Hearth & Home Admiralty

I love several Hearth and Home blends and I think Russ O. is one of America's top blenders, what he can do with what he has available to him is nothing short of phenomenal. This blend just missed it for me. I was looking for a faster burning blend that was mild to med. for this summer. However, this blend just seems to be lacking a lot. It looks beautiful and has this great creamy smell in the tin and I do get that creaminess in retrohaling. Lat. is there but not dominating, which I like too but the overall taste was just very mild, almost flat but not quite that bad. I just could not get all the flavor profile that I thought would be present in this blend. This one just missed for my taste. Still worth a try if you are looking for a mild English blend.

Another solid English offering from the folks at Pipes and Cigars. I agree with most of the tin description in that Admiralty is a balenced all day smoke. It arrives, like many of the P&C blends, on the dry side and that's a good thing. I wouldn't call this an Oriental blend, but the Oriental flavor does seem to rise a bit above the rest of the pack in this blend. Admirality is not a nicotine powerhouse so those that have an aversion to the "lady" with enjoy this blend. Available in bulk, the price is nice for a quality English. As for the Dunhill flavor comparision, I really don't see the connection. It would be stretching it, but maybe closest to Standard Mixture Medium in taste. It really doesn't matter anyway as this blend stands tall on its own. Recommended.

Bulk Blend Smack Down: This is a fantastic bulk buy! What stands out about this is that the price point is a steal! Yes it is similar to many English blends, but you can purchase at a bulk price. And yes it is VERY tasty. For roughly 2.30/oz you're getting a smoke that rivals many 4.00+/oz tins! Mine came pretty dry but it was a very lite buttery and soft latakia smoke. This would work as a morning smoke for me. Complexity was surprising, leather, coffee, dark woods...wonderful.

Sometimes in life, surprising things can happen. One such thing just happened in my test run with Hearth and Home Admiralty. I needed a "lighter" English tobacco in micro blending and decided to open this tin for that purpose. I read our reviews and examined the contents statement and popped it open. What I found was a surprisingly darkish blend that ranged in color from medium ruddy brown to brown to almost black and it didn't translate immediately into a "light English" appearance. At first I thought it was tinned by McClelland, based just on the appearance, but it was actually a Cornell and Diehl tinning for Hearth and Home. The tin aroma was, likewise, some what strange for a light English. It had only a feint Latakia component, but, was more insistent in the oriental and Virginia departments. Now confused, I decided to light up this, some what, dry blend that was immediately ready to go. Smoking this bowl was more a tipping of the hat to it's tin aroma, rather than it's tin appearance. Admiralty is a very light English smoke and I couldn't tease much taste or aroma out of the top third. In the middle third it grew a little backbone from the orientals and Virginias playing together with the Latakia still a very distant third. In the bottom third it settled into a weaker version of the middle and that was that. I am in complete agreement with the entire review of Knightsmoker 2013-07-30, so, give it a read. Just as I was contemplating a two star review (it isn't offensive or anything), I put it into my current medium English formula to see what it would do. The effect it had was so startling that, at first, I simply couldn't understand what was happening. How could such a tepid and timid English blend have such a wonderful effect? The answer is: What the heavier English I was using lacked (it was Lane BS-005), the lighter English had in spades. The Admiralty lacked Latakia back bone and found it, abundantly, in the BS-005. The marriage was a good one and the offspring is a three star rating.

The orientals are very pronounce, the latakia is o.k. the sweetness of the virginias shine through rescuing this blend from been a one star rating from me it takes a lot of relights for no matter what kind packing technique I use although it sings better for me in a meerschaum, this one was let down for me.

This is an okay tobacco reminding me of many others of the medium English type. Nothing really stands out to me or makes me want to give up any of my C&D all day English blends. I found some bitterness in the four ounces I sampled which was not pleasing to me, but perhaps that is you cup of tea as I see the other reviews for this blend have been pretty high. Can't say the quality here reminds me of anything in the old Dunhill line.

