Esoterica Tobacciana - Dunbar pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 41 through 58 of 58 reviews of this tobacco
The Keeper	02/17/2005	Medium	None detected	Medium	Tolerable
Update: just two weeks of airing and this has gone from being quite nice to simply fantastic VA/P. Tangy, light yet a bit woodsy - as sweet as the McClelland VA and less processed tasting IMO. Good, Good Good... Again for me, Esoterica is a home run. While I enjoyed the autumnal sweet and grassy notes of Dorchester, I longed for that blend to have a bit more "oomph" in the high end. Well Dunbar succeeds in that department. It has the similar aged sweetness from other Esoterica VA blends I've tried. It is almost sugary at points in a very natural and delicate kind of way. The perique here adds fruity spice. It does not simply simmer in plumb like murk but instead occasionally kicks up a few sparks of Louisiana fire. It never becomes harsh or strong - but does get spicey as you move through the bowl. I would rank this as an excellent intro to the VA/P genre before getting into the "tough stuff" like Haddo's, Bayou Morning Flake, or Irish Oak. While certainly not underpowered, this blend does not leave me feeling like I've french kissed a dragon. This review is based on a freshly popped tin so with age and airing, I am sure this review will be updated.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
provguy	01/17/2005	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Dunbar, a tobacco delight. If you like Va/Perique blends, then I cannot see you not liking this. The flavors are excellent, it burns cleanly and can really add spice to your day. Although I would have to say I prefer Astleys No. 2 to this on most days. But there are days where I prefer this one. Smokes cool. 4 stars. *****************************************************************UPDATE 1/17/2005 I have just come back to Dunbar. I haven't had this in along time and I don't understand why! I find this blend utterly enjoyable. I detect some licorice flavor but the true tobacco flavors come through very nicely. The perique is there but is not overbearing but adds a nice bit of spicey side. Excellent blend and I find this blend much more interesting than Dorchester-the other esoterica Va/Perique blend.
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Spike	12/17/2004	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable to Strong
If you took the raw materials that McClellands 2015 has in it, added some sweeter Virginias, and ended up with a more moist blend, aged it for 6 months before shipping...voila! Dunbar! This is the best Virg.-Perique tobacco I have experienced. The only negative is comments on the odor due to the Perique content. Smells bad (to others), tastes great!
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Stogie	12/12/2004	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Talk about a tobacco that changes drastically once the tin has been opened! I was completely bowled over with Dunbar from the first bowl. Even going so far as to think: ?I?ve found my desert island tobacco!? But then after about two weeks, something happened. The superb flavor wasn?t as intense, and the taste became a bit ashy mid-bowl. As a matter of fact, I sent the remainder of the tin to a new pipe smoker, hoping he would have better luck. So, I know when I open the next tin from the cellar, that I had better huff through it quickly, which shouldn?t be a problem when it?s fresh. Aroma: Definitely Honey & Hay upon opening the tin, with a background of stewed pears. Visual: A very bland looking tobacco. Lots of midrange tans and browns ? with the occasional chestnut streak. A fairly well broken up flake, with just a few chunks remaining. Texture: Just a bit sticky to the touch when first opened ? Not wet sticky, but as in natural sugars sticky. Pack/Pipe: A fairly long stringy ribbon, I just kept pushing it in the pipe until it was filled, then tucked in the remaining strands and lit. This tobacco did not seem to favor any particular pipe, but I enjoyed it best in larger pots. Light: One match to char, one to send it down the bowl. Usually required one relight to finish off. 1st 3rd: Fantastic ?warm hay? flavor with a hint of fruit, (not tangy ? just sweet in the nose). Burns through this portion quickly. 2nd 3rd: A nice, long, flavorful portion of the bowl, this was nirvana when fresh. Just a bit fuller bodied, and no heat problems. Final 3rd: Usually lost some flavor here, and after having been open for a while, was ashy to the point of unpleasantness. No problem burning to the bottom though. Notes: As mentioned above, when fresh, this is in my top ten easily. I may try sealing it differently next time I open a tin. Stogie Rating of: 9 Magnificent Montecristos
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bigblends	10/26/2004	Medium	None detected	Full	Very Pleasant
I love this stuff. Popping the tin reveals a very attractive mixture of colors and scents. I rarely smoke tobacco straight from the tin right after I pop the seal, but Dunbar forced my hand. It smoked cool and evenly all the way down with no bite. The Perique is there in good measure, and the entire mixture is made of obviously high-grade and well-aged leaf. The smoke lacks some of the overt zest you might find in an American VA/P blend, but there's a nice crispness to Dunbar's smoke that is interesting. This is British-style tobacco blending all the way, and the balance exhibited in Dunbar is phenomenal. You taste everything so well that it's tough not to smoke bowl after bowl. Dunbar opens up quickly and stays open wide for the duration. Its rich and savory character are kept in harmony by a moderate mouthfeel. Nicotine is not an issue. I can't say enough good things about Dunbar. It's a favorite of mine and is in good company with other Esoterica classics, such as Tilbury and Stonehaven.
