Two things surprised me about this blend: for all its references in the description and reviews about minor amounts of latakia (confirmed by appearance), I could smell it through the lid seal and could taste it immediately upon lighting. It is present in "condiment levels" and is well balanced (I like latakia and I like mustard, but not so much when either approaches 30%.)

The second is the presence of the discount drugstore standby "cavendish". The mere word has a lisp to it and I irrationally avoid blends that proclaim its presence on the label, fearing tastelessness and bite and cheapness. Well, it may have a diluent function, but there is still an adequate amount of flavor here for my unleathered tongue. Rather nice, and yes, a touch of sweetness. Whether is is natural in the leaf or added doesn't matter to me. There is a slight burley-like taste and smell to it if I seek it- that must be the cavendish.

There is nothing to dislike about this blend unless you seek strong nicotine or profoundly robust mouth-filling taste. I don't smoke every day and it provides what I often seek: a tasty light smoke. It delivers what is advertised: "A mild and slightly sweet smoke with character." I like it.

Then you can enjoy aa good light smoke with notes, sweet and smoked. It is not easy to smoke, but I consider a very good test for those who wish to start or better smoking the pipe.

When smoke this great light mixture without pinches language,I think we can say that, learned to smoke a pipe. More, i consider this mixture just for inside place, car.....

Upon smoking, I could detect the latakia. It was a sweet smoke. Not the best, but by far not the worst. I felt like I detected a faint taste of cinnamon. The room note was pleasant, and the 'baccy was easy to keep lit.

At mid bowl I could really detect the sweetness of the virginias. This is another find blend by Russ, and this will be making my regular rotation.

Yeah, funny looking stuff. Flaky, dry, I would agree with the hamster bedding remark. And not much here to whiff, overall appears fairly inert. Putting it in the pipe the first time is an experience. Reminds me of the stuff left at the bottom of my old elementary school desks, bits of paper and pencils shavings. BUT....once in the pipe and lit, this stuff is interesting! For once the description is, IMHO, dead on. "A mild and slightly sweet smoke with character". Latakia is left in the backround but nonetheless present, the virginias seem to pick up the load here and I suspect the slight (key word) sweetness is probably the unflavored Black Cav. Together this is a very nice flavor, very pleasant and a bit subtle. I find I do have to go easy on my pace, a littler quicker and it does tend to heat up but sipped slowly this blend is very rewarding.

As a side note: I've had this bag for over 6 months. When first purchased I thought it was a little bland and the flavors didn't meld. I just reopened the bag, left it dry and it smokes like a dream.

I found this to be interesting and although I would probably let it age for at least a year it could become a great smoke. 2 stars for now with a lot of hope.

I will admit that when I opened my 4 oz. purchase of this tobacco I too was rather shocked. Having read earlier postings on this site regarding this distinguished blend I knew that it was rather dry and flaky I was still not prepared for what I saw in the pouch. Yes, it looked like flaked fish food. Yes, it looked like cedar chips for hamster bedding. It also seemed WAY too dry. So, I transferred it into a jar and added a pouch humidifier for a few days before smoking it. BIG MISTAKE! Even though it still seemed dry when I put it into my pipe, I soon realized that I was giving my mouth a steam bath. Decided to dry the bird out some and he was much more settled, calm, and indeed distinguished.

The smoking was pleasant, mild, slightly sweetish, slightly smoky-ish from the Latakia. I wouldn?t exactly call it bland, but it wasn?t terribly exciting either. If a smoke can be likened to a conversation, this was a conversation with a person of note who is pleasant, fairly interesting, never boring, and neither talks over your head nor down to you.

Being someone whose humor has been called dry and who has been known to be flaky on occasion, I felt a certain kinship with this fine bird. I may get the occasional ounce or two to keep in touch but I don?t see this as something for my regular smoking.

Having said that, however, I believe that the quality of this blend is quite high and it will appeal to some who like something fairly light, which is neither too bland nor too outrageous, and has just a little bit of our smoky friend Mr. Latakia. It would be a nice bridge for someone making the switch from aromatic Cavendish blends to more unflavored blends.

Just remember, this stuff is supposed to be dry. Don?t humidify it until it gets to the point that it crumbles into dust when you touch it.

***

Bone dry when received. flaky as described, larger than fish food more like a cereal flake. As a matter of fact the blend looked like some granola, oat flake with bits of dark dried fruit and kind of smelled the same!

First time I was to ty it I made a mistake and hydrated it with towel over bowel method. Bad idea; leave it as it comes. Packing was like packing springs. Tamp down and it springs back. Tamp again, boing!

When lit it thrashes around, swells and seems to come alive. Tamp then relight then tamp again. Then you get the flavors that lie within. Smokey background hints at the Latakia, but never does it bull through and come to the front of this stage. I sip, I pull hard and each changes the flavors presented. A tingle or spice, sweetness but not a lot of nicotine or tongue bite here.

I like it! I could smoke it all day! It burns almost to nothing and begs for a refill ....

Beware, for this Penguin threatens to addict and bind you! ;-)

I wrote a REALLY long review, but my login expired before I hit submit and I lost it...I don't feel like retyping it, so I will just summarize by saying:

1. This is mild, easy to light and keep lit. 2. This DOES have fullness and richness to it in the second half of the bowl. 3. This is good tobacco and very solid. 4. This is light enough to be an all day smoke. 5. You will like this if you are into light aromatics or milder English blends. 6. 3 stars for quality and solidness, but it loses one star for no WOW factor.

This is a solid, wonderful smoke. Thanks to Russ and his yeoman's work on this fine blend!!

Well, sophistication is not something people associate with me. I either like something or I don't and I can't tell you that I think the smoke flavor of the camel dung mixes superbly with the delicate cow patty - hell I don't know all that intellectual stuff.

This surprised the hell out of me. I like it. A bowl smokes pretty fast, and while there is a tingle of a bite, it isn't a real bite as it disappears after about a third of the bowl. There is sweetness and some kind of different flavor from most tobacco's I've smoked. Like I say, all I know is I like it and will keep it around for at least a bowl or two a week.

Three of five stars

Ah the Distinguished Penguin and distinguished it is! Upon opening my baggy full of this stuff I noticed it bore a slight resemblance to the tiny wood chip bedding you might use for a pet hamster and upon sifting it I also found it to be a lot like fish flake food. Very interesting first impression, very distinguished.

The penguin, fortunately, bears none of the above qualities while smoking. The bird has a slightly complex smoking pleasure to it and gets better as the bowl burns on. Depending on how you puff this weed the VA and Lat can come out nicely and the Cavy takes the back seat for a background note...like a gentleman.

Combined with the look, feel, and smoke I rather enjoyed a bowl or two of this. I just might keep some of this around...hum.

I definitely had problems with unpleasant aftertaste. This was odd, since I found the blend all but taste-free. I usually smoke English (965 or Early Morning) or Virginia (2010) but have some pipes set aside for burley blends, etc. It was in the latter that I smoked this, and even broke out a new pipe to try it in (Like I said, I really wanted to be able to like this!).

So, I have a half-baggie left of it to give a pal of mine who is renowned for smoking just about everything, and I'm hopeful that he will enjoy it, since I'm always looking for a chance to build up pipesandcigars.com.