Borkum Riff Limited Edition 36 Mixture Californian Wine

Let’s cut to the chase, this is Borkum Riff we are talking about. Okay? Not McClelland, Dunhill or some other boutique pipe tobacco. With that out of the way, I was gifted two tins yesterday at our weekly pipe club from one of our members who said he would never smoke it or tried it and didn’t like it, I can’t recall which. It seems these tins were a give away from Pipes and Cigars according to previous reviews. I saw a few one stars and thought what have I gotten myself into? I like the tin art and the fact this has a metal lid rather than plastic. Probably not a good sign to lead in with the tin art. Ha. What about the tobacco? Upon opening the tin, I smelled a tremendously strong wine/berry aroma. To me this smokes like it smells. I spent the whole day puffing on this mixture and chose a small bowl LHS briar poker and a corn cob. I sipped on this one as it seemed like at times it could bite. For what some would consider an OTC I really liked it. Now, would I recommend someone go out and buy this? Not necessarily, but I would recommend this to myself. This blend is also flavored with Curacao. According to Wikipedia, Curaçao (/ˈkjʊərəsaʊ/) is a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the Laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao