Comoy's of London Cask #11 British Strength

(2.70)
Dusky orientals, bright Virginias, and dark, rich Latakias are combined in Comoy's "Cask No. 11" to create a mellow, flavorful Balkan blend of traditional style. A mellow but satisfying smoke featuring delicate flavors and a soft room note.

Details

Brand Comoy's of London
Series Comoy's
Blended By Comoy's of London
Manufactured By Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Blend Type Balkan
Contents Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 100 grams tin
Country Denmark
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

2.70 / 4
2

10

8

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 20 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 02, 2016 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The Virginias offer grass and hay with some tart and tangy citrus as the lead component. The Orientals are lightly woody, earthy, herbal, floral, mildly sweet with a touch of spice as a supporting player. The Cyprian Latakia is a little smoky, woody, earthy, and mildly sweet in what is almost a back up role. The strength and nicotine levels are mild, while the taste is a couple of steps past that mark. Burns cool, clean, and fairly smooth at a reasonable rate with a mostly consistent taste. Requires few relights. Virtually leaves no moisture in the bowl. The after taste is pleasant, but doesn’t give you a sense of having smoked a Balkan. Neither does the tobacco itself. There’s a tame quality to the experience that isn’t quite explained by being a mild Balkan by design. There’s not much complexity or depth of flavor to rate it at more than two stars in the genre of mild Balkan blends. Why the word "strength" is in the title escapes me as it's misleading. For a work and play smoke, it will do.

-JimInks
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 16, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
Another winner from the folks at Comoy's of London.

My journey through the blends available from this company has been nothing but very pleasurable. I have been very happy with all of their offerings and the quality of the product they produce. To top it all off, these blends are available for bulk purchase. Quality product at a modest price. A true winning combination.

Cask No. 11 was a very solid english blend for me. Not a complex mystery of a tobacco like some of GL Peases english offerings, but a very tasty, I can smoke this all day kind of blend.

The tin note definitely has that charcoal like latakia element. Looks and smells like a typical english blend. The cut is very easy to pack and light, and my sample came at the perfect moisture content.

This was a very pleasurable blend for me because it was just so easy going. It stayed lit, bellowed smoke, did not bite, and burned all they way down to the heel of the bowl. What more can you ask for?

This is not one of those overly mysterious blends where you need to concentrate on the palate to discern every single hidden note and flavor, this is a very straight going enjoyable blend. In my opinion the perfect blend for puttering or reading or watching a movie or whatever else you would like to do that does not require babysitting a temperamental bowl of tobacco. Definitely worth a try.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 07, 2014 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I’ll start this review with a quote from Colonel Klink of Hogan’s Heroes – “Verrrry interesting.”

Comoy’s Cask No. 11 was a very pleasant surprise. I am drawn to English blends such as Dunhill’s EMP, and H&H’s Marque Magnum Opus. To me these are my desert island blends that have stood the test of time in my never ending search for The Reliable Blend.

I recently read about the new blends from Comoy’s of London as blended in Denmark and was happy to receive a few different sample packs from John B. Hayes Tobacconist in Winchester, VA. So I tried Cask No. 11 not expecting a fine quality blend, I was mistaken.

This mix looks like a nice ribbon cut similar to Dunhill’s EMP. Nice variety of VA, Cavendish, Orientals and some Latakia (not much). It packed very nicely because I was in a hurry and didn’t take the time to perform a 3-step pack. Nope, I just pounder it in the bowl of my Parker billiard. The moisture content felt right from the sample package.

The charring light was smooth and I noticed this weed didn’t need an additional light. What the hell, so I proceeded with my smoke after a quick light tamping. I immediately noticed how smooth this blend is with an even mixture of the different leaf types. I need to emphasize that this is a mild English blend and the Latakia just teases from the background. It burns very closely to EMP with a nice white ash and little dottle. No gurgling was noticed and absolutely no tongue bite.

I really like the way this blend smokes consistently without worrying about relights. Good room note according to the wife. I did not notice any change in the flavor throughout my trials from first light to the bitter end. Very consistent.

This could easily become an all-day regular addition to my rotation. Highly recommended for a mild English smoke.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 19, 2013 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
I was pleasantly surprised when Cask #11 arrived with my tobacco order. The pouch scent is deep and smoky with thin ribbons (not shag) and some ribbons chopped. Cask #11 is a good looking tobacco. In the pipe though, the Latakia dominates the blend. While there is nothing wrong IMO with Latakia dominated blends, Cask #11 is billed as a Balkan, one that I find to be out of balance. As a result, it seems a little rough around the edges for my taste. This is not a bad tobacco, but in a marketplace with a huge number of blends in this genre, it is very average. For lovers of heavy Latakia blends, I still find it to be average compared to some of the better Lat blends out there. If there is a topping on this blend, it is extremely light. On the plus side, a 3.5oz tin can be had for about the cost of a 50 gram tin from other makers and can be bought in bulk.
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 06, 2017 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Comoy's of London - Cask #11.

This review's based on a 1oz pouch bought from bulk, as a big tin can be a bit excessive if the first bowl goes down like a ton of bricks! Plus, with bulk purchases, I'm not so worried about the blend arriving soaked. The ribbons are quite fine, and the blend looks about an even split between black and brown; some of the browns are light, others medium.

