John Middleton, Inc Prince Albert

Prince Albert is another one of the classic American burley-based blends, largely unchanged since its original formulation. The crimp-cut was intended for either cigarettes or pipe smoking. There's nothing in this blend but burleys; that's it. Today, since the Middleton Company took over the blending and sales, there has been some variations with flavoring, including a vanilla overcase and a brief attempt at menthol, but if you get the red can or the red pouch, then it's pretty close to what I smoked in the mid-1960s. This is a hard tobacco to objectively review: you either like it or hate it. I like it, because the flavor is the flavor of real tobacco, w/o casing and condimental tobaccos. I'm sure there's propylene glycol as a humictant, but PG burns off quickly WITH NO AFTERTASTE. PA: Best when fresh. Better in a pocket tin than in the pouch. PA can grow on you, in a mid size billiard on a cold morning sipping coffee before fishing or hunting, there's little better to smoke. It packs easily, lights quickly and after the initial bitterness, can settle into a pleasant smoke. It always seems to burn to a fine gray ash for me, w/o a lot of moisture. The room aroma can be bitter if you were expecting something other than tobacco. I have dedicated pipes for PA and H&H only, to preserve the quality of the smoking. But, I wouldn't recommend it to relatively new smokers.

Update: Since my first review of this blend, I hope that getting older has made me wiser. I have had the opportunity to smoke more PA than any other "Over-The-Counter" (OTC) blend. The term, "OTC" is so much more evocative of the tobacco's true nature of its ready availability than calling it a "drug-store" blend. In any case, despite sometimes being a little too moist in the plastic tub, and I only buy the tub since the pop-top pocket tin seems no longer to be available, PA is a genuinely fine all-day smoke. I no longer smoke Half and Half, because I cannot abide the industrial chemical taste. So many of my other OTC favorites are either disappearing or have become transmuted by their current marketers (to call them blenders insults every real blender). PA has risen to the top of the list as a steady, dependable burley based blend, cool and fragrant, easy on the tongue and respectful when smoked through the day. This blend is not great art, nor was it intended to be. But, PA lends a constancy to pipesmoking, w/o pretension or posturing. PA may be the best OTC blend on the market today. I alter my review to four stars.

I bought a tin at some sort of tobacco outlet in Kentucky - yeah, a burley in Kentucky. I had tried Sir Walter Raleigh and Half&Half. I was wanting to try another of the classic American burleys, and of course there's the joke. That sealed it. I gave it a try, and boy, am I glad I did.

On opening the tin, I got a whiff of burley. The aroma takes me back to the smell of a Kentucky tobacco barn in the late fall when the tobacco is curing. The cut is described as a crimp cut. It looks sort of like someone took a ribbon-cut and sliced the ribbons into shorter pieces. Maybe that's what other crimp cuts look like. I know of one or two B&M stores that do their own blending that offer crimp cut tobaccos, but I've never tried for comparison.

On lighting, I got the flavor of a mellow burley - nutty and tasty, not overwhelming. I don't taste a casing, but others have described one and have guessed at what it might be. As just about every tobacco - even English blends - have some sort of casing, I will buy that it's there, but it's so light that I didn't notice. What I get is a smooth, mellow burley without any bite. It's not overly strong, yet it still has enough nicotine to have it in a small-bowled pipe.

The tobacco in the tin was sufficiently dry, so I doubt it is treated with PG. If so, it is with a very light hand, not like some that are goopy and never dry out. That said, it has maintained its freshness in the tin and my fold-over pouch for quite some time.

My tastes run from a good English to straight VA and VAPER blends and even the occasional light aromatic. But, sometimes I just feel like an old-fashioned burley blend. PA has become my go-to for burley. While it is sufficiently strong enough to enjoy in a small pipe for a short smoke, I can go back to it over and over during the day without fear of tongue bite. I also agree with the reviewer who said it is a good palate cleanser. It has a great flavor, but it doesn't rob your ability to taste other tobaccos - or anything else for that matter.

To me, the room note smells of burley tobacco after I've left and come back with a little sweetness. That might be the casing others have detected. Whatever it is, the smell is burley to me.

Bottom line, if you like burley or want to try one out, then give this a try.

PA in my opinion is the oatmeal of the tobacco world. There are no frills here, no subtle nuances, no changing a half, quarter or third of the way through the bowl. Maybe some cocoa, but very little, and good ole burley. In my experience, the best way to smoke the old drugstore blends is to not think about them very much. Its hard to pack it bad or wrong in any pipe and they stay lit exceptionally well. It doesn't bite or leave a nasty aftertaste. Good straightforward tobacco.

I got a call the other day asking if I had Prince albert In a box. "Not anymore" says I. Click. This stuff is Very good. I'll give this the best bang for the buck I've yet tried. Hesitant at first because of some other "tobaccos" at the gas station, I read a bunch of reviews and decided to give Old Al a shot. Excellent pouch note. Some Va/Bur with brownie backbone. Light and springy, perfect moisture, packs and burns very well. Consistent flavor through the bowl, nose and palate agree, mostly burley nut with hints of Va. and chocolate and vanilla. Smokes nice and cool down to the bottom. Light it and forget it if you choose to.

PA is light enough to puff after lunch or when involved in another preoccupation but still complex enough for a thorough examination when a more thought provoking smoke is needed. Well done Prince, yet somehow, not quite King's fare. I hereby bestow upon thee the honor of three and a half stars and a place in the rotation.

5.25.15 update--I'm upgrading the prince to 4 star status and a favorite. I have a couple dozen different tins under my belt now but keep going back to PA. If it had more nic it would be perfect, as is, damn near.

