John Middleton, Inc Prince Albert

What can I say that hasn't been said already? For an Over the Counter (OTC) blend, Prince Albert really has no counterpart. I rate it that high. Although switching hands several times, and perhaps tweaking the recipe along the way, this blend has been in continuous production since 1856. And that's all you need to know. It was there during the Civil War! PA has always been a very versatile tobacco, used not only for pipe smoking, but for roll your own cigarettes, as well as a chew. It has a tremendous history, and was a mainstay for generations of smokers, throughout the later part of the 19th Century, and all of the 20th Century as well. Now its still here as we begin the 21st Century. Something obviously must be right with this blend to have lasted so long.

It's primarily a burley blend, with a Virginia base, although I think the Virginias are less than 15%. There is a slight casing reminding me of anise or faint vanilla / chocolate.It's a crimp ribbon cut and packs by gravitation quite readily. Don't tamp too hard however as its a bit moist out of the tin and needs a light packing. It's easy to light and the whole bowl will burn on a single initial post-charring light. The blend smokes very smoothly and very cool. No tongue bite here, even if you pull forcefully. Smokes down to a pearly white ash, with nary a dottle remaining.

I use PA in my pipe tobacco rotations, and it is never far from reach. It's also an ideal blend to use for home blending. Try adding 15% Latakia to PA for a real nice smoke. I haven't tried adding Perique, but I know some pipe smokers that swear by it: a Burley / Perique blend. Also, what I really like about PA, is that it serves as an excellent palate cleanser. I am a Latakia hound and will consume Lat blends up to 50% (like Star of the East) with relish, bowl after bowl. However, it can produce a sensory overload, and a good way to clean the slate so to speak is to down a few bowls of PA. Then upon returning to the Lat blends, they taste a new and the palate is refreshed. A pipe smokers mouthwash if you will.

So, give the old PA a go, and as you smoke think of the countless number of grandfathers who lived off of the stuff. It'll bring a smile to your face, as the wisdom of the ages awashes your senses. I rate it four out of four stars!

Smoke in Health & Happiness,

Kashmir

Allright you lot, you've picked on a good pal of mine for far too long now and it's high time I come to the aid good Prince with my own personal songs of praise. That's right, praise, and praise of the highest kind that I can here muster.

A little history here before we begin. For years I was a devoted English blend smoker, and the more Latakia, the better. If ever I would venture into any other sort of blend styles, you could bet that there would still be a good portion of condimental leaf to back them up. Sweet Mamma Latakia was my main squeeze, and Papa Perique was her Pimp Daddy. Gags and wheezes from all within a hundred yards of me be damned. Who needs friends when you have Pirate Kake?

One day, oh, about five years ago, I did something unexpected: I bought a pouch of Prince Albert. I cannot say just why. In my initial pipe smoking of the early years I had tried nearly all that my local drug store had to offer in the way of tobacco and, as far as I was concerned, I could go to the grave without ever tearing open a foil package again. I was amused by the voluptuous red envelope within the carton, how the supple, synthetic material would have made the tobacco inside feel fresh no matter how long it had been on the shelf. Upon opening, I was greeted with the sort of smell that was far from what I was accustomed to with the sort of blends I usually kept on hand; musty, nutty, but with a fresh sweetness. No great contrasts between brights and blacks here, just on uniform, friendly, woody brown. Phu...child's play. I supposed that I may as well smoke some all the same. With packing, I encountered not the cracking, dust dry tinder I had expected, nor the finger-sticking glycol goop that is the other much bemoaned end of the drug store spectrum. This felt like all blends should feel, fluffy, yet substantial. It packed well, then again, I almost always pack well, more me than the tobacco, I was sure. Well then, time to light up. 'Sweet mother of all that is good and pure!'

That's right. I was from that moment hooked. It was burley. It was the kind of burley that I had sometimes heard of, a cool, creamy, nutty leaf that is always there when you need a friend. It was the kind of burley that made me realize why this crop mutation from the eighteen sixties was kept around at all. Today and ever after Prince Albert is with me always. This is not to say that I have forsaken all other blends--I hate people who do that--just that I now have a standard against which all other tobacco is judged. Keep them coming you Pease's and Tarler's and Books' of the world, I'll gladly load up on anything you put out there, be assured though with them, as with all others, I am bold to say- 'Yes, it's good, but it's not PA.' (Please note that this review was written and posted some time ago and has merely been edited to remove simple errors. My opinion of Prince Albert as given here still holds, however)

Regards, A. Morley Jaques

Until recently I never bothered to try Prince Albert. Maybe too many butt end of jokes, but I finally gave in. What can I say, this has become my daily go-to tobacco. It's just a pleasant, good tasting, all around daily blend. What else could I say, cheap and good. Great everyday tobacco.

As a dedicated English blend smoker for forty plus years who has fairly recently been taken with C&D's Burley flakes and especially Old Joe Krantz, I gave into the temptation to pick up a pouch of this a couple of days ago. In general I have enjoyed no codger blend with only Carter Hall getting a "dire emergency" pass. And I mean dire. But I had never tasted PA and it was time. Unlike everyone else here, my pouch must have languished on the shelf for quite some time. The dark, broken ribbons were dry. No evidence of PG ever being in it either - THAT dry. Pouch note was pure tobacco - no toppings/casings could I detect, just a dry grassy, musty, tobacco aroma. This was good news for me. I can't take flavorings in general.

Loading a corncob was easy, instant ignition with no relight necessary. Initial hit of flavor, just plain good burley. I debated with myself to rate it as "Extremely mild" in ratings as many have here. But honestly I could not place the flavor as added, just "seasoned" a tad. This means to me that the cavendish denotes slightly sweetened, not otherwise flavored. By the same token I don't consider sugar a flavoring in my cooking, just an enhancer like salt. Hence, seasoning. Same here.

I am smoking a cob right now as I type and thoroughly enjoying it. It's very mild, no Nic bomb here. It seems mostly dark burley which I like. Effortless smoking with only a too quick burn for disappointment, even after I added moisture. I thought adding some moisture would bring to the fore any casings; no, I can't find any.

Pleasant aftertaste, no bite to write about. I cannot liken it to any prepared blend, just my home mixes of Burley/Virginias - this better than mine. Effortless pleasure. I cannot see how this is compared to Carter Hall in the least except sitting on the same shelf at the retailer.

I thought I was buying a pouch destined to occupy my Jeep console for the times when I forget to pack a favorite blend. What I found was a keeper. No surprise it's in the Hall of Fame.

I really like this tobacco because of its value and because it smokes great! There is simply no bite with this tobacco and it's something that I can smoke everyday because its plain and simple it doesn't have a flavoring that you get tired of. If you just like tobacco and the taste of tobacco then I highly recommend this.

Prince Albert is my favorite, narrowly edging out Carter Hall, another traditional burley and Virginia blend. The boiler plate above says "Air Cured," but it is my belief Prince Albert comprises both burley and flue cured tobaccos. It is slightly sweetened and flavored. Prince Albert may also contain a portion of Turkish.

What are the flavorings? For starters, there is a distinct aroma of cocoa. Camel cigarettes provide more clues. When Camels were introduced by R.J. Reynolds, which produced Prince Albert at the time, they were advertized as using the same new process as used for Prince Albert. One suspects that refers to the use of liquorice. (Tobacco-processing today consumes some 80% of the total liquorice production.) R.J. Reynolds today lists the ingredients for Camels as including cocoa, liquorice, and brown sugar. Types of tobacco are not differentiated, but we note that Camel has traditionally advertized it contains Turkish tobacco.

Whatever the ingredients, Prince Albert is a fine pipe tobacco. It burns unusually well, has a delightful flavor, and does not bite.

Prince Albert tobacco is named after the future King Edward VII of England, not his father, who was also a "Prince Albert." The Prince Albert tobacco tin briefly bore the inscription "Now King" during his reign. Albert's mom, who was a Victorian (snort), despised smoking and would not allow it in the palace. Reportedly the first thing Al or Ed did after being crowned was to stride into a drawing room with a stogie and announce, "Gentlemen, you may smoke."

This is a fine tobacco. It has a very earthy flavor and smell. Its not trying to be something its not. Prince Albert is a great everyday go to smoke, great for the workin man.

