Ashton - Old Dog pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 31 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
Blue Bayou	04/14/2013	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

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musicman	01/11/2012	Medium to Strong	None detected	Full	Strong
Ah, the memories. This is one of the first real pipe tobaccos I ever smoked. Coming from a cigar background the brand Ashton meant quality to me and I just grabbed a tin off the shelf. Had I read the tin description and realized this was not an aromatic (pretty much what I looked for in my early pipe days) I probably never would have purchased it. I sure am glad i was in haste. This is so nice. It has that beautiful sweet and sour thing going on. The orientals are so nice, and to be honest I have not really found anything that is close to this blend. The quality is there, and it is as strong as you want it to be, it just seems to be just right no matter what I am in the mood for. The room note is pretty skunky, this is a pipe smokers blend, not one for a pipe smokers significant other. I can say this blend does not seem to age well, or maybe my memories are just better than the tobacco really is. My tin is from 2007 and although it has been stored properly it does not seem to have that beautiful pungent taste it used to, could be due to nostalgia palate. Cannot comment on the re introduction by McClelland. I am going to give it a shot because I respect the McClelland name and I liked the original so much, but do those reproductions ever really work out the way you want them to? We shall see.
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ELF	02/21/2010	Medium	Medium	Very Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
.....Get your fishing license,Pack your favorite Scotch or Bourbon...and get away for a couple of days;You deserve a break... This tobacco in my favorite Meerschaum is deep and complex,in my Briar,light tasting..but incredibly Hot(fast or slow puff'g)...I find this Tobacco Very Much a Camelion(Like when i smoke Frog Morton) *NOT for the FAINT of HEART.!. :+}
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Captain	07/03/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Old Dog was a sweet mellow English Blend that I have enjoyed for years. If you can get a relatively recent tin, I think that you will enjoy it as well. It is, however, out of production so check out the Internet and the old stock at your local Pipe Shop. It is my feeling that any blend with a significant amount of cased tobacco present with otherwise natural tobacco will be best smoked early in its life cycle. Old Dog is a great tobacco when smoked within say six or seven years of its production but the cased Cavendish doesnt age in conjunction with the other natural leaf. This throws the older aged blend out of balance and results in an artificial induced edginess that isnt present in younger tins. That being said, I have plenty of 04 left in my tobacco cellar and I love it every bit as much as I ever did. The tin from 1995 that I just finished had natural tobacco that had mellowed as expected. However the cased tobacco portion hadnt mellowed in harmony with the others. It could have been a manufacturing issue but McClelland has never had quality control problems in my experience. In fact, they always have done a great job and continue to do so with their other products. If you get a tin manufactured since 2000, you should be fine. Too bad it is out of production as I have always enjoyed this blend and I will miss it.
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Past Master	06/11/2008	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
First off, the aroma coming out of the tin when its first opened is much more to my liking than Celebrated Sovereign. Old Dog is a good English blend with Cyprian Latakia, Xanthia, Black Cavendish and flue-cured Virginia. To me, this is the better of the two English blends in the Ashton series. That said, its overall reviews are a bit shy of those for Celebrated Sovereign. Of twenty-seven reviewers to date, twenty-four of them are about evenly split between 4-stars, 3-stars, and 2-stars. Only three reviewers give Old Dog a 1-star rating. Average score to date is 2.81 stars.
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zulujerk	04/16/2006	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I could kick myself for buying this. I read a thread on pipes.org praising this blend, calling for a reintroduction. Having seen a short supply of old Ashton tins at a Tinderbox, I happily scooped this up, with a good two years on it. My problem is this--it's great! ...and out of production. I won't bother going into the details regarding why I love this stuff. It will just make me mad.
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jackhackett	03/02/2006	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
Found the last few tins of the old Ashton blends on sale at a nearby B&M where sadly, pipes are almost completely forgotten. For a blend that should be latakia-focused, OD lacks certain elements that I have come to expect from latakia; and it does take quite a bit of drying to get this to a reasonable moisture level. On the other hand, it _doesn't_ smell like ketchup or vinegar at all, smokes well without much bite, and is (was) another reasonably decent addition to the pantheon of english blends out there.