Presentation: Nice, small ribbon and somewhat larger bits of rich brown and some darker black pieces. Moisture content is perfect and never had a problem with it drying out even when left alone to its device for weeks at a time. I have bought a 14oz tub as well but have not opened it. I assume the cut is the same given the uniformity of this blend for decades.

Palette: A lovely chocolate/molasses scent arises from the pouch. Flavor is of a very mild burley. Not as nutty or woodsy/dry as say a more expensive flake like MacBaren HH Burley. This blend is so smooth and mellow. Hints of prune as well from the bag. Flavor is somewhat nutty, buttery, cream and familiar. Something about this blend just says 'good'. Can get a little 'cigarettish' towards the bottom but I usually don't smoke all the way to the bottom on most days.

Performance: Burns effortlessly and rarely needs a second light. Has a short lived aftertaste. Can run a little hot if you are a hard puffer like me, but never found that it bites or it changes the flavor when that happens. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl and dottle. A nice ash. Little nicotine. I like to inhale this tobacco once in a while to get an extra dose.

Conclusion: It's been around for a long time and it's not hard to see why. I have put this blend up against SWR, SWR Armoatic, H&H, Velvet, Carter Hall and Edgeworth RR Match for the ultimate codger showdown. Prince Albert was a blend that I didn't initially like but after some time, I found myself reaching for it more and more and it is now my go to codger. Many people will hate on Prince Albert, and of course you can smoke a more boutique blend any day, but I suggest at least trying PA for the sake of reputation and its history in the pipe smoking community. There will be at least one codger blend you like. Some people prefer Half & Half and others Carter Hall. I prefer PA and that's just how it goes. I will always have some of this on hand and plan on buying multiple 14oz tubs for my cellar.

For a bit, PA was not to be found as production was moved to the Dominican Republic, so when I noticed it was back in stock I bought a tub. Back in the eighties I went through many a small tub of PA. I still have one of the old metal tubs, as a matter of fact. It was a good smoke then; what is coming out of the D.R. now, is superior to the blend I smoked 40 years ago. To begin with, the cut (and this is subjective) is improved. The old, what was described on the can as 'crimp cut' was uneven, like it was cut-up ribbon. The current cut is ribbon and much less chopped-up like the old. It is fairly moist in the tub and could probably stand a bit of dry time first, to be honest about it. The tin note is a bit more faint, to me. I get the aroma of dark chocolate. It lights easy with the usual amount of relights. I don't detect some of the harsher notes as with the old blend which to me is another improvement over the older blend. My hands down favorite, C&D Pegasus has more harsh notes than this new blend does. It is advertised as having burley, which it is in spades, and cavendish. This is a classic burley. As others have said, it has been around for a long time, for good reason. It is not a strong blend that will curl your toes, like some that you dare not smoke all day, or on an empty stomach. You can smoke it all day. I recommend that all burley folk give the new blend a shot. Don't let the fact that it is now canned in the Dominican Republic put you off. Dominican tobacco is used in cigars and it is top-notch product. They know how to grow tobacco on the island.

Ah, the ole Prince. Prince Albert holds a special nostalgia for me, since it was the first pipe tobacco I ever tried (save for a brief trial with some cherry stuff as a teenager....but that doesn't really count).

Simple? If you take it at face value, yeah. You can mindlessly puff PA, and just get that mild straight tobacco taste. If you pay attention, though, there really is a lot going on flavor wise. There's the nutty burley flavor. There's the sort of raisin-y pouch note that carries over to the smoke. There's an almost chocolate-esque flavor to the finish. There's some sweetness in there. And I get something else, too - a soft creamy flavor, sort of a butter-vanilla-butterscotch, but not really close enough to any of those to say "that's what it tastes like"....it's a very pleasant flavor, I assume must be from the topping. Perhaps I'm over analyzing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with just puffing away on PA and not picking apart the minutia of flavorings - that's the way I smoke it most of the time. But I figured the prince deserved a bit more than that in my review

If a newbie ever asks for a pipe baccy recommendation, PA is the first one I mention. It's the easiest to smoke blend I've found. It's never too moist, it's so easy to pack, and it takes a flame effortlessly. There aren't many blends that I could confidently claim to be able to finish a bowl with a single paper match, but I definitely could with PA, straight out of the pouch or tub.

Which brings up another point - pouch vs tub. Yes, they are the exact same blend. And there's nothing inherently wrong with PA in a pouch. But I've found the quality of the pouches to be a bit inconsistent. Sometimes you get one that tastes just like the stuff from a tub...but sometimes it's a little drier, and sometimes the flavor is a little muted. I assume this is due to the packaging not being able to keep it as fresh as long. It's not a huge difference, honestly...and I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a 14 ounce tub as their first trial run with any tobacco. But if you smoke PA regularly and usually buy pouches, you'd definitely be well served to buy yourself a tub next time.

Great tobacco, a staple in my cellar. Nothing pairs better with my morning coffee. Highly recommended!

(originally reviewed 9/9/2012)

PA is the tobacco I started with many years ago. I've only recently gotten off my high horse and returned to it. Always pleasant and unchanging. A good Burley with no bite. Benefits somewhat from cellaring for a year but pleasant enough right from the store. The room note is nothing to write home about but is not unpleasant. Smokers new to it should try it in a cob first.

With age comes wisdom. I just discovered PA a couple of years ago and I wish I had sooner. It's a simple burley that is truly as reliable as a friend. The cost doesn't hurt the wallet.

For me it's premium smoke at a working man's price. Love it