Borkum Riff Ultra Light

Let me recommend this to anyone wanting to try a Borkum Riff pipe tobacco. It is the only product this company makes that I have ever truly liked . I tried this for a while in my early days of pipe smoking and just recently tried a bowl full at a neighbors house who's late husband smoked it exclusively for years...I obliged her when she offered and it took me back. Wild Turkey and water and a bowl full of this in my younger days, fantastic!..The only one I ever liked...Borkum Riff tobacco's just plain suck, other than this one.

February 2006.

If your terrified of any tobacco with even the slightest touch of back-bone in taste,or strength,then,you may like this.

It lit easy enough but,I felt like I was smoking fresh air that had been contaminated with a very weak sickly taste of faint vanilla.

Ugh! Boring,and way to light for me!

I'm running back to my virginia,perique,and latakia blends.

it was extremely dry in the pouch and was compressed into a brick i had to break up. very finr ribbons. almost NO fines in it unlike my pouches of cherry liqueur. very pleasent smell in the pouch. the room note was wonderful and only started to fade in the last 1/4 of the bowl. very little tongue bite until the verry end. my smoke started out with very little flavor but turned into a mild pleasant vanilla flavor, but aftera few puffs i could only taste it in my mouth, the smoke coming out of my pipes stem was just hot air, no flavor.

i used mt cherry liqueur pipe. did not clean it out or anyhing. the fine ribbon cut packed very well and burned along time. and it burned away, when i dumped it out i dont think i had a 1/10 of my bowl come out as ash. And surprisingly it smoked COOL, i just puffed and puffed, sucking as hard as i could and i never got hot, must be the large amount of virginia in it maybe. slightly hard to ignite but it did NOT condense at all.

This is a better tobacco than its black brother.

The flavours are more subtle, but nicer IMO, and the tobacco isnt TOO cased, as Borkum often does.

I was smoking this all the time until I knew better, but its not really my style anymore.....

I would recommend this to someone starting out, or someone who wants to reminiss those early days, mucking about, briar in mouth...

Ahhhh,. those were the days!

Well, we all make mistakes. Burkum Riff was a big one. I was lured by the exotic sound of Swedish tobacco and thought that this stuff would be prime. Boy, was I wrong. I really couldn't tell what kind of tobacco it was, since it was green in color. The pouch smelled and felt like wet newspaper. It was very sticky and gummy. It was so damp that a whole bunch of steam was gathered on the inside of the bag. I threw it out after I saw that, suspecting that mold was soon to follow!

I guess what bothered me about this was that the taste never changed or improved the entire time. It just stayed the same, and that wasn't good. Perhaps giving it only one smoke is not enough to sufficiently rate it, but my experience was so terrible that I wasn't willing to give it a second chance. I'm pleasantly surprised that it didn't sour the taste of my pipe. I've read that some tobaccos can give you a shot of "pipe juice" if you're not careful. This is the only tobacco that's ever juiced on me.

If you live in a small town in the mountains, this may be the best tobacco you can find unless you fancy Carter Hall. We've fallen on hard times. After a 25 year hiatus, I returned to pipe smoking only to discover that once common Amphora and Flying Dutchman no longer exist on the shelves at the corner grocery, and tobacco shops are an endangered species. The drugstore doesn't sell tobacco. It isn't healthy, dontcha know. So, back to the subject at hand, Borkum Riff Ultralight. The blend is touted as a Virginia-Burley mix. It has a pleasant vanilla smell which improves after the pouch has been open for awhile, and it's not too wet. My wife likes the smell. Ultralight packs easily and burns well all the way to the bottom of the bowl. A peculiar, almond like smell wafts up about 1/3 to 1/2 way down, but this is momentary and improves immediately. There is a bit of tongue bite, but if smoked slowly, it's not too bad. It seems to do well in a medium sized bowl. If you have been smoking cheap cigars and are just switching to a pipe, try this. It isn't a real satisfying smoke. For some reason I always wonder about additives when I smoke this. To you accomplished connoisseurs - hey, I'm a desperate man! But help is near at hand...my email order of Frog Morton On The Town and MacBaren's Golden Extra is on its way!

This is the first tobacco I've ever tried and my first review on Tobaccoreviews.com

I bought this because I've tried a number of tobaccos that my friends have offered, and, upon purchasing my first pipe, I wanted to try a smooth, light smoke. This is fairly smooth and also rather light, but the tongue bite is just aweful. My friends, who are a bit more experienced than I, have commented that I am a rather slow smoker for a beginner, but I still got mad tongue bite from this blend. The flavor wasn't bad, but the tongue bite was enough to convince me that I won't be trying it again for a loooong time.

I think just about every tobacco company has a blend with vanilla in it. Some are better than others, mostly they are pretty similar. Borkum-Riff?s version is quite different however but the end result is that it isn?t bad but it isn?t great either. The pouch has a mild vanilla aroma combined with the usual sour Borkum-Riff odor. It?s a bizarre recipe, kind of a sweet and sour mix. I was a little off put when I first opened the pouch and I wasn?t sure if I would like it. Upon smoking I decided that it was okay. The vanilla itself isn?t overwhelming but this blend tasted really sweet. This blend could supplement dessert after a meal. It smokes a little hot so smoke slowly. The tobacco quality was pretty poor; it had numerous stems and was rather brittle to the touch. Overall, I enjoyed this as a change of pace and I will probably smoke this on the rare occasion. This is mostly for those who enjoy that unique taste and smell that is found in all Borkum-Riff tobaccos. If all you are looking for is a vanilla blend you should try elsewhere.

Update: I've downgraded my review because I doubt that I will buy this again unless desperate. There is just too much good tobacco out there to waste money on this unless you can't get to your tobacconist.

A friend of mine had some of this, so I tried a bowl. It seems to have less casing than many aromatics (judging by feel anyway), but plenty of flavoring.

This tastes like (in order of prevalence): sweet, vanilla, and a hint of tobacco flavor in the background. If I really wanted this I think I'd just buy a cream soda instead. Even if I were completely out of tobacco and could only get to a drugstore, I'd almost certainly find something there that's superior to this.