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emmbee	12/07/2005	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Wow, distinguished gentleman, that's quite a review! While this tobacco does have elegance and polish, there's something lacking. I don't find it that luscious. As with its cigars, Ashton produces a refined label, but the product doesn't take me to the moon. This is smooth, probably due to the black cavendish, and it definitely isn't characteristically McC. Overall, though, it's a Frog Morton on Geritol. It's not bad, but five of four stars? De gustibus non est disputandum. Three of five stars --------------- December 7, 2005 By coincidence, I'm reviewing this again on that infamous day so declared by FDR. This tin had some time to age. Tried it again and liked it. The latakia is a bit spicier & it's more elegant, then again, I've been smoking a lot of junk lately. I'd like to try another tin, but alas, it's been discontinued, or at least, it is no longer being blended by McClelland. If you find a tin lying around in a close-out bin, give it a whirl. Three and a half of five stars
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Pipestud	11/18/2005	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This Old Dog is a mutt. Heavy latakia with Vanilla flavoring (?) slathered all over it. I have always been somewhat of a fan of Xanthia from Macedonia, but quickly determined after settin' fire to Old Dog that Xanthia from Macedonia doesn't take kindly to what tasted like Vanilla Extract to me. Rough burn and hard to stay lit, too. It is sopping wet right out of the tin, so you might want to let it dry before trying to consume it. A positive note; I've never tasted any tobacco even close to this conglomeration. So, I can honestly say it's unique.
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p.smoker	09/02/2005	Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
i bought a tin of "old dog" at a recent pipe show.the tin was 7 year`s old so...i can`t compare it to the newer "old dog",since this was my first experience with this tobacco.i wanted to buy a tin after reading the description in a pipe tobacco catalog.the description seemed very close to another tobacco i really enjoy,british woods. well,after the first bowlfull i fell for this tobacco.i think it has a nice smokey taste,and smokes cool for a heavier english tobacco.i think it is alot like british woods.i like my tobacco alittle on the dry side,so i let it air out alittle.this tobacco is easy to keep lit,and smokes to a nice gray ash.this one will fit in nicely with british woods and nightcap,which are in my tobacco rotation.give it a try.
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Lochinvar	08/26/2005	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
I like Old Dog the most of Ashton English blends, however it is somewhat lacking. It is a nice start on an English/Scottish blend with the Orientals coming in beautifully, and the Latakia and Black Cavendish working in good harmony. The Virginias are a disappointment. I would expect something from McClelland would have a little better Virginia presence than this. Were I able to improve this, I would use a more noticeable Virginia (perhaps removing some Cavendish so it is not overly sweet) and add more Xanthi to keep its position on the palate the same. For all the grousing though, I find it to be a companionable bowl. It?s a fine choice for an all day blend on par, I think, with McCranie's Murdock's Pipe.
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sasha	07/06/2005	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
You can definitely taste the McClelland hand on this tobacco, and it ain't bad. Not a full English, but it gets near, not a Balkan, due to a lack of deepness from the oriental part, it is a latakia-oriented blend reminding the Frog Morton series, as many here below has detected. It's a good tobacco, but it's something in the middle between the tobaccos you always want to be at home and the ones you won't even look at the tin anymore; something you can't decide if to buy again or not!
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Mr. Dottle	06/28/2005	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
This Old Dog has "fleas." I have to agree with the two esteemed reviewers below me.
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RCUSElder	06/18/2005	Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
revised 06-17-2005 This is a variation of "Frog Morton" but with more vanilla added. When I first left the world of aromatics, I didn't notice the humectants used in a lot of blends, but now as my palate has had more practice, the topping and humenctant used in this blend is very off-putting with a bitterness that I just can't get by. So now, I just can't smoke this blend anymore. I do believe that this is also a repackaged version of "Chesdin" Mixture. I supppose if you are crossing over from aromatics, you might enjoy this blend, especially since this still uses quality leaf. But as for me and my pipes, no mas...
