The first thing I noticed was the strong berry topping ( very similar to Peterson University Flake). If I were to guess, I'd say it was a black currant flavoring. This is a great tobacco and the Syrian Latakia is great but the topping is just too much. My tin has been opened for a couple weeks and the topping seems to be increasing in strength. This would be a 4 star blend if it wasn't for the topping.

Was a little moist in the tin at first, but smokes very smooth and easily, it has intriguing, complex, subtle flavours that make me crave it.

Contains Vitamin N and is well behaved when tamping out and relighting an hour later - never bitter. I can imagine stocking up on this.

Everything about it just works. Sweet, smoky, nutty, a little fruity tang, all the flavors come together very nicely. The Latakia never dominates but gives just enough to surround and accent all of the other flavors. Really exceptional. Packs and smokes as well or better than anything I've tried, straight out of the tin. Produces a nice thick comforting cool smoke. No issues. All the way through the burn it just keeps building.

This tobacco stands very high on it's own without a comparison to the classic. I haven't tried the blend that this is compared to. But I wonder why they would try to latch on to old fame. This is a terrific tobacco. It seems to me more than capable of creating it's own reputation.

4 stars for being something I need to have on hand

Onto the smoking. This is a moderate English in my opinion and the leaf is of high quality. If you are wanting a full, smoky Cyprian type blend you are going to find this flat. If you would like a blend that allows the Va and orientals to let themselves be known, and like Syrians lighter and spicy quality I think you'll like this one. But, don't get me wrong, you can taste Syrian in all its beauty just not a sledgehammer. I find the Latakia more prevalent in the mid-bowl phase to be more precise. But this is fine, very flavorful weed that will be in my cellar always.

Why three instead of four stars? I think McClelland's "Three Oaks Syrian" has this one beat and what I will judge all Syrian blends against. I'll keep this around because the taste/scent is different enough to make this Syrian blend unique. Recommended!

Update: In january /february this became my favourite after-dinner smoke. However since the good weather started in june, I have not touched it. Now I smoke mostly Virginia flakes, plugs and twists. I start to discover that my taste changes with the seasons... Anyone else has that as well?

Original test:

Nice looking gold coloured tin. Alas, here in Holland half of the beautifull "Sobranie" style engraving stamped on the lid disappears under a very ugly anti- smoking slogan. Do sticky labels really improve public health?

The tobacco is pleasantly clean to the touch although the tinnote is a bit too syruppy for me. The smooth salty tobacco taste lingers on in a nice way after smoking.

Being a lover of Latakia I like the roomnote, but as ever my girlfriend hates it :)

This Solani offering has become one of my favourite Latakia tobacco's.

Great quality leafs, but in the lighter side. Delicious and sweet Virginia, balanced spicey Orientals and a Syrian Latakia a little bit shy.

I agree with respected previous reviewers in the dryness and fast burning, which prevents it from deserving a better score. I experience the dryness in the mouth aftertaste as well. My favourite ones leave me an enticing chewing sensation in mouth, not this dryness (Skiff, 965 and even Balkan Sasieni and Squadron Leader)

Rdx score (10 different pipes): 89.40

I like the term "English Luxury Mixture" because that's a good description of how I felt while smoking this. It's very luxurious and relaxing. Sometimes I found myself craving a little more flavor and robustness but then I have other blends to satisfy those needs. This one I think I'll keep around as a blend to kick back with and relax. It doesn't call much attention to itself - just a nice, smooth light latakia and oriental blend. Recommended for those who wear smoking jackets - it just seems to fit the profile. :)

779 is a good, honest, medium to full English blend. For once, a tin description has it right: "A hearty blend which is easy on the tongue". The tin aroma is rich and wonderful. The tobacco was a bit too dry for my preferences, but nothing on the scale of some newer American blenders who shall remain nameless. Burning too fast, just when we were getting started, the trip was over. It doesn't have the time to develop something wonderful, which would give it the 4th star. For drier tobacco enthusiasts looking for a good honest English, this would be a fine place to start. Slightly fuller than Squadron Leader and King Charles, but in the same vain, save for the dryness. The strength is perfect for an after-meal smoke. 779 contains none of the harshness associated with the more robust Balkan blends. Decidedly English.

It is also relatively expensive, which will likely have an impact on it's popularity.

It came about '98/'99. The friend who brought me from Switzerland said: "this is the continuation of Balkan Sobranie no 759 which is no longer produced". Oh yes, the tin shows the famous picture (not the wording Balkan which is nowadays so abused...) but the contents is visually something of the like of Standard Mixture Mild and the tin aroma also reflects a mild english mixture.

I don't know how long it will take to smoke the remainder, approximately 2/3 of the tin, not if I even will finish or throw it into the garbage (or may I bake it?)

It smokes hot and wet, bites the tongue, and poorly delivers anything worth to smoke.

I will have still a couple of bowls more, but I'm just feeling this is not for me.

I recently opened a new tin of this and immediately smoked a bowl and at first was dismayed - I couldn't taste the Syrian. I thought the quality was down hill. It tasted like an orange that had no sugar content. I was so dismayed that I wrote Steve Monjure and asked if the blend had changed. He said it hadn't. Then, out of curiosity, I tried it again and it was better. I noticed it had dried a bit, hmmm, Thag's got an idea forming in his head. I dried it for almost a day and this stuff was back to sublime! It was just amazing, the stuff was too wet. That is a first for me, because usually I find that a dry tobacco loses it's flavor. Not so with this one. This stuff is now my hands down favorite and I prefer it a bit over Balkan Sobranie. It's that good!

Original Review Follows

Picked this up at the pipe shop and was pleasantly suprised by this one. Smoked three bowls in a row and each one tasted great and competed well with the other guys smoking cigars. This packs, lights and smokes easily. No re-lighting necessary at all and it gives up big puffs of fairly dense smoke most of the way. Burns fairly quickly and tastes great. Most tobaccos I taste one day and not the next. It's hard to imagine that I would ever not taste this one. I'm not sure if the extra kick is from the orientals or not but this one seems loaded with Syrian to me, a good thing indeed. At least it seems to have more than the HH Vintage Syrian that I have on hand now. I like that one too but this is definitely the stronger of the two and that earns it an extra star in my book. In short, this smoke is mesmerizing and just flat awesome!