Murray Sons & Co, Ltd Punchbowle

I was in Exeter, UK, in 2010 on vacation and visited "McGahey The Tobacconist" in search of a replacement for Dunhill My Mixture 965 (wasn't back on the market at that time). Martin McGahey was kind enough to advise me to try Peterson's Old Dublin and Punchbowle. Punchbowle (as well as Old Dublin) was great. Dark, heavy Latakia with a touch of fruitiness, the perfect (to me) mixture between smoky and sweet (more on the smoky side, though). Highly recommended, especially when smoked outside.

well i have took the plunge and my first tin of punchbowle has been opened.after a few pipes of this blend its not bad...easy to light..draws well and for me no tounge bite,its just the job for sitting outside in the garden or in the living room..relaxing,nice aroma..and when opened the smell of the tobacco is quite nice,i found myself having a few bowels of this within the hour..and each one was as enjoyable as the one before.so it gets a thumbs up from me..i will be buying more of this for sure..nice.

After finishing my tin, I guess I can see why no blender has picked this up after Murray & Sons went out of business. It exhibits no major flaws but it doesn't do much to recommend it, either. It's probably the best of the "trilogy" of Parson's Pleasure, Barneys and Punchbowle, but that's not saying a whole lot.

Heavy on the latakia and orientals with a less-than-top drawer batch of virginias, this one smokes fine top to bottom, although it gets a bit harsh during the last 1/3 bowl. This one just sort of "is" - nothing to get excited about and nothing to be missed. If you're into latakia, there are a bevy of blends out there more satisfying than this one.

I have recently shifted house from an inland, very dry climate with extemes of cold and heat to a coastal, humid and warm climate. From smoking with air-conditioning or a fire ablaze I now smoke with windows open, the air heavy with moisture. Concerns have shifted from preventing tobacco from drying out too much too fast to prevent it from getting too moist. Enjoyment of various blends has also changed somewhat. Balkan Flake and Odyssey taste better, Bohemian Scandal a shade worse than it used to.

The turmoil of shifting house brought up some forgotten tobaccos. A pouch of Ridgeback, an African tobacco, dried and crumbled into unsmokeable dust; a half tin of Balkan Sobranie`s Virginia No 10, also alas unsmokeable; a flattened cylinder of a tin called Hamborger Veermaster by Planta ... and among others, a battered and dented, but otherwise intact tin of Punchbowle.

Visually, the tobacco is an attractive melange of light brown, dark brown and black leaf. The tin aroma is somewhat reminiscent of Durbar and Royalty, in a muted way. In the pipe the mixture burns well, and there is definitely an oriental presence, apart from the virginia and latakia. Burns down to a fine gray ash, with no wet dottle. It is almost four star stuff, but there is a distinct rough edge at the beginning - as in many highly regarded Balkans - but the rough edge never goes away, and the permanent twang is distracting. But good stuff nevertheless.

this is my first bowl of this & i like it & i will try it in a good pipe as i always try any new tobacco in a falcon pipe & my wife & dog are my nose & neither as squirmed so its passed that test dont be frightend to try tobaccos you can always mix them with something

Came across an interesting and amusing anecdote/review concerning this mixture (the Barney's version) in a 1949 copy of the New Statesman and Nation (a leading periodical in the U.K.) acquired by me for £1 ($2) at a stall in a Kent(U.K.) steam fair this August. It would be a shame for the anecdote to be lost to posterity.

The anecdote features in an ad, which firstly consists of a photo of the Punchbowle tin (lettering looks identical to that available from my online stockist, James Barber, except the bottom half is of course now covered by an obligatory alarmist nanny-state warning about smoking).

Underneath the photo is the headline: 'PACKING IN PERFECT CONDITION, ONE YEAR AFTER SHIPWRECK - an echo from Tobruk.'

Then this letter, received by the manufacturers in March 1949:

'I was very much interested in reading your advertisement in Geographical Magazine.

In early 1943, when I was in Tobruk with 8th Army, a N.A.A.F.I. boat was wrecked on the rocks on the South side of the harbour. My Regt. had a S/L site close by and they soon helped themselves to what was to be found. Amongst the booty were some tins of Barney's Punchbowle which had been under water for some days. I had the pleasure of smoking it for nearly a year afterwards. It was in perfect condition, showing that the packing was faultless.

Some days ago I met an old 8th Army friend who also had some, and in fact finished the last in N.Italy in March 1945.

