Davidoff Mild Mixture

I find it amusing that Davidoff Mild mixture seems to be universally maligned, and reviled with an average rating below 2.0 yet Davidoff Red mixture is rated above a 3.0, but it is exactly the same tobacco! Just in the EU it is called Mild mixture and in the U.S. it is called Red mixture. I don't know where the other reviewers are shopping but a 50g tin sells for about $8 NOT $14. About average, even a bit low in comparison to similar brands.

I did not find it to be heavily topped or cased, what little topping there was seemed to have applied with a deft hand and very light, the tin note was mostly tobacco with maybe a slight hint of vanilla, a hint of nuttiness and that was really stretching my nose to find even that.

It lit well and did not bite whatsoever through the entire bowl, rarely needing a relight. Very pleasant smoke, a bit on the light side, not heavy in vitamin N. It also has an inoffensive room note, keeping "She Who Must Be Obeyed" happy. It is a good "anytime" tobacco for when I can't decide what I am in the mood for and don't want to put a lot of thought into it. I know I can reach for this tin and enjoy a nice predictable thirty minutes or so. Burns well in everything from my cobs to my finicky Ardor Urano. It is also good for trying out and breaking in new pipes. I am smoking it as I type this and all I taste is good quality tobacco. I will be ordering more of this in the future.

Having spotted this on the walls of a smoke shop with a very poor selection of pipe tobacco, I thought this might be the one non-aromatic blend on offer. Boy, was I wrong.

The tin smell was very vanilla-like, but trying to get past that, I loaded up a new Savinelli and lit up. No tongue bite, which is this blend's one redeeming quality, but no taste or strength either. The three subsequent bowls I smoked were much the same. After four bowls and a wholehearted attempt to get past the bad qualities, I dumped this stuff into the garbage can.

One would think my experience with Mac Baren blends would be enough to keep me away from Danish tobacco, but this ghastly blend was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'll stick with my American and English blends, and forgo Danish tobacco for a long while.

This one is sold as red mixture as a result of the EU ban on "mild, light, strong,.." etc in tobacco products naming.

I find that a lot of the Davidoff tobacco's are underrated. Price is often a concern, but a tin of red mixture is no more expensive than 3 packs of cigarettes here. I'm not complaining.

Then there is the Davidoff philosophy. Never, in none of their tobacco products (except maybe their cuban cigars, that I never had the opportunity to try), have they done anything other than providing finesse and subtelty and mildness. The crux of their blending wheter it be pipe tobacco, cigars or cigarillos is always a product for which you ought to take your time to savour and enjoy the ride. Do not expect peak experiences in terms of one specific domain (strength, taste, latakia content, spiciness etc...), the essence here is balance. All this is in contrast with another famous brand name (and if you think about it very similar in a lot of ways) : Dunhill (please let the record show I love quite a few dunhill blends). Dunhill will often do the opposite: deliver blends with a lot of latakia, nicotine, extreme toppings,... I supose that if you try davidoff expecting dunhill you will be dissapointed.

So red mixture. Well in short: a typical danish cavendish AROMATIC (there is also a round tin danish mixture, and the difference is not very big). It is indeed a vanilla plus something in aroma, and will taste like coffee with a touch of chocolate. For an aromatic it is average in sweetness. I does not bite the tongue and the room note is agreable. I suppose this is the smoke of choice I you are a diplomat 😉 . I personally love those danish aromatics and in it's genre it did not dissapoint me. Very recomended for lovers of refined (danish) aromatics.

Note. I find it curious that a blend like amphora (red) which I find similar but inferior gets better reviews than this one. But like they say: to each his own.

Note2: The description above could be confusing. I don't remember seeing it described as above. And the davidoff site describes it more aptly as : "This mixture owes its distinctive aroma to a luxurios blend of Black Cavendish tobaccos and the interesting contrast of Virginian Ribbon Cut. This is an exceptional mild blend, which burns smoothly."

Some sweet, aromatic stuff doesn't hurts always. But not this time! If you are in love with your pipe smoking pleasure like me, please stay away from this tobacco. It does not even worth trying!

This tobacco was a sample from a local B&M who are trying to expand their pipe tobacco lineup. I was asked to sample it for them and give my 'recommendations'.

Appearance: Predominately Virginias and dark (black) Cavendish. A nice mottling of color in varying shades of browns, tans and nearly jet black.

