The pouch aroma is of leather, herbs and tobacco. The leather note comes through in the taste too. I also pick up strong black tea and hints of oranges. The combination of notes may sound strange on paper, but they form a great taste experience. Unlike a great number of aromatics, the taste of tobacco is ever present: burley, kentucky, oriental and I definitely also pick up some tasty virginia. This is not a sweet aromatic like a vanilla or fruit aromatic. It’s drier and manlier. You can even smell a bit of sweat in the room note if you search for it. The room note is pleasant but, for non-smokers, more of an acquired taste than the typical sweet aromatic.

The pieces of broken flake ensure a slow, cool smoke. This is a unique tobacco and highly recommended. Still available in some countries, I’ll be stocking up just in case this treasure disappears completely one day.

The quality is evident in this product. The long partially broken flakes are superb.

The taste is fruity and vanilly and leaves room for the pure tobacco taste.

I smoke this one not often, but still regularly.

It smokes right to the end, with very few re-lights and no tongue bite or residue in the bowl.

A decent supermarket pouch, definitely worth a try.

Nothing unpleasant, nor anything worth to get hooked on, also. Should I think to an every-day tobacco, my current go-to is elsewhere in the "regular" cathegory, not this one that also seems designed for the uninvolved pipe smoking. Basically, the fact is that I smell a pleasant complex mix of aromas over a weak tobacco base. So, the question is: why should I smoke this ?

Nevertheless, I must admit this is not the terrible garbage that H&H (the EU's one, I mean) is, nor a bad incendiary dutch as I experienced with Schipper's. Plus, several fellow pipsters like it, there must be a reason.

I will not finish the third pouch, I'm sure. Shall try to mix with something (maybe McConnell's Red Virginia, just to remain into the same colour...).

Sorry, this is maybe my worst review... Amphora Red has not helped my imagination that much.

I have just finished a bowl of Amphora Full Aroma for the very first time and this blend is worthy of my review.

Blended under license for Van Nelle of Holland, this blend is just the right moisture in the pouch. In the pouch I pick up subtle hints of black licorice and perhaps chocolate.

Carefully packed, it lights easily and stays lit. I tried this in my meer-lined Butz Choquin. The smoke is dry and cool and mild with no tongue bite and stays that way until almost the end.

There was only slight gurgle but my moisture trap did collect some fluid which ended back in the bottom of the bowl making things bitter. I had to dump my bowl at that end point where the taste was bitter. The remnant was a fairly large dottle which burned to ashes in seconds in the ashtray. The aroma is just slightly sweet and floral but predominantly natural tobacco....no licorice aroma noticed in the room note at all.

The burley adds a nice body to the Virginias and rounds out the flavor just right and the Virginias offer that natural sweetness.

Left absolutely no aftertaste. This is a nice, mild all day smoke suitable for beginners and seasoned European-aromatic pipers.

Between All the Amphora offerings available today, this is hands-down my favorite which I will add to my rotation.

Too bad I cannot get this in the 200 gram can, like the Original Blend.

If you can get this, you should give it a try for sure.

Being ultra sensitive with my gums/tongue never got tongue bite (you should -literally- be smoking like a chimney to get one) easy to keep lit and tastes best smoked with a meerschaum pipe. Probably you won't get those oranges, raspberries or floral notes the pouch promises at first or second smoke but through the end of your first pouch you'll decide not to buy any other drugstore blend ever again.

If there was a pipe smoking course A to Z, then amphora full aroma would be my choice to start with. I was lucky to start with this.

PS. compared to superior blends it deserves 2 out of 4 but as I said I see it somewhere in between and price/performance ratio led me towards 3 out of 4. Simply; recommended to beginners.

The smell right out of the pouch seemed to be pretty good, and I got a strong scent of Virginia tobacco, like with Drum rolling tobaccos. Like other reviewers, I didn't get much fruity notes upon smelling it. Smoking it, I got no fruitiness whatsoever.

What I like a lot about this tobacco is that it's extremely easy to pack and light, and keep lit. Another thing I absolutely love about it is that it requires absolutely no effort to keep smoking it. I found it great in my church warden while reading a book. Slow, small puffs and just forget about tampering etc, and just read. A really good experience.

I was expecting an aromatic, but quite frankly I got none, and I like aromatics. Captain Black Royal seems to be more aromatic than this. The taste is good, you can taste the tobacco, but it's just a bit on the dull side. Not very exciting, but that doesn't mean bad. It's basically just Virginia tobacco, slow burning, no tongue bite (another thing I appreciate it for) and decent flavor. After taste is kind of, well, dull, but all in all, for the price it's a good smoke.

Update : I had 3 bowls before writing this review. A few more now and I can't feel my tongue.. not exactly the best feeling in the world.

I opened the pouch and smelled - tobacco (esp virginia). The cut and texture is that of a quality tobacco. So far so good - no baking extracts.

This tobacco packs nicely since it is not overly moist in the pouch. It had just the right amount of moisture (no old stock around here - we have lots of Amphora in Canada).

I lit the bowl, tamped and lit again. A little burley nose burn and bright virginias - verly little casing. In the first third of the bowl you taste a little citrus and a little fruity but mostly just from the quality virginias. The pouch says it is flavoured to compliment the tobacco - just so. By mid bowl, sipping the smoke you taste chocolate. Gently cycled through the nose you get chocolate, berry and citrus - tastey and refreshing. By the end of the bowl you get more chocolate but the other flavours are still there. I was left with a little dottle - not too wet, and a nice ash. This is a full bodied smoke. If you smoke fast you get a nice virginia taste all the way through the bowl. Smoked slow it has as many subtleties as higher end tobaccos. I do not consider this tobacco to be in the same class with other drugstore tobaccos. I have a drawer full of high end brands that I enjoy but none has given me as much satisfaction for the money as this unique and expertly blended tobacco. It is just slightly aromatic in that the casings don't overpower the excellent quality virginias. As an OTC class I give it 4 stars. If you haven't tried it go and buy some.

The current issue of this tobacco is not as good as the same label of 2-3 years ago. i.m.h.o.

Quality of leaf is mediocre, but after a few pipes,the subtle tobacco flavors do come through. Perhaps a good smoke for the beginning pipe smoker, not a bad "drug-store" tobacco at all.

This is a great quality cavendish that burns easily and doesn't bite at all. The tobacco taste is the main feature throughout the bowl, spiced by a subtle almond taste and hints of cocoa and orange. Lukily, I never tasted anything similar to raspberries or flowers.

Despite the name, this is a mild aromatic, almost borderline to natural tobacco.