Sutliff Tobacco Company Mixture No. 79

What one needs to know up front is that this blend tastes like lightly caramelized dryer sheets.

Obviously, no normal person would find that delightful at first, but get through a couple ounces and you'll find yourself warming to the idea. I like it a little more each time I smoke it, and I began by not liking it much at all. I imagine the rabidly negative reviews are for the most part indicative of "first smokes," while the much rarer positive ones suggest someone who stuck with it a while. Since there are thousands of tobaccos that don't require a similar "breaking-in" period, I can completely understand those who question why Mixture No. 79 would be worth that kind of effort. For that, I have no answer. I can only say the flavor has grown on me, and has become something I reach for frequently.

*** As an experiment, I tried blowing some of my second-hand Mixture No. 79 smoke on damp laundry before drying, and found it had no discernible effect on wrinkles or static-cling. Hmm.

UPDATE 1/28/19

Smoked another few bowls of this. I found this sample less flavored than my original one, but still pretty nasty. I'm surprised by this a bit because I enjoy Lakeland tobaccos and I love licorice. But this stuff is beyond foul. I realize that sometimes seeing a tobacco you love lambasted by many on TR might make one cry "foul" and dream up all manner of conspiracy theories, but sometimes the tobacco is just that bad. This is one of those times. Kudos to those that actually like this stuff. It's just not for me and, obviously, not for many others either.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

I received a pouch of this as a free sample with a tobacco order.

The pouch aroma was heavy on the licorice/anise, which I found really nice - I love licorice! This flavor transfered to the smoke; however, it was laced with an extreme soapy taste and the aroma of what seemed to me to be bad men's cologne rather than women's perfume. I don't always trust the nose when I'm smoking, but that's my perception.

Mouth-filling smoke that I found extremely foul. I tried two bowls of this, both in meerschaums because I didn't want to ghost a briar. I will not be trying this again.

It smokes dry, mild, is not bitey and is inexpensive; that said, there is something about the flavor and room note that screams old woman. It taste like the way they case this blend is by storing it at the bottom of your grandmothers purse along with black licorice for several years. It has that faintly floral and talcum powder odor that seems to be omnipresent around elderly woman and it tastes like it smells. A quarter way through the bowl I found my self becoming extremely nauseous. I got 3/4 the bowl and then stopped because I realized I was needless torturing myself, as if in penance for even daring to sully my pipe with it.

There is just something about 79 that I absolutely love. It’s very hard to keep it burning properly but it’s worth the effort to me. The licorice topping goes very well with burley. I like to mix roughly 85% 79 with 15% War Horse Green to help with the combustion problem and it also kicks up the vitamin N a notch

This is one of my favorite tobaccos and I can only assume that it's many detractors are put off by it's unique casing. Yes, the licorice can come off as bit floral, and this topping mixed with the woody burleys can give off a medicinal or herbal vibe, but therein lies this blends peculiar charm. It is also true that the blend is not without some idiosyncrasies. It can be difficult to light. It can burn a bit wet. It can get a little sour if heated up. However, once these minor distractions are dealt with the smoker is rewarded by wonderful burley forward smoking mixture with a flavor and room note that serves as a reminder of what American men smoked in decades past. The burleys are woody and sweet, the virginias a bit grassy (I do think there is a little bright virginia in here) and the topping holds it all together. This tobacco is highly recommended. Don't just sniff the pouch, load up, take two puffs and proceed to pile on. Give it time. Smoke it slowly and you will be rewarded with all of the goodness that lightly floral sweetened burley blends have to offer.

Man I really do not understand the hate for this blend. If you read thru the reviews of Mixture 79 some of these people make it sound like toxic waste or something just god-awful and that's just not the case IMO.

For the taste, Mixture 79 has a Anise slightly Licorice flavor and even though I do not like Black Licorice AT ALL but the flavor used in this (as well as Field & Stream and several others) is more of a sweet flavor and not a strong Black Licorice taste so it passes with flying colors in my book.

Apparently this stuff was one of Sutliff's heavily advertised blends. Have a old pipe smoking book/pamphlet (The Art Of Pipe Smoking) that mentions this blend many times as a perfect smoke.

Mixture 79 burns well with few relights but does come slightly damp and could benefit from a little dry time, I just leave mine in a plastic bag and around a year later it's still ok.

This is not quite a 5 star blend for my taste but I did pick up a pound to put away and I do enjoy this classic and recommend giving this blend a fair and honest chance (more than a bowl (or less in many cases lol) try it is several pipes on different days over time to form your OWN OPINION keeping in mind our tastes are all different.

This was the first pipe tobacco I smoked. It was what my father smoked. I almost never smoke it these days it is too mild for me and I've discovered I really enjoy the flavors of tobacco so I almost nevrr smoke any aromatics.

Having said that though, I've got to believe many of these negative reviews are written in fun. This was my favorite drugstore blend when I smoked them. It's cheap, easy to load, burns well, tastes good, has a pleasant room note and doesn't taste like cherry or apple or some other awful thing. TBH and odd as this may sound, I used to pick up a slightly soapy taste and yet it was not a bad flavor. If I could no longer get non-aeros I would go back to it. If you're stuck for tobacco some day and have to go to a drugstore or one of those cigarette stores, give it a try I bet it will be as good as anything else there, and better than most.

I'll begin with the tobacco's biggest weakness. It is burly. Burly always tastes vaguely of cigarettes to me and I am not a big burly fan. The burly made me hesitant, but what got me interested was the Anisette topping. Anise flavoring, whether in booze, black licorice, or tobacco, is a deeply divisive subject. If you hate it, don't bother. I learned to love Anisette hanging around Greeks longing for the old country while drinking Ouzo (Anisette on steroids) and Retsina (a Greek wine that is not unlike turpentine and has no connection to Anisette, but is weirdly pleasant after about the 4th glass).

Here's the catch. I don't taste anise flavoring in the tobacco. I don't smell it in the air. I dragged my wife out to the porch. She didn't smell anise either but said the room note was tangy and quite pleasant.

"Tangy" really was the perfect word. There is a definite sweetness along side the tang. The overall effect was similar to a cherry tobacco but without the cloying sweetness of cherry. (I really dislike cherry tobacco.) It had all the advantages that cherry's supposed to have without the disadvantages.

Some burly blends (what I think of as drugstore tobaccos) have a dusty flavor that screams cheap leaves and too long in the warehouse. This is certainly not my sense of No. 79. It seems like a high quality blend if burly is your thing. So, if you like smoking burly tobacco, this might be an interesting blend. If you are looking for a licorice hit or an ouzo high, I suspect you aren't going to get any of that and be disappointed like I was.

This seems to be a very polarizing blend of tobacco for some reason, however I am not one of the haters. I put off trying it for a long time due to the negative press that it received, undeservedly so in my opinion. I actually like this blend, the tin note is of vanilla, a little anise, slightly flowery and a nice natural tobacco smell. It produces a nice thick smoke in which I taste the nuttiness of the burley, the vanilla and something slightly flowery that just kinda comes and goes. I also get a hint of the anise, it's very light though. It burns well and I only had 1 relight which was my fault and not due to the burning characteristics of the tobacco. Sometimes the toppings can be a just a little much and I lose a little of the natural tobacco flavor, so I like to blend this 50/50 with Sir Walter Raleigh and that mixture is my go to smoke right now. My wife gave me a thumbs up on the room note, although I only get just a little of that, but what I do get, seems to be very nice. If you have an aversion to flowery tobacco or anise, then you may want to steer around this one, otherwise ignore the haters and try this for yourself, you might be pleasantly surprised.