Bengal Slices Bengal Slices (re-release)

The very smoky, woody, musty, incense-like sweet Cyprian Latakia is the star component, but this is a lat-bomb with nuance. The Orientals are smoky, woody, earthy, herbal, vegetative, with some spice, and is slightly sweet with a hint of sour. They are supporting players. The earthy, woody black stoved Virginias offer a fermented, tangy dark fruity, lightly barbecue sweetness in the third spot in the line up. The yellow Virginias provide a light tart and tangy citrus, grass and minor spice and floral notes in a condimental role. The unflavored black cavendish is brown sugar sweet, and has a smoothing presence to tame any potential harshness, which you’ll hardly find in this product, even if you puff hard, though there are a few rough edges. The very mild top note is licorice. The slices are thick, and easily broken apart to prepare to your preference level. Well blended with some complexity - more so than your average lat-bomb - it burns cool, clean, and slow, and does require some relights, though the number of them will depend upon how you break apart the slices, and pack your bowl. I suggest you do so a little loosely. The deeply rich sweet, spicy, savory, campfire flavor is very consistent and fairly smooth to the finish with no weak or dull spots, and no bite. The nic-hit is a slot behind the medium level. The strength is a couple of steps past the medium mark. Has a fulsome taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, which doesn’t often happen with this kind of manufacture. Has a very pleasant, lingering after taste, and the room note is moderately pungent.

The original lacked a little of the Latakia and Virginia richness in this recreation. It had a slightly stronger floral note, and more obvious “barbecue” essence in addition to more rough edges.

-JimInks

I rubbed this one out and smoked it in a GBD pot initially. This pipe seemed to work very well for this blend, and so I dedicated the pipe to it for the sample.

The crumble cake is more firmly pressed than some, and there were hard bits of broken flake in the mix. It smells of latakia and has a slightly sour smell from the orientals. The flakes are mostly black with a slightly mottled appearance from bits of Virginia.

Smoked, this is very good. There is the woodsy latakia, some sour and spice from the orientals and some sweet from the Virginia and black cavendish. It is heavy on the latakia, and there is a creamy thick quality to the smoke. I could not identify grassy or citrus in the Virginia, so it is under a few layers, but there is a slight fruit in the sweet, and it may be contributing there, and I think there is a very mild topping as part of this flavor.

This was a very pleasant smoke. I mostly codger scooped from my palm after rubbing it out, so it was somewhat loosely packed. It stayed lit and was cool burning. It was a fairly "full" flavor combo, and it was medium strength. One of those interesting things is that when you rub it out in your palms, it leaves a slightly tarry residue.

I highly recommend this if any of my description sounds appealing. I enjoyed it.

The “new Bengal Slices” has a wonderful tin note that I find very inviting. Compared to similar crumble cakes, this has less moisture content and I think that’s a good thing as it will be “pipe ready” for most smokers. I have been fortunate enough to still possess most of the earlier production blends that the Standard Tobacco Company is now producing with the Russ Ouellette. I don’t think that the topping on the older tins held up very well so it’s tough to make any comparisons. Although there seems to be less Latakia in the new version, but that simply could be a result of the way the older tins aged. The flavor is much “brighter” too. Either way, I find this to be far tastier than the last iteration of Bengal Slices and tastier than Russ’s Fusiler’s Ration. The topping is sweet, but I can’t put my finger on what it is comprised of, but it is different than Fusiler’s and it doesn’t have a tendency to burn hot when pushed like Fusiler’s does. There is plenty of Latakia to satisfy, but there is room for the other tobacco as well. I was never a big fan of the Danish made Bengal Slices because the last half of the bowl was heavily dominated by the Latakia drowning out everything else. That isn’t the case here. I find the strength, meaning the nic hit, to be only mild to medium. Those that loved the Latakia heavy version may pull back a bit on the new one. For me, the new Bengal Slices is a wonderful, dry burning, sweet, smoky English that holds its flavor to the wonderful end. Well done!