I've been smoking pipes for about 10 years. Based on everything I've read, I was expecting PA to be a very low quality smoke. One of those 'last resort' burleys that is either going to be as flat as a cigarette or as chock full of chemicals as cotton candy, or both. I've tried samples of some of the other OTC stuff that people have gifted to me (Half & Half, Carter Hall, Walnut), and came to the conclusion that I probably wasn't a burley fan. Those experiences were enough to reassure me that I was doing the right thing shelling out the big bucks for the high end Dunhill classics, pricey VaPers, quality aged virginias, and of course the powerful new english blends that today's master blenders are expertly cranking out. All of that stuff is great.

Then I recently bought a new pipe and had been thinking all week about what I might want to break it in with. I happened to be standing in line at the grocery store, and saw the familiar large tubs of PA, as well as the pouches. Just for the heck of it, I decided to pick up a pouch for $4. I'd always heard PA was great for breaking in pipes, so I figured, what the heck, I'd try a few bowls and if I liked it well enough I may break in the new Sav with it. Opening the pouch, the ribbons seemed to be of a basically perfect consistency and moisture. I'm not sure how long the pouch had been sitting on the shelf, but there was no trace of the dreaded crystalline goop that is expected with most OTC blends. It loaded in the bowl very nicely, and then I learned the first lesson: yes, as many here have said, it really is a "light it and forget it" tobacco. It is very easy to smoke the entire bowl on one light, without it ever getting hot or gurgley, or threatening to go out. The taste was very nice, cool and creamy. The smoke had body and flavor, but it wasn't overwhelming at all. One of the things I like about smoking lat blends is the nice, cool, thick creamy satisfying smoke on every draw, without ever burning too hot or biting. PA definitely has some of those qualities, but without the ashy-mouth charred-throat feeling that you sometimes get with a large bowl of a heavy duty english. Don't get me wrong, at certain times I like a bowl that will make your eyes water as much as the next guy. But PA is the first blend I've tried where I felt a very satisfying draw (unlike the empty hot-air feel that you can get from aros or even some great VAs), but then afterwards my mouth felt and tasted fresh, and the room note was really pretty pleasant. And I can see why people say it is a good break-in tobacco: the bowl just always seems to effortlessly burn down evenly with hardly a relight, and for me every single time the bowl is burned down 100% to a fine white ash. I can definitely see how this was kind of a "standard" blend for many, many years. Nothing about it is outstanding, but it doesn't have any real flaws either, and is pretty satisfying all the way around. I'm definitely not about to go toss out all of my wonderful fancy blends. But I probably will always keep a tub of PA around as a regular part of my rotation. And I will also keep around a tub of grains of salt for use when listening to the conventional wisdom and herd mentality regarding some of the fads that go around. I've paid many times this for tins that come highly recommended from websites and blogs and have ended up with blends far more disappointing than PA. I get the feeling that, if this tobacco had been discontinued for a few decades, people would probably be ranting and raving about how excellent it was and paying exorbitant rates for it in online auctions (like with, say, Edgeworth Sliced). A lot of pipe smokers seems to let the availability of a blend affect its perceived value. Don't let the fact that it is abundant and cheap lead you to miss out on this great tobacco.

For the record, my current top blends are: Frog Morton's Cellar, Dunhill My Mixture, FVF, Escudo

EDIT: It's almost a year since I've written this review, and I've kept PA as part of my regular rotation since then. I work it in every 3 or 4 bowls or so, and enjoy it thoroughly. I bought a couple of the big tubs very cheap at the grocery store and put it in some large mason jars, and I'm sure I'll be smoking that for a long time.

As I recently tried Carter Hall (CH) and loved it, I will be brief with the Prince:

Like CH, the Prince has been around since at least 100 years. Maybe there is a reason to it. Maybe it's just because it is delicious, without any other pretense than giving the pipe smoker what he wants: a pleasurable smoking mixture!

However, the Prince is different than CH in that its aroma is rather on a tiny, sweet floral note that is interesting when smoked, and in the fact that the roomnote will become rather on a kind of cigarettish note by the last third or so.

This being said, it is not offensive like cigarettes.

A classic and uncomparable tobacco that must be tried... Highly recommended.