Sutliff Tobacco Company Bosphorus Cruise

(3.56)
A Bosphorus Cruise enchantingly rewards with sights both numerous and wondrous, including six Ottoman palaces. Experience the breathtaking beauty of the old Byzantium Strait with Sutliff's impressive mixture of Oriental, latakia, and red Virginia.

Details

Brand Sutliff Tobacco Company
Series Sutliff Private Stock
Blended By Carl McCallister
Manufactured By Sutliff Tobacco Company
Blend Type English
Contents Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 1.5 ounce tin
Country United States
Production No longer in production

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.56 / 4
15

9

1

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 25 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 07, 2013 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
A well balanced mild to medium smooth English with every ingredient present in every puff. The Virginia offers a mild dark fruit tanginess and earth while serving as the base of the other components. The Orientals add a few spicy, woody, dry notes. The Cyprian latakia is smokey, woody sweet as the dominant tobacco, but it doesn't overpower the other elements. Has an extremely mild, sweet topping that doesn't detract from the tobaccos, and is barely noticeable. The nic-hit is just past mild. Burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace, cool and clean with a consistent flavor. Requires few relights, and leaves little dampness in the bowl as it easily burns to ash. Won't bite. Almost an all day smoke that has a pleasant after taste.

-JimInks
16 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 29, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I was recently gifted a tin of Bosphorous Cruise and found it to be quite good, right up there with Balkan Saseini and the new Balkan Sobraine. I would classify this as a Balkan rather than an English because of the orientals that are obviously present. I found it to be a nice medium weight with the orientals slightly forward of the red virginia most of the time and with the latakia hovering in the background. It was very smooth and a nicely balanced blend with all three coming forward at various times throughout the bowl and somewhat comlex. It is definitely not a lat bomb with just enough to make it interesting. Burned nice and cool with a nice fine gray ash to the bottom of the bowl. It has a nice tin note and nose while smoking. Can't determine room note since I only smoke outside. Highly recommended!
Pipe Used: GBD Billiard
PurchasedFrom: Received as a gift
Age When Smoked: New tin
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 29, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Very Mild Very Pleasant
Blind test blend #2 - 5 bowls worth. Interesting looking with kind of a reddish hue to it. Bag aroma was of some of the juiciest orientals I've ever smelled. Almost made me want to eat it. But common sense came back and I fired it up. It leaned in the direction of "balkan" with the orientals out front and the latakia next in line. Tasted like mostly red virginia for the base.

The problem with this one was the flavor didn't match the aroma's power. I liked what flavor there was but it was just too faint, too bland. I'm not sure how they were able to make it smell so potent and taste so mild. I guess I conclude that it's more of a "beginners balkan" to start someone off slowly on their way to the pleasures that genre affords. I wasn't really aware that Sutliff made latakia blends, so I leaned more towards Peter Stokkebye, but wasn't really comfortable with that guess, either. This is a perfectly serviceable mild balkan but it failed to excite me. Worth a try if you're starting out with latakia and orientals or if you simply want a very laid-back version, perhaps for early mornings. No objective faults with this one - it just didn't have enough going on for my tastes.
Pipe Used: Meerschaum
Age When Smoked: New
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 26, 2014 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
What a sleeper blend this is! At my first light of Bosphorus Cruise I knew I had tasted something very similar before. It did not take long to recognize C&D's Star of the East taste profile here, but with considerably finer, more civilized behavior.

In short this blend is remarkably conceived and is every bit a quality product as anything from McClelland or C&D and certainly anything from STG.

Very similar components to SOTE in here: Red Virginia, Latakia, and other Orientals. The proportions are slightly different as is the Orientals used themselves. The SOTE has a kiss of Izmir where BC has a very well done blend of high quality Orientals in greater quantity. SOTE has 50% Latakia, BC less, but BC has more Orientals less Red Virginia. All in all, for me, where I can only handle a single bowl of SOTE in a day due to it's heaviness and very potent nicotine content (from it's greater VA content), I can smoke BC as an all day blend without fear of a nicotine haze or hiccups.

Like SOTE BC has a tasty aftertaste and a short finish, which is good.

I cannot fault this blend in any way except finding my tin to be dry, almost needing added moisture immediately. This makes me hesitant to stock in quantity unless I open and re-jar the whole lot.

I will definitely be ordering more; reloading it right now. Well done.

Easy 4 stars.
Pipe Used: Briars - large billiards
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Unknown
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 24, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a very pleasant medium/mild English blend. The components work well, and the foundation is a sweet red Virginia. I don't detect any topping. The tin note is slightly sour. The orientals and the latakia are nicely balanced and are always present but never the defining flavor. The bias is on the latakia end of things.

