Wellauer & Co Wellauer's English Blend

This is a sleeper blend. While it does not have extensive distribution, it is a blend that contains quality components, good smoking experience, and is reasonably priced.

Appearance: The blend is a shorter ribbon cut that is primarily medium brownish red of various shades. There is no blond nor black leaf in this mix. I found it to be overly wet when it arrived, but it aired out nicely.

The tin aroma has the somewhat sour smell that I associate with Dunhill tinned blends.

Bowl preparation qualities are very good. It fills the bowl nicely without overpacking. It is easy to get a bowl set up with a light touch to the bottom potion, but firmly packed toward the top without plugging.

The blend develops nicely through the course of the bowl, a characteristic that I value highly; I don?t want to experience the same flavor from top to bottom. Sweetness is a bit on the low end of the scale, while the spice and astringency is at the higher end. There is an elusive floral sense early in the bowl that settles down into a deep, robust spiciness later.

This is a real winner. As far as I have seen, it is available in 100g tins only, which I find unfortunate. I would prefer 50g tins, but this is a minor point. I wish that it were more readily available, as I have rarely seen it.

Rated 85/100 for flavor, 80/100 for burning characteristics, and 85/100 overall. An excellent smoke.

March, 2005

As it is my custom, I first filled this tobacco into a glas with a tight fitting lid into which it loosely fits. I let it breathe in there for at least one week, shaking and opening it from time to time. Now, after roundabout 3 weeks, it´s a very pleasant smoke. Nothing harsh, average stength, a creamy and mildly spicy taste. Burns cool without tongue bite. I would call it a perfect medium-body English blend akin to Peterson MM965 or Rattray´s 7 Reserve. It hasn´t got as much depth and richness as Black Mallory or Charatan´s Eventide. Full recommendation, nevertheless!

This mixture is not bad, a very good Virginia, which is what predominates in all directions. But call it the mixture, it would be incorrect, missing a piece in my opinion, that the Latakia!

I wanted to try with an addition of 40% CIPRIAN LATAKIA

---

and great great surprise! A wonderful smoky taste, sweet and smoky, easy to smoke, with a pleasant aftertaste so I never tried! What a wonderful discovery!

Therefore, all evaluations will be for my composition, not to blend the original!

If someone wants to try .........not regret it!

I like this blend a lot and have only tried the tinned version; a medium fine ribbon cut. A great all day English type along the lines of sqaudron leader. This tobacco burns well to a fine ash at the bottom, is easy on the tongue and does not dry out my mouth. It has enough complexity in the flavor and aroma to maintain interest and does so bowl after bowl. The Syrian Latakia is smooth and creamy. It's a little amusing reading these reviews where tobaccos are put to the test of satisfying a very narrow set of criteria. Having been in the wine and restaurant business for many years, such a parallel exists where good, bad and so on become absolutes. As I enjoy blends like GLP Odyssey, Charing Cross and Abingdon, and Penzance, Margate and Pelikan from others, it's nice to smoke an English or Balkan that goes well with your morning Latte. I have tried several tins of this Swiss mixture and keep it in my rotation mixed with some very big reds and some Grignolinos, Barbarescos and Beaujolais. Give Wellauer's a try to expand the range of your English/Balkans.

This is a real sleeper blend. Quality leaf here with nice complexity in flavor. Very well balanced as an English should be! Along with their Syrian blend, Wellauer & Co. have some keepers. I just wish this stuff was easier to find.