It isn't terrible, but it does bite a little bit, kind of more like a cigarette or a cheap cigar. It served its intended purpose for me, which was to determine the tobacco direction for me (Cavendish vs Latakia I guess). I can see that I would like this style, but I will need to find a higher quality smoke than this one.

Not sweet like the Cav, but it smelled great, earthy and leathery perhaps, it just lacks any real depth of flavor to me.

Soli Deo gloria!

Looks and smells in the pouch like a decent sort of blend. Grabbing a pinch shows that this is one moist English mixture. I smoked a bowl fresh out of the pouch and the flavor was nauseating. Drying subsequent bowls yielded an improvement, however slight.

I could pick out the taste of all 5 constituent tobaccos. However, the effect was a serious dumbing down of all of them, into a bland concoction whose only taste was sour hot air. This blend had absolutely no personality of any kind. I don't know if PG has an actual taste but it seemed to do a good job of negating any positive aspects the blend may have started with. It's not a bad blend; it's simply an "also ran" in a very large field of similar blends, most of which better this easily.

1.4 stars. Hard to recommend, unless you want something cheap. Cheap is the one thing this has going for it.

If you're looking for an English/Balkan blend that is just oozing with Latakia or Perique, then look elsewhere cuz this ain't it. However, if you like and English/Balkan blend where the condimentals are treated like condimentals, then this may be for you.

For me, this is a good "house blend." What I mean is that it makes for a good English/Balkan blend to keep in my tobacco jar and smoke on those occassions when I just want a straight-forward tobacco. If I want the good or complex stuff, I'll buy a tin or Dunhill, or Peterson, or something. Currently my "house" English/Balkan is C&D's Epiphany. This is cheaper, and I like it just a little better so this is going to be the "house blend" when the Epiphany runs out.

The only down-side is the PG that Altadis insists on hosing-down all of their tobies with. My pouch was just a little too full of it, but when I left the pouch sitting open for a couple of hours it seemed to take care of the product.

Anyway, if you want a good English/Balkan blend but you don't want anything really fancy or over-dosed with latakia or Perique, then be sure to give this a try. Not great, but not too bad either....

If you want to try a decent english blend this is not it...

Out of the pouch, it smells sweet, with an undercurrent of wood smoke. Very pleasant. The tobacco is moist, but not so much that gurgling occurs while smoking. Lighting is easy, as is the first draw. And that's where it all goes south.

All I can taste is propylene glycol. It's absolutely overwhelming. And it's a damnable shame. This could be a terrific smoke, and I'm at a loss to understand how Altadis feels that more of this blend will sell over time with the horrible preservative flavor, then in a shorter amount of time without it.

I'm saddened and frustrated. I love Red Virginia, and I'm a solid fan of Perique and Burley. I'm even developing a taste for Latakia. This is a blend I so desperately want to try...if only I could actually taste it.

Altadis, I beg you: give us a 'companion' pouch without the preservative. These fine tobaccos, and your customers, deserve it. That, or replace the actual tobacco with much cheaper pencil shavings and sawdust and really increase your profit margin, as smokers will never be able to tell the difference. As it stands now, I'm marking Fox & Hound 'avoid at all costs.'

Right out of the bag, it smells sour and slightly sweet (sweet shouldn't ever be my first impression of how an english tobacco smells, in my opinion). It packs well, and I loaded it up in an old pipe to make sure that I didn't ruin a good one. In retrospect, this is a good idea.

As I started into the bag I had an immediate impression of the taste and smell of dirty, burning hair (I assume that this is the hair of foxes and hounds), and if this was what the manufacturers were going for they really hit the nail on the head. After this, I was assaulted by chemicals. These are just mild undertones, mind you, as the whole blend is very bland. I can only compare it to "sherlock's choice," although that doesn't have any chemical flavoring either, it's just very bland. I briefly considered taking the two ounces of that I have left and two ounces or so of this and blending them together with whiskey to see what I got, but I'd rather not really use this in any capacity.

Despite the fact that I smoked this in a filter pipe, I still managed to get a few drops of nasty, nasty tobacco juice on my tongue. How this happened, I have no idea. I was not puffing very hard, and the only thing I can think is that it soaked right through the filter (an impressive feat).

I was not able to finish the bowl, and I came out of the whole experience slightly depressed to see such great and prized tobaccos misused this way. I would actually pay someone to take this off my hands, rather than feel guilty later about throwing away latakia and perique.

It has definitely become one of my favorite. I have not eperienced much tongue bite with this one at all. It is not a very strong blend, which helps it in being an everyday smoke, and the room note is has pleasant subtle sweetness to it. I recommend it for those who either want something not so strong but tasty and for those who are trying Englishes for the first time. Cheers!