John Middleton, Inc Prince Albert

I always have this or Carter Hall in my bag. It’s a great all day smoke. Burns fantastically, and it’s excellent for breaking in new pipes.

Hall of Fame inductee, indeed . . .

If this is the "bottom shelf" then Prince Albert it is the tobacco equivalent of 2-Buck-Chuck.

The smells -- the nutty and the cocoa -- conjure the earliest memories of my childhood, when men readily smoked pipes (just as readily as they smoked Prince Albert, when it was the "Budweiser" of tobacco back in the mid-1960s.

I can smoke it, and I can mix it. Bang-for-the-buck, this is a decent burley blend.

The producer claims that it is a non-flavoured Burley blend. There are definitely plenty of artificial additions in this blend, but they are not aiming to reproduce a specific flavour of a fruit, a liquor, a food, etc. I guess the artificial flavouring in this blend is meant to somehow enhance the blend, donating a recognisable, typical, natural pipe tobacco aroma, whatever this might be exactly. And some additions are clearly there, to create a pleasant smell for the bystanders. The good news is, it is not sweet. God bless!

I am surprised, I kind of like this light blend, although the overall taste is faint and blunt, maybe slightly nutty with a hint of dark chocolate. There is no aroma palette to dig in and no aftertaste at all. It is an unpretentious, easy-going all day several bowls in a row type of tobacco with its own merit.

The cut of this mixture is what I would call a flaky, fluffy, coarse Shag. It is definitely not a traditional ribbon cut. It is very easy to load and light. It has an even, steady and rather fast burn. It easily burns completely into ash, without leaving a remnant in the pipe. You cannot do anything wrong, it just works. The nicotine level is very low. The room note is nutty and quite ok. It is a great mixture for beginners before heading up towards “real” pipe tobacco, searching your way through the huge variety of different tobaccos of natural tastes.

Vintage standing up tin, "PRINCE ALBERT CRIMP CUT long burning pipe and cigarette tobacco".

A few years ago i was scoring vintage tins from EBAY from USA, Europe and the UK with the strict of advice of "this is not for smoking, this sale is for the packaging only" etc disclaimer. I wanted to collect some vintage stuff to display with my vintage pipes, and while i was hunting managed to score quite a few vintage prince albert bargains.

Today i thought i would open one up and try it it. You could tell it was vintage by the wax paper coupon written in a mid century style font with a special offer of sending 2 bucks and some collected coupons to get a Dr Grabow pipe. Must be at least pre 1980 .

Pulling out the wax paper parcel and sniffing the tobacco it smelt what i have been looking for; that elusive white coffee/cocoa burley i have always smelled when cleaning old vintage briar bowls i have purchased from USA down the last 10 years. It was bone dry but good clean condition golden and medium brown fine ribbons ready to smoke.

I loaded a briar falcon pipe and lit match. Hmm? I had no initial idea that this even had a casing but putting the match to my bowl I got a powerful medicinal chemical cherry fruity aroma that went up my nostrils like a cough sweet. Followed by lots of fizzing popping gun powder like micro combustions.

I nearly dumped bowl to save my briar but persevered because despite its self combusting nature it wasnt getting hot. Yes it had a degree of that elusive vending machine white coffee & cocoa taste but it has also an unexpected casing/ topping that tastes like a poormans Condor Ready Rubbed. Infact it reminded me of space dust candy that pops on your tongue from the 70s.

I finished the bowl anyway then loaded up a different falcon with a more open draught stem and a wider deeper bowl figuring this would soften out the rough spots. This it did but not to a super degree. Tried it in a vintage Missouri Meerschaum Cob to give it the benefit of the doubt, this gave a different more open cocoa taste and backed off the topping a bit.

The noise PA makes whilst smoking sounds like a man urinating on a barbeque so it doesnt set the bin on fire. It sizzle pops and steam hisses and isnt a quiet session. Light taste, strong flavour, light strength, cigarette room note, sausages on a grill sound. Not the worst tobacco I ever tasted but nothing to cherish.

Burns to fine ash and leaves no dottle gunk. Use a gas lighter to touch it and it gently burns itself ,dont pull hard while lighting or it will spoil. Does bite a little bit but its not awful.

I think I prefer British style OTC brands in comparison like condor and st bruno to this. This is closer to aromatic status tobacco than strait tobacco. I think i will give some 1942 Five Brothers a go next.

2 Stars** Hopefully i will find a pipe combo that makes the best of this, perhaps a large chamber pipe from one of my lot pipes.

(UPDATE 1 Hour Later.

Up one star to 3 star***, I had to learn how to smoke this by changing my style of smoking and not my pipe. This is an automatic smoke that does it all for you so you dont have to do anything else except sip it gently. Now everything tastes gentle and legendary. Juts let the tobacco burn itself and sip the smoke from it rather than puffing to coax taste by your own made combustion. Now i get the nutty nutella like natural molasis burley and that white coffee taste of the smooth cool tobacco. This goes on forever and is possibly one of the slowest smokes I have ever smoked! I didnt waste my money after all.)

