Dan Tobacco Old Ironsides

Old Ironsides will ram you, boys! Even lovers of most Latakia infested blends will surely cry "uncle" with this one. Whew! I needed to brush my teeth for a week after smoking Old Ironsides before my wife let me back in bed. Seriously, this is quite strong as well as full of flavor. The Virginia element was a little overwhelmed by the Lat bomb within, but I think I did taste it some. The Orientals never had a chance.

I gotta get more of this stuff!

I was expecting a Lat bomb here but got much more. At first light I got Latakia and Orientals. Almost balanced. The Lat has a slight edge. A few more puffs in and the Kentucky shows itself with a nice earthiness that is easily discerned. Slowly a very mild sweetness starts to come through from the Virginias. There's just enough sweetness here to make this blend work. If there were just a little more this would reach 4 star status for me. Never quite gets there. It's a bit of a dry smoke. A beverage within reach is a necessity for me. There is a fair amount of spice in the smoke that I found to be very nice. Overall a very good smoke.

Medium in body. Medium to full in taste. Burns well. Ready to smoke right out of the tin. Probably not for everyone, but I enjoyed this tin. I'll stash a couple more.

A Very very flavorful mixture. Really enjoyed this, comes in a broken flake. I rubbed it out slightly, packed and smoked it immediately no drying time. Smoked wonderfully right out of the tin.

Has a super rich flavor, not your average latakia mixture by any means. I think the kentucky has a strong role in developing this taste, but not overbearing on the other components.

Smoke this last if you plan on sampling other blends in your session as it will seriously leave an impression on your palate that you can't shake off. I consider that a good thing though.

Sweet, cool, smokey, thick, long smoke. Just plain savory and delightful.

Dan Tobacco - Old Ironsides (American History Mixtures).

The flakes are starting to break apart, yet not enough to justify the name Broken Flake. The colouration resembles tiger stripes: the way the lighter and darker leaves run vertically forms a pretty appearance. The moisture was perfect when I first opened it.

Although the Lat' creates a heady smoke, it doesn't monopolize the smoke, entirely. It seems to me to be a flavour where the Kentucky's second in command, so it's not just woody-smokiness from the Lat': the Kentucky gives a sharper, fiery, note. It's this that raises my rating of the taste from full, to very full; and also removes a star from the final recommendation. I get the least enthusiasm from the Virginia, maybe a gentle sweetness, but the others are too formidable to allow something with the word Gentle in its camp to share much of the action! It burns evenly, giving, like it says in the description, a cool smoke.

Nicotine: strong. Room-note: full, but I don't find it totally abhorrent.

Don't get me wrong, Old Ironsides is a well made blend, but it's just a touch too heavy a taste for me to give it full marks:

Recommended.

Beautiful presentation in the form of roughly broken flake. This stuff is smooth smooth smooth. Hardly any sweetness compared to a lot of other "lighter" English tobaccos (like, say, Squadron Leader or Frog Mo). More like a cup of coffee with no sugar. Can be smoked all day with no fear of bite.

Room note: Old coffee and maybe maybe a touch of spilled beer.

I like this stuff better than Penzance in taste and in leaf style. Not a clone, but in that ballpark. If you expect to require your sense of taste for about 6 hours after, don't smoke this stuff. I can just see a wine-tasting now: Lovely ruby colour, bouquet... Latakia. Taste... Latakia. Finish... mm hmm, more latakia.

The mildly sweet Cyprian Latakia provides a wealth of musty, leathery smoke, earth, wood, some herbs, floralness, and light spice as the lead component. The mildly sweet and fairly sour dark fired Kentucky offers plenty of earth, wood, herbal vegetation, floralness, some spice, and light nuttiness as an important supporting player. In the third slot is the earthy, woody, floral, spicy, vegetative, incense-like, herbal, mildly sweet and rather sour Orientals. The Virginias produce some tart and tangy citrus, vegetative grass, bread, sugar, floralness, and a pinch of spice in the background. The strength is at the center of medium to strong. The taste is a couple of steps past that mark. The nic-hit is a notch below the overall strength level. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, but there is a mild roughness present. The flakes are moderately moist and pliable, and as always, I did not dry them. Burns cool, clean and slow with a very consistent, deeply rich, sour, floral, spicy, mildly sweet, savory campfire flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The potent room note might isolate you from your family. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke. Three and a half stars.

-Jiminks

Wow, this is tobacco time machine! A sort of "dual" blend, It starts as English and evolves in a spicy balkan, a full flavour flake.

Old Ironsides is the only tobacco I fell in love with after the very first bowl. Strong, with a full, nutty, crispy and smoky taste that just push you dreaming of a london night, back into a dark and smokey tavern on the river Thames, in the mid of the 18th century! I packed an entire flake down my small Peterson and had some little trouble keeping it lit, as it was just out of the tin, but after all, what a great flake!

The generous amount of latakia it contains comes from great leaves along with the base. It doesn't stun, obviously it doesn't bite and smokes veeery quiet and slow. As you proceed down the bowl, a certain deeper spicyness, that makes me think of perique or matured red virginias, shows up and stays there, enriching the taste with some more complexity.

As a huge fan of Bengal Slices and Penzance, I was looking forward to this one - though a bit suspicious of the added Kentucky. Upon opening the tin, I thought I was in for a treat, because the Latakia really smelled high-class.

The texture and cut however, is quite different from the crumbly Penzance Krumble Kake etc. This one is quite rubbery like Full Virginia Flake. But when rubbed out, it is as if the charred "dust" from the Latakia separates from the other tobaccos. It is also very hard to light and keep lit.

Unlike Penzance, Bengal Slices and Krumble Kake, the other tobaccos used here does not support the Latakia, and the flavors does not blend at all. Therefore I got this unbalanced and disharmonious smoking experience of smoky Latakia and strong acrid Kentucky. The other tobaccos; VA and orientals were totally absent.

I consider this a rough and crude attempt at a Latakia flake - not good, not good at all...

***** Jakob Kiilerich, Denmark *****

Old Ironsides will ram you, boys! Even lovers of most Latakia infested blends will surely cry "uncle" with this one. Whew! I needed to brush my teeth for a week after smoking Old Ironsides before my wife let me back in bed. Seriously, this is quite strong as well as full of flavor. The Virginia element was a little overwhelmed by the Lat bomb within, but I think I did taste it some. The Orientals never had a chance.

I gotta get more of this stuff!

Smoky and leathery full-frontal Latakia mixture which you can tell from the moment you pop the tin. Smokes cool and dry. Has medium strength and medium weight although taste is very full and mostly Latakia. Orientals and Virginia sure play a part but they are not really discernible per se. For me they just add the cushion upon which Latakia sits and add a small variety.

It’s not as complex or as refined as Penzance but it really has similarities and the Latakia used here is of high quality and very reminiscent of that found in Penzance.

It is dry tasting, with no harsh points but does not have any juiciness or sweetness which, if present, might make Old Ironsides an even better blend. In larger bowls it may become overwhelming, but I think it can be smoked, if not all-day, at least quite a few times a day, as it is not a really strong blend. Room note is very intense though.

Flakes are very dry but as I said they smoke cool and I didn’t try to rehydrate them. However while rubbing a significant part of the Latakia crumbles to black dust. Not to mention that my hands get dirty from it.

3.5 stars from me, it’s a fantastic tasting Latakia. Highly recommended as such.