Robert McConnell Marylebone

The tobacco itself is a mix of medium and narrow ribbons of mostly medium length. It is a fairly dark mix with some tan leaf but mostly dark brown and black. It came at a good moisure level for smoking.

I have smoked Dunhill My Mixture 965 in recent memory and found it very similar. My Mixture 999 has a slightly more pronounced sour Oriental signature, and I found it slightly less strong.

Smoked, this is very good. It is not latakia heavy, and is a good combination of slightly spicy and a little smoky. The Virginia adds some sweet and some hay. It has some more body than many Oriental/Va blends, and the brown cavendish provides some fullness and enhances the sweet. The Orientals present as a pleasant sour that is always in the background. It was easy to sip and did not require an unusual number of relights.

This is very good, and I can understand there are people who would miss the original and want to find a good substitute. It seems Robert McConnell has quit selling this and the blend descriptions are no longer on the web site, so this may not be the substitute people are looking for.

Recommended - if you can find it.

A surprisingly faithful recreation of the Murray era 965 (while the subsequent Orlik/STG version has always tasted cardboardish and lacking in finesse to me).

965 has never been my favourite Dunhill blend: that prize goes to London Mixture. Curiously enough, Robert McConnell's Piccadilly Circus is not as faithful a recreation of London Mixture as Marylebone is of 965 but it's great on its own. So Piccadilly Circus gets 4 stars, and Marylebone only 3... but that is, as I said, only due to never having liked 965 as much as London Mixture even decades ago. That said, if you liked the old 965, you will like this one.

It's a medium bodied but rich tasting EM with Cavendish (does this make it a Scottish?), and not exactly light in nicotine although for an experienced smoker it can be used as an all-day smoke. Good Virginias, fragrant Orientals, a healthy dose of Latakia (though probably less than in London Mixture), a rich slow burn and a perfect stringy cut with some larger bits. The disturbing element for me is the Cavendish, providing some sort of "cloying" overnote, a somewhat vulgar embellishment that takes away from the cleanliness of the other elements. Again, I stress that it's just personal taste: the vaguely nutty and balsamic hints of the original 965 are here too, and it's a really well made blend. But you have to like that Cavendish, which for me robs the blend of the ease of smoke and clean-palate characteristic that are so present in the old London Mixture and in Piccadilly Circus (which are just as full flavoured). I could smoke London Mixture/Piccadilly Circus forever, but not 965/Marylebone: after a while it would get tiresome.

Anyway, kudos for the fine recreation of an historical blend.

Carefully examining the tin I was holding, I could not find any indication of the production date on it. So I was guided only by the excise stamp of the 1st quarter of 2021 and the knowledge that this batch of tobacco was imported at the end of that year. So I wouldn't make much of a mistake if I said that the tobacco was produced last summer.

Appearance: a thin, even ribbon of a mixture of tobaccos, ranging from dark straw to bitter-chocolate. The quality of the tobacco is amazing - no compromises, a fine cut with no cuttings or veins.

Flavor: First of all, very smooth, smooth. Suede, sandalwood, a slight sweet and creamy fresh milk note, faint smokiness, dark fruit, a bit of plum, subtle hints of saffron and turmeric.

Taste: extremely smooth, complex, with no distinctive notes. Nevertheless, initially, the latakia, with its woody note, a light hint of smokiness and a touch of earthy dusty taste, slightly prevails. To it adds Oriental spiciness, but not individual, bright and distinguishable spicy sweet pepper, cardamom and coriander, but a very soft whole spicy bouquet, in which it is difficult to make out separate components, and which is very well overlaid with the light sweetness of boiled fruit and dark plums with a subtle wine flavor present in Virginia, creating a great taste of this Scottish - given the presence of a small amount of cavendish - blend. As you smoke, the latakia recedes slightly into the background, the flavor becomes even more solid and dense, but extremely mild. The tobacco smokes exceptionally smooth and cool, does not bite, forgives the novice pipe-maker long and deep puffs without overheating the pipe. The strength of the tobacco is medium, in a very large pipe a nicotine kick is possible. The tobacco leaves almost no moisture and burns completely into a smooth fine gray ash, of which there is not much left. The aftertaste is woody, with barely a speck of dust on the tongue.

The smoke, barely perceptible in the room, has the smell of smoldering wood. It wears off easily enough.

What is the bottom line? First of all, it's a very tasty blend that has a small amount of latakia, flavored with a rich bouquet of orientals and cavendish that can be smoked all day long. The Germans have done a good job of recreating the Dunhill spirit. But how much does it replicate the original? This is where the interesting part comes in. For those who have smoked Dunhill blends for a long time, it's no secret that their production has been transferred from one manufacturer to another several times, and the taste has changed slightly each time. I haven't had the opportunity to compare Marylebone to Murray's My Mixture 965, and even if I had, the tobacco from before 2004 and earlier has certainly changed in taste over the years. However, I have the opportunity to compare the hero of the review with a 2014 blend made by Orlik, and I took it. The difference exists. The Cavendish and Virginia in the Marylebone are a little brighter, but the Latakia is a little more prominent in the original. Marylebone also tasted a little sweeter, which is logical. To wrap up the comparison, I will say a crappy thing: I liked the copy better than the original. I guess that's I just like sweets 😉

Smell of tobacco - honey and blooming meadow. Taste - fried sunflower seeds and rye bread, and some peat. Smoke or wood taste of latakia is tolerable, it`s an apperitive, not main dishes. Tobacco burns hot - watch the pipe. If you are looking for mix to slide from scottish to latakia or vise versa - it`s your choice.