Prince Albert is your best friend once you let him out of the can or the pouch. This is my second favorite drugstore/OTC pipe tobacco. I am smoking it now as I type this review. It pairs well with a nice cup of coffee. The taste is good. There is no tongue bite as long as you don't smoke it (or any other tobacco) like a freight train. It stays lit and burns down well. It makes a perfect, all day smoke. Light it and don't sweat it.

It is getting harder to find this OTC. Stores like Walgreens and Walmart no longer carry it in my part of the country. Several gas stations that use to carry it no longer do. The only place I could find it locally was at an in-and-out, discount, cigarette store.

I am now in the process of cellaring it. I might open the sealed plastic tins and put them in jars. I haven't decided on that yet. I think the plastic tins are probably OK as long as the seal is not broken. I am cellaring Prince Albert along with Carter Hall (my favorite OTC) and some premium pipe tobacco from C&D--not for taste, but for future availability. I plan to add Hearth & Home Mid-Town Chatham Manor & Prince Andrew if they taste the same or extremely close to Carter Hall & Prince Albert. Search www.pipesandcigars.com for "A Princely Punchout".

I'm both a fairly new (2 yrs) and infrequent (once a week or less) pipe smoker. I've never smoked cigarettes or cigars, so I have no other experience with tobacco. I've been trying to explore the different varieties of pipe tobacco to see what I like, and I've probably tried about 12-15 different kinds, aromatics, English and Virginia blends. I guess I'm not very discriminating, because I've liked almost every one I've tried, although I'm maybe not that big a fan of the straight Virginia ones, which so far have seemed a bit harsh to me.

Prince Albert was my first old-school "drugstore" brand. I got a 1.5 oz pouch, and when I first opened it, I wondered if I got an old package. Instead of that bright, strong fresh tobacco smell that I seemed to get with almost every other kind that I tried, this one smelled more like stale, musty raisins. I didn't think it was a pleasant smell, and I was disappointed, considering the history and popularity of PA.

When I smoked it, however, I surprisingly found it very pleasant. It didn't seem very complex to my (uneducated) tobacco palate, but it was very nice. I could taste a little molasses and raisin flavor, although I didn't really notice the chocolate that is frequently mentioned. It packed and burned very easily, and seemed a very cool smoke with no bite.

After I finished, I went back and opened the pouch to smell it again. I don't know what it was, but now the aroma seemed quite pleasant to me.

Growing up as a kid in the late 70's, when pipe smoking was more common, the aroma immediately brought me back to visiting various uncles and family friends who smoked pipes--I imagine this is almost certainly what they were smoking at least some of the time.

I'm a bit of a history buff, too, and it's pretty cool to think that this blend has been enjoyed by so many pipe smokers over so many years (since 1907, I understand?) So yeah, I guess the romantic nostalgia factor does factor into my review. But I will definitely keep some of this on hand from now on, as I can see myself going back to this whenever I want something simple, pleasant and classic.

I bought this PA several months ago along with a couple other codger blends (Carter Hall & Sir Walter Raleigh). I immediately opened it, performed the sniff test, and loaded up a pipe for the first smoke. Not bad stuff, monochromatic and cool smoking as others have noted. With plenty of other blends available, I then socked away the remainder of the pouch into a mason jar. After several months I came back to the jar & decided to give it another whirl (after smoking many more so-called "complex" blends). Here is what I've found ... there are times when less is actually better ... and this is one of those times. PA is just a good, clean, nutty, lightly sweet, primarily good ole Burley blend. Nothing complex ... just a good cool smoking tobacco taste & aroma. This is certainly an all day smoke if one so desires. It's understandable why this one has withstood the test of time. IMHO it truly smokes & tastes best out of a cob pipe.

Another classic OTC blend. This stuff is unassuming and straight forward. The notes say there's Burley and Cavendish in there but all I get is the the Burley. It's nutty with the occasional hint of coco making the way to the front. It's not particularly sweet, but neither is it bitter. It's very one dimensional, but that's the appeal. There was a time when this was my go to tobacco, but it's been supplanted by Carter Hall. This is a very close second however. I can understand why this isn't everyone's cup of tea b t if you've never had it you should definitely try it! If for no other reason than its a classic for a reason and its cheap!

Burley at its simplest, once someone told me that there was a minute amount of oriental in the original version but I doubt it, this I the kinda tobacco that doesn't call attention to itself but could keep you happy forever, easy to pack and easy to light, notes of cocoa, nuts and tobacco and tobacco it's the important key grandpa had no other intention than to get his nicotine fix quick. I think if you are a American pipe smoker you should smoke all the classics before you attempt to make more "refine" blends, (know you past so you can understand the present). So would I buy this again... absolutely as matter of fact I have a 2 8zn tins stashed away.