D & R Tobacco Rimboché S.J.

The Virginias are grassy with some tart and tangy citrus, a bit of earth and wood with a little tangy, bready dark fruit and a touch of honey and floralness. The earthy, woody, sparkly Saint James perique is a tad more plumy, raisiny, figgy stewed sweet than peppery in an important complementary support role, and is very noticeable in every puff. There are no toppings. I suggest you hydrate this one a tad, but if you don’t, it’ll burn fairly quickly without harshness, unless you puff like a winded Superman after a race. No chance of bite or harshness. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is almost medium. The mildly sweet and rather spicy, savory, rugged, deeply rich flavor is very consistent from top to bottom. Virtually leaves no moisture in the bowl. Not a dull or weak spot to be found. Hardly needs a relight. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and stronger room note. Not an all day smoke as it has a rich punchiness that hits you before you realize it.

-JimInks

This is one of those examples of a blend "growing on you." I read the reviews and took a risk, half expecting this to be a cigarette tobacco spiked with perique. The tobacco has a pleasant, rich smell out of the bag (1 lb.) despite being bone dry--soft hay and pepper kernels. The blend is peppery in the mouth, but does not bite the tongue. This blend is an "honest" tobacco, meaning that it has no additives, chemicals or flavorings that I can perceive. Just leaf. The Virginia is pleasant, again, with the aroma of soft hay, but uncomplicated and complex only in its subtlety. The perique adds spicy depth and body. This is one of those blends that has me sniffing my fingers throughout the day because of the pleasant aroma it leaves behind. I would recommend trying this in a pipe with a chimney or stack, something that might concentrate the flavors and allow them to evolve with the bowl (a shallow bowl might yield a fast, vapid smoke).

For the price, it's hard to beat. I've re-humidified (slightly) a portion of the pound bag, and found that it gains a somewhat more silky, smooth quality, reminiscent to me of the top Virginia notes in EMP. I've also pressed a few cakes to see if anything evolves.

I find this blend particularly pleasant in the morning, before the day has blunted by senses of taste and smell. I also imagine that if D & R ever decide to make a perique blend using sweeter matured, aged Virginias, it would likely be **amazing**.

Very nice blend right off the bat. I was tentative, having never smoked D&R and being vaguely aware of their reputation as a RYO company. In a trade, I was gifted a bunch of different D&R blends (this one, Picayune, Ramback Balkan, and Ryback) and all doubt was banished-- do not get my wrong, I have tried all of them rolled in a cigarette paper (I do not smoke tailor made crap cigarettes, only the occasional Stokkebye, American Spirit, or D&R, rolled fat and unfiltered, non-inhaled), and they were quite nice. But I enjoyed all of them for what they were intended to be most in the pipe. I suppose you could say it is "dual purpose", but so too could you roll some Pease blend in a cigarette paper and it'd probably make a decent enough smoke.

This tobacco is high quality. That's it. It's high quality tobacco. There is no need to squabble over whether it is RYO or not.

you can, however, squabble over whether you like it, which is up for debate with any blend. My impression with this one, is that people come to it with different expectations than they ought to based on it's constituent leaf-- Virginia and Perique. They are probably expecting a slick, tinned, rather processed product. Something like Stokkebye's bullseye flake comes to mind. I enjoy that blend, but if I were growing my own tobacco it would be completely unattainable to reproduce. Another would be Anniversary Kake from H&H, again I enjoy it, but the humectant presence is rather annoying, and it is certainly very processed.

This blend is not like that. If you are familiar with Cornell & Diehl's style, and you like that, then you may well like D&R's style. Pease's (who's blends are done up by C&D) Montgomery, a melange of virginias with some Dark Fired Kentucky, is a blend that is very reminiscent of this one, although I prefer this one to it (besides, this is less than 25 dollars per pound, and Montgomery is 32 dollars plus for 8 ounces). Russ Ouellette's Country Gentleman, from the Missouri meerschaum line is also similar. These blends have one thing in common-- Virginias at the forefront, and other leafs playing a very subdued role. If you are looking for a blend with 25% perique, this isn't it (although you could add some of your own). I don't have much interest in a blend with that much perique, preferring smaller amounts just to tame the virginia acidity and adding a little pepper and complexity. This blend does that wonderfully.

Strength is medium-- it could make a good all day smoke for someone who knows how to pace themselves. It's not a mindless smoke, like any virginia really, because puffing too hard will cause bite. But the flavor is great, it's light, tangy, with just enough perique by my standards, to be a real keeper (and at a great price). Should age beautifully and I expect it will only improve.