Yours faithfully,

......... Late Capt. (27 S/L Regt R.A.)'

Note: N.A.A.F.I stands for Navy Army and Air Force Institutes, suppliers for the British armed forces.

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Update 12th March 2008: Finally got round to ordering a tin of Punchbowle some days ago. Have been very pleasantly surprised by the smoking experience.

I expected something indifferent or even unpleasant, but this has not proved to be the case. This is a fine-cut, rich mixture, with what seems a very even blend - not too much of either the latakia, virginia or brown cavendish. There is a slightly tarry but not unpleasant sweet top note to the rich, nutty smell when you open the tin.

That tarry edge, possibly molasses-like, is evident when you smoke the mixture. You get a pretty even, slow smoke. There is absolutely no bite from smoking this stuff, no rasping of your throat, either, even after repeated pipefuls. It is a very pleasant smoke, and you do notice the flavour, but it is not as strong as, for example, Dunhill's My Mixture, which has a similar mix and flavour (I think!!) and which I had been smoking just before. Unfortunately, My Mixture seems to have a coarse after-effect on my throat and chest, which Punchbowle doesn't have at all.

I can thoroughly recommend Punchbowle as a throughly decent mix which you will undoubtedly enjoy. You might, however, hanker after something with more pronounced flavour - though this flavour is very good - but I hope that the stronger stuff doesn't affect your throat as it often does mine.

Note: my tin has an 'SP' emblem above the word Punchbowle, and I see that this stands for John Sinclair, as there is the wording 'made in the United Kingdom for John Sinclair Limited' underneath 'Punchbowle.' However, on the underside of the tin I read 'made in Denmark by Orlik tobacco company A/S'! So which is it? The latter, I suspect.

A good English Mixture, balanced towards the Virginia leaf. I would have liked a little more latakia into that, to make it a little smoother. It's in the line of Dunhill mixtures, very classic.

I have a few tins of this almost as old as the tins of Barney's which I enjoyed so much, and hoped that they would be the same, but with more of the divine Latakia. Unfortunately, these tins are blended by Murrays, according to the card insert, and the batch number shows them to be rather more recent than I thought.

The virginia content is not the same nutty, earthy stuff that I enjoyed so much in the Barney's, it is brighter and sweeter, much more like the bland bright leaf found in new tins of Parson's Pleasure. However, this tobacco does have a goodly dose of latakia, and abundant smokey, musty, woodsy smells pour out of the freshly opened tin. The age has allowed the components to integrate, and meld into one another to quite an extent (newer tins smell sharper, the smells of the tobaccos standing out sharply as individuals).

It lights with ease, but needs relights as it is quite moist. The flavour is rich and full, with a background sweetness that balances it quite pleasantly. The aroma is rich and delicious, as an english mixture should be. All in all, a very enjoyable tobacco, but not so outstanding as the Barney's. Two friends of mine who recently took up pipesmoking tried it, liked it, and now rarely smoke anything else, so I can reccomend it as a good tobacco for those new to the pipe- better than tormenting them with sticky, tasteless cherry vanilla type blends.

Personally I find this blend rather bloated, in the rough sense of the term. It is not so much that it is a strong tobacco (Nightcap, Balkan Sobranie or Commonwealth Mixture are also full bodied mixtures, yet they are smooth, rich and diverse in flavor!), but that it lacks depth and, if I may say so, tobacco ?eloquence?.

I am afraid this is a common trait I find in Murray Sons' other two renderings within this range (Parson's Pleasure and Barney's Ideal). I don't know if it has to do with the quality of the leaf, their blending process or the targeted market for these blends---the three are rather cheap---, but in my opinion they all seem to be a bit on the raw side, with rather poor components, and unfortunately monochromatic and dull.

Punchbowl is, in fact, slightly similar to Gawith's Commonwealth Mixture (KBE Mixture across the Atlantic). They are both a full-bodied blend of Latakia with Virginias. I don't believe Punchbowl has any Turkish or other Orientals in the mix (Commonwealth has none), but if it does, as one reviewer has put it, they are difficult to pick up. The result is, from my point of view, a very heavy tasting tobacco, with a harsh undertone, lacking in diversity and richness of flavor.

PS: I have chosen the Extremely Mild (flat) option in the Taste section, because although Punchbowl is very strong, the monochromatic flavor renders it a flat and dull concoction, at least for my palate.