Dan Tobacco London Blend No. 250

One of the tastiest and unique blends you can put in your pipe. A bit of a VaPer blend with a hint of Latakia and the added topping is called plum, but my tin was 20 years old and it was more like a raisin flavor, which, like the Latakia, was in the background but noticeable. Best of all, the added flavoring also added to the overall experience of smoking this classic.

Pipestud

The Virginias are very earthy, woody, bready with a little tangy dried dark fruit sweetness, and are the dominant component. The Cyprian Latakia is smoky, woody, eathy, lightly musty sweet in a support role. Its impact varies throughout the experience, but even at its least obvious, you’ll get the feel of it on your taste buds. The earthy, woody perique offers raisins, figs and spice in a minor role. You don’t always notice the spice, but when you do, it picks up the blend. The plum topping moderately sublimates the tobaccos, but weakens a mite by the half way point so you get more tobacco flavor from there to the finish. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is a step short of in the center of mild to medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has few rough moments. The flakes easily break apart, and need no dry time. Burns slow, cool, clean and fairly smooth with a mostly consistent sweet and mildly savory flavor from top to bottom. Leaves very little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Has a pleasant lingering after taste, and a smokey, woody room note. Not quite an all day smoke.

-JimInks

First of all: London Series is not a brand. It is a serie of three blends (no. 250, no.750 and no. 1000) under the the name Timm, produced by D.T.M./Dan.

No. 250 is correctly described above as a Virginia Flake seasoned with Latakia & Perique, and a very light flavouring. I would think to something of the league of Old Ironside – or Latakia Flake no. 9 by Brebbia , just to call something of the same manufacturer – just the Latakia is more condimental (but enough to have SWMBO saying it stinks). Perique is just a trace, nothing to talk about other than some piquancy added.

It lights and burns very easy, cool & dry. The flavour is sweet, soapy and smoky. Seems to me I'm smoking some St. Bruno Flake, but no. 250 is consistently milder and has a clearly detectable latakia note. A bit piquant and astringent, but nothing really annoying. It nicely build during the bowl to a dark creamy smoke, leaving a very pleasant palate.

All in all this is a nice blend of it's own style, and I would suggest to Virginia flake lovers.

Three stars, no doubt.

I had smoked the Dan London 1000 and enjoyed it so I thought I might try the 250 . Sounded good in the reviews so I got out a nice Dunhill 120 and dove into the can . Really a very attractive mixture , easy to work with flakes , nice deep color and fresh too . The Virginias , latakia , and perique made a handsome and inviting sight . The mistake that i made was lighting it up . Dan had said it had a plum topping but some of the other reviewers said it was no problem . Allow me to strongly protest their findings . This topping was so aggressive that you could not taste any of the other tobaccos . It was sort of like smoking acid and it clung to every puff . I struggled to finish the bowl so I could write a proper review but a 120 is a big bowl and I gave up the ship three quarters down . I do not know what talent is involved in ruining an otherwise perfectly good mixture but the usually reliable guys at Dan managed to do it . I do not mind a lightly deployed topping but this one is over the hill , not so much in volume , but more in selecting a cloying and invasive topping . Good luck .

I bought a 100g tin of this tobacco as a mistake: I wanted to buy No. 1000, so I pointed at it and the completely oblivious tobacconist didn't warn me that there were two completely different tobacco with the same-looking tin. So I went home, opened it, smelled it, and I was like 'WTF is this? Plum?'. Then I looked up online and I felt like an idiot for wasting my money for something I would have never bought.

But I gave it a try anyway.

This tobacco is actually not bad, and I kept smoking it even though my judgement was biased from the purchasing mistake. While I'm not an aromatic fan, the plum flavor is not disturbing or overwhelming, plus it disappears at mid-bowl, when things start to get interesting, namely when the perique kicks-in. Latakia is used as a condiment, and it's not the point of the blend. The broken flake form helps you to smoke it very slowly, so you can taste the tobacco without burning it.

Even though it's not in my regular EM-VA rotation, I view it as an interesting and satisfying smoke, good for a change when I'm in the mood for something different. I smoke it in my "anything goes" pipes, to avoid plum contamination.

I would recommend it to aromatic smokers, to help them into the transition towards serious smoking, and to hardcore non-aromatic jihadists, to open their mind: aromatization may not be the Devil.

This has been an odd revisitation of a tobacco I first tried in the late nineties. At that time I remember it being a blonde to light brown virginia flake with faint black stripes of latakia and perique and faint sweet smell of the plum extract. The taste was mostly of virginia with a pleasant flavor from the extract, very subtle in it's application. It was long flakes (ala MarlinFlake) rolled up in a 100gr. tin. I smoked the tin but found other interests and moved on.

In 2012 I decided to try it again. LB1000 gets lots of push in the U.S. but the rest never have, so I bought it from a prominent e-tailer who surprisingly had it. However, what I got was not what I remembered. The flake cut was the same but the color was incredibly dark almost black. The tin aroma was quite strong with a casing, the taste was also quite strong on the flavoring side. I could taste the latakia and viginia but they were mostly overwhelmed by the flavoring. Either the blend did change in those intervening years or there is another possibility. I am certain that the tin I smoked in the nineties was relatively fresh. The 2012 tin had all the tell tale signs of having sat on a shelf for a verrryyy long time. So perhaps that's what happens to this blend with serious age on it, if so it was not for the better.

As it stands what I have is not great and I probably will never get it all smoked. I would try it again from another tin if it were free just to compare but at 20.00 a tin I will not do this again. I am giving this 2 stars because I don't simply want to trash it as it is difficult to believe this is what the blender had in mind.

I don't think this is manufactured anymore. It's completely disappeared from all the retailer's websites, and from the very Timm & Dan/DTM websites as well.

I had this one in the corner of my eye for a while and bought some on a whim to try, after having enjoyed London Blend No. 1000. I almost bought two but I wasn't sure what I was getting. I wasn't sure what to expect.

Long belt-like flakes, with some broken flake. The aroma was figs and raisins. I was expecting based on description that the aroma would be overdone and liberally applied however this was not the case. In fact if had they not so prominently mentioned a fruit extractive addition, I believe this would qualify to sit in the company of many similar blends that are considered non-aromatic.

Structurally it's a Virginia-Perique, with a velveteen whisper of Latakia. Deep hay and light oats with a balanced Perique depth, and the slight richness of the smoky-Oriental Latakia.

This is one of those blends that should have had a cult following. But didn't. It reminded me, oddly enough, of a more mildly-sauced Esoterica Stonehaven despite the difference in components.

It's a real favorite and now it may be gone, forever. If you run across one at your local brick-and-mortar I'd risk it if I were you.

I hate to go against the grain here ...but I have to do so. This really is a Rubbed Out Virginia Flake with some Latakia and Perique added to it. I guess you can consider it "An English Blend" in the very broad sense of the word. I found it to be a little too sour and bitey for my tastes. All I tasted was VIRGINA with some of the Condimental tobaccos wafting in and out. I can say with certainty that this is for the Virgina Flake smoker. A possible nice diversion- kind of unique. However, for the Aromatic and English crowd this will probably not register very high on the taste scale. 2.5 stars for using quality tobaccos.

Excellent blend. Virginia and latakia plus a casing that has only a slight flavor. The Virginia is consistent. The Latakia comes and goes so there is some variety as one progresses through the bowl.

This is I high quality "English" that is sure to please the latakia lover. Upon opening, a wonderful tidal wave of English essence oozes from the tin. There is a heaping helping of latakia in this blend. I love this blend alot yet I prefer many other English mixtures. Don't get me wrong though, this is top knotch stuff.