This blend is good but not astonishingly good. There are a lot of options in the "English" category, and competition is tough. The price point here is excellent, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this genre. I am not likely to buy more, but if I got an 8 oz tin at Christmas, I would smoke it every day until it was gone.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 04, 2015 Medium None Detected Very Full Tolerable
A true sleeper for Sutliff. The is a well blended treat and if it had a small blender boutique label it would be the rave of the industry. As a best kept secret, this is a very good Balkan, Orientals forward and highest quality leaf throughout.

Unfortunately for me at least, Sutliff offers SO many blends in their classic tin, I get stymied by all of the variety!!

Save yourself some time as you are standing in front of the display at your local B&M trying to decide which of the dozens of Sutliff tins to try and pick up this one.
Pipe Used: Several
PurchasedFrom: Local Shop
Age When Smoked: 2 year old tin, newly opened
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 12, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
By now you are fully aware that this is a blend of oriental, latakia and red virginia, pretty much in that order and just as advertised on the tin. This blend begins oriental forward, thus making it a Balkan with the red virginia sweetness in lovely harmony, and the latakia way, way back. But as the bowl develops so does the strength, but never overpowering and with a changing interplay between these three very well chosen components. Sipping is recommended - not because of tongue bite - but more to get all the changing subtleties of this remarkable blend.

Yes, I know some have criticized the Bosphorus as "bland", but I suspect that observation comes from pipers who like their latakia forward English blends.. To me, the beauty of this blend is the superb balance and harmony. Oriental perfume, red virginia sweetness, and latakia smoky mild pepper with an occasional woodsy tobacco richness. At times merging into one another, but with each coming forward intermittently and with an exquisite oriental retrohale.

Smooth, balanced, dry and tasty. Nice. Actually a 3+...

Pipe Used: Cob
PurchasedFrom: Local
Age When Smoked: Unknown
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 27, 2012 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
As a relatively infrequent latakia smoker, I am really quite sensitive to its presence in most blends - a nice bonus as I really like it properly woven into the fabric of a well-executed blend. Such is the case with Bosphorus Cruise. Its presence is readily apparent (to my sensitive tastes) in the tin note and on the charring light. This is really my only significant point of divergence with the excellent review by pjorge1036. The spiciness of the oriental is also forward in the blend. Half way through the bowl the sweetness of the VA starts to chime in and from there to the finish line, there is a nice menage et trois between the constituents of this well- formed blend. For an inexpensive blend, the good quality of the tobacco is apparent. The appearance of the blend in the tin is impressive in its contrast. Room note is unobtrusive but not kudos-worthy. Nic content is acceptable for my insanely high requirement. All elements are detectable throughout the last half of the bowl but no one does the heavy lifting. All in all a nice, balanced and affordable blend. Recommended
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 02, 2014 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant
A sleeper if ever there was one.

If you love English blends, you have to give this a spin.

Very nice lat, but what makes this is the interplay between the Virginias and the Orientals. They have got the balance so right that it does give it a Middle-Eastern spice feel to it, which matched with the forward lat is almost like Black House in some respects.

That is a good analogy, its 90% as good as Black House, for 30% of the price. I cannot remember how many times I have been standing in front of my cabinet about to pick an English to go out onto the deck on an Autumn evening, and this has been picked up ahead of some big name contenders.

High quality, smokes to a fine white ash, no bite, no drama, easy to clean after, sublime aftertaste. Any time someone asks what my sleeper blend is this is it. I have a stack of unopened cans, and am planning on mason jarring a stack of it.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Pipe Used: Peterson Killarney
PurchasedFrom: Cant remember
Age When Smoked: 1 year
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 04, 2017 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
I was really sad to see this one go. To my knowledge it was the only Sutliff product i ever repeat purchased, and now its out of production! Very sad. This was, i thought, my little secret. A richly beguiling little gem, the red va and lat in some proportion or of some variety that ive not found duplicated. If anyone knows of a similar blend id love to hear about it. It always delivered a cool, creamy, va sweet and heady smoke, i likened it to a cross between presbyterian and balkan sasieni. It was unique. I have a tin left; i was caught unawares when it was discontinued. From time to time i enjoy a bowl and become nostalgic for my pretty, cheap, little baby, taken too soon.
Pipe Used: Cobs
PurchasedFrom: Smokers Haven
Age When Smoked: New to 1 year
2 people found this review helpful.
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