I like is that I taste no additives; there is no topping, artificial humectants or vinegaric tastes in this;its totally natural.

It doesn't wet or shit the pipe, burns and tastes consistant all the way down to a clean fluffy ash. I would reach for this over quite a few other Englishes I have smoked lately. Its winning factor is the burley within which gives it a lovely full toasted body.

Its medium nicotine ,full body, medium taste (gets stronger down the bowl), smooth ,consistent, non abrasive, no bite, burns cool , gentle ,all good.

4 stars.

A cool, satisfying, mild blend, eh? I'm here to tell you that Craven Ready Rubbed is a tobacco completely without character: one of the worst I've ever tried, and I've tried some beastly stuff over the years.

I bought a pouch of CRR in the vain hope that it might be something like the old Craven Mixture. It isn't. It really has nothing to be said for it: nondescript in every way - taste poor, room note poor, everything poor. There's no casing/topping that I can detect, but the tobacco itself seems to me just cheap and tasteless. Virginia, Latakia and Turkish? Sorry, I just don't believe that there is any kind of respectable tobacco in this horrible apology. You could smoke the fluff out of your vacuum cleaner and get about the same degree of pleasure and satisfaction.

My local Tesco always has Craven Ready Rubbed on the shelves, so there must be people who like it. Who can tell what will appeal to others and why? Personally, I can't imagine why anybody buys this dismal garbage twice.

Update (17th October 09): Well, I went back and had another stab at CRR, just in case, in my disappointment at finding that it's nothing like Craven Mixture, I had misjudged it. I hadn't. It's dreadful stuff, without body or flavour or any kind of distinction. To my mind - and I'm pretty tolerant, on the whole - it hasn't a single redeeming feature. Avoid, friends. Avoid at all costs: I wouldn't smoke this again to please a dying grandmother.

Thick, unpleasant, rough smoke. In tobaccos without casing, the blend really needs to be well picked and flavoursome, rather than course, harsh and similar in taste to chewing on carpet. The pipe-tobacco equivalent of Drum.

I bought a small pouch of this from my local supermarket here in the UK because I'd run out of tobacco which I normally order on line from a tobacconist. I chose this one because it came in small pouches and I only wanted a bit to tide me over till my order arrived through the post. From the start I did not like it. I found this stuff very harsh and dry. I smoke for my pleasure and relaxation but there was neither to be found here. I don't feel that great about writing such a negative review but there is nothing good I can think of to say about Craven ready rubbed. They sell it in supermarkets so I guess people buy it and enjoy it too, but it really was not for me. There are some great tobaccos out there but I personally feel that this is not one of them. If you are looking for something new to try I'd look elsewhere. This experience has put me off buying tobacco from supermarkets. I'll rely on tobacconists in future, they seem to stock the best products and have a good range. I will not be buying this again. If this was the only thing available in the shops I'd quit smoking altogether.