It's not the prettiest tobacco in the bag, but I can't hold that against it. It arrived a little dry and this, combined with its relatively fine cut and its mysterious mail-order journey, has reduced some of it to something that looks like gunpowder.

But it's a nice tobacco in the pipe. Loaded with woodsy, campfire-ish Latakia and with sweet, quality Virginias in support, it's far from a complex English. More than anything, it reminds me of something like Gawith's Commonwealth Mixture, another uncomplicated Latakia-heavy blend. The virtue of The Dean, I suppose, is that it's way cheaper.

I don't know that I'll order more of this, but I'm going to enjoy turning the batch I ordered to ash.

The 8 ounces that I bought arrived extremely dry, bordering on dessicated. That was remedied by putting the blend in a bowl and covering it with a damp towel for several hours, stirring the tobacco occasionally to distribute the moisture. No big deal.

Rich, dark Latakia and stoved Virgina predominate, ably assisted by yellow VA sprinkled throughout the blend. It lights readily and burns/smokes evenly. There is a subdued, pleasant sweetness lurking under the Latakia that takes this blend beyond the run-of-the-mill. A great candidate for your tobacco stash/cellar. Kudos to Scott Bendett for fashioning a blend that delivers at a sensible price.