Tin aroma: Initially, some cheap smelling casing agents probably some kind of liquor brandy or some such and other 'k-mart cologne'. There also seems to be some kind of generic 'fruit essence' to the mix, completed disguising what looks to be good quality tobaccos.

This tobacco is seems to be very moist and I employed the 'Frank method' for packing each review smoke. In general, the samples I smoked lasted 45 minutes to an hour in a Armellini Freehand used for smoking Virginia Flake mixtures.

Upon lighting, I'm greeted with a blast of aromatic flavorings that completely mask any flavor the 'host tobaccos' may have. As the smoke settles down following a brief visit of the tamper, a bit of the Cavendish flavor one comes to expect from poorly done aromatics. I hoped that maybe some Virginia would come through eventually, it never did. This blend has a very 'even' palate and changes very little throughout the bowl. There is a nauseating sweetness to it probably from the casing agents and over processed Cavendish. What flavor there is to this blend left me wanting a bowl of 'real tobacco' each time I smoked it.

Mid Bowl: Approaching mid-bowl, the emptiness builds to mediocrity, the blend finally achieving its prescribed level of 'fullness' (mild so says the packaging) and I'm left wanting a cigarette or something, anything that tastes remotely of tobacco. This blend (as is typical of poorly done aromatics) gets quite hot while smoking and I'm a careful and seasoned Virginia smoker.

Home Stretch: As end of the bowl approaches, I?m still more or less where I started, the flavor having leveled off somewhere in the middle of the bowl. The final 1/4 of the bowl becomes decidedly wet and eventually will not stay lit, leaving a substantial amount of goupy dottle. This tobacco failed to satisfy me on any appreciable level.

Supplemental Notes: I might recommend this blend to anyone wishing to give up smoking. It might indeed provide a catalyst for such a decision. Rating for those interested in numbers - ** (that is negative 2 stars)

I thought this blend would be a virginia mixture of some sort...Imagine my surprise when I opened the tin and discovered it was virginia alright, mixed with some cavandish and sweetened to the point of being sickening.

This is a lite blend that did smoke cool, perhaps because I puffed so slowly. I wish I could tell you I finished the bowl, but frankly, fell short by about half a pipeful.

I hate wasting tobacco, but since I'm not sure this is tobacco, I threw away the tin.

This is quite similar to Peterson's De Luxe Mixture, which is also a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it blend. They both have the same tin-note and room-note, and even the same tin appearance (lovely black and gold ribbons), although De Luxe is a slightly sweeter smoke in my book. I like it, it is tasty and very well-behaved, and it didn't bite me at all. It's nice to have something mild to smoke in your larger pipes. Recommended for vanilla lovers.

My first experience of it was like that: Well it is a fine tobacco. It leaves a good smell. It burns so hot, and leaves a tongue bite as well. I recommend it for those who use carbon filter pipes; they won't be affected with the tongue bite, and will only enjoy the great taste.

BUT, with the passage of time, i got a totally different experience: After I applied salt cure to my pipe, the Red Mixture or the Mild Mixture burned much better. Of course the secret is not only because of the salt cure, something else also changed. I think my smoking pace was slower. You know it burned so smooth and dry till the end. It seldom went off. I enjoyed the taste so much. The tongue bite might be due to the packing; it might be packed tightly. Another reason of the tongue bite might be that the wetness, but the tobacco dries out in a short time after you open the tin, and you will soon (four days maybe in summertime) enjoy a smooth smoking without tongue bite.

Now I would prefer it even to the Danish Mixture as it is milder and much delicate in flavor. # to enjoy Davidoff MIld Mixture # ?All you need is to open the tin, pack a bowl then close it for about a week. After this period of time it gets dry inside the tin, and then you can enjoy a wonderful taste without a tongue bite whatsoever. Try this and you will know what I am talking about.

Overpriced aromatic pipe tobacco that lives on a famous name. No taste or strength to speak of. I'll stick to real pipe tobacco thank you.

Virginia lover

Not my cup of tea. Perhaps for beginners or for compulsive brand-conscious duty- free shoppers. Probably the result of a wise product / market / channel strategy, benefiting both Davidoff and airport duty-free merchants (low cost / high margin / limited supply product). Half star because, sometimes, in some places, duty free-shopping replaces the absence of regular tobacconists.