Charatan Rolls

Charatan - Rolls.

This is another I've been writing about for the UK tobacconist McGahey's. So, am nearly through a tin of it!

Almost every website I see this on has it touted as a replacement for Dunhill De Luxe Navy Rolls. Well, to put it simply, it isn't.

The first perplexing feature comes in the way of a black Cavendish centre to the coins. That was Orlik Bull's Eye and Davidoff Flake Medallions territory, not 'Navy Rolls! That aside, the tobacco has a smell of fruit and hay, and a decent hydration.

I enjoy the smoke, a lot. Hence, why the tin's nearly empty in just a few days! It's neither a match for 'Navy Rolls or 'Bull's Eye. Similarly to DLNR, I get a good blast of sharp Perique, but like Orlik 'Eye I get a softening from the black Cavendish. The Virginia forms the base of the blend, offering the usual hay, etc., and being unpretentious. It burns perfectly, manufacturing a smoke which only bites me when really forced to do so; harsh chugs can bite, but with a regular cadence the smoke presents no problem to the tongue.

Nicotine: about medium. Room-note: nice, but the Perique's identifiable.

Charatan Rolls? As I said, this is often offered as the 'new' De Luxe Navy Rolls, which isn't the case. I find it more like a dichotomy of 'Navy Rolls and 'Bull's Eye; the best of both worlds. So, have no problem highly recommending it:

Four stars.

A beautiful curly cut with rolls in the size of a very large coin with a black dot in the centre and a mix of brown and bright tobaccos around it. The moisture is ok for me. The thin rolls break apart as you load the pipe. Lights easily and burns well.

A great smoke indeed. Tasty Virginias with a slight aroma of bread and a reserved, pleasant natural sweetness. They do not offer a wide palette of the well-known Virginia flavours, but what is there, is good. Perique is quite peppery without notes of dried fruit. The amount of Perique is just right. Although it is prominent, it does not cover up the Virginias.

It is said that “Charatan, Rolls” is inspired by the former “Dunhill, De Luxe Navy Rolls”. I agree, it comes rather close to it. The Virginias in Dunhill were more yeasty and offered a wider aroma-palette. Charatan is more robust in the sense of less refined. Still, “Charatan, Rolls” is a very good Va/Per mixture that I can highly recommend.

The Virginias provide a fair amount of tart and tangy dried citrus, grass/hay, bread, floralness, some very sour lemon, sugar, light honey, spice and acidity as the lead components. The peppery perique offers plenty of earth, wood, plums, and a very mild hit of raisins as a supporting player. The creamy sweet, toasty black cavendish center is lightly vanilla-ish, and is a step above the condiment line. The strength, nic-hit, and taste levels are medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, but fast puffing may result in a slight tongue tingle. Has a few rough edges. The easily broken apart coins burn clean and mostly cool at a reasonable rate with a small inconsistency in its sweet, spicy, floral, lightly sour, acidic flavor. Has a moderately lingering after taste. The room note is a notch stronger. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Not quite an all day smoke because of the spice content, but it is repeatable. Three stars.

-JimInks

This blend, though on the first smoke, wasn't quite as attractive, it took about 3 smokes to fully understand this blend. It was a sour, raisin, dried-plum quality, combined with just enough smokiness from the perique. The room note however is very rich, and fills the room. Though it seems to be well liked. I still feel as though its lacking something, perhaps a certain sweetness to mellow our the sourness from it. A solid 3 stars.

An interesting tobacco... Charatan Rolls is purportedly a replacement for Dunhill Deluxe Navy Rolls, a classic Va/Perique coin cut, which was itself introduced to replace Escudo Navy Deluxe. However, the Charatan Rolls have a Black Cavendish core in common with Orlik Bulls Eye... Which was itself introduced as a replacement for Dunhill Navy Rolls... This replacement business is becoming truly meta.

The presentation isn't as good as it's illustrious predecessors, rather tatty discs jumbled in the tin. The back core looks rather good though. Can be on the moist side when freshly opened, rub a couple of coins and let them dry on a piece of paper. I press the cores out and layer them in the bowl as I load it.

Tin aroma - dried fruit, fig, prunes, malt, hint of leather.

It takes a light with the greatest ease, the flavour is initially mild but does build as you get through the bowl. Sweet dried fruit, malt and tea give way to woody and eventually some spicy earthy flavours from the Perique. To my tastes there is very little between this and Orlik Bulls Eye, but its not a substitute for Navy Rolls. It's OK, I like both of them, and neither is available now. I think it has a tad more Perique than either of them, and like Bulls Eye, it becomes a tad milder when you reach the Cavendish layers if you pack it like I do.

The burn is even and few relights are called for. A little dottle is left, there is no tongue bite unless you try too hard to smoke the last bit of dottle. It's not the strongest tobacco, but it satisfies.

All in all, a nice replacement for a replacement for a replacement... I'll buy it again, and I think the Bulls Eye fans will approve.