To me, for the first third the Latakia leads, giving quite a full flavour, but it isn't too coarse tasting; somewhat mellow. The Orientals join in after the first third, but still have less volume than the Latakia. The Virginia seems quiescent for the first part, but after halfway I begin to get a delicate freshness from it. Towards the end of a bowl I start to get an 'extra' flavour: not like a casing, but the taste becomes even mustier. The burn from #11 is good, albeit faster than I'd like, and it can give me a slight bite.

The nicotine's mild to medium, being closer to medium, and the room-note's a little heavy.

This is o.k., but I can't do more than somewhat recommend it. It's a little clumsy tasting.

Two stars.
Pipe Used: Brebbia Fat Bob
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: From new
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 24, 2014 Very Mild None Detected Mild Unnoticeable
I had a very unhappy experience with my sample of Cask #1 and found it a very tepid smoke not worthy of further attention. Cask #11 only fared slightly better. At least this blend had a little bit of pouch aroma - not much, but some. It also had a small amount of room note - again, some, but not much. It's physical appearance was more of a normal looking english blend than Cask#1 with some dark components including, I assume, a smattering of latakia. I loaded up my 2009 NASPC year pipe and sat back to enjoy the smoke, but was dissappointed. Once again I experienced a very tepid smoke; constantly trying to determine just what it was that I was smoking. Cask #11 purports to be a balkan english blend, but balkan english blends are known far and wide for their strength and fullness - sometimes to the point of being overwhelming to some smokers. This blend is very far away from being that. And there was another characteristic to this blend that I didn't like - tongue bite. Although not a terribly strong bite, it roughed up my tongue from beginning to end.

When one considers the vast number of good and solid balkan english blends that we have available to us today, it becomes hard to understand why any of us should prefer this weak and thin blend to any of them. Also, I have the same level of doubt abount Cask #11 that I have about Cask #1: are these sample pouches that are being distributed in our smoke shops really indicative of what's in the 100g tins? If yes, that's not good. If no, that's not good either. My advice to fellow smokers is, take a pass on these Comoy Cask blends and dive into the wonderful world of english and balkan blends that we are so lucky to have available to us today. Somewhat recommended - two stars.
Pipe Used: Northern Briars 4 square billiard
PurchasedFrom: dealer sample from Barclay's pipe and tobacco
Age When Smoked: not known-probably recent
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 24, 2015 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
A pretty nice Balkan. The Oriental leads with woody, leathery notes. Only mildly spicy. The Latakia is a little ways behind with smoky, spicy notes. The Virginias are in the background lending just a hint of hay with a mild sweetness. Can burn hot if you're careless, so behave yourself. I'd rate this as a little above average among other Balkans. It's a good smoke.

Mild to medium in body and flavor. Burns very well.
Pipe Used: MM General, Country Gentleman, Mark Twain
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: fresh bulk
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 03, 2015 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a basic mild balkan. It strikes me as a EMP or Daybreak "lite" and reminded me a little of Sutliff's Sunrise Smoke. It is slightly oriental forward with just a hint of spice. The latakia is more than condimental but only barely. The Virginia provides some sweet and hay.

This was a pleasant, easy smoke and not very challenging. It did not punch many buttons for me, but it will be easy to smoke up the couple of ounces I got in trade. I can imagine this might make a great "starter" balkan for someone wanting to dip a toe in the waters.

As a plus, this is available in bulk at a reasonable price.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 12, 2020 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
I'm a huge fan of Comoy's Cask No.7, so I went ahead and ordered 4oz of Cask 11. The price was very affordable, so why not?

Pouch aroma on arrival smelled like a wonderful Balkan. A subtle sweetness from the Virginias, rich smokiness of the Latakia. The Orientals offered a touch of pungency to round out the blend.

Packing is a bit of a hassle Since the Va's and Orientals are thin ribbon cut, but the latakis is finely chopped, it tends to separate in the jar. In order to keep this blend balanced, I mix this blend thoroughly before I load the pipe. Moisture level is where it needs to be.

Initial lighting is effortless. Bready, mild sweetness, slightly sour, with a touch of spice start this blend out. Even with the amount of Latakia that appears in this blend, the Turkish seem to override it throughout the smoke. As the bowl progresses, the spice increases, and the sweetness declines. This blend is fairly unbalanced. Id like to see a bit more Virginia poke through, as this is basically smoking straight Turkish with a touch of latakia. For the most part, this blend burns clean and cool if you keep it to slow sips. If sped up, it can tingle the tongue. I'm gonna take a break from this one for now, and return in a few months to a year. I really want to enjoy this one, but right now it's hovering at 2 stars. Hopefully is just that its young and needs some time to age.

Update 6-7-20 Even after just 2 months, this blend has really come into its own. I'll add another star!!
Pipe Used: several
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: fresh
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 10, 2018 Medium Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
The contents of the pouch was filled with very thin ribbon shreds that could be used for packing material. It gave off some spicy overtones hovering over what felt an English base.

Everything was quite dry, so the tinder lit up instantly and the Latakia instantly made its presence known with it's charcoal foot. The other Balkan I once tried (Sasieni) let the virginia come through, where as Cask #11 was far more of an oriental. Heck, my tongue is still a bit numb from the spice as I write this.

The stuff was filled with a lot of stems, which solidified my earlier feeling of it being packing material and therefore 'cheap'... caping my review at 2 stars.
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
3 people found this review helpful.
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