If you like perique and want a smooth full smoke this is it. Peppery and flavorful this what spicy should be. Smokes quick with some tounge bite so puff accordingly.Enjoy!

I saw where one of the reviewers here, in effect, called Rimboche a finger sniffer. Well, I've never found a tobacco that made me want to take a whiff of my phalanges (or any other body part for that matter) , but it was over the top good. And by over the top I mean too much Perique for me but I still enjoyed the presentation. I only smoked a couple of bowls and then took it to my next pipe club meeting so that my pals could also get their eyes crossed. The Virginia in this blend was good enough to shows through the Louisiana Pepper sauce and was semi-sweet and well processed according to my taste buds. Just couldn't get past that special processed Perique though.

An incredibly smooth smoke with a generous portion of saint james perique. The tobacco is very dry in the tin (which is my preference) and smokes down to the bottom incredibly easy. It does smoke down fast, about 20-25 minutes in my falcon. It is in my top 10 tobacco blends after just two smokes. As far as perique blends go, I like it better than Frog Morton on the Bayou. And its only a fraction of the cost as well.

It isn't meant to be ryo tobacco. It's a thick ribbon cut and would be a pain in the shin to try rolling.

I should start this review by saying that I have never smoked this out of a pipe, though when they called this 'rolling tobacco' a few years ago (wink wink, tax collectors) it was the finest cigarette I have ever had. but at the risk of going on a very long soap-box speech concerning our current climate of American politics (or lack there of), I will proceed to blame the erroneous taxation that, at the very least, has diminished this wonderful company. The perique D&R uses is by far the smoothest I ever consumed due to, I believe, the flue curing. I would love to try this in the pipe, and perhaps roll another cigarette...it truly doesnt get any better than this. enjoy it before they tax it out of our hands!

I was given a pretty small sample of this one and really enjoyed it. It is amazing when you smoke as many VaPers as I have and you can still try one and think, "wow, this really tastes different." And in a good way.

There is almost an herbal quality to this to my tastes and I am not sure if it is the Virginia, the perique or the combination of the two, but the tastes is just wonderful. I didn't find this one to be overly sweet, but it didn't detract at all from the experience. It is hard to explain what I tasted, but it was fantastic. So much so, that I just bought a few more tins while in Chicago this last weekend. I also picked up a tin of the AP, which a lot of people are telling me, I will likely enjoy more.

With such a small sample I usually would not feel comfortable bestowing a fourth star so soon until I have had a chance to try a full tin or at least 5 or 6 more bowls, but four stars seem to be the average amongst the reviewers who I personally know, so I don't want to punish this one while I wait to open one of my new tins.

Update on Pressed Rimboche SJ 10/23/2019

It wasn't too long after the above review that I visited Indian River Tobacco Traders in the Grand Rapids area where I noticed amongst their bulk offerings some Rimboche SJ that was pressed into kakes by the shop.

I thought that since I liked Rimboche so much that this would have to be even better. Boy was I wrong. Pressing this one turned what used to be a sweet and tasty VaPer into a stout harsh pepperpot. I don't know what happened to the sweetness, but there was none to be found. It was not good (like one star bad). I shared this with some other people familiar with Rimboche SJ and they agreed.

So the moral of this update is, do not press this. It should be smoked the way Mark Ryan has presented it. The difference is night and day.

A pretty good VaPer with a fair amount of spice. Sweet hay and citrus from the Virginias. Plums and figs from the Perique with a nice spice hit. Although there are several VaPers I prefer, this would do in a pinch with no complaints. If you pack it tight it slows the burn down to an acceptable rate.

Medium in body and taste. No added flavoring. Needless to say, due to the dryness, it burns very well.

This tobacco caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be so good. It seems to have just the right amount of perique, supposedly from St James Parish, hence the acronym S.J. And how it progresses in your smoke is quite remarkable as well. The stoved virginias are earthy and sweet, whereas the perique adds spiciness and helps the mixture build up in character and strength the more you progress with your smoke. As for the nicotine, it seems to pack quite a punch. It somewhat reminds me of Royal Jersey Perique, but presented in a coarser cut that really slows your pace down and smokes quite cool actually. It is this sort of earthy-spiciness that I find so satisfying, it really is a rather rewarding smoke. Not quite full-bodied, but rather fulfilling and down to the point. I guess I am buying again. 4 stars, what can I say?: it ticks all the boxes.