This has just enough spice to notice, but not enough to control the flavor, which is what I was wanting from this smoke. The sweetness of the Virginias is understated and enjoyable, lightly dominating the burley. The burley is very tasty and perfectly balances the Virginias. Slightly nutty with a light brown sugar taste. It comes a bit dry in bulk, so you may prefer to moisten it just a little or it may burn a little hot if you're a fast puffer. Once moistened, I find it to be an even burning smoke all the way to the bottom - no dottle. It's not complex, but you will taste all the flavors; a nice marriage of components it is. I can smoke this all day if I choose.

On its own, I find Three Friars to be a wonderful smoke. It probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to call this a Burley-based VaPer, but that’s really what it is. It has some things in common with familiar VaPers like Escudo, Dunbar, Cumberland…even Haddo’s. All of these share (though intensity levels vary, as do toppings) the standard VaPer nose of dried fruits (primarily fig and date), tomato leaf, dried hay, and caramel. Where 3 Friars wanders off on its own path is with the addition of a quantity of good quality Burley. This has the effect of muting the familiar VaPer qualities on the nose, and reducing some of the sweetness associated with straight Virginias and VaPers.

The muting of the nose and the reduction of the sweetness will no doubt be unwelcome to plenty of regular VaPer smokers. However, those with a fondness for the nicotine richness and, for lack of a better word, “dry” qualities of Burley (me, for example), may well prefer 3 Friars to the more familiar VaPers. I’m fond of both the familiar VaPers and 3 Friars. What I find, however, is that if I’m on a pipe-smoking binge, I’m better able to smoke successive bowls of 3 Friars than a sweeter VaPer. If I’m glued to my desk working on a project from home with a pipe stuffed in my jaw for hours on end, 3 Friars is great. If I’m just enjoying a pipe in leisure, I’m more likely to opt for the greater depth and concentration of Escudo or St. James Woods or Beacon Extra.

To my mind, 3 Friars is the OTC VaPer that the American market currently lacks. It ought to be produced by Middleton so that it can enjoy the simultaneously wide-scale and down-scale distribution of Carter Hall, Prince Albert, or Sir Walter Raleigh. In bulk, it’s actually a shade less expensive than a typical OTC tub. And it shares the easy-to-light, easy-to-pack, easy-to-smoke qualities of the OTCs. For all-day smokers—especially those on a budget—I’d be inclined to recommend this highly. Less prolific puffers may well find something to like here, too.

Updated 1/12/2012- After some aging and drying the problems with keeping this lit has been solved, I acually like this as a change of pace, much smoother than OJK in the straight VaPerBur's, 4 Noggins "Weybridge" is more interesting with a little whiskey topping . Good "on the go" blend

I do not see this being an all day blend, I think that spice could hold this down to a few bowls a week.

Pairing it with a Kenya AA coffee right now.

Very reminiscent of Frency's Sunzabithces. But this one has better manners and doesn't cross the line into harsh like Frenchy's likes to do some times.

If you smoke any OTC codger burley you just have to try this. It's loads better than the PAs and Cartehalls of th world (I like those blends too). And guess what? It's cheaper!

C&D quality. The most welcoming great tasting blend I've smoked in recent memory. Just a really fine smoke.

I'm starting to really appreciate C&D VAs along with their burley. Sure McClelland has that nice sweet round stoved red VA in many of their blends. But this light colored chunky C&D VA that I keep running into is really good stuff too. Pardon the food reference but it's somehow sort of like fresh baked biscuits with molasses or something.

I think this one would be rated much better, but for the whole 3 Nuns thing.

Forget this has a 3 in the name and buy some. I think you'll love it for what it is. I do.

12/14/2011 Update. I don't usually update my reviews, but I feel i have to upgrade my rating on this one to a four star review. The reason is I find that everytime I open a tin of this blend, I find myself not smoking anthying else until the said tin is comepletely gone! This blend is very addictive in a good way, i find i just love the stuff especially during the colder months. I really think this blend offers enough that all should experience it. This blend is gradually becoming one of my regular blends and is for sure in my top ten blends that I keep in my rotation now.

Govern yourself accordingly

Now that we have that out of the way (again), this blend screams for a 2.5 star rating within the TR system. This is mostly because sometimes when I smoked it, it was something I'd recommend to anyone, and other times I'd have to condition that recommendation. Few tobaccos I've smoked were as much of a changeling bowl to bowl as this one. I'm not sure what that means.

I'm a huge fan of Three Nuns and burley. That said, I think I would have left the burley out of this one or changed it 'round somehow. At its worst, it drowns out the perique and virginia and at its best, it's a bit of a question mark as to need. Even so, I found this to be a pleasant smoke, with a breath of perique spice to go with the VA sweetness. The burley gives it body - whether I liked it or not. Definitely something to try if you like complex tobaccos, as this one writes the book on it! I'd call it a successful tobacco, even though I'm not sure where it fits in to my rotation, if anywhere.

In my 4oz offering, I too have an aesthetically pleasing mixture consisting of light golden and cocoa brown...but, no ‘black leaf’ that he mentions.

The processing involved in order to make Perique creates a black tobacco...and...I have no black leaf in my mixture...none. So it makes some sense, that I, like DoctorThoss, ‘...didn't taste much in the way of [P]erique.’ Nonetheless...I, like the Dr., found Three Friars to be naturally sweet and creamy to my palate as well.

Highly recommended.

A companion infusion: as with other Virginia/Burley blends...a couple of pints of Newcastle Brown Ale.

Maybe I should start by stating the obvious: this is an excellent tobacco. In fact, I find it scrumptious. It has all the piquant-sour-sweetness of most Virginia/Perique blends, plus the added Burley that provides temperance to the fiery nature of the other two components, as well as an earthy smoothness to the whole construction, rounding up its flavour nicely.

I was surprised to find the blend rather moist (which, in my experience, is unusual for a C&D tobacco), but that didn?t interfere with its excellent slow burning rate, nor did I find it difficult to light and keep lit. By no means a cool smoke, it never really got uncomfortably hot, nor did it bite.

Medium strength, with quite some nicotine, the different layers of flavour gradually developed throughout a smoke that was never boring, nor overwhelming. Though pretty well balanced, I ?m under the impression that the Perique is more pronounced than the Virginias or the Burley.

As to the inevitable comparison to its female counterpart (the bygone Three Nuns, as spun and blended by Bell?s, which I did manage to smoke in the late 70?s and early 80?s), I find there are more differences than similarities.

True, the Virginia-Perique relation is common to both. Then again, the Nuns never invited King Burley to their sorority, nor did they allow themselves, as befits their religiousness, to be rubbed up to the point of becoming ?lose?. In this context, it?s not only the Burley leaf what gives Three Friars its ?manliness?, but also a more abundant and stronger variety of Perique, and the general flavour of the blend seems to me stouter, with a density and depth that I never really found in the Nuns (as good as it used to be). It is also a more pungent blend than the Nuns!

In my opinion, this blend shares the same flavour-region as the Nuns and Escudo. It is definitely not as sweet and ?juicy? as Dorchester or Astley?s Nº2, and though slightly less powerful than Escudo, it seems to me closer to the latter than to the Nuns. If you enjoy Virginia/Perique blends, this is a must.