In my experience of it, at least, Erinmore Mixture with its ribbon cut packs well and lights well; unlike some reviewers, I didn't find it difficult to keep alight. Apart from these meagre positives, I have nothing good to say about it. Smoking it is like what smoking fruit gums would be if fruit gums were combustible. Much the same is true - perhaps more so - of Erinmore Flake. Sometimes Erinmore seems to taste of pineapple; sometimes of indeterminate Vimto-like fruity stuff; sometimes of liquorice. Yeccch!! When the smoke begins to pervade the room, panic-stricken civilians fight their way to the door, shrieking, and hamsters fall unconscious from their wheels (you don't believe me, do you?). Towards the bottom of the bowl it's as hot as Satan's britches, and it leaves behind a lot of unpleasant yuck.

This isn't one of those old-time tobaccos that has deteriorated over the years (cf. Gold Block; Three Nuns). I first tried it forty-odd years ago (my late aunt had a tobacconist's shop, and told me that Erinmore was one of her best sellers), and it was awful then. I guess this is a Marmite tobacco: you love it or you hate it, but nobody has mixed feelings about it. Give it a try and see what you think. Personally, I wouldn't have it as a gift: the odd flavour and room note just don't suit me at all. It's obviously popular and has been for many years, so evidently it has qualities that are lost on me. From my own purely subjective standpoint, though, very much not recommended.

Update, 21st January, 2012: Just for the hell of it, I tried mixing Erinmore Mixture with Condor Ready Rubbed: a suggestion made by another reviewer on these pages. Oddly enough, a fifty- fifty mix is rather good! Shall we call it Conmore Mixture? Erindor? I wouldn't smoke it all the time, but I was pleasantly surpised.

Its particular flavor can be interesting, nice or repulsive. You must try and see yourself.

For me it was interesting at the beginning. Then became just monotone. I have smoked exactly 15 tins of this blend between the years 2004 and 2008. The latest box with 5 tins were almost 4 years old. I didn't see any difference. That particular flavor was not interesting anymore to me so I quit smoking this blend. Not an unforgetable for me..

I smoke virginias and va/pers, ropes, English blends, and aromatics in that order, so that you know where I am coming from on this tobacco.

This is not what I'd call an aromatic, it's more of a flavored virginia. There isn't any glop or stickiness to it.

I don't know where all the varying accounts on the casing come from, the second I opened the tin I was essentially ran over with a big truck carrying sun dried/fermented apricots! There is also some brown sugar present, and lurking deep in the background, something akin to strawberry, but this other flavor is completely overwhelmed by the apricot, and may just be a part of the apricot/brown sugar combination. Nothing even remotely pineapple, licorice, or any of the other flavors mentioned, at least not to my nose, nor tastebuds, is present.

It seems that it consists of 75% brown cavendish, 15% black cavendish, and 10% golden virginia.

The casing doesn't come through in the smoke unless you puff slowly or take time between puffs, in which case it is there in just the right amount. This is nowhere as flavored as blue note or anything like that, though the scent, but not taste, is very similar.

In fact, I wish it had just a tad more of the casing than it does, but only a tad.

It burns to a very light gray ash, and doesn't leave any dottle at the bottom of the pipe, if smoked slowly.

If you like both virginias, and aromatics, this is just right down the middle.

I don't add many tobaccos to my regular rotation, but this one just made a spot in it for two or three evenings a week.

Just a few puffs into this, I immediately determined it is the 15 year old Glenfiddich of single malt scotches, and pairs with it quite nicely.

A solid 4 stars.

I don't like the burn characteristics of ribbons. I have dried it out, but it still burns like a ribbon...too fast, and with condensation. However, this is quality tobacco, and I don't think the topping is overdone. It is cool for a ribbon, and I get no tongue bite. I have smoked one star mixtures, and this is not one of them.

The tin aroma is, to me, nice. VA with a mild topping. In the bowl I get a VA with a mild and unique topping, not at all objectionable. This is quite good...for a ribbon. I will not be buying more of this mixture, but I will order the flake. If you like the "convenience" of ribbons, I can recommend this.

It is also quite extraordinary, in that I've smoked my way through this pouchful almost non-stop for 2 days, but there isn't the slightest hint of bite, and there is no unpleasant tongue or mouth coating. My only complaint is that it smokes rather too fast, but then that's always the case with aromatics.