Tin note of hay, tart dried fruit, and spiced figs. The just under 1 1/2 inch (nearly 40mm) thin cut coins are mix or brown and light brown. Centers are dark brown and black. Moisture is on the dry side, and coins rub out effortlessly. Burns moderately with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is mild to medium and mostly consistent, with notes of spiced bread, herbal, wood, mild Rasin, moderately peppery, earth, mild leather, a sweet grass background note, and a very peppery retro. Virginia is trying to lead with Perique trying to support. Cavendish is lost somewhere. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Produttore: Charatan; Composizione: Black Cavendish, Perique, Virginia; Aromatizzazione: nessuna; Forza: Media

Una struttura in "roll" molto omomogeneo della giusta secchezza, bellissimo il centro nero e i colori marroni celle periferie. Il profumo a secco è fruttato con una lieve nota alcoolica che appaga i sensi. La composizione principale è data tabacchi africani affumicatidi altà qualità, il tutto condito da un eccellente perique stagionato. Carichiamo la pipa, l'accensione è istantanea, bella, il fumo sale bello, formato, azzurro. Ci accoglie il Viginia, gustoso, fruttato, poco dopo ecco il pepe del Perique, fine educato che non copre i Virginia. Il Cavendish? E' il giusto collante, ammorbidisce il tutto.

Continuando con la fumata il gusto evolve, il Perique matura è dà il corpo la parte maschile alla fumata, senza essere violento, il Virginia addirittura dona sentori di pane appena sfornato.

La nicotina cresce senza stordire mai e non c'è mai necessità di riaccendere la pipa, basta usare bene il pigino; non soffre se la fumata diventa più forte, cosa ottima per il fumatore distratto.

Alla fine resta una cenere ompatta, scura. 

La nota ambientale è molto buona.

Diciamo ancora una cosa è detto essere il clone del più celebre De Luxe Navy Roll della Dunhill; sono pienamente d'accordo, con la differenza che questo è un po' meno raffinato del più celebre predecessore. 

Come concluere? Meraviglioso. Vale la pena del viaggio oltre confine.

Giudizio? 5/5.

woody/earthy tin aroma not as prevalent in the smoke; ideal moisture content enables easy fold packing; the VAs dominate and the perique is hardly evident even in large bowls; smokes cool and without bite or condensation

Earthy is the first thing that comes to mind from tin note to smoke. Upon popping this open you are greeted by woody aromas. I decided to pack this by rubbing out the outer ring and keeping the bullseyes to top my bowl. The Cavendish offers a lot of sweet raisin flavour that melds nicely with the figgy notes from the Perique. There is not a lot of spice, but that really works because the Virginias are grassy and earthy. More Perique could potentially overwhelm these rich botanical notes. As a fan of spicy Perique, I have enjoyed other curly cut blends better, but there is something very alluring about the earthiness of this blend. It sets itself apart from the usual suspects. The nicotine hit is detectable but not overwhelming. I enjoyed having a bowl of this in the morning, because it wasn't too much nicotine nor too little.

The rich earthiness of Charatan's Rolls merits this blend a 4/4 from me, and I'll have to try Davidoff next to compare.

First of all (and maybe, last for someone): Charatan Rolls is 100% clone of Peter Stokkebye - Luxury Bullseye Flake AKA No. 403. Maybe, twists from STG come to K&K manufacture and cut there to rolls. Maybe, it was just a huge bulks packed there. But the aroma and taste of both blends are identical.

Appearance: The tobacco arrived in vacuum-sealed tin, weight 50 gram. The blend was a "coins" the color of dark, mossy hay, cut of about three centimeters in diameter, and consisted of bright Virginia with small amounts of perique. The center of the coins shows a core of dark sweet cavendish, about a third of the diameter of the coin itself. The cut is very thin, less than a millimeter thick, causing the "coins" to crumble easily. The humidity of the tobacco is almost perfect, but just in case, I dried the mixture a bit.

Flavor: quite dense notes of figs and dried raisins combined with prunes and honey clearly dominate the aroma. The density of these notes is such that you can't believe the lack of flavorings in the recipe. Virginia adds light herbal tones to this bouquet, and if you sniff long enough, you might be lucky enough to catch a subtle citrus note amidst the riot of sweetness. Also, once I started smoking the blend, I sniffed what was left in the jar again and was surprised to find that the sweetish dried fruit notes had become luscious enough to shift the overall emphasis toward cocoa with a slight inclusion of vanilla.

Taste: Initially, this fresh and smooth Virginia blend with a bit of perique, softened by cavendish, doesn't give off a particularly noteworthy taste. A sweetish note of fruit, a slight herbaceous, slightly astringent flavor on the tongue, barely noticeable perique spice on the retrohale, a bit of prune from the cavendish. Gradually the spiciness of the perique on the retrohale begins to gain a little more power, light woody tones come into the overall bouquet, the overall bouquet becomes more solid - but to tell you the truth, the blend remains quite ordinary in taste. In addition to this, when fresh, it is a little harsh, as well as quite demanding to the pace of smoking - due to its rather thin cut the tobacco easily overheats. For an experienced smoker the blend smolders smoothly, coolly and very slowly, on the verge of fading - I had to use the lighter a couple of times while smoking. The tobacco in my bents was a little sweeter than the straight pipes. The strength of the blend is below average, you don't have to fear nicotine kick even when smoking a large pipe. The blend burns into a dusty, almost white ash, leaving almost no moisture in the pipe. The aftertaste is sweet and grassy, not persistent.

The tobacco smoke has a faint woody smell. It is easily weathered from the room.

What is the verdict? Comparing this blend to monsters like Dunhill (ah, sorry! - now Peterson) De Luxe Navy Rolls or Escudo is pointless. This blend has nothing common with them, being clone of another very popular blend.