Charatan Curzon Mixture

(2.83)
Whilst Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon was responsible for the spectacular 1903 Delhi Durbar celebrating the accession of Edward VII as Emperor of India. This name celebrates the heritage of this blend which is designed for the more experienced and mature pipe smoker and has a composition of Virginia, Latakia and Oriental. It has a well balanced smooth, dark brown smoke with floral and tannin tones.
Notes: Charatan released Curzon Mixture to fill the gap left by Dunhill discontinuing Durbar Mixture.

Details

Brand Charatan
Blended By  
Manufactured By  
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United Kingdom
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

2.83 / 4
2

2

1

1

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 28, 2019 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
Charatan - Curzon.

Another of Charatan's Dunhill remakes. I've smoked a lot of these clones and have enjoyed every one of them. So, this is an attempt at Durbar; is this a good smoke or a nongermane, pointless, one? Due to me not having smoked Durbar for a few years, and the quantity being only a few tins, I'll have to compare to notes here rather than memory!

Curzon's made of quite even size ribbons, an impartial split between light and dark pieces, has a medium bodied Balkan aroma, and great hydration.

Like the aroma implied, the smoke isn't a tough, Lat-Bomb, but a bit more of a docile Balkan! The ripe Virginia and Oriental leaf supersede the Latakia. Creating a fruity, zesty, slightly sour, leading flavour. The Latakia gives a substrate, underlying, smokiness, which makes it a fuller flavour, but not too smoggy. It burns brilliantly, not wanting much work to sustain the burn. I get no tongue bite from the medium temperature smoke.

Nicotine: not too strong. Room-note: quite pleasant.

Curzon? As I mentioned, I haven't that much experience with Durbar, but going from notes here, this isn't a million miles away! Highly recommended:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: A few: Cob, Altinok, Poker.
PurchasedFrom: GQ Tobaccos
Age When Smoked: New
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 11, 2019 Medium Medium Mild to Medium Pleasant
Only bought this 4 hours ago, and am only 4 pipefuls in, but a brief review nonetheless.

When tin was opened, no discernible aroma, just a slight but not unpleasant mustiness. Short dark and light brown ribbons of baccy which pack easily into the pipe. Baccy was moist but not overmuch.

Lights easily, burns evenly, need the occasional relight but not too often.

A very pleasant, mature smoke, this one. It's much less distinctive than the old Durbar, but none the worse for that. I found that Durbar could be a bit harsh. It's probably the least obtrusive Latakia I've experienced, but as usual with these Charatans, I feel the blender has got it absolutely right. I suppose there must be Turkish in there, in fact I can discern it e'en now as I type, but it's subtly and pleasantly there, not tooo strong and catching in your throat, which Turkish can do.

Seems to me that Charatan have got it absolutely right and once again actually improved on the Dunhill template.

Room aroma pleasant and not too strong.

I keep using that word 'pleasant' - it does fit so well with these Charatan offerings. I do admire the blender who has come up with them.

I may update review in future as I get to know Curzon better.

Remember the ditty about Lord Curzon, contemporary with him being Viceroy of India? It was 'my name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior person.' Lol. This Curzon baccy is superior in its nature, but much more modest. It doesn't have to make claims about its status. It just IS top quality.
Pipe Used: Beldor Derby (French, St Claude make)
PurchasedFrom: Londis store, Market Square, Dover, Kent, UK.
Age When Smoked: New.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 07, 2020 Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant
The Charatan CURZON MIXTURE is inspired by Dunhill’s DURBAR MIXTURE. My first impression: Curzon is a little lighter and much sweeter than Durbar. Unfortunately, the boost of sweetness has definitely been added artificially, it is not natural tobacco sweetness. From most artificial flavours, especially sweetness, I get an unpleasant acrid side-taste.

Curzon is an Oriental/Balkan mixture with nice Virginias, a reserved amount of spicy Orientals and a small portion of Latakia. At the beginning of the fresh tin, the Orientals are more pronounced, but they gradually fade away as I empty the tin. To make it a true Oriental/Balkan mixture it definitely needs more Oriental/Turkish/Greek tobaccos. The amount of Latakia is ok though.

For my personal taste, there is not enough emphasis on the Orientals, it is too sweet and I find, the aromas do not deploy as well as in “Durbar”. I will finish the tin, but I would not buy it again.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 10, 2020 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Tolerable
Another of these Charatan attempts to recreate Dunhill tobaccos, in this case Durbar was a favourite of mine, and what's worse it seems not to have been reintroduced as a "Peterson" version! To add insult to injury for me, this Charatan tobacco is a poor effort, a mere suggestion of my beloved Durbar spoiled like so many other of these by a pervasive "icing sugar" sweetness.

