A truly exceptional mixture. I should have stocked some...I deeply regret not doing so!

Again, this was not an Orlik made tin.

Opened an Orlik tin late last week and it’s gone. London Mixture is/was a great English tobacco. Its balance of leaf, flavors and consistent strength are wonderful. Like a lifelong friend, I was always comfortable with it. I know how to handle it, how to light it, how it will finish. I never tired of it. Concentrate or not, smoking it is second nature to me, say familiar. Virginian, Turkish and Latakia, what’s not to like in the benchmark? I’ve begun to look for a replacement and what a chore. Also, the Latakia, too me seems so unique from other blenders, could it be a casing or topping or some proprietary process that I so love? I don’t know, but I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

The good news is that we may have Dunhill in the states again as soon as Nov. 2009.

I like full English blends but they tend to be too one-dimensional once you get to a certain Latakia content. London Mixture I love because because you get the interplay of the sweet Virginias with the spicy Orientals and then just a tiny bit of Latakia in the background. I am very enamored with this blend and hope to be able to get more of it in the future although I find it gets a little cloying when I smoke it too much.

If full English is your thing, this isn't for you.

Burns a little strange, doesn't tend to go to a fine ash, rather it stays as a black clump that needs to be banged out. Heats bowl but smoke is very cool. One light is usually sufficient.

1-2-10 Update: becoming more my thing! I tried going back to the little tobacco shop in Tappahannock where I bought this and my tin of Durbar a year ago, and all the Dunhill was gone. The proprietor spoke of availiability issues-tell me something I don't know. A year ago, he had Durbar, London, Elizabethan, Royal Yacht, and Three Year Matured, but now only a large selection of drug store blends along with a lonely tin or two of MacBaren aromatics. Had some good cigarettes, so I got a pack of Dunhills and a pack of American Spirits which I still indulge in occasionally and headed for home. The day was not lost, however, as I enjoyed back to back 45 minute bowls of London Mixture on the journey and the return, and found it to be a lovely smoke. I like Durbar better, but the London is pretty close. Nice long smoke with no bite. Upon returning, I found an aged tin of C&D Bowlegged Bear in my mailbox. I will sample and review it as soon as my blood nicotine levels get back down to a safe level.

An excellent and complex English mixture, nutty, spicy with just the right amount of Latakia. You can compare LM to Presbyterian Mixture, but more spicy, a little bit more nicotine and Latakia. No tongue bite!

Thanks to Murray's for a few most enjoyable hours!

London Mixture: R.I.P.

I received this in a large trade some months ago and I was not all that excited to try it. My long-ago memory of it was that it was a decent, if uninspiring blend. This was the newer Orlik manufacture. Overcoming biases is not easy but I really enjoyed this tin. It has a nice, lightly smoky flavor, with the orientals taking center stage during the first 1/3 bowl. The lightly sweet virginias then add a different angle on sweet from the orientals... kind of a light fruit sweetness to the orientals nut sweetness. The latakia wisely stays to the rear until the final 1/3 bowl, where it takes on a more prominent role, although still decently muted and used as a spice. This blend was almost like three different ones throughout the smoke, and it was most enjoyable when I was in the right mood.

I rate this one just behind 965, and well ahead of Standard Medium, Nightcap and Early Morning. Skillful blending and a light but steady hand on the latakia make this a winner!

The Virginia leaves a mild sweetness with the Oriental and Latakia tobaccos blending well together. Although My Mixture 965 and Nightcap are my favorite Dunhill blends, London Mixture follows very closely behind.

The flavor is good and the tobaccos produce as good quantity of smoke. The nicotine level is not high, but does make its presence known. To me it smells good in the tin and while smoked. The aroma in the room after smoking a bowl is agreeable to me as well. It smokes cool and if puffed at a reasonable pace does not produce heat or tongue bite. Three stars for Dunhill London Mixture.

I was on the hunt for Dorisco Mixture, as that is the only pipe tobacco that i have found that is truly my cup of tea. Had i known these two were so similar I would have opened the tin immediately.

so this weekend, i was vising a friend who lives some 700kms from my house, who is the only pipe smoker that i know. The strange thing is that he also loves dorisco and has been guzzling it ever since i sent him a tin from my cellar. I say strange as Dorisco isnt everyones favorite as it has so much perique in it.

This London mixture that i am smoking, could just as well be Dorisco. They are so sililar in taste, that i honestly dont know if i could tell them apart in a blind test.

Smooth, rich, spicy and delicious are all words that i would use to descrive this mixture. It is absolutely masterful in its blending and exicution. Its pretty broad cut and the virginias are matured to perfection.

Pretty strange considering that Dorisco says it doesnt have latakia, neither does london mixture. I am assuming that london mixture also has perique, however the label doesnt say anything about it.

I reckon a group 4 is about perfect for mixtures like this.

My cavicchi is perfoming like a pro with this delicious leaf. 10/10- highly recommended!

At the first light, the Orientals make their presence known. I don't know if London Mixture, as a youngster, was so Oriental-forward or not. But it is now, with 20+ years on it. If it weren't for the background presence of latakia, those initial first puffs could make you think you're smoking Presbyterian.

After a quarter of a bowl, though, the sharpness of the Orientals -- and I love Orientals -- eases off, and then the smooth, rounded Virginias come in. For most of the bowl, it's a conversation between the Orientals and the Virginias, with the latakia only occasionally speaking up from the back row. The result is an ever-evolving smoke that is rich throughout, creamy in spots, and worthy of the smoker's attention.

I only wish I'd had the foresight to stockpile this back in the 1980s.

Bob

Fake version (after 2004): Not as bad as other devastated Dunhills, but still a lot far away from the previous version.

Why don´t we unite and make a one-year-without-Dunhill protest to make them know we don´t like their manners?

(If you see I stop making reviews from this date on, call the police, please... I make BAT And other obscure forces against good tobacco responsible for whatever happens to me)

The Wally Cox of pipe tobacco.

I still smoke it when I don't want to be offended or impressed.