Borkum Riff - Whiskey pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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caddad	04/22/2006	Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
I have smoked this several times over my pipe smoking career and have never been able to get attached to it. This is one of those drug store blends that I buy because there is no tobacconist for miles and I?m desperate. Every time I end up with tongue bite and a nasty taste in my mouth. I?ve never been all that good at smoking Danish blends and maybe I just smoke it too hard, but I?m always sorry I purchased this one. I never can taste the whiskey unless that is what is so hot. Some day I would like to try the cherry version of this however I?m afraid that one will really be a scorcher! Some day , somewhere in a small town out of the way I may meet a bag of cherry Borkum R. and we will see just what kind of dare devil I can be.
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pipeman	02/25/2006	Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
well i have to start out saying,this isn't what i expected,i didn't taste the whiskey,it initially had some tongue bite,although slight,it went away the more i smoked it.i expected more of a aroma,by the smell of the pouch when first opened it i figured there would be more of a aroma.it certainly isn't strong so i would say its good for newbies.i would buy this in a pinch.
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Pipepundit	02/16/2006	Very Mild	Mild	Very Mild	Tolerable
Proof - if proof was needed - that millions can be wrong. In an emergency tea leaves would make a better smoke.
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EAL	01/30/2006	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
My Dad smoked this, so in his memory, I decided to give it a try. The pouch aroma took me back to when I was a kid and would smell the contents in the black and white pouch with a picture of a sailing ship on it. And there ends anything pleasant I have to say about this blend. There are drugstore blends I can tolerate, and there are one or two I'd say I like. I enjoy all types of blends, aromatics, english, crossover hybrids, burley-based, VAs, etc. With Borkum Riff Whiskey, where the flavoring failed to disappoint me, the smoking characteristics and flavor of the crappy tobacco when it finally made its appearance took over where the atrocious casing left off. Sorry Dad.
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hdfarley3	01/13/2006	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Very Pleasant
yikes! This was also my first tobacco when I started. Picked it up at the local CVS along with a Dr Grabow pipe. What a mistake. Still on the organ transplant waiting list for a tongue.
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Toddian	11/20/2005	Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I think everyones being kind of hard on this tobacco, sure it is not the best in the world, but it is not the worst in my opion. I find it to be enjoyable on occasian.
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Tom Bruce	07/13/2005	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Tolerable
Like a guy who keeps hitting his head with a hammer because it feels so good when he quits, I find myself going back to Borkum Riff Whiskey from time to time. Why would I do that? I've pondered that question while frying my tongue with BRW and can only come to the conclusion that it was my first tobacco back in the early 1960s and I thorougly liked my new hobby, so maybe I'm trying to recapture that initial enjoyment. I could deal with almost anything this tobacco throws at me, except for the tongue bite. Believe me, after 40+ years of puffing, I know how to control a smoke to make it burn cool. But, no amount of expertise can save my tongue with this stuff. It tastes as good as a lot of tobaccos I've had in my day, and after allowed to dry a bit in the pouch it burns cleanly. However, as I have in the past, I am sure that some day in the future I will see a pouch and buy it. I wonder how old you have to be before you get smart?
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Spike	05/10/2005	Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
An o.k. tobacco for newbies. I wouldn't smoke it now unless it was all I had left.
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DUPE.1512	04/26/2005	Overwhelming	Extra Strong	Extra Full	Strong
Never again. Not if it was the last tobacco on earth.
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Blade	12/09/2004	Medium to Strong	Strong	Overwhelming	Strong
I signed on to this site as a reviewer just so I could pan this tobacco. Once upon a time, I decided to quit cigarettes and smoke a pipe, actually a small collection of pipes inherited from Granddad-decent pipes. So off to the drugstore to get, you guessed it ?Borkum Riff-Whiskey?. For two hellish months of torture I dump bowl after bowl of soggy, gooey, sticky, smelly, nasty, putrid remnants of each end bowl trying to learn ?technique?, build cake, packing, etc. with my pipes. The physical effects of this experience included tongue incineration, scorched mouth, nausea, sinus headaches, you get the idea. Finally, I switched to a real tobacco and the story has a happy ending. Smoking real tobacco in a briar pipe is a joy to me today. For the uninitiated to this concoction: BEWARE-STAY AWAY FROM BORKUM RIFF!!!
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spandex	12/04/2004	Medium to Strong	Strong	Overwhelming	Pleasant to Tolerable
Wwow!! when you smoke this stuff you had better have a fire extinguisher ,or a bucket -o- water around because this stuff burns hot! hot!! hot!!! I could not get this stuff to burn cool no matter how I packed the bowl. I found the tast to be too much for me as well. I suppose the the room note was o. k. Not recommended.
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PipeSmokerForLife	10/11/2004	Mild	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
I smoked this on occasion back in the 1970's and to tell the truth, either I have changed over time or the tobacco has changed. I won't bother to go over the smoking qualities since there a gaggle of reviews on this blend already and I aggree with almost all of them. However, let me point out and recommend to everyone that if Borkum Riff Whiskey or any flavored whiskey blend is a factor to the taste buds. Then forget this stuff!! Try Finck's Whiskey from Finck Cigar Company. It's made by Peter Stokebye and is a hell of an improvement over this p*ss soaked cardboard from Borkum Riff.