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Beer	10/07/2004	Medium to Strong	None detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong
Not very sweet, at times even sour... At the beginning of the bowl it may remind of Cairo, then it becomes tastier, fuller. At the bottom of the bowl, it has become VERY tasty. Think of Tribute, but more on the sour side and not toasted at all. A nice tobacco, but I find it a bit too heavy for my taste. Not nicotine-heavy (though not light at all!), just heavy as impact on the palate and on the senses: probably due to the high amount of Perique, which I don't consider myself a fan of. As usual with Esoterica, the moisture level when fresh is too high, and when you open the tin you have to beware for rust and internal corrosion because it will happen soon. A good tobacco if you like this kind of thick and heavy stuff, but not elegant enough for me.
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Esoxhunter	09/22/2004	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
September 2004 I found this to be a very unique Virginia/Perique blend. It has a nice sweetness from the Virginias at the beginning of the bowl--much sweeter to my palate than any of the other V/P blends I've tried. About a third of the way down the bowl the Perique finally starts to come through, producing a very nice sweet-tangy-creamy smoke. Still, it isn't quite as complex or interesting as some of its counterparts (Haddo's Delight and Escudo come to mind), and for that reason I don't anticipate this will be a regular smoke for me. I'm looking forward to trying Esoterica's Dorchester, which may be a little more heavy hitting on the Perique.
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mainspring	07/16/2004	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
Dunbar has a very nice sweetness with a perique edge. It is very light in body and has no bad aftertaste. One must be careful not to smoke it too fast as it can smoke a tad hot. I put a few 8oz bags of this away 3 years ago. The color of the tobacco has darkened slightly and now it's just a fantastic smoke! It smokes much cooler after aging and the flavor is more complex (as one would suspect). The room note is greatly appreciated by all. I have not tasted any other tobacco quite like this one. Highly Recommended!
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Willy	06/07/2004	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Another fine offering from the folks at Esoterica. I feel this is a bit more spicey and zesty than Dorchester, but still a very tasty tobac. A leaflet I have about Eso tobaccos states that Dunbar has a bit more (?) Perique than Dorchester which could possibly confirm the figgy, raisiny taste being, I feel, heightened, as well as the spicey notes being more apparent. Plus there could be different (though some may be the same) VAs of some kind thrown in for good measure. The pressing could have been altered as well. Love that tin aroma. Packs & lights easily enough. Nice VA sweetness here & there, more rich & tangy as you smoke down the bowl. Nary a gurgle at all. Burns down to fluffy gray ash as do most, if not all, of the Esoterica blends. Leaves the pipe clean & dry. Though I had no trouble with tongue bite, this does seem to be capable of being a wee bit bitey if one puffs TOO hard & fast (well, it is VA tobak). I really like this and plan to keep some around. Ageing mellows the sharpness to some extent and the smoke seems a bit more creamy. Good stuff, works for me.
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Nojoqui	04/13/2004	Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Montague's review says just about all that I could possibly say. The charring light takes a slight bit of effort unless it's rubbed out a bit, or dried out for a few minutes prior to smoking. I don't get a lot of difference from top to bottom with Dunbar. Going through eight ounces of the bulk stuff was a little bit of an effort. Especially when there are other Virginia/Perique blends that beat this hands down. Three I can think of are Haddo's Delight, Dunhill's Elizabethan Mixture, and Astley's Virginia No. 2 Mixture. So, with these in my stable, the choices lead me to the others. Dunbar does pick up a little toward the end, but alas, it is just a slightly stronger version of mediocrity. If it's offered as a gift, I'll give it another whirl. Otherwise, I'll stick to the three above, and continue my search for other Virginia/Perique blends.
