I would dearly love to add my voice to the paeans of praise for this blend, but I simply don't get it. Having smoked nothing else for the past few days I am consistently dissappointed at the complete lack of flavour. Every so often I think that the orientals or virginas are going to reveal themselves, but 9 times out of 10 what actually pokes through the miasma of blandness is the utterly execrable topping that not only spoils the smoke but is still identifiable in the room the next morning. Another reviewer has mentioned Iodine. After racking my brains I have realised that it reminds me of the flavour I would encounter in my school days when we were flicking ink with our fountain pens and some of it got into my mouth (yes I was a rebellious child - probably why I grew up to be a pipe smoker).

To compound the misery created by this woeful weed I have contracted a nasty case of tongue bite in my vain attempts to extract a morsel of pleasing taste, but even when I concentrate on smoking gently I still find it to be lacking in smoothness.

I have rated the room note as 'tolerable' because there isn't an option for 'mild yet persistent and nasty'.

In my search for a mild English that I can enjoy this is definitely not the answer. I think that I might give SG Skiff Mixture another try. In the parlance of my trendier friends - 'epic fail'.

I recently added some lightly sweetened black Cavendish to 1820 and had the immediate impression of smoking Dunhill MM 965 in its better days, before Murray lost control of the quality.

It took about five lights to get it going, and the result was sour and moist - like the steam from a campfire when somebody pees on it. As the bowl progressed, this sour effect fell into the background, but the wet stuff refused to smoke cool.

I felt very aware of my environmental footprint as I strolled along the waterfront carefully directing my puffs away from families with baby strollers and accusing faces. It did not appear to sweeten the air about me overmuch.

When this stuff did burn, it rendered into a fine gray ash and left little in my pipe. At some points it would cool a little and a few other flavors could creep in, but the Latakia in this is simply overwhelming and the moisture in the tin - seemingly preserved by the cellophane wrapping around the tobacco brick therein, created a singularly foul smoke I'll not repeat.

My only complaint was the fact that this one comes wringing wet out of the tin and needed a few hours to dry before loading up. The added casing, whatever it is, complimented rather than detracted from this marvelous offering.

A 4-star tongue tingler!

1820 is an English tobacco with a slight emphasis on Orientals. Other reviews stating a blend where nothing "jumps out" and a monochromatic experience are largely correct. The first 1/3 of the bowl is best, where it is actually quite good. But working down the Orientals begin to assert a mild harshness while at the same time the Virginias fail to achieve their inherent richness. The tobacco is properly moist, with a perfect burn. Not a great English for English fans, Balkan fans might miss complexity. It does have an "interesting" flavoring or casing, which I find neither good nor off-putting. Perhaps it grows on one with time.

A ribbon cut mixture with the orientals and Latakia quite well balanced giving a pleasant and reasonably interesting smoke.

I love English and Latakia in the cold weather and although this may never enter rotation, not even in the winter, wwere I looking for Commonwealth Mix and none were available, but this were to hand, I would most certainly buy it.

Certainly recommended to Lovers of English.

Most, if not all, of the differences might be the result of aging in the tin. The tobaccos were much darker than I remember, the indefinable casing less noticeable upon opening, the paper wrapping had turned uniformly brown.

As to the tobacco itself, there is nothing here to write home about; it is merely a passably respectable English blend with distinctly Oriental character, a mellow tobacco. "Mellow" is an adjective that cuts both ways; it is laudable when applied to a well-aged Single Malt Scotch; applied to Olivia Newton John...it is synonymous with "uninspired."

Let us say that 1820 is the Olivia Newton John of Germain's line. For the money, one can do quite a bit better...King Charles or any of Germain's Esoterica Line have it all over 1820...hands down.

1820 is a tasty mild English. The tin aroma is traditional English with a bit of that Germain (or Esoterica) fermentation. Not too heavy on the Orientals.

The cut is a fairly thin ribbon. Again similar to the Esoterica tobacs. While moist, it was easy to pack and light. Burned to a clean dry ash.

The flavor is very mild and I agree wholeheartedly that 1820 has a touch of natural sweetness, much like Wilke's Pipemakers Choice or to a lesser degree Dunhill's 965. I very much like this style of tobacco (English with hints of sweetness). Is it cased? Perhaps, but I think the sweetness mainly comes from the flue-cured leaf.

If you like mild English tobacs with a bit of sweetness you should try this. If you are a Balkan vampire - or want a big nicotine hit - then stay away. This tobacco might also appeal to aromatic smokers looking to try an English tobacco.

Appearance: A heterogeneous medium to thick cut ribbon of light golden to darker brown with a few black strands thrown in. All in all a very pleasing multi-tonal blend of tobacco leaves.

Aroma: In the tin it is mildly sweet, smelling strikingly of freshly made oatmeal and brown sugar. Gentle and honeyed with just a hint of allspice, it promises to give a gentle contemplative and relaxing smoke.

Taste: 1820 lit quite easily with a single match; I was immediately struck by how hotly this burned, despite an appropriate moisture content. The flavor is surprisingly different from what the aroma might lead you to expect. There is a very subtle and pleasing flavor of oatmeal which lurks in the background of this blend, loosely unifying its flavor pastiche. It may be that fresher tins present a more seamless picture, as older tins like this sometimes begin to lose cohesion after a few decades.

Nevertheless, I found the oatmeal flavor more prominent in the aftertaste rather than in the smoking itself. After I had finished a bowl, I was surprised to find the flavor of oatmeal upon my palate lingering. This leads me to believe it has to do with the Oriental leaf, as these have a tendency to pervade the gums and lips with their flavors, affecting the flavors of everything else you taste during the remainder of the day. For this reason, I would not recommend 1820 as a bowl to start off your day.

The Virginia flavor is largely diminished and subdued in this blend and it is not at all sweet to my perception. It burns hot however and rather harshly. I did not detect any inordinate amount of tongue or throat irritation with this blend ? rather the flavor is harsh and crude, as one might expect from a rougher cut tobacco, for example. Instead, the predominant flavor is that of the latakia, although this is not overbearing in any sense of the word. More plainly said, this blend seems to have little if any flavor, and what little flavor it does have is that of smoke and charcoal with a hint of cloves and allspice.

If this were a smoother smoking mixture, it would be a very mild and relaxing smoke; but as it stands after several bowlfuls, I find it has remained steadfastly harsh to the point of getting in the way of the flavor. As a result, 1820 tends to paint a relatively simplistic, uncomplicated picture, uniform from the start to the finish of the bowl. There is little dottle and slightly less that the average amount of pipe gurgle, easily remedied by a few passes with the pipe cleaner. A gentler mixture which has similar flavors but is a bit more reflective owing to the lack of harshness is indeed Carol Burns? ?Pipemaker?s Choice? from Pipeworks and Wilke.

Bottom Line: If you are looking for a plain, old-fashioned extremely mild-flavored blend with a whisper of Latakia and Oriental in it, and don?t mind a harsh burning smoke in the mouth and throat, this may be the blend for you.

Leave it alone, unless of course, you enjoy biscuits with your tobacco.

One and a half of five stars

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 points Enjoy!