Out of the 4 Ilsted blends I reviewed, my opinion is that No. 100 was the better of the lot. Next follows Nos. 77 & 55. Due to the Latakia content, No. 88 has to be judged in its own league. One good thing about the brand was the much cheaper price of their offerings as compared to other Kohlhase & Kopp blends.

Interestingly, in the tin they are all very similar in appearance. Same leaf content, color (100 is a bit darker), cut, and minimal tin aroma (with the exception of the Latakia in No. 88). Although I have ranked these blends in the order of my preference, I like them all well enough to include them in my weekly rotation. I have enough favorites that I can't do justice by saying "daily rotation." I usually concentrate on at least 2 favorites a day.

Do be forewarned. The 4 Ilsted blends I have tried all have a minimally present cigarette ash room note upon re-entering a room where they were smoked. Not like some other brands I have experienced, but present nonetheless. This sometimes translates into the taste while smoking. It is however minimal enough for me to tolerate.

Which is great. This is the sort of tobacco that can convert non-smokers or even cigarette smokers to the pipe. Easy to stuff (that's one of Ilsted's majour advantages - - all his tobaccoes are easy to stuff and maintain), easy to keep alight, and good to the very last crumb.

The room note is beautiful (as in, it gets beautiful girls to gather around whoever is smoking this blend), nice, sweet, unobtrusive, and I am running out of superlatives here to describe this tobacco.

The main tobacco is a nice VA, with some Kentucky and Burley in it, and a modest amount of Black Cavendish. The smoke is gentle and even throughout the bowl, and you don't need to do a lot of maintenance; just tamp it down every now and then, and you're there.

Beautiful blend, highly recommended. As to Glorfindel's fear that this tobacco is no longer being made, at least in Europe it is still readily available.

-- Update: Just got another tin by mail; they've changed the tin design (it seems the entire Ilsted line has been optically refreshed). The contents is still the same though - simply beautiful!

Now, the nuances of flavor that we all like to mention with pleasure, or to criticize, I think are based on "did I like it?" This tobacco is hard to find but worth the effort. It is a medium VA - almost straight VA.

Don't let the tin description listed here mislead you with Cavendish being listed first. It is a minor component, with light brown to blond VA being the dominant ingredient. 90% I estimate.

Opening the tin I was greeted by a light fruit note and an immediate nose of quality VA. The flavoring is just light enough to tell one that this is quality pipe tobacco.

This tin was well aged as I could tell from the scuff marks, dents, and staining of the internal paper. (no date or numbers of any kind on the tin)

Packing was as usual - as good as the packer - and lighting brought out the light fruit essence with classic VA tang/tingle - wonderful! Perfect moisture content helped in this regard. Just moist enough to be pliable - great.

An overly dry VA (in my experience) is a deadly blow-torch bite, which this blend was not!

As the bowl progressed, I tasted the light fruity VA with sweet flower notes occasionally. The flavouring dissipated somewhat but I was not disappointed. The straight VA flavour began to dominate the with baked cookies notes and noticeable satisfying tobacco taste.

I have never liked the dottle (bottom of the bowl etc.) in any blend and don't smoke it. I find it bitter, strong and anticlimactic - in short, it gets dumped. Period. My palate doesn't agree with it - ever. On a side note, I just purchased a "Senior Pipe Reamer" - this is the best pipe tool I have ever used, I highly recommend picking one up to clean your pipes. Excellent!!

VA lovers, this is worth a try, at least once if you can find it.

A medium to mild VA that could be an all-day-smoke. Ilsted is apparently a renound Danish pipe-maker who had this line made for him, not unlike Erik Nording's line by McClelland etc.

I have the feeling that this mixture no longer in production, but who knows?

Recommended!

Good draw to you, Sincerely Ethan "Glorfindel" Dickey