This is my first review, so I will give it a shot. I should start out by saying I do not like LAT Bombs. Bengal Slices may be fairly characterized so. This stuff, however, is amazing. First, it is very smooth. I mean good scotch smooth, not harsh at all. Second, It tastes, to me, a little sweet, and weirdly, it tastes sweeter the longer you smoke it. It tastes very full, very complex. There is an incense quality topnote with a soft creamy background, if that makes any sense. You can smell heavy latakia in the tin, a kind of thick meaty smell. It is a crumble cake, which I love. It exhibits a dark brown/black color with mottled VA. It has left of moderate nicotine, which is perfect for me. I give this 4 stars. I do not think it's an everyday smoke, but a very special treat. Thank you Standard Tobacco Company!

The fifth of the five Standard Tobacco Company offerings I was sent to review. I thank them very much for the opportunity as it was the first time for me to review a blend before it was released. I have never tasted any of the blends that these blends were intended to simulate, so I cannot attest to the accuracy of which they match, nor can I comment on how I would have liked the original blends. It stands to reason if I would not have liked the original blend, I would likely not like the reproduction of the same.

I strategically saved this blend for last as I had thought that it would be my favorite. I was wrong, in fact, there was only one liked less than this one. That being the JC Number 1 mild. My problem with this blend is likely the opposite problem with JCN1. Where JCN1 was just too light and needed some latakia, this one gives me a lat overdose.

I was expecting to have a little more sweetness. As I have never tried Bengal Slices in its original form, I have heard more about it than the other blends being offered by STC. In my recollection, I was expecting a sweet and smoky blend. My first few bowls of it were terrible, but I blame this on smoking them at the end of the day after smoking plenty of latakia.

I then decided that I would not smoke it that way again until the sample was finished. My best bowls of it were the first smoke of the day. It was with this smoke that I could appreciate the sweetness inherent in the blend. I then did enjoy it some, but I would say that this still is a little heavy in lat for my personal taste, but not by a lot as I do enjoy Odyssey which is pretty heavy in lat as well.

One thing that I really do like about this blend is the krumble kake presentation. As has been said on here before and is still true. Kakes are fun. The slices are thick, think the thickness of a C&D/Pease flake, but they do krumble nicely. This in my opinion always adds a star to a blend. So this is between a two and three star for me, but the krumble kake presentation puts it at a solid three. For the lat fiends, this is very likely a four star blend.

Bengal slices was for myself a nice treat. I spent a good bit of time on this blend prior to writing this review. The tobacco is presented as a krumble kake and I immediately think of a blend that is super hard to find. Yeah you know what blend I am talking about. The scent of the tobacco is a nice smoky scent that I personally just love. So ten points to Russ on that. I found the tobacco was easy to work with and packed very nicely. Now to the smoke, I found the latakia in this is noticeable but not a forefront lat bomb. The oriental used in this does give some uniqueness and keeps the smoke interesting. Now the best part of this reproduction is the black Cavendish it gives this a nice sweetness to the tobacco and really left me craving more of it. Overall no relighting needed the tobacco was perfect for smoking not to dry or wet. I would say this blend is a good alternative to penzance and if not just as good. I found this blend to be very enjoyable and will highly recommend this to any smoker out there that enjoys a good English oriental.

Bengal Slices.

Note: I posted this in the wrong place so copied and pasted!

In the tin there's 5 thin Krumble Kakes, of quite good moistness. The tin-note implies a more formidable English flavour than what I actually get.

The blend can be crumbled into rather chunky pieces: this gives an incredibly cool smoke. Igniting B.S. is, due to the moisture, is easy peasy. And then the flavour of the smoke is a very 'smooth' English one. Forgetting the Black Cavendish for one second, the Latakia, Oriental, and Virginia taste as would be expected for this type of blend: smoky, woody, with a slight grass quality. The black Cavendish is what totally adjusts the scenario: this gives a nice vanilla-cream attribute and changes the smoke quite a lot in comparison to the normal English blends.

The nicotine's not much higher than mild: to become anywhere near medium it needs a big puff, and to be honest the room-note's about the only thing I'm not a fan of: pleasant to tolerable at best.

