Wellauer & Co First Choice

In my trial of Wellauer Mixtures, this one was a major disappointment. What I expected: an English type blend, enriched with cigar leave, smoky, earthy. I couldn't find any of these features. Neither an English style taste, nor aromas of cigar (and yes, I smoked cigars in the past). Instead, something flavored with an undefinable ingredient, dull, not pleasent. I wasn't able to try more than two bowls before I passed the tin to a friend, who finally discarded it. In summary: not even my last choice.

Although the country they operated out of (Switzerland), was known for flavored tobaccos, this brilliant old blending house went against the grain by producing some of the finest English style blends ever produced. And believe it or not Wellauer & Company also was known for its brand of chocolates and other confections. The only way I could get their tobaccos back in the 1980s and early '90s was to swap tobacco with an old Pipe Smokers Ephemeris member who had me send him tobacco he couldn't get there.

I do remember eagerly trying First Choice. My notes indicate the year was 1987 and I wanted to try it because I like Dunhill's Cuba Mix and was told this was similar. It was not. It was, however, one of the few blends with cigar leaf that I ever smoked that actually tasted like a cigar. It was very strong and drowned out the Virginia, Orientals and Latakia. I did not write much else about it in my notes... probably because I passed out from smoking it.

Sour is the first word that comes to my mind thinking about this first tin of "First choice" (which is also going to be the last tin). The second word is "cigar". Taste is covered by these cigar leaf, everything is a cigar, latakia disappears, orientals are in the orient, but not in the tin. And finally , this is not broken flake, because leafs are just cut, and no flake.

It is an ok English blend. It does not have the "richness" one would expect from an English blend. The Latakia is the one that seems to be minimal.