Dunhill Aperitif

Dunhill - Aperitif.

The aroma from the blend immediately says "I contain Latakia"! The mixture includes a fair selection of different tobaccos, with a perfect content of moisture. The ribbons lean more towards the slender end of the scale, all very thin with a decent mixture of lengths. It's probably due to the delicate build that this gets lit very simply and once ignited it stays that way; even if you leave it for a little while un-attended it keeps burning.

Despite the aroma from the mix being heavier with Latakia, the flavour from the smoke is VERY even with the different constituents. It's a blend where you can easily pick each of them out without your palate being accosted by just one. Throughout the entire bowl I don't find tongue bite occurring, even if really strained. Aperitif also has a mild sweet addition to it, almost honey like.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: quite pleasant.

As an aperitif before a hearty meal? Well yes, it would set you up for a feast but I really think instead of 'Aperitif' it could be re-named "Dunhill Any time"! A very steady blend, highly recommended:

Four stars.

Like 965, and unlike DURBAR or NIGHTCAP, this has some Cavendish leaf in it.

English Cavendish is not like American Cavendish. American cavendish is made out of Burley, cased. English cavendish is made out of Virginia, pressed, steamed, uncased. It lends a mixture a buffering, velvety element which marries smoothly with the Orientals. Smootheness is of the essence.

965 being a "lotsa latakia" blend, I find the cavendish there a little diconcerting, like putting a bit of sugar into oolong tea. On the other hand, it certainly buffers the possible astringency of some Oriental leaf. This blend has considerably less latakia than 965, and so the cavendish is less surprising.

For me, smoothness is not of the essence. Since I love the natural astringency of NIGHTCAP and DURBAR, I have always tended to leave 965 and APERITIF alone. But they form a very significant flowerbed in the Dunhill garden, and people who like a cushiony, lush latakia~oriental experience will enjoy Apéritif.

This was my father's favorite blend. It's reintroduction was bitter-sweet for me as his last wishes included one last taste of his favorite tobacco - something he had not had for several years. I picked up a single tin of this the next year while on vacation and immediately upon my return home ordered multiple tins for my cellar. I was expecting to be as disappointed with Aperitif as I had been with the current MM965. I could not have been more mistaken.

At first light Aperitif brought to my mind the flavor profile of the 1960's Dunhills (way back when they were packed in 2 and 4 ounce tins, not 50 gram ones). The cavendish here was very similar to the Brown cavendish used back then and the Turkish redolent of the Dubeck (code named Macedonia Bright) which was the Oriental backbone of the original 965. The Latakia, smokey but not heavy handed here.

I was excited at this blend and angered as well. If the current blenders can do so well on this, why did they louse up MM965 so badly? And why so long to bring it back? No matter.

This is one of the finest blends I have ever smoked.

A real bell ringer for this cowboy. I found this blend to be subdued with its Latakia presentation, and a generous amount of oriental leaf was combined with some mighty fine old Virginia. I found the combination to be nothing short of spectacular when I tried one of these old tins a few years back. If you are an oriental fan then buy up all this stuff you can get your hands on. Just unique and truly wonderful!

I visited my regular tobacconist - the only specialist tobacconist left in Bristol, the fine Birds of Baldwin Street - intent on buying a tin of Nightcap and a flake of some sort. I'm a bit of a latakia nutcase; it became a bit like a drug, were I was constantly seeking a stronger hit. It started with Dunhill London mixture, and discovering that it was the latakia layer that I especially loved, My Mixture 965 and Nightcap were suggested to me. 965 didn't do it for me; it had the latakia but it didn't have enough 'belly' to hold it up; the way I taste it is that the latakia is a top layer that needs a strong foundation. I had the same complaint with a recent recommendation, Rattray's Black Mallory. Some latakia in there, but the underbelly was thin. Once I'd discovered Nightcap I thought that was it; the quest was over. I like to smoke a good flake too so I soon found the strongest latakia flake available to me, Gawith's Balkan Flake. But due to sometimes having difficulty getting down to this only pipe tobacconist in town, I found myself having to settle for whatever the newsagent had; usually some aromatic such as Clan. But this was actually for the best; dull though it was it cleansed the palate, and made that first bowl of proper tobacco such a pleasure. Experimenting a little I often buy a tin of Gawith's Navy Flake, with its latakia-rum mixture. But now to the Aperitif. Reading the reviews below it seems like this has been around for a while. This is puzzling as I thought uBirds were introducing it as new from Dunhill. (Or perhaps that was the one next to it on the shelf - I may have made a mistake). Anyway, asking for a description, the gentleman opened his own stash to give me a whiff of it - boom. Sold. I hadn't smoked a decent tobacco in about a week (by which I mean an English blend, a Dunhill or Sam Gawith, instead tolerating newsagent fare such as Route 66 and lord forbid Condor, so once outside I was like a kid at Christmas. I'll cut to the chase now: this is even better than Nightcap. This is the finest English Blend I've ever smoked. Now, I need to do a 'pepsi challenge ' next to a Nightcap, but I sense that this has more latakia and a richer foundation on which to layer it. Golly it's a full flavour, and as a result i suffer no tongue bite from 'oversmoking' - (when I find myself charging at a lousy tobacco to try to get a flavour that isn't there, and burning it up in the process). Whether old, new, or re-introduced, what I'm experiencing right now is absolutely the finest, fullest latakia smoke I've come across. The only problem is how to hide the smell from my landlord... Ouch..