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thedstnguishdgntlmn	05/06/2005	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
This is truly an exceptional blend by any standard.Although McClelland blends this,there is no ketchup smell at all. IMHO this is probably their best English offering for the Oriental/Turkish afficianado. If FMOTT can be described as sweet then this would be tart.It is very similar to FMOTT, but the different orientals yield a more Germain like quality.This is for the lover of Turkish /Latakia blends.The addition of black cavendish yields a very smooth and sweet/tart flavor.It is so luscious in flavor it cannot be described.This is a triple chocolate torte with sweet chocolate ganache on top.It has a cube like cut,so be careful not to overheat the pipe.You will never experience any bite, harshness,or bitterness.The only warning I will attach to this is the folllowing: The flavor lingers on your tongue,anything you smoke after this will continue to tast like this blend.I give this 5 out of 4 stars! You read that right. Go get some.
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Simenon	04/08/2005	Very Mild	Strong	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Nose: A strange and mild puree of smell ranging from vinegar, to tobacco by way of ketchup. Quite odd, it provokes a double take: is this supposed to be an aromatic? On the palate it also very mild: so much that it is hard to discern the various tobaccos in the symphony. Wait, its not a symphony at all --its someone snoring! The casing and Prolypilene Glycol treatment overwhelmed the tobacco aromas. People call this an English, but that type of tobacco is by definition, supposed to be mercifully devoid of additives, and this is not the case here. Lets call this Americanized English as in perverted. On the plus side, you can smoke this all day, since it is one of the most supremely unchallenging tobacco out there --asuming you don't mind additives.
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Joe Patterson	02/22/2005	Mild	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
As others have mentioned, this is similar to FMOTT (too similar for me). For the price, and considering the first tin of this I had was 5 years old, I do not feel obliged to buy any more. Tasty, but FMOTT (and its bulk counterpart) is easier to get and cheaper too! Save your money!
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Professor	02/15/2005	Extremely Mild	None detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable
After being utterly disappointed with Celebrated Sovereign, why did I try Old Dog? It must be the Ashton cigars that I enjoyed in the 1990s. Ashton must produce a decent pipe tobacco. If so, after a second try, I have not yet found it. As many of the reviews suggested, I let this tobacco dry a bit before venturing forth. The smell of the tin was very nice as was the ribbon cut and its colour. I initially thought that this Old Dog may give my staunch Latakia No. 2 hound a run for its money. This Old Dog cannot run, though, or even hobble, and after a few bowls it was ready to be put to sleep. Sadly, the only burial fit for this animal was a quick flush down the loo to bark legless after some goldfish.
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CaptnDan	01/26/2005	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Since the demise of the Syrian Latakia, I have been on the quest for a new go-to blend. My search led me to Old Dog. The tin aroma was pleasant, for a lover of Latakia, that is! I could also detect the Xanthia influence quite readily. As has been mentioned before, the tobacco was too damp at first, some drying was definitely in order. Once the mostly-ribbon cut was loaded and I lit it, I was instantly transported back to the day I last smoked FMOTT. Very similar style. To me, the Cavendish and the Xanthia were a bit overpowering. In this case, I think the Frog would be my choice if I had to pick between the two. In the future, I'll probably just let sleeping (Old) Dogs lie...
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Inquisitor	10/29/2004	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
From the tin notes, you would expect this to be a Latakia powerhouse. I beg to differ. While this is deeper than its brother Celebrated Sovereign, it is brighter than Frog Morton. It is possible that it's Latakia content is as great as FM, but there is a lively, zesty Virginia component present that makes this quite different. (Mind you, I like FM, but it is darker, and a bit more sweet/aromatic). To be honest, I don't love Latakia. And I don't smoke this very often. But every time that I pull this out of the drawer, especially when I'm heading out for a snowy dog-walk, I am charmed by this blend. As with all Ashtons, this features a stellar Virginia backbone - McClelland Virginias, but deeper than usually found in Mc blends. While my taste buds are usually deadened by Latakia halfway through a bowl, this blend never does. This is one of five Latakia blends that I will always keep on hand (along with GLP Renaissance, Dunhill EMP, Mc 2020 and Clan Shaw Mountain).
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 31 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >