Astley's No.88 Matured Dark Virginia

A dark stoved Virginia in the cavendish style that needs to smoked slowly as fast puffing can provide you with a tongue tingle. It does have a nice sugar, slightly fermented dark fruit and citrus sweetness with some hay/grass, and a light earthiness. There's not much of a nic-hit. The strength is a step past the mild level, and while the taste is a hair more potent than that. Burns a little fast with a mostly consistent flavor, though it lacks some depth. Leaves very little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Has a decent after taste. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

I was gifted a 10 year old tin of this that had recently been opened. It came very dry, which saved me the trouble of drying it. Very black stoved Virginia and I think its "Cavendish style" caused whoever originally listed this on TR to call it an aromatic. It had a nice, natural scent in the tin and I wouldn't call this an aro. Came as a cross between a ready rubbed cut and a coarse ribbon.

This may be the blend that comes closest to a 4 star rating from me without...quite...getting there! Nice caramelized sweetness but it eschews the typical grassiness of some of its stoved counterparts. This has of course a light citrus flavor amidst the darkness but this leans more towards an unflavored black Cavendish flavor than a true-blue stoved VA, such as McClellands Black Shag or Butera's Dark Stoved. Sometimes in my amateur and amateurish attempts at tobacco blending, I completely dry out Lane's BCA to strip it of its vanilla flavor and to add a dark taste and body to a blend. The Astley's reminds me of that flavor but with more depth and complexity. That said, this blend could not be called complex! I don't think it changed one iota from beginning of each bowl to the end. But when a tobacco has such a beautifully crafted rich but soft flavor and you find yourself smoking it more often than you thought, it's something to stock up on. It won't take the place of its two stoved brethren mentioned about, but it has a place all its own in my occasional rotation.

This is a really nice smoke. Sweet and tangy dark fruit with a nice spice hit. True, there isn't a lot of evolution here, but the flavor compensates for that. I don't find it boring at all. It's quite enjoyable. I think it has great potential for blending as well. Pretty good stuff.

Mild to medium in body and taste. No added flavorings. Burn is fairly good, does need a relight or two.

It is inevitable to compare some of Astley's blends with Rattray?s. Both are high quality tobaccos, prepared with absolute care for detail and flavour, and both are now blended by the same German house (Cohlhacs & Kopp, that also blends Robert McConnell's).

Astley?s 88 is a very similar tobacco, in aroma and appearance, to Rattray?s Black Virginia and, to a lesser extent, to Dark Fragrant. Astely's is suppler in texture, smoother in flavour, and IMO, easier to smoke than its close relatives. It is a dark brown, almost black tobacco, short crimp cut. Though it is easy to pack it takes some time before it lights properly. It smokes very smoothly and cool.

I find this is not as tangy as Black Virginia, nor as sweet as Dark Fragrant. Rather it is somewhere in the middle. It is very savoury and palatable, and an excellent choice to sit by and read a book or listen to music. The quality is superb and the smoking experience is amiable and very pleasant. If you like dark stoved Virginias, with a hint of tangy sweetness, try this one.

Dark, mellow Virginia with a smidgen of some kind of exotic, unobtrusive topping describes #88. The stoving keeps the burn cool even with the added flavoring.

Oh, and the spousal unit, without prodding, said she enjoyed the room note.

Finally, to sum up #88, I think it is an awesome blend that probably will not offend you or those around you. It'll hit you in the strength department with a velveteen hammer.

Astley's No.88 Matured Dark Virginia.

This is the quintessential beginners/Cavendish lovers blend.

The contents of the tin are exceedingly dark, almost black. The majority of the blend is made up of medium sized ribbons, but there are quite a few rather chunky ones in the mix too. The moisture amount from a freshly opened tin's great, so lets talk about the smoking of it:

Lighting? As easy as a blend can be. And then it gives a very cool smoke and a consistent burn. The actual smoke has a nice quality to it: velvety, thick, and soft. There's one question that comes to mind regarding the nicotine: where is it? It's very mild, this would make it more than apt for a beginner. It says on this site that the flavouring's are 'other/misc', but to be fair, to me, it tastes like most standard Black Cavendish's; the only difference is it isn't as sweet as some BC blends; there's a bit more of the virginia's grass, and a less vanilla sweetness. For my palate, the only low point comes in the form of tongue-bite; it can nip a touch if it's puffed hard.

Other than the bite it's a good blend though: recommended.

Three stars.

The description on TR is rather skimpy but this is a late harvest stoved Virginia that is naturally fermented in its own juices, undergoing partial Cavendish process before long maturation process before packaging.

Good on its own, but really shines as a blending tobacco. Works nicely to tone down Lat-bombs, and I’ve also made a tasty coffee Cavendish blend using 3/8 Astley's 88. As a solo smoke I found it more appealing when it was relatively fresh. As it gets older it becomes more muted in flavor, though that often makes it easier to use as a blender in integrating with other flavors. Sutliff 507 follows a similar trajectory; must be something to do with the stoving process.

As a solo smoke I get five distinct flavors/aromas that come and go: sassafras, leather, molasses, German dark bread, and old ground pepper that has lost some of its kick. Not a must-have on your Bucket List, but more than an idle curiosity, especially if you are into home blending or like to tinker and tweak blends. I think it is one of the better examples of its type and different enough from Peretti Black Virginia or Sutliff 507 that I keep them all on hand for various blending projects.

Astley's 88 is certainly a light, harmless tobacco blend. There is nothing wrong with it and indeed, it would be a great starter tobacco for a new pipe smoker if it stayed lit a bit better.

The only problem with 88 from a mature smoker's viewpoint is that it is monochromatic and approaching bland.

I like my matured virginia blends to have some tang and some sparkle to them. If you do too, then 88 isn't for you.

I will probably use the balance of the tin to blend in with some of my other tobaccos

I tried this blend in the first place because it has gotten so much positive mention on ASP. Well, lesson learned...!

Tin note/appearance:

A single colored, uniform looking tobacco, almost as dark as the label on the tin. Tin aroma of figs and fresh cut hay fields, with a mild fermented sweetness. The tobacco is packed tightly in the tin, you have to dig at it with a finger nail to loosen it up.

Packing/lighting/smoking:

Initially it feels very dry and crispy in the tin. However, once you begin to pack, you can feel the natural moisture and oils start to surface. With the deep rooted moisture in the leaf, it does take a few attempts to get a steady burn.

Don't expect this blend to envelope you in a cloud of smoke. quite opposite. Steady sips gets just enough smoke to know its still lit. This blend needs attention or it will continually go out, as relights are common here. I wouldn't call this monochromatic as some have, but it sure isn't complex. It keeps an even keel of flavor throughout the entire bowl. If you have smoked a stoved Va before, you know what to expect. If you haven't, then you should. To sum it up, it has a burnt sugary flavor profile. No wood, no leather, no fruit.

I guess this could bite if pushed, but it behaved very well each time I smoked it. I can see this being a great snowy day blend to smoke in between shoveling the driveway and stirring a pot of stew on the stove. I like it, a solid 3 stars!

Astley's No. 88 is a good example of a matured Virginia tobacco that proves to be maybe a little too much of a good thing.

Contrary to other reviewers, I found my sample tin to be much dryer than I was expecting. The tin aroma is a pleasant smell of raisins that is common to fermented Virginia tobaccos. The ribbons are a bit on the long side, and might benefit from a bit of breaking up for a smaller bowl.

Upon lighting, the sweet taste and smooth aroma that is unique to mature Virginias is evident. That is both the good and the bad: the taste was sweet and smooth and creamy, but there was virtually no change as one smokes down the bowl. By the end of the pipe, I find that the entire experience is a bit boring and monotonous. I am going to try adding a pinch of Perique to my next bowl of No. 88 and see if that spices things up a bit.