This review is based on the Murray's version. It's not quite as well balanced as the description states, but there's a few things going for it. The Cyprian Latakia is smokey, earthy, musty and woodsy sweet, but at times is subdued by the spice, earth, herbalness, floralness, wood from the lightly sweet and rather sour Orientals. There's a natural citrus sweetness from the Virginias along with some grass and hay notes. The cavendish adds a little sweetness, too, but overall, this is not a sweet blend. There's some bitterness, but no harshness or bite. The strength, nic-hit and taste levels are medium. Burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with very consistent, mildly sweet and fairly sour campfire flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste. Requires few relights, and leaves little moisture in the bowl. Has a potent room note. A change from other English blends, and appealing to Oriental fans. How the new version that's to come will measure up is something I'm interested to learn.

-JimInks

Oh wow! Oh wow! Oh wow!. I can't hardly think of anything else to say about this blend. I am not a fan of Latakia, but this blend has just the slightest Latakia edge, that blends with the other flavors rather than taking center-stage. This was coupled with some Orientals, and Cavendish everywhere, wonderfully sweet, not fruity, and silky smooth right to the last puff. The room note was incredible...a little spice, a bit of smokiness, and dark cavendish, mostly. No problems with lighting or burning. It's not real strong, but enough to be very satisfying, certainly better than most aromatics, which to me, mostly feel like flavored air. Absolutely no bite, or any other issues, except that I can only smoke so much at a time. I think I am in love......

I particularly like the picture on the tin label. Open the tin and you find the most perfectly cut and presented tobacco; a feast for your eyes. Perfect moisture, too. All typical Dunhill.

A strong Scottish Mixture, that’s what I would call THE APÉRITIF. Excellent smoking conditions. No tongue-bites. The body of this blend is brown and bright Virginias, donating a few sparkles of grass and hay notes now and then. The amount of Oriental is highly over-pronounced for a Scottish Mixture. On the other hand, Latakia is under-represented. The description mentions “Cavendish”. Yes indeed, but it is English Cavendish (uncased steamed, pressed, dark flue cured Virginia), NOT American/Dutch/Danish Cavendish (sauced, flavoured, steamed, pressed Burley) as my American pipe friends may assume. English Cavendish is always pleasant to have; it rounds up the blend, adds a discreet layer of natural tobacco-sweetness and mellows the blend. Unfortunately, in THE APÉRITIF is some unnecessary, additional, artificial sweetness as a topping, which I am sensitive for and don’t’ like.

Over all I find it a rather heterogeneous mixture. All added tobaccos can easily be identified, but it lacks harmony. For my satisfaction I prefer blends with a more definite, distinct character, on either side. In my view THE APÉRITIF is neither fish nor fowl. If you like pronounced Oriental flavours in a (sweet) Scottish based mixture, then go for it. If you generally love Orientals, Dunhill DURBAR (balanced Orientals) or Dunhill LONDON MIXTURE (spicier Orientals) would be a better choice. If you prefer more Latakia, less Oriental and similar sweetness, Dunhill MY MIXTURE 965 is your blend. You have the choice.

“It probably isn’t that great, I just want to say I tried all the Dunhill’s” – Me

I can’t say a single bad thing about Aperitif. In fact, I can only say great things: Creamy Latakia taste, smoky campfire and leathery flavor, spicy and flavorful Oriental’s that stimulate your taste buds, quality Cavendish to balance it all out, and a taste that never gets boring from start to finish. Aperitif goes great before or after a meal, during morning coffee, or having a beer or whisky towards the evening (one in the morning is fine as well, hell I won’t judge).

But see, that’s the point I am trying to make: As the title ‘Aperitif’ suggests, this tobacco is best paired alongside a meal or drink; it really does stimulate the appetite, at least for me anyways. Either that or I am a complete dope to autosuggestion from the name of the tin.

It is a shame Aperitif gets overlooked by other Dunhill blends, since it is definitely better than ‘Good Morning Pipe’ and right on par with My Mixture 965. Sometimes the most favorited and highest rated aren't always the winners *cough* Hillary *cough*; and it takes a 'high-energy' underdog like Aperitif to take center stage and make Dunhill great again.

When I first tried Aperitif, I was smoking 965 and Nightcap almost exclusively. This blend blew me away. It seemed to be a sweeter version of 965. That sounds very simplistic, and I am sure there was more going on than that, but I was a new smoker. I have smoked some Balkans that have a similar taste. It was as close to dessert blend as I enjoyed then. Toward the bottom of the bowl it almost had a very mild maple flavor. It was delicious. I hope to smoke it again one day. It made a great rotation blend. Of course the quality of the weed, was something Dunhill was famous for.