Admiralty is my choice for the best medium English tobacco out there in today's market.I can't say enough good things about this blend. The taste is fantastic, it burns cool, it's a blend I liked the from the first puff. The tobacco's play well together and burn to a fine gray ash. If you're looking for a great English blend of medium character this is one you should try! TOP NOTCH!

Hearth & Home - Admiralty.

The ribbons are coarse, and there's also a few twigs in with them. From the freshly opened tin Admiralty appears to be a little too dry; alright to be smoked, yet it wouldn't cellar too well. I notice that SteelCowboy noticed the same thing, so it's not just me! The aroma from the tin makes it clear that there's a large amount of Latakia in this one.

The dryness makes lighting Admiralty easy, and then I get a smoke that I find extremely satisfying. The Latakia leads with it's woody, smokiness, but the Oriental and Virginia complete the picture. At first it's bit of a Lat-Bomb, a very tasty one, but a bomb nevertheless. But then, in a fairly short space of time, the Virginia begins to sweeten the deal. The Oriental also starts to shine through in quick time, and makes this a tasty blend. Throughout a bowl, the Latakia's in charge, but the others are definitely present.

To me, the room-note's quite pleasant; I can see why some of my fellow reviewers have it down as tolerable (it is quite full), but I like it! And the nicotine's just above medium.

Despite the dryness I'm still highly recommending Admiralty; there's no way I'm giving a blend that tastes this good any less than a full house!

Four stars.

Halloween just happened and when I found myself awake around 2:30 AM, I remembered I'd planned on opening the half pound can of this which recently arrived.

I smoked this while reading a book of short stories, and it evolved considerably as I smoked- much to my delight. A flavor cornucopia, to say the least. Complexity in spades. Very much like Mt. Marcy. While this is a latakia blend, the latakia never overwhelms but is always there. The can says there are a few types of Latakia in the blend; we might hope for Syrian being one of them. Are there different varieties of Cyprian? Russ might answer these questions if asked; I don't know anyone else who might know for sure, as Russ created the blend.

This does burn quickly so a larger bowl is not a bad choice, and mine arrived dry unlike some of the earlier reviewers.

I went through so many flavor modes it was nearly disturbing. I've had another bowl just now while having a lime drink, and it seems that the lime has kept some of the flavors from coming through. I know I will find the full flavor again while I smoke again, this time with water as I did initially.

But how long will I get that? So much has been said and written about the effect of aging on tobacco. Virginias age well, but Latakias don't. What we have here is a blend of BOTH. Time was not kind to my can of Mt. Marcy, and I'd enjoyed it so much I decided not to smoke it often, so I could savor the magic at more special times.

I found that to be a mistake. The flavor of the Marcy went flat after some months, and I don't think it was my palette. While I love Admiralty, I urge those who try it to fully indulge in it right off- the subtleties might not last. I think Russ O. should take note of this.

As a unabashed Russ Ouellette fan, I have to bash this tobacco: it has no internal balance, no maturity, and tastes like a rather soapy, tarry knockoff of Dunhill Nightcap done at the nicotine level of My Mixture 965. If you want a decent comparison, it is the difference between "Pride and Prejudice" as originally written and the exaggerated gestures of the Hollywood script for the movie with Kiera Knightley. This is, indeed, "Hollywood English tobacco," with all the extremes turned up to ten and all of the balance and subtlety missing.

I read everything Russ Ouellette writes and have enjoyed many of his other blends, but this one is not his triumph. It is unbalanced, a riot of flavors with no internal coordination. In addition to lacking the subtlety one needs for a lifetime of enjoyment, this drowns out each flavor with the extremities of others. Think jawbreakers, not the execrable Jolly Rancher, when designing blends, blenders! It seems to have some problem with oils or flavorings that char during the smoking process, producing a smell not unlike rancid butter substitute from one of those popcorn packs. I see this blend highly praised, but I also see aromatics and hipster-style oddball boutique blends praised, so I find praise it itself over-rated. The facts are: this blend lacks the maturity, balance, integrity and power of a good English, resulting in an imitation that is the tobacco equivalent of a meal for kids, all vivid flavors in disgusting clash and signifying nothing.