This is a definite four star blend:

Highly recommended.

Dark plugs that crumble easily with a rich aroma of latakia and some sweet top note that I couldn't identify. As this is a so-called match for the same venerable blend that Russ' Fusilers Ration is, I wanted to compare the two but alas, I discovered i'm out of that one. Gotta stock up!

This one struck me as odd. Fusiliers struck me as bolder and more full flavored while also being sweeter, but they're supposed to be clones of the same blend. Now, I hope people don't make too much of my reviews in any case, but especially not this one because my sample amounted to 2 regular size bowls and one small one - not really enough to get a decent impression. But the latakia seemed subdued here, not as rich or heavy. But the orientals and Virginia didn't pick up the slack. It seemed to me that this was based on a rather old sample of Bengal where things had toned down considerably. My last two tins of the original were pretty laid back in comparison to the same tobacco fresh. Fusiliers seemed more like a fresher tin of Bengal - more robust and full flavored. This was certainly a fine tobacco, just a little disappointing. It tasted good, just not as good as Fusiliers. Where that one jumped out in a boisterous way, this one is flatter, except when I overcooked it. Then it became ever so slightly cantankerous and a bit more flavorful. Again, it was just 2.5 bowls, and it's worth a larger sample, which I will do when it comes out and I'll update this "review" at that time. I probably shouldn't have reviewed this, but I did promise to do so. More to follow.

Reviewing the reviews of this blend, so far, it is clear that most reviewers are too young to have smoked the original Sobranie product nor, have most, smoked the subsequent versions; and, they have rated this blend very highly. I have smoked a pipe long enough to have smoked all versions of Bengal Slices; from the black and oily wax-like Sobranie version through the black and brown mottled and dryer Gallaher variant and most of what followed down to the blend's demise. I agree with reviewer DK 2015-09-14 that the current blend is weaker and less enjoyable that Fusilier's Ration and is not quite the older product either. I also agree with reviewer tobacco 2016-02-20 that it is more of a tribute style blend than a replica of old Bengal Slices. I concur with the critique of Hans and Franz 2016-03-02 that the current product is a bit of a let down and opening yields a messy presentation which, by the way, is the predictable result of placing slices in a round tin - they get beat up some. OK, now, how do I feel about this blend? I found that it looked like the Gallaher variant more than the original version and had a tin odor that was much stronger than I remember from either; an odor rather like Wintergreen, which I do not associate with Bengal Slices. On lighting up I got a taste and odor that, while reminiscent of the older blend, was much weaker than any variant I remember smoking. These thin smoking qualities continued right down to the finish. When I exhaled my puffs into the room there was always a falling short feeling in the aroma like something expected at the end but, unfortunately, absent. Now, I would not be so critical of this blend if it were offered as a tribute blend but the tins say Bengal Slices and it is susceptible to critical comparisons because of this. I love most of the English blends offered by Russ Oulette but, Russ, this one doesn't work - its weak, off center and less satisfying than even the post Sobranie versions. Never my favorite of English blends in the old days, I would have given the older blend three stars in our current system. However, this is two star material and I give it a qualified recommendation.

Mmmm… The tin note is smoky, sweet and sour like Hickory smoked brisket with a thin barbecue sauce.

The tin presentation is crumble cake, thick sliced flakes about 3 mm thick. I rub a few out and am left with – well - crumbs. I can see this is good stuff. I choose a medium Stanwell freehand and a light pack. The initial charring light doesn’t take, so I proceed with another. The flavor is exquisite, silky, feels like marbles on the tongue. Sipping, the mouth feel is peppery and sweet, delicious.

Halfway through the flavor has not changed. Each puff brings forth and explosion of fine silky spices. At the end of the bowl, I am left with ash a little liquid. This is not surprising since I am outside and it is raining…

My wife tells me I smell like a campfire, I think she likes it.

Overall, an excellent blend, well-conceived and executed. Kudos to Russ Ouellette and the Standard Tobacco Company of Pennsylvania. Four stars!