House of Windsor Revelation

Getting hard to find, isn't it? Maybe that's why we've seen the major tobacco suppliers blending knock-offs of these old-timey blends. I found a couple of 10 oz. cannisters of the "real" Revelation (like that pictured above) at a nearby tobacconist and bought them both.

Why? Because this tobacco, to me anyway, is a rather mild English-like concoction that produces a room note like a downtown men's club and a comfortable aroma that one can enjoy all day long. It's easy to pack in the pipe and there's virtually none of the tongue bite often associated with many Latakia/Perique blends. There are more expensive and fuller, more rounded English blends to be sure, but I keep on coming back to this old standby. It's not as suffocating as some of the really strong English blends can be.

Forget about the "drug store" variety of this tobacco; don't try to figure out what the flavoring is. Just sit back and enjoy a blend that grows on you with time. For some reason you'll find yourself coming back to it again and again...if you can find it.

This delicious beauty has everything, and it all works! Spectacular blend, I rate it off the scale, with Five Stars and highly recommend this blend. When I was younger, I couldn't stand Revelation, but as my tastebuds grew in maturity... Don't let this tobacco get away. Flavors are complex yet subtle. Room note, very pleasant. Strength, medium. Personally, I mix one pound to 4 ounces added of Latakia. I'm beginning to wonder if I add more Oriental or Turkish, what flavors it would yield. I always considered Revelation, an American spin, on a British-type pipe smoking mixture. When the sky is pewter, air is damp and dismal and my bones ache (I live 18 feet off of the Atlantic Ocean), I smoke nothing but Revelation, to restore my spirit. If I require the campfire tones, I light my pipe with wooden kitchen matches. Usually, I use a Zippo, and love it. What a loss to the pipe smoking world, since House of Windsor went out of business. Now I aggressively hunt down remaining stock of Revelation, and thankfully, there is Revelation-Match.

This Tobacco is a BEAUTY!!!The only Tobacco i can take..CLOSE MY EYES AND LITTERALLY,Fill "ANY"one of my pipes(Calabash,Briar,Corn Cob,Clay,Ch'Wrdn,Meer..Big,Small,Medium)...smoke it Fast-or-Slow...ALL GOOD,ANYTIME! Just Fill,Light,and...GO,GO,GO!!! :+)

Now this is an interesting and compelling blend for me. I'll be honest and state that my palate is not discerning enough to fully distinguish everything in it. But what I can taste is enough to keep me comming back for more. I've gone through several tins of this, and it never seems to taste the same twice. I've never picked up the "fruity" taste others have commented on, the words which come to mind are "nutty" "woodsey" and "earthen."

My wife and kids have told me it smells "ok" which means it smells rather pungent to them.

The dominant tin notes of this mixture of fine cubes and very short ribbon are the fetid turkish and the fruity topping (grape or raspberry, perhaps) along with grassy burley.

Flavor seems initially dominated by the piquant gold VAs, however the burley, red VA, and perique soon make themselves known. Present throughout, the latakia is not dominant, though it gains fullness down the bowl. The combination of the VAs, perique, and topping give an impression of sweetness, though this is not a particularly sweet smoke. The acridity of the turkish combines with the other components to present a sour, bitter, and sweet concoction that enhances the nutty undertones of the burley. Throughout the bowl, the topping remains present, though it folds admirably into the whole.

Revelation is remarkably complex yet remains balanced and companionable. As such, it is an ideal all-day blend for the adventurous puffer. This seemed best in a narrow gauge chamber.

This is a friendly tobacco. You can smoke this all day if you wanted to. Not to strong. Very mild actually. Lot's of different flavors in here if you are patient enough to look for them. If you've been wanting to try latakia but was worried it would be to strong, give this a try. Has just a little in here. Look for the smokey flavor. That's what Latakia tastes like. If you like it you can always try a stronger one later. Overall, pretty good stuff!

This is my favorite American blend. It has almost everything. The balance between the composites is uniqe, in my experience; and I first smoked a pipe at age 5, 55 years ago.

All of the various tobaccos are first-rate. I love the taste and smell so much it is almost good enough to eat.

If you like a complex smoke ( like the best English) then give this a try. I think you will like it.

This has been one of my all time favorite blends for almost 40 years. I smoked this on occasion years ago when it was a Phillip Morris product, back in the day we used to consider this a ?very strong? blend. Ten or so years ago when House of Windsor brought it back I was ecstatic and it became my ?go to? tobacco for a number of years. This appears to me to be predominately burley with a seasoning of more flavorful condiment tobaccos, topped with a very light flavoring which some have described as almost ?fruity or citrus? in nature. I certainly no longer consider this as a ?strong? blend simply flavorful for an over the counter burley. Burns cool with not a hint of bite. I am carefully hoarding my remaining supply of Revelation and will definitely seek out one of the ?matches? currently available.

Invariably dry in the pouch as I have purchased it, this is one of those strange tobaccos which I like, but can't quite bing myself to smoke continuously. I'll start thinking about Revelation, I'll go out and buy a package, dump its crunchy contents into a ziplock and spray with distilled H2o to rehydrate, then I'll get on a "Revelation kick", I'll revel in the complexity of the 5 tobaccos, drink like mead the smooth pepper/campfire notes, I'll marvel at the discreet topdresing and I'll fall in love with the way my dank old Volvo smells after I smoke it with the windows closed. I almost completely abandon my usual daytime burleys, burn through about 1.5 packages in a week and all of a sudden I loose my taste for it all of a sudden it seems flat and harsh...then in about a month or two, the same thing happens again...this has been going on for at least a year now...I suspect that it was better in the olden days and came across as something more along the lines of a Fox and Hound or other mild mild english. The top dressing is berryish, similar in some ways to that of Kentucky Club (different blender) and I can't seem to notice any perique at all, although I certainly can smell the latakia in the mixture and it probably would smoke alot hotter without it in the mix. The room note has recieved the typical unfavorable commentary from the female but I can't imagine it's any worse than any other tobacco. Try mixing this 2:1 with Middletons Cherry blend,the combination is pretty damn good as an all day smoke if you are a lover of "industrialized tobacco" like I am...

If you haven't tried it, go ahead and grab a pouch just to see what all the hoopla is about. I concur with the folks who have mentioned that if it came in a fancier tin with a heftier pricetag it would probably get better reviews for it is a strangely engaging kind of a smoke.

Recommended

P.S By the way...Did you know Einstein smoked this?...;)

UPDATE 1/15/09: Took a year long hiatus from this and started back in on some pouches I purchased about two years ago. I seem to have gotten what might have been the last of the production run. Very "quality uncontrolled" from pouch to pouchwith a ton of casing on one pouch, almost none on the others, just seemed like a different blend of tobacco too. Unfortunately this tobacco is apparently completely out of production now. Just the other day I picked up a sealed plastic tub that had beeen lurking on the bottom shelf of my tobacconist for at least 5 years for HALF of it's sticker price (total cost about $12). I figure MAYBE it is still the quality stuff I remember. I'll probably hold onto it for a while before opening it...

what a shame...