Imperial Tobacco Group, PLC Dr. Pat Irish Mixture

This is a short ribbon, not quite a shag, of mostly red and golden virginias with some dark leaf which is probably a black cavendish. I suspect some of the black leaf might actually be perique, but I don't say this with any measure of confidence. There is a top note to the tin, which is of a sweet honey, malt, vanilla type, which I suspect is an attempt at whiskey or similar. While the note is prominent this is not an aromatic in my book.

This tobacco packs and burns well. Despite being what is now called an OTC or codger blend, the tobacco is of good quality. While I have never met anyone, not even from decades ago, who I knew to smoke this, it is one of the few remaining pipe 'standards', along with Erinmore and Log Cabin, to remain in the marketplace in Australia. After about a century of existence, clearly it had its fans.

It is a medium strength tobacco of rather neutral character. It has some pepperiness to it, which is why I suggest perique might be in the mix, but this might just be some red Va tanginess. It is generally sweet but not cloying.

Altho Dr Pat used to come in a RYO version (in a red rather than a green tin) marked as cigarette tobacco, the historical version of this tobacco was almost certainly intended for dual use, hence the neutral character. Now made in Denmark that still seems to be the case. Significantly better than ordinary RYO tobacco however.