The tin contains a medley of somewhat damp ribbon cut of slightly uneven width, as well as some broken pressed leaf which Durbar did not. A mix of bright to dark leaf. The aroma in the tin is very mild, with latakia smoke, a hint of oriental spice and above all, icing sugar. Its easy to pack, and burning qualities are good.

The magic carpet ride of Durbar through an enchanted realm of incense, spice and mystery has been sadly replaced by a fitted carpet stuck in a room with magnolia walls and the faint after aroma of joss stick... A pale imitation. The latakia is more prominent in this blend, perhaps because the Orientals offer so little. I'm not an objective judge here though because a) I love Durbar and b) they told me this could replace it.

I will not buy this again. I am just glad I have one tin of Durbar left. I will smoke it, then bid it farewell and remember it as something glorious and past.
Pipe Used: Northern Briars Bulldog, various Meerschaums
PurchasedFrom: Mysmokingshop
Age When Smoked: New
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 29, 2023 Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
Since the manufacturer states that this blend is a kind of response to the discontinuation of Dunhill Durbar, it is impossible to write a review without making the references to the "original source". Especially since Durbar is one of my favorite blends.

Appearance: the 50 gram tin, vacuum-sealed early last year, contains a blend of tobaccos, sliced with a fine, but somewhat sloppy ribbon. There are scraps of oriental tobacco leaves in the mix, and the latakia occasionally has stems. The tobacco is light and puffy - 50 grams of the blend is packed tightly enough in a standard tin. The humidity of the mixture is ideal - the mixture doesn't need to be dried, but interesting - it hardly gets any drier after an hour in the air.

Flavor: mild, relatively complex, but much closer to English Dunhill blends than to Oriental blends. Latakia is very mild, but, however, brighter in flavor: with its small amount, you can quite clearly smell the notes of cured leather and a slight scent of tar, but the peat is almost absent. Virginia is also brighter, it has herbal and even citrus notes, and the woody ones are a bit more subdued. The manufacturer was a bit stingy with orientals, their notes are simpler - there are some paprika and allspice, but spicy sweet and sourish aroma of badjan is missing, and to say nothing of slightly sweet and spicy cinnamon and walnut.

Taste: Oriental, with its bouquet of spices, woody note and a slight acidity in the taste, of course, lead the way, but they are well-supported by Virginia. The spices themselves are simple enough - the base is dominated by allspice, so that at first you get the impression that a little perique is added to the mix. On the other hand, the acidity quickly recedes into the background, while in Durbar, it is clearly noticeable almost to the middle of the pipe. In addition, the blend almost lacks the astringent, bitter walnut note that is also present in the original. It was replaced by the announced tannin notes that have a slightly different flavor and taste profile. Virginia adds a slight fruity sweetness and an even lighter herbal note, but here it stands out a bit more, although it remains in the background of the oriental. The blend, as a whole, is initially slightly sweeter than the Durbar, but, the sweetness fades quite quickly, and it forces me to suggest its infused origins. The latakia in the taste bouquet is subdued to the point of giving just a bit of leather and wood smoke. The way the flavor forms into one bouquet with a bias toward spicy and woody notes is less rapid, and the overall taste is a bit harsh - apparently influenced by the freshness of the tobacco. By the end of the pipe, the spice fades and the wood intensifies. In bents, by the way, the woody notes raise up faster. The blend at rest smokes cool and dry, but requires some attention to the pace of smoking, it begins to tingle the tongue when accelerated. The tobacco burns into a light gray dust and leaves no moisture in the pipe. The strength of the tobacco is medium, in a very large pipe a slight nicotine hit is possible. The aftertaste is soft, woody, slightly sweet, persistent.

The smoke from the tobacco is quite persistent, having a slight smell of sandalwood, tannin and a mixture of peppers.

What's the bottom line? This is a good, quality blend that is at a crossroads between mild English and Oriental. The orientals in it are simple, and the Virginia flavor and taste pulls a focus away from orientals. So… No miracle happened. The Dunhill Durbar that left us remains unreachable. In any case, I have a few more tins of Curzon, and I will definitely check what will happen to this blend after a few years.
Pipe Used: Peterson 69, 106, POTY 2007, Junior Prince
PurchasedFrom: Online
Age When Smoked: 2022
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 07, 2021 Medium None Detected Full Pleasant
As a Balkan lover I shall never know the pleasure that was Dunhill Durbar so this shall have to do. On its own merits I found this to be an enjoyable smoke. The first third seemed somewhat one dimensional with the Latakia at the fore. The complexity came through in the second two thirds with a slightly zesty and pleasant end of sour. The thin ribbon cut makes drying and packing easy. Moistness was just about right fresh out of the tin and didn't require much drying time. I look forward to putting this away to see what some age does.
Pipe Used: Falcon
PurchasedFrom: The Black Swan Shoppe
Age When Smoked: New
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