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Blackie	06/26/2004	Mild to Medium	Very Strong	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
After years, I tried this stuff again for a bit of nostalgia. Bad decision. It is sad that this is one of the main offerings to newer pipe smokers. This gunk, packed into a Dr. Grabow, touched off by a match produces a blowtorch effect that could cut a rusted bolt off of a battleship anchor. The room note is o.k., but what would you expect from boiling caramel? I like my wife's Yankee Candles too, but I have never felt the need to dump the molten wax on some Burley and light it in a pipe. I rated the flavoring as strong, only because it is unrestrained topping dumped on Burley. I have no clue as to the quality of the Virginia because all semblance of tobacco is eclipsed by the cheap flavoring. My only regret, aside from trying this stuff again, is that I actually have to give this stuff a star. There should be a no-star catagory for assaultive sugared-up goop.
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Montague	04/08/2004	Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Produced in Denmark for the Swedish Match Company, Borkum Riff Whiskey is an easily accessible and low cost tobacco mixture that is not necessarily favored by dedicated pipe tobacco smokers. The pouch aroma is of flavored figs and is certainly one-dimensional. There is little doubt that Borkum Riff Whiskey has a medium strong casing. This blend is comprised of lower quality Virginia and Burley tobaccos. The color of the blend has an even distribution of dark brown, light brown, and orange/yellow shades. The cut is somewhat crude and resembles a refined shag cut. Packing is simple and the initial moisture is not overwhelming, but nonetheless it needs some drying. Borkum Riff Whiskey, if allowed to remain exposed to the open air, will not dry completely but instead remain slightly spongy. The heavy addition of a humectant to this tobacco blend is responsible for the aforementioned characteristic. Lighting of this blend is simple enough and the burn of Borkum Riff Whiskey is quite rapid, uneven, and leaves dottle in the darker colored ash. A good amount of gooey resin is always present at the bottom of the bowl by the end of the smoke. The room note tends to be somewhat ashy. The whiskey component cannot be detected easily in the flavor of this mixture. Instead, a bland and at times sour ashy taste remains painfully present in the flavor. Little true tobacco taste makes itself know while smoking this blend. Even when forced dried, Borkum Riff Whiskey still bites and tends to leave an unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth. Although Borkum Riff Whiskey may certainly not be the worst of the convenience store pipe tobacco blends, it still falls short of being a decent tobacco.
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CaptnDan	03/19/2004	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
One of the first tobaccos I ever tried. I'm amazed that I still smoke a pipe. There are good tobaccos out there. This isn't one of them. Leaves your tongue feeling like you licked sandpaper and poured hot sauce on it.
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pop-pop's pipe	02/12/2004	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Burley and virginia fine cut. The whisky flavoring isn't that good. It doesn't do the tobacco much justice. This blend was good when you could of purchased the cognac flavor or rum flavor. I don't care much for the cherry or whisky. If they brought back the other flavors I think some of the reveiws on this would be more positive. Especially the cognac. There's alot of good tobaccos that were discontinued and alot of lousy tobaccos still sold. Go figure! Thats the case here.
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Daniel Morlan	11/20/2003	Mild	Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable
This was given to me as a birthday gag gift. One thing I can say for sure is it made me gag. My tongue got burned to a crisp, it tasted terrible. So bad and unfamiliar that I cannot really compare it to anything. Maybe tea leaves? There's nothing fancy about this blend, but the hot smoke... I mean it was... VERY hot. My tongue is kinda messed up, and I won't be enjoying my meals the rest of the day. This isn't worth buying folks, just stay away. That's my sincere opinion. If you really want a great smoke with some great flavor, AND you want an aromatic, try Dunhill's Royal Yacht, Blue Note, or Sweet Vanilla Honeydew. I know it's wrong to suggest other blends while doing this review, but this blend is so bad that a potential pipester might be put off by this blend forevermore. Regards, DJM
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LoisKelly	10/07/2003	Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Tolerable
Another pipe ruined. Would someone be kind enough to put a bullet in my head?
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CapnStuby	09/14/2003	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Overwhelming
This tobacco offended me on a spiritual and emotional level. I was left with an acrid taste in my mouth, a fouled pipe (thank God for the disposability of corn cob pipes!) and a confused, melancholy realization that there are people out there that made this tobacco. I find myself questioning the very goodness of humanity when tobacco like this is allowed to be sold to the public and not relegated to back-room torture chambers.
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Kerdy	07/13/2003	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable
I purchased this to give some variation to my other tobaccos. I too had no problem with the stickiness or goopy residue although it does tend to bite the tongue if you are not careful. I am learning to smoke slower than I used too and have gone from a staight to a full bent pipe. Havent decided if that changes much other than the way I hold the pipe. It is kinda ashy tasting near the end but overall, not bad for a cheap store brand. Not a bad choice if out and about in the countryside, but not for relaxing on the back porch. My wife said it didnt smell bad, but I have to smoke outside anyway.
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