War Horse War Horse Ready Cut

The burley is woody, toasty, and a little nutty with a strong, bold earthiness. The burley is a little sweet, though I don’t notice that particular sweetness as much after a few puffs. The rest of the time you’ll discern the other aspects of the burley that I mentioned. It's one of the major components, although the spicy, woody, smoky, floral, herbal, vegetative, mildly sour, nutty dark-fired Kentucky kicks in from the start, and you’ll taste it all the way through as it grabs your attention a little more than the burley does. It does seem to recede a little in the last quarter of the smoke. The red Virginias are tangy dried dark fruit sweet with some wood, bread and earth in an important support role as it provides a bit of sweetness, which I seem to observe more after the half way point, though it’s always there. The perique isn’t always as obvious as it plays a minor part in the proceedings. More often than not, its spicy quality is mildly sublimated by that of the dark-fired. The plum, fig, and date notes it provides are more noticeable to me. The sweet topping, which seems to be licorice, competes with the red Virginia in the taste department in the first half, and though the topping weakens just a little after that, it will remain to the end. Overall, the topping mildly tones down the tobaccos at its height. The blend’s strength is a step over the medium threshold, while the taste is almost full. The nic-hit is medium. Dry out of the tin, it burns at a reasonable rate: clean, cool, fairly smooth, spicy, sweet, lightly dry and sour, and a little creamy with a complex, nuanced flavor. A little hydration brings out the flavors more, especially the perique. I suggest a moderate puffing cadence, and a wide bowl to heighten the experience. Requires an average number of relights. Barely leaves any dampness in the bowl, produces lots of smoke, and the sweet, spicy after taste pleasantly lingers as it leaves nothing but burnt ash at the finish. The room note is a tad more potent. Despite its strength, it’s almost an all day smoke, and long time smokers may consider it to be one.

-JimInks

The blend is a great smoke. I am getting an earthy, strong(ish) burley base. the Kentucky and perique are condimental+. They are easy to taste but don't dominate. There is enough of the Kentucky to give me a little spicy mouth tingle, and the perique is always there when exhaling through the nose. There is a slight sweet that I think is a red Virginia and may be helped by the perique. I know the description says light topping, but I am not tasting one.

In terms of strength this is a medium or maybe a little more. The taste is medium-full tobacco goodness. This is a very satisfying blend for me. I suspect it might not be the best blend for a beginner.

This is one of those blends that begs for a different scale. A 3 for me is a blend that I could make a "desert island smoke" and be grateful. A 4 is something I think everyone should try. This does not rise to a 4, but it is very good for me.

This is the first of the samples of the five blends introduced by Standard Tobacco Company I both received and finished; and I am happy to say that I liked this one. This could be for a few reasons, chief of these, that VaBurPers are probably my preferred choice of pipe tobacco genres and secondly, this is the only blend that is not a Balkan/latakia blend of the five Standard Tobacco Company offerings to date.

This one is also unique in the fact that it is not one that could be completely duplicated due to the results of the laboratory analysis done on it. From what I had read there were things in the original War Horse that could not be put into a tobacco today. I presume this to mean that an ingredient was something that could be a danger to ingest.

Based on that, I can say that, at least as it concerns this one of the five, I am glad to have never tasted the original. For giggles, I did look at the review of the original to see what others' impressions were of it. Apparently it was a strong Virginia with a topping that came in a plug form. the Standard Tobacco Offering is a ribbon tobacco that I believe has some sort of fruity topping to it. I hate to use the word cherry because of the impression many of us have of that as a topping, but it did taste kind of cherry to me.

The burley and Virginia play nice together and give it a sweet and earthy background. The perique presence is light but does add a touch of spice. It is really quite good. In the article I read it stated that Russ used the perique to add flavor, but I have to wonder if it wasn't also to give it a little backbone as the original was reputed to be quite the nicotine beast. STC War Horse is also pretty strong on the nicotine, but far from overwhelming.

I am not sure I can put four stars on this, but it is very good and just falls shy of that mark for me. There are just more Vaburpers that I would put over this one.

But I do recommend it as I feel anyone who enjoys burleys and vapers will not find it to be money wasted.

Golden brown to black ribbon with a baggie note of whatever topping is used atop a slight tobacco-y smell. I couldn't place the topping either by smell or taste, although it brought back old memories of a children's cough medicine I used to have to take. Unpleasant memories. Further, I'm not sure why a company would bring back an old favored tobacco and change the cut from plug to ribbon??? Seems odd to me.

Flavorings are pretty simple determinants to a blend - if they are obvious and you like the flavor, the blend is good. If not, the blend is not for you. This one started out with that unpleasant topping which thankfully burned away completely by mid-bowl. Drying out the tobacco before loading helped the topping disappear earlier. And that worked better for me. The burley was not at all nutty and opted for a more earthy, tobacco-y approach. There was a slight sweetness not topping related from the Virginia which kept this one from being a basic burley-Kentucky (although nothing wrong with that, but apparently that is not WarHorse). My sensitivity to perique is lower than most smokers and I didn't notice any in the taste, although I did get a slight nose tickle from time to time. That tells me it's doing its job in the flavor dept as well. My problem is the topping. Sometimes even a light flavoring dominates for me, as it did here in the first half of the bowl. I never smoked the original so I can't comment on how close this is. I do suspect this one is going to become quite popular, as it bridges a gap between an English-type OTC and an American OTC. I doubt I'll smoke it again, but I do recommend it, both as a possible match to the original and something new and different (if you don't have the original as a comparison).