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Montague	12/11/2003	Medium	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Dunbar is a Virginia/Perique blend of the Esoterica Tobacciana brand and is blended by J.F. Germain & Son for the Butera Pipe Company. The Dunbar mixture has a musty and slightly sweet fig-like tin aroma and is perhaps similar in respects to the fragrance of dampened hay. This is an exclusively Virginia and Perique blend with no topping or casing applied. This mixture of tobaccos is predominately medium brown interspersed with strands of black. Dunbar is matured in flake form and rubbed out roughly leaving the tobacco in a long partial flake state. The claim that Dunbar is a well-matured tobacco is validated by the great quantity of sparkling sugar crystals present. The blend can be packed as is or rubbed apart further to facilitate indoor smoking. Slight caution should be taken when packing since this tobacco seems to have the tendency to become over packed easily. Dunbar?s initial moisture is good and requires little drying if any. The initial charring and eventual lighting of this tobacco takes longer than average, but is of no real hindrance. Dunbar has a great fluffy, fine ash burn that leaves very little dottle in the pipe bowl at the smoke?s end. The room note is a bit pungent and overall is decent. Dunbar has a spicy peppery tanginess for a taste with a slight underlining sweetness compliments to the matured Virginias. Though with this stated, Dunbar lacks any great distinctive flavor. A somewhat bland, dry, and medium strength smoke is produced by this tobacco. The blend is not overly hot though its tendency to bite increases slightly as the smoke progresses. In the end, the Dunbar Virginia and Perique tobacco mixture is a balanced, well-matured tobacco with some admirable smoking qualities. Yet this blend lacks any great flavor and is simply too monotone and thus not enticing enough to become a favorite smoke.
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Darwin	11/02/2003	Medium	None detected	Medium	Tolerable
I got a half-full tin of Dunbar in a tobacco pass. A tobacco pass is a box that is mailed between a circle of pipe smokers. Each smoker takes some stuff and gives some stuff, then mails the box to the next person. The tobacco is a partially rubbed flake of various Virginias and perique. My sample had sugar crystals everywhere. It smells sweet and musty in the tin. Dunbar is one of the best blends I've ever smoked; it's sweet with a fantastic citrusy tartness. I have been a VA/perique lover for years, so I don't know how I missed out on this wonderful blend. After a little drying, it burns much like a flake in the bowl. In fact, I stuffed it in the pipe like I would a broken flake and away I went to tobacco heaven.
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Dwise	09/23/2002	Mild to Medium	None detected	Very Mild	Very Pleasant
You probably have your own "WTF?" blends -- tobaccos that others seem to love but which for some reason do nothing for you -- and this is one of mine. Sure, the telltale crystals indicate it's nicely aged ("in the British Isles," the label says -- what, does tobacco age better over there?), and sure, it tastes vaguely like a pipe-tobacco when you smoke it, but it's so bland and undistinguished that in bowl after bowl, I kept asking myself "What is the point?" There is a thin line between "subtle" and "boring," and for me Dunbar crosses it. Even the Perique doesn't add much spice. The best thing I can say about this stuff is that it's smooth. Dull, but smooth. Dorcester, Esoterica's other VA/Perique blend, is a hundred times tastier and more interesting. In one of the reviews above, someone complains about Latin problems with the phrase "Esoterica Tobacciana" on the label. Far more troublesome to me is the fact that they misspelled Virginia! Maybe that's the problem with this stuff.
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Albion 1956	04/16/2002	Strong	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Broken flakes is the description listed for the preparation of this tobacco, rubbed out, well they are, and nice flakes too. The tin aroma is natural, kind of like a summer day, in the field, well I won't get poetic. There are flakes, but mostly hidden among shreds of Va's. and Perique. The tobacco is well prepared, slightly moist, and with some air, it dries very well. Packing is a breeze, as to the texture, kind of sticy, but with no residue. Caution is to be heeded, when packing. Charring light connects, and the initail few puffs are tasty, earthy, really. Tamping proceeds, and with it a great, long lasting smoke, one hour at least, slow and easy. This tobacco is a calm, and easy tobacco, not as spicy, as it's relation, Dorchester, but in a league by itself. Not to confuse this with a Dorchester review, but I just finished a tin, of it, and jumped into Dunbar, my Esoteric expeience, if you will. Great tobacco, smokes to the bottom, with no dottle and no disapointment.