I'm really enjoying this stuff, and it makes life a lot easier, because I've had the same conversion with Gold Block and Player's Whiskey, so now I have got three extra proprietary brands (I was always able to get on with St Bruno, though I've gone off that for quite a while, too strong), widely available in local shops, to keep me going. I used to have to always order my tobacco on the net, because I couldn't get on with the proprietaries, but now I don't have that problem.

Compared to the flake version, it is a bit less strong in terms of nicotine, the topping is a bit more intense and it burns a tad faster due to the cut.

So, if you like aromatic tobaccos which are not super-mild and still have a good 'tobacco-base' topped by an non-VanillaMangoCherry flavoring , try Erinmore Mixture.

Unlike the official description, the tobacco (in the tin version) is not so cool and mellow. In fact it is quite sour and can easily provide tongue bite. On the pros, the added casing doesnt appear too chemical and makes its presence notable in a rather discreet way during smoking. During smoking the blend produces lots of oils-fluids and hence will "haunt" the bowl for a long time. The fluids also provide a rather unpleasant smoking feeling.

On the symbolic level it is interesting how the company markets the tobacco casing as a secret recipe, but employs a pineapple as an emblem as well as a yellow-red tin format which both set up the preferred "readings" of the tobaccos' flavours.

Certainly not a tobacco in my rotation, but one which deserves to be tried out by pipe smokers- even for its historicity and contested character.

Off from the nostalgia trip, EM really does polarize - it's strong in one way, soft in another. It's over-flavoured in one way, yet natural in another. The best way I can describe the tin aroma is "metallic;" the pineapple aroma many other reviewers here have noted is in there, too. The tobacco comes rather wet (where I am); it may benefit from sitting around in the pipe for a half hour before lighting. Once properly alight, it'll quietly and gently burn down to a minimal amount of light- grey ashes.

The taste is sweet and fruity, somewhat tangy. If you don't like aromatics, open your window, take aim, and throw the tin (or pouch) as far as possible. This one is aromatic. The room note is... well, it depends on your tastes. It could be described as chemical, or as jelly-beanish. Or maybe both are the same and it's only a matter of your point of view. I guess what I'm saying is that the room note of EM is sort of what the taste of Red Bull is compared to other sodas - just something all its own. Whether you like it or not depends on your own taste.

Personally, I do like the taste to a certain, moderate extent. It's definitely not an everyday tobacco for me, and if you want to try this, do heed the earlier suggestions that you use a pipe you can spare for a few months - the Erinmore Mixture leaves a very strong afterflavour in the pipe it has been smoked in, and it does also leave a strong aftertaste on your palate. Whether or not you like the latter is, I guess, a matter of taste. On occasion, I do enjoy it.

2 stars from me; it can be a nice smoke, but as said before, it polarizes. Not only the smokers themselves, but also the audience.

Foul, fruity tasting heinous smelling, reasonably good leaf with tragic results.

What the aging of this tobacco may have done to it, I don't know. I do remember smoking some in the mid-1990's and being offended by its cloying sour-sweetness, so I do not know why I carried an extra tin into the next millenium. I do wonder how much the mind controls the taste buds, however. When I cracked the tin, I said to myself "I hated this bleepin' stuff way back when and I doubt it's any better now". It wasn't. How much of that was the tobacco and how much was my mindset, I cannot say.

This is neither a good English virginia with a crappy top note nor a good American-style aromatic. It's just a fruit basket of tobacco with fruit that's "gone over". Reminds me of that pathetic abomination Dunhill put together some years ago named Golden Hours. Just really bad, and it does nothing to make me want to try the Flake version, despite the better reviews. Normally I'd give this away but I want to keep what friends I have. Anyone that likes this is made of sterner stuff than I, and I salute them.

The first bowls tasted between good to unremarkable. From beginning to end, it always tasted the same; no "crescendo" type of experience, such as the ones to be found in more sophisticated mixtures. Always the same flavor and aroma of pineapple-cased virginia, very often disturbed by a foul tar aftertaste.

After smoking half a tin, I felt I had had enough. I was about to give it up definitively? Until I tried it in a filter pipe (oh, that purist's horror!).

For once in a lifetime, the advertisements in the filter's package seemed to tell the truth: the tar taste was removed from the smoke! I kept on piping until the tin was empty. What a pleasure it was! Not an extraordinary one, but a very decent one nevertheless. I'll buy it again, even if its not among my best choices.

it is unique, and superior to ANY other modern Virginia out there.