W.D. & H.O. Wills The Three Castles Tobacco

I got a 3 bowl sample of this and D&R 3 Sails from a friend. This tobacco was estimated to be about 20 years old. It was a yellowish-brown shag cut with an aroma of fine hay. When I worked at a pipeshop many years ago, I bought 3 tins for the shop, not realizing it was cigarette tobacco. The shop employees opened one tin to share in their pipes and the other two were still there years later when the shop closed. Two demerits for me! I think most of the opened tin got tossed. My memory of smoking a bowl or two of this way back then is beyond hazy, but smoking it today tells me why.

I can't imagine anyone smoking this in a pipe even occasionally. It's clearly a RYO cig tobacco. The flavor is extremely flat, which is fine since the act of inhaling dumbs down tobacco flavor anyway. There is a wisp of citrus, plenty of grass and hay, but it tastes more like not inhaling a Winston would taste rather than something for the pipe. There are much better choices out there, and I don't recall any Virginia-smoking pipesters being impressed with it back in the day. Even snorking this one didn't bring out much flavor. It's something to smoke if you like a nice, unobtrusive smoke and it doesn't taste bad - it barely tastes of anything at all! Might be a good smoke for yardwork or whenever your attention will have to wander from what you're smoking. Best left to the pages of history... except D&R seems to have brought it back! On to that review....