James Fox The Squire's Mixture

James Fox - The Squire's Mixture.

There are a few blends where just one puff is enough to make me feel besotted yet there are also a few rare blends that take only one puff to fill me with disgust; this falls into the latter category. It's just too soapy. That aside, I'll try to give an impartial report.

To me, the contents of the pouch would be a lot closer matched to the description 'Mixture', I see ribbons, shag and broken flakes in there. Whatever the topping is that's been used it gives off very little in the way of aroma, there's maybe a slight floral note but nothing dramatic. The pouch has a decent amount of water to it, so on with the smoke:

As I said, the prevalent flavour I get is a soapy one which I don't enjoy. I don't taste ANY Latakia, not even a slight woodiness I'd expect from the calmer varieties. The Cavendish and Virginia come over a little clearer, they're still slightly subdued by the soapiness but do offer a little more in the way of flavour than the Lat' does. After about a quarter of a bowl a more pleasing floral taste comes to the foreground, there's still the soapiness but this floral touch makes for a more enjoyable smoke.

For a few reasons, one of which is the horrendous sticky sludge it leaves in my mouth, I can't rate this low enough.

Not recommended.

Like all of the Fox blends I have tried, The Squire's Mixture is a quality mixture of beautiful tobaccos beautifully cut. Colors range from black to light browns and the ribbon is cut thin and short for easy packing. The tin aroma is sort of fruity, sort of floral, sort of soapy in the way of old-fashioned English "aromatics." (I think this tobacco is intended to be an "aromatic English." ) Usually that soapy smell puts me right off a blend, but in this case, the taste and aroma are restrained enough to add interest to the blend without overdoing things. Once lit, the smoke is cool, smooth, and neutral with the slightest floral undertones. The room note is airy and slightly sweet, not bad at all according to my wife. I don't think you'll find here the sort of flavour you expect from the usual stout English blend, but non-smokers will find this easy to be around, thus proving there is a niche for an aromatic English. I've not yet had this blend bite me, but there's enough Virginia here that you could probably force it into a nip or two. Latakia is listed as an ingredient, but if it's here, it's just a smidge. Overall, a nice, light, mild tobacco you can smoke around others indoors that still tastes like something. Not a bad accomplishment.

The Virginia is grassy with a little citrus, dark fruit, wood and some earth as the lead component, but not by much. The Virginia cavendish is toasty and citrusy. I can just barely notice the woody, earthy, musty, smoky Cyprian Latakia, which is obviously here to add a little campfire push. The Turkish is woody, floral, earthy, mildly spicy, herbal, sour and smokey in a support role. The topping is a little soapy and perfumy, and mildly sublimates the tobacco flavor, though it does weaken just a smidgeon after the half way point. The strength is a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium, while the taste is a slot past that. The nic-hit is a rung below the strength level. Burns reasonably well, clean and smooth with a mostly consistent flavor from top to bottom. Requires few relights, and leaves virtually no moisture in the bowl.

-JimInks

This is my first review of any tobacco as I'm a newbie. Upon opening the tin the smell is of Turkish delight chocolate bar or something along those lines. Needs a short while to dry and the ribbon cut makes for easy packing, the char light will tease your taste buds very nicely indeed and last for most of the bowl. Not sure of all the leaves or how they are processed in this blend because the beautiful taste and smell is enough for me in my early days enjoying pipe tobaccos. It can bite if not dried and must be sipped as I'm doing right now. In concluding this review I enjoy it a lot and sells very well from what I know. Thanks as it's my first review

I am of the mind that you can't judge a tobacco before a good handful of bowls. More often than not when I try a brand new tobacco it can be an assault on the senses, and after 6 or 7 pipes it mellows out into a more well rounded tobacco. I think that this tobacco *is* such an assault on the senses that that's where all the bad reviews are coming from.

It's certainly a floral, soapy tobacco, and if you haven't tried it before the soapiness dominates for the first few bowls, though I wouldn't call it overpowering having tried the old Condor to compare it to. After a few bowls the soapiness fades and the floral notes take the stage alongside it, and its a fine mix of the two. The Latakia isn't noticeable, and neither is the oriental, but I'm not particularly disappointed in that as I am still somewhat new to the pipe, so just trying new tobacco is still a pleasurable experience in itself, I'd call this a "Lakelands light" if anything, just fair warning.

