Mastro de Paja Venezia

The best of the Mastro de Paja blends I've tried. I'm not sure if this is made anymore and my tin was maybe 6-8 years old (sorry, there was no date stamp of any kind on the tin and I'd had it in my cellar a long time). The presentation was mild English all the way and it was very tasty indeed. A little spicy Turkish is present here, and that really added to my overall enjoyment of Venezia. I sure wish I could find another tin.

A little musty, woodsy, earthy and lightly smokey latakia is backed up by a mildly floral, earthy, woody, dry Turkish addition. The Virginias are earthy and grassy as the third star in the blend. The nic-hit is just past mild. Burns very well and dry with a consistent tasty English flavor. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and needs an average number of relights. Has a pleasant after taste. It's more of a mid-range smoke, so it ought to please most English smokers, except for the hard core lat-lovers. Fairly relaxing for an all day English blend.

Appearance: a tin of early 2022 contained 50 grams of what looked like quality tobacco. Matured virginia predominates, there are few light colors, but the amount of latakia also does not scare the beginner. Not too neat slicing was a bit embarrassing, where there were pieces of broken virginia flake. But I was pleased with the perfect humidity. Nevertheless, the tobacco will require some preparation when filling.

Flavor: typical English blend with a moderate amount of latakia. Leather, slight peat smokiness, some musk, faint woody notes, cautious oriental spiciness, the very slightest of herbal notes. Surprisingly, this blend reminded me of Dunhill creations much more than most Robert McConnell Heritage blends.

Taste: solid, voluminous, quite difficult to break down into individual notes. Latakia and orientals play almost in a single ensemble, creating a smoky, woody and spicy bouquet with a light enveloping creamy aftertaste and a barely noticeable note of walnut. A hefty portion of oriental is very well felt on the retrohale, tickling the nostrils. Very light fruity sweetness and Virginia bread notes remain in the background, intertwined with woody tones. There is also a very slight salty note to the taste, which is surprising given the absence of perique. The tobacco has a very smooth and mild flavor almost from the start. Towards the middle of the pipe, the blend adds volume and the bouquet becomes almost monolithic. In bents the blend turns a bit towards orientals, in straight pipes the latakia continues to play on par with them throughout the smoking. The blend smokes cool, slow and even, has no sharp edges in the flavor, does not tries to bite, but excessive puffing leads to overheating, and fruit notes disappear from the taste. Tobacco burns into light gray dusty ash without lumps, burning completely and leaving no moisture in the pipe. The strength of the blend is slightly below average, but in very large pipes a slight nicotine hit is possible.

The smoke from the blend has quite the expected woody and peaty flavor, relatively dense and persistent, but not too abundant.

What is the bottom line? An extremely underrated and little-known English blend. Surprisingly, as with Milano, I smoked almost the entire can before realizing that I never wrote a review. However, I have a few more tins on my shelves. 3.5 of 4 or even more, definitely.

This is a mixture that is produced to fill the gap between Dunhill´s 365 and Medium, I guess. Mastro is also a pipe artist as well, so why not. KK stands for the quality of their products. So nothing to say against quality of leaf, presentation and price. A good english mixture, burns well down to the bottom, cool, grey ash, no dottle, some relights necessary, when smoked too slowly. Latakia is there, t & va taking the lead, but in the room note it is more disitinctive than in the bowl, but in a nice way. Compared to my favorites old dublin and 365 only two ** Nice for beginners, because the scent of latakia is very very gentle.

Another solid blend!

Appearance and Tin Aroma: Typical English blend with a mixture of dark, golden, and brown leaf. Smells like a good ol' musty English blend should.

Packing and Lighting: moisture is perfect out of tin, medium width ribbons don't give a fuss. 2-3 lights max.

Initial Flavor: Delicious, well balanced English from the get go.

Mid-Bowl: unobtrusive, all-day smoke. All the leaves are in perfect balance. No tongue-bite.

Bottom of Bowl: A nice, gentle build up of strength and all you are left with is grey mottled ash.

Overall: This is blended by Kolhase & Kopp, the same blenders for Rattray's, Brebbia, and others. It has quality ingredients and is in the same genre as "London Mixture", "Black Mallory", etc... This is a solid high quality blend that I would smoke more often if it was cheaper in cost. At $12.00 US a tin, it is more expensive than some stellar English blends by others. But if the price does not bother you, here you have a solid, delicious English blend.