John Aylesbury English Mixture

On opening the tin I get a cloud of alcohol, sweet cocoa or chocolate and some other aromas that I cannot identify. Without hesitation I categorise it as an Aromatic mixture and certainly not as an English mixture, as the name insinuates. After some evaporation, the scent settles down to a pretty average Cavendish forward pipe tobacco. Looking closer into this tin of ribbon cuts, surprisingly, I can hardly find any Black Cavendish.

On the tin label it says, the main ingredients are Bright Virginia, Black Cavendish and Burley. Obviously there are some ingredients that are not listed. Given its name, there ought to be at least some Oriental and Latakia in this blend to make it and to call it an English mixture. Unfortunately, I cannot detect any traces of either of them.

The moisture in tin is slightly too high, therefore more attention is needed to loading and lighting my pipe. The most dominant aroma in this mixture is flavoured Cavendish. This leads me to the conclusion that there is definitely some major casing in this mixture – far too much for my liking. I find it rather hard to identify the aroma palette. Cocoa is definitely around, but not as strong as my nose perceived it in the tin. There are some notes of Burley and notes reminding me of Dark Fired Kentucky.

In my view, the quality of tobacco in this mixture is far from being first choice. Some acrimony or harshness may occur if you draw too vigorously. However, this mixture is not my cup of tea anyway. I expected a real English mixture. I am generally scared away by artificial flavourings. If you like light Aromatics, I guess you might like this one.