Tobaccos Charatan - Virginia Three Year Matured

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2080)	2019-07-21		Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Charatan - Virginia Three Year Matured.

The appearance is just like the original, a mixture of different shades of brown. The ribbons are even in size, medium, it doesn't include any twigs. Sniffing the blend implies it has a delicate, fruity, topping. The moisture makes it immediately ready to smoke.

'Sweet Virginia'. That could be the review! But, joking aside, the mild touch of fruit casing works perfectly with the naturally sweet and tangy red Virginia. It's these two flavours which lead in the smoke. Behind these is a slight freshness from the bright Virginia, and a touch of Oriental 'pizazz'. It's a refined, yet quite indulgent, flavour. The burn's steady and reliable, giving a cool smoke. I doubt it would bite even the most forceful puffer!

Nicotine: quite mild. Room-note: nice.

Virginia Three Year Matured? I really like it! Four stars:

Highly recommended.

Pipe Used: Mr Brog

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: GQ Tobaccos

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Diogenese Senna (1)	2019-05-17		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I've never tried the original blend that this is supposed to be based on, so I can't say anything about any similarity, so I shall simply review it on it's own merits.

When first tried, as a small sample (three pipes worth) I was not overly impressed and considered it bitter and rough. However, after somewhat accidentally buying a 50 gram tin I had no choice but to give it a second chance. What I took for bitter and rough (meaning I smoked it too fast) was in fact a rich, deep, Virginia flavour of exceptional quality.

Well worth my accidental purchase and I will be adding it to me rotation.

Pipe Used: Corn Cob

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Local Tobacconist

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Steerpike (156)	2020-04-23		Medium to Strong	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I'll preface this review by noting that this is the only one of the Charatans Dunhill tributes that I did not smoke the original of. I'm rather wishing I had now: this is a tobacco that on first impressions when opening the tin, I didn't expect to enjoy quite as much as I have, but it turns out its rather good! It has a distinct, berry topping, but the underlying Virginia tobacco is of good quality and offers enough flavour that the overall taste is derived from a combination both the tobacco and its topping. Its been a real change of pace for me and I've quite enjoyed it!

Tin aroma: blueberry muffin! Berry aroma, sweet, bready and very slightly yeasty. The moisture content is at the upper end of OK, I didn't bother trying to dry it out but the last of the tin was a bit drier and smoked a bit better.

The flavour straight from the match is sweet and bready. As it progresses the taste of yeasty freshly baked goods increases. The berry topping only really joins the flavour around halfway through the bowl, starting out fresh, then becoming more of a cooked flavour like a blueberry muffin. It becomes quite strong towards the end of the bowl, and there is a noticeable dose of nicotine.

In its moist condition from the freshly opened tin it seemed to need some help to stay lit, with more relights than usual. The dottle got very wet in a Falcon, but wasn't too bad in an old meer. It has a very slight tendency to bite.

Overall I think it's similar to Peterson University Flake in its berry topping, but I think this is a much better smoke: more flavour, and more contribution from the tobacco itself. University Flake was like smoking steam to me, this is much more satisfactory.

Pipe Used: Falcons, antique Meerschaum Cutty

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Mysmokingshop

Similar Blends: Peterson University Flake.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stah (151)	6 days ago		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild	Pleasant

The recipe for this blend was developed when it seemed that Dunhill blends (including 3 Year Matured Virginia) were irrevocably lost to us, and many manufacturers made an attempt if not to repeat it, then at least to present their own vision. The blenders from Kohlhase & Kopp did not want to lag behind, presenting two attempts to recreate the popular recipe.

Appearance: the tin, released in early 2022, contains 50 grams of tobacco, a fairly even walnut color blend of several varieties of Virginia, with some amounts of basma and izmir (with the individual ribbons being a slightly greenish hue, which is somewhat disappointing). Occasionally there are few, almost black, ribbons of stoved Virginia in the mix, but these are so few that this can be ignored. Whether all of the Virginia is really three years old matured, I can't say, but further investigation showed that it tastes a bit harsh. The moisture content of the tobacco is enough to smoke it straight out of the can. Some may even find it a little dry.

Flavor: The original from Dunhill is slightly scented with a fruity citrus flavoring, but here it is so light that after a couple of minutes there is no trace of it. Calm, soft aroma of aged Virginia, in which the bread note stands out slightly among the hay and light dry woody tones, on which the thin trail of spices is superimposed. The overall bouquet is fused into one, it is quite difficult to make out individual notes.