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lustra	04/03/2002	Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
This is one of my favorite Virginia/Perique flakes. It has a wonderful tangy taste that I really love and offers up flashes of a nice Virginia sweetness and depth. The cut is great, the burning qualities are great, and it doesn't bite (much). This is one of those tobaccos I want smoke again as soon as I'm done with a bowl. It reminds me of a young GL Pease Cairo, although not nearly so complex. A very nice smoke, though, and one that I plan on buying and holding for the cellar.
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Eulenburg	10/11/2001	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant
Nicotiana tabacum is the Linæan classification of our favourite weed, and nicotiana would indeed be the most correct Latin term for things about tobacco. Less correctly, but still possible, one could derive tabaciana from tabacum. But tobacciana is an absurd macaronic barbarism. And so, I have always looked at these blends with a jaundiced eye. Still, Virginia-cum-Périque is like cat-nip to me, so I decided to swallow my monocled disdain and try this lamely labeled mélange. Yum, yum! The Périque element in this blend is dramatic and deliriously overpowering: it tastes like some fiery single-malt liqueur, sweet, rich and peppery?do you know Drambuie??a dream come true! The virginia wherein this Créole beauty is mounted is like sweet gold: it never gives up. I was such a pig that, after sucking several bowlfuls of this in a row, I nearly blistered my tongue! Aye, the laddie can bite, alright. I got this tin from a neighbourhood shelf, where it probably had been sitting for a long time: the paper sleeve inside was drenched through, and the "pouch" aroma had a semi-putribond redolence proclaiming "Périque orgy". So, Périque-haters, beware: this could kill you. If you are like me, though, you will be hooked immediately. Now, if they could only straighten out their Latinity! I might even condescend to try Penzance.
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Sceny	04/08/2001	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Here we have another Virginia/Perique blend with wonderful smoking properties. I don't find this as flavorful as Dorchester; it's more on a par with Escudo for me, though it doesn't taste exactly the same. The sample bag smell is close to Dorchester: a mild, medium tobacco smell with little or no sweetness. It appears to be a mostly rubbed out flake, with about 10% still unrubbed. The color of the leaf is mainly medium brown, with some darker browns thrown in as well. It is on the dry side, has a medium to long cut, packs well and lights easily, puffing up as the flame hits it. It also burns well, requiring less than the average number of mid-bowl relights. In the first third, the flavor is very ordinary, just an average, medium Virginia flavor without the normal Virginia sweetness. There are several layers of this medium flavor, though, and I notice a bare hint of spice in the background. In the second third, I'm noticing an element of sweetness, and a slightly stronger spice note. The Virginia flavor has also changed, becoming more mature and complex. The multilayered effect is nice, and the tobacco is thus far free of tongue bite. The taste is somewhat delicate, not exactly full but flavorful nonetheless. In the final third of the bowl, the flavors mature and merge, though the spice remains a fairly minor part of the blend compared to its role in Dorchester. This part is especially good if you leave the pipe overnight and go back to it (DGT-style). It is by no means full or highly complex, but it is a nice, tasty smoke that has only minor bite problems and no moisture build-up at all. Overall, a very nice but not overly special blend. I much prefer Dorchester to this one, even though it bites more for me. For best effect, use a deep bowl and smoke slowly. Virginia/Perique fans should enjoy this one, and I should have no problems finishing my sample.
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Colonel Panic	03/11/2001	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
In the pouch, this smells sweet and somewhat grassy, like a warm breeze over a field full of hay. It's both sweet and musty, with the undernote of perique very noticeable with its aroma of figs and raisins. The flakes are broken, and it can be packed as-is or rubbed out for indoor smoking. It lights and burns quite well, with a nice subtle sweetness and pleasant woodsy undertones. The flavors start out rather mild but quickly wax in fullness to a solid light-medium body. The room aroma is sweet and "tobacco-tasty", but some may find it too cigarette-ish for their taste. I love the stuff and have several pounds stashed :) While it starts out mild, by the end of the bowl it takes on a very full, musty character as the perique comes to the fore. It also responds well to a DGT and is GREAT with an IPA or Belgian ale.
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