On opening the package, the tobacco packed like straw. Lighting up, this stuff bit like a bulldog, and the taste was very harsh. Really awful. I'll never buy this tobacco again. No wonder it's not sold in drugstores anymore.

update-

I can't believe Frjacob wrote a Novel about this crap. I have to agree with another here about the twelve tobaccos composing this blend. Like hell there are 12 tobaccos making this up, Six pinches of Burley,and six pinches of Virginia Cavendish sweetened with pure white sugar,yea,maybe.

After a 20 year haitus I returned to the pipe. I?d smoked Flying Dutchman ,almost exclusively, twenty years before. One of the reasons I stopped smoking was due to my inability to get Flying Dutchman in a tin. FD in a pouch was generally dry (maybe not so across the water?), and was unsmokable. I never bought the cans in those days for the same reason. Adding a slice of apple or a humidifying tab did not FULLY restore the tobacco to it?s original condition. I don?t know when the 50g tin was finally dropped, so I can?t say it started that far back ? probably they gradually phased it out with the tin and pouch both available for a time;, but definitely, the pouch-packed tobacco now received is too dry to smoke comfortably (for me).

Almost any aromatic tobacco, after all is generally smoked more moist than non-aromatic tobaccos, but Flying Dutchman must be smoked more moist than most aromatic tobaccos and the pouch does not keep the tobacco at the proper smoking moisture. It can be moisturized and smoked, of course (I now put two moisturizing coins in the pouch as soon as I open it, and I replace them three or four times, trying the tobacco out each time until it?s right ? once it starts to stick to your fingers, it?s about right).

Now when you tamp Flying Dutchman (and you probably will have to tamp, and quite possibly relight it to make it to the bottom of the bowl), just very gently lower the tamp to the bottom of the fluffy ash ? no further; because you don?t want to pack the bottom tobacco at all beyond the way you?ve (hopefully) properly packed it in the first place. The object is not to end up with a damp and unburnable mass at the bottom. With practice this can be avoided, but often you may (as I do), have to empty your pipe furtively so as not to embrass yourself before non-aromatic (or perhaps more specifically, non Flying Dutchman) smokers who do not have this problem, at least not to this degree. So, when your ashtray fills wil dottles of Duchman, know that you?re not alone. It comes with the territory.

Peter Stokeby?s ?Natural? is similar to Flying Dutchman in some respects, not with regard to the peculiarities just mentioned, but with regard to it's general background flavor; but Duchman has a subtlety of its own that is evidently missed by many. Good as it is in its own right, PS?s Natural is missing the distinctive flavor I?ve always enjoyed in Flying Dutchman. But some of that flavor is gone due to packaging ? that, it seems to me is simply an objective fact. It was always lost by drying out and it still is. For that reason, I call on the brotherhood of the briar to email Theodorus Niemeyer at consumentenservice@niemeyer.nl and make the case for bringing back the tin, once and for all! Packed as it was of old it, richly deserved four stars ? in my opinion, this is simply due to the loss of oils that come of the drying-out process. Even taking all this into account, I?d like to give a solid three stars to Flying Dutchman even as it is now.

When I moved to the US I had the luck of finding it again, 4 years ago. It was sold in a pouch. When I opened it the smell was the same, but not at all inhebriating, like I remembered it being. When I pulled it out and started loading my pipe I was really surprised. This tobacco smelled the same, looked the same, but felt completely different. The moisture was (and is) gone, thus instead of the pleasant and slow burning bowl I expected, I got my tongue badly burned. I tried buying it again in other shops, thinking it was just a bad batch, but so far all the pouches I found contained this very dry version of Flying Dutchman. This tobacco certainly contains oriental mixtures you can smell it as soon as you light up. In Italy and France it is one of the most prized tobaccos sold in specialty shops.

But the oriental notes are very difficult to perceive if the tobacco is smoked faster than a little draw per minute (in the dry version). Plus the bowl lasts very little time. I don't know why this tobacco evolved to this new dry version, but when I visit Europe again I'll make sure to try the batches sold there and see if it is as dry as the one sold here in the US. Meanwhile I'll add the moisture artificially (half of an apple in a ziploc bag with the tobacco, or just a spray of filtered water).

I opened the pouch to discover a finely cut, very dry tobacco. It packed easily and lit easily and from the very first puff it, well, it burned like hell!

I have no idea how anyone can smoke this without a palate guard, a tongue sheath and a bit of a twisted nature.

If self inflicted burns turn you on, go fly with the Dutchman, otherwise, steer clear!

The cut is as narrow as shag, but is actually a long, thinly sliced ribbon; it did not overheat for me.

If you cared to read my SAIL reviews, you know that I kind of like this type of Dutch bonne-bouche. I like SAIL better, but this old favourite will be anjoyed by anyone who can appreciate a quality aromatic. Surely the legions who have smarmed over HADDO's DELIGHT?like yours truly?would not decline to be counted in that number?

Appearance: Very finely cut ribbons ranging in color from gold to dark brown. Despite it being an aromatic, the tobacco is not at all wet.

Initial flavor: There is a sharpness here, along with a sweet and mellow flavor that is again reminiscent of butterscotch. Not a lot of tobacco flavor comes through.

Mid bowl: Despite having ?12 different tobaccos,? there?s not much complexity in this smoke. The bowl burns evenly and the flavor continues to have the mellow sweetness evident in the first 1/3 of the bowl.

Finish: The tobacco burns very nicely to the bottom of the bowl, without any goop or unburned tobacco. The flavor has stayed steady and unexciting.

Summary: Aromatic smokers might really enjoy this, or at least find it a nice change from more heavily-cased blends. It burns cleanly and the flavor is nice enough. It?s just not my cup of tea.