Lane Limited Edgeworth Ready-Rubbed

I would review it but it aint being made anymore and when it shows up again it'll more than likely be different.I love burley and this blend rocked.I miss it . Seems like theres alot of blends leaving us lately . This was one of the great blends

ERB is a really great tobacco. It has a fine aroma and taste. It is a tobacco to work or relax with. I bought my first pouch in 1965 and have enjoyed it ever since. Since I live in Canada it has always been hard to get and the bad news is that now it is no longer produced. I am on my last tin with no hope of another once I finish it. What is this world coming to? Does anybody know if it will ever be produced again? Please offer some hope for a great tobacco.

ERR is one of the best drugstore blends, only second to Walnut in my book. This is your typical drugstore burley with the addition of significant amounts of Kentucky and Virginia, which makes it a bit more complex and well balanced.

ERR is also unique in that it's the pipe tobacco that most resembles a cigarette's taste, so I'd recommend it as an introduction to the pipe world to anyone who just quit smoking, if it wasn't for tongue bite. Most drugstore blends are horrid tongue biters, thou, so nothing to blame to this one in particular.

Everything started off good, the pouch aroma was great(although i couldnt detect jamaican rum)The cut i found intesting and thought it packed rather well. Now heres where things went wrong!It burned rather hot and left me with a sore tounge and mouth. I couldnt taste the topping as described, and didnt enjoy it at all.

This is the cubed version of one of my all time favorites. The slices version every time for me as the ready rubbed has very odd properties. When you light it the cubes swell to at least twice the original size spreading fire and ash all over the place. Devotees of this have know doubt worked out how to deal with this. Keeping a fire extingisher handy would be a useful tip.

Burley blends in general are heavily scorned, although when done right they are very good and seem to be gaining interest but as far as Edgeworth goes stick to the slices.

Dark Blue Package of Edgewoth Ready-Rubbed, has "House of Edgeworth Richmon Va" on the back.

Package note of cocoa, molasses and vegetation. Tobacco is mostly a coarse cut with a little cube. tobacco is brown, light brown and a little bit of dark brown. Moisture content is great. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild to medium. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of Cocoa, Molasses, Anise/licorice and Rum. Cocoa is evident throughout, but mild. Molasses is most evident upon initial light and moves to the background where it stays. The anise/licorice becomes more noticeable as the smoke progresses, I'm leaning more to anise because of the "spicy" quality it seems to have. The rum reminds me of spiced run or dark rum, which seems to disappear withing the firs 1/3. Taste is medium to full and mostly consistent, with notes of cocoa, molasses, spiced rum, very rich earthy, semi-sweet, bitterness, spicy, peaty sour vegetation, dry, toast, wood, a very nutty background note, and a peppery retro. Burleys are leading with Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant, and aftertaste is great.

A friend sent me a generous sample of a recently opened tin from 1973.

Upon opening the ziplock bag, I’m greeted with a delicious chocolate/cocoa aroma.

The cubes are very dark and do not need to dry. I simply scooped, gently tamped and lit.

Upon lighting, I taste nuts, wood, cocoa, and chocolate. It’s sweet throughout the entire bowl, but not overpowering. The sweetness has a natural, not chemical taste. It acts as nice sidekick to the nutty taste. It’s also mildly spicy, at times.

I recommend slow sipping, as it burns at quicker than moderate pace. It’s never harsh, even with quick puffing.

It’s not quite full in body, but more than medium. The nicotine level is slightly less than medium. It smokes well in briars and cobs.

Overall, I found it very pleasant. I would smoke it daily, if it were still available. I highly recommend it.

This is a blend greatly missed. The blend is a burley base cased with molasses.When I first bought this I thought it smelled like honey, but later found out that it was molasses. I loved this blend and buy blends to try and match it.I heard that Lane re released it under another name.I hope to try it soon.

I was lucky enough to secure a couple of boxes of this from the 70's for not too obscene an amount from ebay. I just recently finished the first one. I am estimating its age as it was not listed; however, a card inside the box was bragging on how it won some award in 1971. I can't imagine this would remain too relevant for too many years after this so I am going with early 70's.

As it came in a box that looked pretty beat up I was concerned about what I would encounter inside. What I found was the tobacco sealed in a foil bag that apparently held the tobacco together pretty well over its 40 years. It was dry, but not too dry. I gave it two nights in a Tupperware with the damp paper towel method for rehydrating and it worked fine.

Anyway, on to the tobacco itself. It was a pretty tasty tobacco, but nothing I would seek out, like say, VaPer three nuns. My only experience with anything like ERR would be the match made by sutliff. I found the topping to be better on the match, but found the ERR to have more of a burley backbone to it. The difference in topping could be due to the age of the ERR that I had. The topping is a slight anise taste. Slightly sweet like molasses. And there is definitely a rum presence.

Overall, I was not a big fan as I prefer my topped blends to have more body ala Cornell & Diehl or Gawith Hoggarth. As this was out of production before I started smoking a pipe I don't know how this was marketed, but I believe that this was an OTC blend back in the day. I would say that SWRA and Carter Hall can give one a similar flavor profile that actually may supercede what ERR delivers.

Remaining objective and realizing that 40 plus years may have effected what I was smoking I give this one 2 stars as I found it alright, but would suggest several other blends before dropping a lot of money on this one. In fact,y favorite bowl was my last bowl where I mixed it with enough Mac Baren ODF to make a full bowl. lol There are just too many great tobaccos being made to waste time on this one. IMHO only.

EDIT 11/7/2018

I decided that, based on my previous experience, the second box of this I had was primed to smoke. I also decided to try something different with this one in that I did not attempt to rehydrate the leaf and I found it much tastier with a more defined topping taste. I found the topping to be heavier on the anise flavor than I previously thought.

It was much better this time around than it was the first time. A friend of mine has a tub that he has promised a sample from once he has opened it, so it will be interesting to see how much better it is from a tub than a box. I will report back, but in the meantime, if you happen on a box of this around the same vintage I would not recommend trying to rehydrate. I believe this attempt drew out most of the flavor of what topping remained after nearly 50 years in the box.