War Horse, one of the new re-introductions by the Standard Tobacco Company of PA (with Russ Ouellette) arrives, like many of Russ’s blends, on the dry side, which how I like to smoke my tobacco. The tin scent is ever so slightly sour in a good way, along with a topping that bears some resemblance to cocoa for me, although though I don’t think that’s what it is. I have never tried the original so I have no basis for comparison. For me, the standout tobacco in this blend is the Burley, which others have pointed out, is earthier for me rather than nutty. The Burley leads the day for me and the topping adds a bit of sweetness. I don’t really taste the perique and I am guessing it was added ever so lightly. It burns really dry and leaves a bit of dryness in my mouth too. I would put War Horse in the “all day” type smoke category. While not a strong tobacco, there is some noticeable nicotine. War Horse reminds me of some of the old drug store blends (in a good way) but of much higher quality.

War horse is such a fantastic smoke. I have been very fortunate to sample this blend and also distribute samples for my local pipe club as well as local B&M. Needless to say I haven't got to spend too much time with this blend until now to do a review. The tobacco is presented in a loose cut form but a plug is in the works. The bag note is almost a robust vinegary note in my opinion. The tobacco is in my opinion just right for smoking not too wet or too dry. This made it easy to pack as well as keeping lit. The initial taste I got on this blend was the robust taste it gives you. It's a blend that makes you feel manly when you smoke it. The red Virginias are a base leaf used and the dark fired Kentucky's and perique give this blend that nice robust spice to it, and the burley gives this a nice comfortable nicotine hit. I really feel that the Kentucky and perique steal the show in this and I enjoyed that. War horse is a robust mans man tobacco. The tobacco burned really well into a nice gray ash, I did not need to relight at all. Unfortunately I have never smoked gallahers war horse to compare but I imagine this is fairly close to the original with some age. Overall I really would recommend this blend to smokers who enjoy a nice robust evening smoke. A key factor for me is this got me pretty relaxed I can totally smoke this with a nice glass of scotch. So I'm sold on this one I will be buying a pound of this in the near future. Good stuff

The Burley leads with earth and a lesser nutty note. The Kentucky follows with a smoky earthiness and spice a ways behind, but does show a little better in the second half. The topping is next in influence lending a nice sweetness and a flavor I can't lock down. It's pretty nice though. The Virginias give a little sweet hay and the Perique may as well be absent. I like the overall profile well enough, but it tends to burn hot with a little sharpness.

Medium in body and taste. Flavoring is very mild. Burns very well.

I really REALLY wanted to like this blend. It is unusual for me to get a blend that I cannot at least appreciate in some aspect. This one, however, did not do it for me at all. I have to say that I love strong tobaccos, and that is what made me initially think that I would enjoy this. First of all, I could not get it to take a flame no matter what I smoked it in. Once it finally caught fire, it burned hot in cobs, meers, and briars. I tried sipping it more slowly - it still got hot. The flavor was strong and smokey, and I didn't get a bit of sweetness with it other than from the charring light (or one of many charring lights). The smoke was heavy and rather oily, and the room note reminded me of hot asphalt from a highway construction project. Lesson learned: sometimes things are just not meant to be.

Conclusion: I really like this. It packs a lot of flavour and even if it is not very complex, this straight shooter has yet to let me down.

Taste: A sugary sweetness, slight but still, that seems to come from the casing is first evident. Tobacco wise kentucky is the key ingredient, as it's smokey and earthy allure permeates the blend and really marries the sweetness mentioned. It creates almost a cacao like sum of the combined ingredients, reminiscent of maduro cigar leaf. As the bowl progresses the sweetness recedes a bit in favour of the darker, earthy side of the blend.

Mechanics: Ribbon, ready to smoke right out of the tin, no bite and medium nicotine.

Standard Tobacco Company - War Horse Ready Cut.

A medium size ribbon that's mostly light and dark browns, with a couple of black specks. The moisture of the blend when fresh is good, and the tin-note is a little sharp.

What often deters me from blends with Kentucky is they can sometimes come across with a really harsh fire-cured flavour which seems caustic and leaves a horrible aftertaste. This, however, lacks that character. As many folks mention, it's the Burley that leads the flavour here, seeming quite raw, and rustic, but is supported well by other flavours. The Perique passes me by, I can't recognise much dark fruit, or spice from it. The Virginia, pleasantly, gives the mix a notable sweetness, and slight sprightliness. Regarding the added flavours, I can taste something extra, albeit, it's too faint to be able to quantify. I can't fault the burn, and the smoke's cool and bite-free.

Nicotine: medium to strong. Room-note: pleasant enough.

War Horse Ready Cut: a blend with just enough Kentucky to add flavour to the smoke without ruining it. Recommended:

Three stars.