A friend of mine is now finishing my tin as it has become his favourite tobacco but for me: 2 stars.

This is only my second tin, nice to pick at from time to time when you want something different from virginia / latakia / perique.

Enough taste and flavour to keep it interesting without being overpowering to the point of "Armchair Required" to contemplate the various flavours.

Lights easy and burns clean. A good change of pace but not one that I would stock up on. If your feeling a little adveturous, and you have the coin to spare, then by all means, give it a try.

The virginia and oriental interplay here is really well done and the result is true harmony. Nothing is overdone. If you concentrate, you can pick out the different leaves as the bowl progresses. But nothing hits you in the head and screams at you. I tend to like that in this blend.

For me, a little drying time has always been necessary to avoid a hot steamy smoke. My tins have always had a good seal and the factory moisture has always been intact. A good all day smoke if you are into the lighter side of tobacco. A nice occasional smoke for me.

Red Rapparee has a propensity to be moderately harsh, with a fine bite, so it must be smoked with thoughtfulness. I had to re-hydrate my tin, and it smoked significantly better afterwards.

Highly recommended.

A companion infusion: pints of Bass Black and Tan.

...tastes a little soapy, moldy, oily, smoky. Almost like an old sweaty sock.

I guess i had to get used to the latakia in this blend. (on the backside of the tin, it says that it has a good amount of zypriotic latakia in it) is the latakia causing this soapy taste? But to my surprise i find myself smoking this blend all the time. There's something to it. It's very smooth, burns excellent, and once in a while a hint of cigar-flavour comes through, backed up with a subtle sweetness. Still, i don't know what to think about this soapy, smoky, oily taste, which comes through once in a while. I guess this is why some pipe-smokers do not like blends with latakia in it. Nonetheless a great blend. This tobacco tastes like a fancy oriental bazar. Meaning, that it's very flavourful...your taste buds wont be bored, that's for sure.

As received, RR was a little too moist and had to be dried out in the tin with the lid off for 4-5 days to pack and smoke properly.

The cut is easy to pack and light and after 1 false light, stays lit and burns all the way down without fuss leaving a nice dark, dry ash. Smokes cool and without bite. Leaves no bad after taste in the pipe or on the tongue. Taste, while unexciting, is a very pleasant, ongoing compromise between Virginia and Latakia without either one attempting to dominate. One thing I really like is that the Latakia is not overpowering.

While I can't call RR one of my favorites, I certainly will keep it around and order more when depleted. It is a very friendly smoke and I can't find anything to hold against it. A good, solid, pleasant smoke any time of the day or night.

You know what to expect in terms of flavor, but you don't know when the shifts will occur. It lights up very sweet in a corn cob pipe. The light up flavors are not too harsh and are a joy in and of themselves. I never realized how good this tobacco actually was until I smoked it out of a fresh corn cob. It's not so heavy and some may consider it predictable, but it has a very nice interplay of flavors. Flavors intensify at the bottom of the bowl, but it burns consistently to the end.

It pleases me to know that this tobacco has kept well in its tin for about 3 years. It's a tad dry but in a lot of ways just perfect. A beautiful tobacco to look at (reds & blacks), and I have nearly a whole 100g tin left to enjoy.

Packs and lits very easy. It surprised me with its balance. When I thought that I'm having a natural sweet smoke, the orientals took the main appearance offering a delightful spicy experience. I could swear that the blend has also a pinch of perique. But no, it doesn't. It offers a strong finish so that I prefered little bowls for this blend. Even with those little bowls, I've enjoyed this tobacco more than an hour smoking experiences.

I can't smoke the English blends every day, any time. Once a week maybe, after a good dinner, I enjoyed this blend a lot. I will surely buy more when I will have enough appetite to smoke some good English Mixture.

There is some Balkan like creamyness to it. The sweetness and spicyness is pleasant and natural. I can taste the cigar leaf which adds to the flavor. It's a full bodied tobacco with a good dose of nicotene. We ain't suckin air here.

Its a winner!

The sweetness on the Red Virginias combine so flawlwssly with the smoky orientals. This is an unsung hero of the Finest English blends!

Months passed and I found myself with a dozen-odd half empty tobaccos tins. Thrift demanded that I finish at least some of the half-full tins to justify my next internet order. And so I picked the Red Rapparee tin -- it had the most tobacco left -- and selected a pipe. I filled a large-bowled pipe to combat the expected flatness, a silver-spigot billiard, and sat down at my computer.

The months-old Red Rapparee produced some of the best smokes I have enjoyed. I don't know how the transformation from flat to great worked: more oxygen, a larger bowl (others have noted the tobaccos' sensitivity to pipes), or a bizarre change in my preferences. What I do know is that Red Rapparee is a wonderful light-medium Balkan. I found a somewhat sweet and tangy Virginia base countered by smooth orientals; the latakia was a light condiment which augmented the whole smoke with a leathery richness. Red Rapparee is perfectly blended. Every time I smoked this I was completely absorbed by the flavor and nicotine. This has more nicotine than many similar blends.

If a blender charges a lot for blend I expect a lot. I'm quite stingy with stars. I strongly recommend this to any reader: I hope someone might enjoy this as much as I.

Red Rapparee is a good, complex tobacco. A rarity, it stays interesting throughout the bowl. But for my preferences, it lacks the richness and full-body of SMM that I crave. Reducing the Orientals, and upping the Virginias & Latakia would be more in line with my preferences. If the German translation indicating Cavandish is correct, this would also account for the lack of body.

Tin moisture is perfect (moist), burns well, too well actually, quite fast as a matter of fact.

RAPPAREE, n., An Irish pikeman or irregular soldier ? . Hence: an Irish bandit, robber, or freebooter. "We have been alarmed with a report that a great body of rapparees is up in the county of Kilkenny."

(The Red Rapparee himself is a character in a 19th. c. novel, Willy Reilly).

The reason I review it, however, is to give a word of warning. More than any other blend I've tried, RRR varies from pipe to pipe. In a biggish half-bent Dublin it's amazing (I guess it likes Ireland); in a smallish straight billiard (a nice one, too) it's terrible, hot and bland. In short, if you're trying it for the first time, you might give a it a shot in a big bowl.

The only real thing to add is the cellaring aspect. I now buy this in bulk but I've also cellared a couple of tins that have been simmering for several years. It ages like the masterpiece it is. A few years on this blend takes it to the ambrosial level where if you were only a latakia/oriental smoker, you'd need look no further.

The House of Rattray created the perfect oriental blend and KK&C continue that fine tradition. Four stars is not nearly enough.