It burns well, needing no relights and leaves no dottle, nicotine is mild enough. All in all, a good smoke, I'd recommend this tobacco on the caveat that you give it a chance, and don't throw it out before you get a good few pipes in. While some tobaccos start out strong and then fade into obscurity after a handful of bowls, this just gets better as it mellows out.

Recommended.

when i ordered it i was asked to take 5 tins, because no one else asked for it so far at my tobacconists. Nothing to say about the tobacco itself maybe about the pipe smokers around in this area. Upon opening the tin, a fresh floral rather musky flavoring invites you to keep your nose in the tin, guessing what the hell is in there i cannot detect. But it is no lakeside flavoring in this tobaco anyway and it is not soapy, although i like the lakeland smell very much. The colour of the cut virgina leaves is from light brown to dark brown a bit moist but good for loading a pipe right away. The flavouring is always there, it vanishies within the second half of the bowl, the smell of the smoke becomes more the way good tobaccos should be, earthy and with a little touch of the typical virginia smell i love. Burns down to the bottom, no problems with relighting needs. Simple and easy to smoke. At the end there is nothing of a ghost in my pipe, compared with other more established tobaccos like condor. To me this is a typical oldfashionde tobacco one likes or not. So I don´t give any recommendation. I think everyone should even try it - I don´t have it in my weekly rotation but I smoke it very often.

I found yesterday that I had a sample package of this on hand, untested. Reading the reviews here piqued my curiosity and so I opened the little zip-lock (about 3 bowls worth) and loaded up along with some black coffee. I was in no hurry and wanted as full three bowls would allow. First, I read here some comparison to Dunhill Royal Yacht. I compared the two and visually they appear identical. The Squires Mixture is a quality ribbon of rather dark mono-colored brown tobaccos. Pouch/tin aromas were definitely different but I'm not sure if I wasn't just smelling plastic with Squire's as it was the same for my Caminetto samples (from same distributor- and for the Presbyterian in US - as well). Lighting was a no hassle affair. First impression: SWEET. And SPICY as my nasal passages registered a tingle similar to a perigue laced blend. But no perique is listed in ingredient description - must be the particular recipe of Orientals used here. My mouthpiece left a sweet taste on my lips at each pull. Second impression: a wine-like fermented fruitiness, pear, plum?...can't place it. No casing or topping is mentioned but what do I know? I wondered, "So, where's the Latakia"? It showed, in force, in the last half of each bowl and it stayed until nothing was left but a fine gray ash. The fruitiness came and went at the second half and sweetness abated somewhat. The general smoking experience, without the fruit, reminded me very much of Tnderbox's Philospher. And, at that being far less than 1/2 the price of this... This rates 2 stars - smokable but not likely to purchase. Maybe I should say I wouldn't go to extraordinary lengths to buy this from an e-tailer paying S&H, maybe if a tin presented itself to me in a shop. Maybe.

There's something into this tobacco that never convinced me, beginning with: what the hell this mixture means? Is it an English mixture? No, it is clearly cased, so it can't be an English. Is it an aromatic? No, the components are the classic English ones...Accepted that this is a strange kind of blend, the smoking experience hasn't been one to remember. The first part of the bowl have been dominated by the aromatic casing, the secon part was completely dull. I don't even know to whom I could recommend this mixture!

I'm writing this review because I was surprised to see how poorly rated this blend is. I was also a bit surprised to see is listed as an "American" style blend. I thought they were supposed to contain burley! I would characterize this as an auromatic oriental because the two dominant flavours one encounters upon opening a tin is orange and oriental. It's a nice orange too, not syrupy or overdone. The orientals provide a sour note that works well with the sweet orange flavour. In some pipes the oriental is more dominant, while in others the virginia sweetness appears. I didn't realize there was any cavendish in the blend until I read it's description. It should probably be noted that I'm smoking a tin that has been sitting on the shelf for 6 years. Maybe that explains why I'm rating it above the average rating here. I'm also wondering how long Planta has been producing this blend. Could it be that we are reviewing a blend that has come from more than one source? In any event I give this a solid three and a half stars, and will buy it again.

Hmmmm...I seem to be the only one that gets a vanilla hit from this. I get a Virginia led English that's very weak on Orientals and Lat. It has a vanilla note from the Cav and some light floral notes. Not a bad tasting smoke, but it also has a little harshness. There's really nothing about this that would make me want to recommend it to anyone.

Mild to medium in body and taste. Flavoring is mild. Burns well.