Taste: slightly harsh at the beginning, but quickly levels out, especially in bents. The bouquet of taste consists of the general loose background of Virginia bread notes in the base, a little bit of wood, a slight earthiness, and slightly spicy oriental notes which stand out against this background. As for the stoved Virginia, if the authors wanted to add some chocolate notes with it, I'm not sure that they succeeded. In any case, I didn't feel them. The overall taste of the tobacco is very simple, and it quickly weaves into one smooth bouquet with barely noticeable sweetness. The tobacco burns somewhat faster than expected, quickly overheats the pipe and does not tolerate fussiness. The strength of the tobacco is somewhat below average, but it feeds you well, which makes it seem stronger than it really is. In slow smoking, the tobacco burns into a whitish dust almost entirely, leaving not a drop of moisture in the pipe. The aftertaste of the tobacco is very light, woody, extremely unstable.

The very light smoke has a woody aroma, almost imperceptible in the room.

What's the bottom line? It's hard to blame the authors of the blend for the failure, because there is no any. They created the blend for unhurried consumption, not to impress the pipe-smoker with a bright taste or an intricate bouquet. This blend reminded me of Laurel Heights in its idea, but Pease's creation is lighter and a bit brighter. Also, orientals are used here instead of latakia for density. As for its similarity to the Dunhill/Peterson blend of the same name... The original is more smooth and mild in taste, and the orientals aren't so out of place in it. The overall impression is quite ordinary everyday tobacco. But, seems that this is exactly what it was created for. Also, if you want to host a pipe-smoking tournament, this tobacco could be an excellent candidate for participation. However, 2.5 of 4 is max for it.

Pipe Used: Peterson 69, 106

Age When Smoked: 2022

Purchased From: Online

Similar Blends: Dunhill - Three Year Matured Virginia, Robert McConnell - Virginia 5 Year Matured (Heritage).

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Burleybill (2)	2023-03-03		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant

The opposite of buyer remorse , buyer endorse for this one , smoked straight from the tin no drying required . On opening the tin tiny hiss told me still retained seal but contents ready to smoke , does 3 year matured mean in the tin??? No problem straight into a sealed jar. A lovely rich taste medium strength VA with a bit of oriental, I thought it was Latakia , anyway it's smooth , creamy , not a massive amount of nicotine , but enough , satisfying and recommended

Pipe Used: Briar

Age When Smoked: From tin but think some age

Purchased From: Smoke king

Similar Blends: Dunhill 965 of many years ago.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Nuvoleazzurre (36)	2022-01-15		Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Cominciamo dal punto aromatizzazione. Avendo la fortuna nel tempo di averlo potuto fumare più volte confesso che sia appena aperto, o nel tempo una aromatizzazione, qualsiasi esso sia non l’ho mai percepita. Un mio limite? Forse anche se ritengo che questo tabacco che dovrebbe essere un come Dunhill nasca naturale e non aromatizzato.

Aperta la latta il ribbon è bello con colore variegato nei vari toni del marrone, gli aromi sono fruttati. Fruttati si, ma non artificiali, la frutta del virginia, mescolata con la terra e l’erba secca. Il tabacco ha una giusta umidità pronto da fumare subito. Personalmente lo preferisco più secco; alcune ore di aria aperta e poi richiuso in Bormioli raggiunge il top.

La pipa la si carica in modo facile, ricordiamoci di non pressarla troppo, appena appena lasco è meglio che più pressato onde ottenere i migliori effetti.

Acceso il fornello appare subito il sentore del Virginia Rosso rifinato e fruttato, poi il Virginia Chiaro più secco terroso. All’improvviso l’aspro, amaro degli Orientali che mescolano gli altri aromi, in un mélange oserei dire perfetto. Questo arrivo improvviso è una costante nelle varie fumate, e secondo me una nota positiva della miscela.

Una fumata varia e variegata, fresca e rilassante, davvero superiore.

Il fumo è fresco e la combustione oserei dire perfetta, uno di quei tabacchi che praticamente fumano da soli.

Proseguiamo la fumata, può capitare di avvertire un aroma tostato molto accattivante, morbido, un tostato dolce come da pane tostato.

La forza, questa è un reale sorpresa, nasce, dichiarato essere di forza media; ma è infido; verso la fine della fumata, la forza cambia e repentinamente diventando forte, da cui il fumatore inavveduto potrà salutare la fumata vomitando; al contrario il fumatore accorto si godrà un saluto maschio, virile.

A chi orientarlo? A tutti i fumatori, ovvio che il fumatore maturo potrà apprezzarne le sfumatore e le nuances, ma anche il principiante troverà un alto piacere e poi il modo d'imparare a cogliere sfumature di gusto e aromi.

Quando fumarlo? Ovvio che questo è un grande tutto giorno che può diventare anche un tabacco meditativo.

Cosa dire ancora, nulla se non che è davvero un Virginia superiore, degno erede del Dunhill non più in commercio.

Voto? 4,9/5

Ultima nota ho letto che questo tabacco somigli al Peterson University, bah; ritengo che si sia fumato altro e non lo Charatan.

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