Dan Tobacco Old Ironsides

Fantastic! Perfect blend of VA/Oriental/Latakia. And the Latakia sings!

"A Latakia lover's dream." "Full and cool."

Fwiw I agree with the tin description. Upon opening the tin you will discover beautiful dark flakes with a few lighter strands contained within the flakes. The tin aroma, naturally, smells strongly of Latakia. Moisture content seems slightly high, as I prefer it that way its perfect for me.

Packing: I like to use the flake folding method with Old Ironsides and the tobacco complies well with this. A little sprinkle of fully rubbed out OI on the top helps with lighting.

Smoking: An easy charing light followed by a quick tamp/relight and I'm on my way. This one does, imo, seem 1 dimensional. Its Latakia followed by more Latakia. Mid-Bowl I taste more Latakia..and the finish is a nice smoky Latakia taste. 🙂 Burns to a fine grey ash with no wet goop. It does indeed smoke full & cool and doesn't bite at all. Quite nice overall.

Room note: I would think it unlikely that anyone other then our pipe smoking brethren would enjoy/tolerate it..don't expect the wife to be jumping with joy when you break this one out. Outside only for this pipester.

I do like this smoke when in the mood for a nice, heavier evening smoke after a hearty meal. Or pair this one up with some Jack Daniels on the rocks..

And yeah..if your not a fan of the dark leaf..skip this 3 of 4

01/14/2005: Even though I don't smoke these big-flavored blends all that often I rated it at the top anyway. The Latakia is not acrid or harsh like many tobaccos of this type. It is rich and tasty. It is too full flavored for an every day smoke. Best to save this for the last pipe of the day. If you smoke it first you won't taste anything else for a good long while!

11/27/2006 Update: Latakia overload.

Old Ironsides is just what the package says: a Latakia lover?s dream. It is all Latakia, all the time, with no messing around. Oh, I suppose they blend it with something or other just to keep it interesting. And sometimes, late at night, in a big bowl, this is just what you need. But it lacks the complexity to hold interest over the long haul. There?s a useful contrast with Penzance: the latter sacrifices just a bit of firepower in the interest of greater diversity of flavor, but the result is that Penzance is a great tobacco while Old Ironsides is simply very good. The cut is nice: like a flake that's been pre-rubbed -- very convenient! If you like Latakia, I?d recommend keeping some on hand for a broadside every now and then. Luckily, it ages particularly well.

I really like this tobacco it leaves a rich full flavor in the mouth. It has such a powerful Laktiva room note and there is no mistaking it for anything but good pipe tobacco. This stuff is a nice evening smoke. Now I like Midnight Ride better from CAO since it is a little more demensional. This is not as complex of a smoke. I find that this stuff burns very well once lit but the odd bark like cut takes some crumbling and relights to get going. It is a very cool smoke since it burns slow.

As a Latakia Lover, I just had to smoke this one, and smoke it I did. Upon opening I was pleased by the look of the dark flakes and by the big, leathery smell. Packing and lighting aren't a simple task, and neither leave the flakes on the air nor rub them out won't make that much easier. When you'll have finally managed to light your pipe, Old Ironsides becomes an easy-going tobacco, it burns extremely cool and stays lit without the least problem, making it a perfect outdoor tobacco. It can be smoked with great satisfaction especially during summer for its almost incredible refreshing qualities, leaving your mouth with a slight peppermint aftertaste. A must-have for all latakia heads. The only complaint is that it's really too light in body.

I enjoy a nice Latakia blend ,and had high hopes for Old Ironsides, after all, with the higher price tag that is common to CAO/Dan products, I figured " this cost alot, it must be greeeaat".

Unfortunately, to me it wasnt that great, the cut is to large to just pack , so I had to rub it out, now I dont mind doing that, but this is the first tobacco that actually made my hands dirty, like I just arranged the charcoal in my Weber grill.

The flavor wasnt all that outstanding either,it tastes kinda like hot asphalt smells...And it takes many relights, which I thought odd, being it feels dry when rubbing out.

It took a month to smoke thru the 50 grams and I dont think I will buy it again, instead I'll grab the Nightcap, or Stokkebyes Proper English, or one of the many other Latakia rich blends that I enjoy much more for my Latakia jones.

This was my first experience with an English Latakia blend. All things considered, it was pretty brave of me as my first choice since it is almost entirely Latakia. When I opened the tin I was greeted with a whiff that instantly reminded me of the dark brown cork tiles I had in my bedroom when I was young. (I hoped it wouldn't taste like cork.)

This is a flake tobacco?in long, thick strips (like beef jerky), so it needed to be rubbed between my fingers until I had enough to fill my pipe. It has a very heavy consistency, so I didn't pack it very tight. I then retired to my upstairs balcony where I lit it up. Before long the little enclosure was filled with its aroma. The flavour tasted of a cross between unsweetened chocolate and dry-roasted coffee (latté, anyone?) or a very stout brew. (In fact, I imagine sipping a Murphy's Stout or Scotch with it would be very nice indeed). I had only filled my bowl half-way, and it burned very, very slowly and stayed cool the entire time, despite my rather quick smoking pace.

The smoke and taste is so rich and heavy that after a while of smoking I felt like I could scrape dark brown powder from my tongue. This tobacco was quite a change of pace from my lighter varieties, and I enjoyed the fullness of it. Better yet, I felt no ill-effects from its low nicotine content. The room amoma is, of course, rather heavy, and I'm not sure I would inflict it upon a roomful of people.

OLD IRONSIDES. Do you really love latakia? If so,you'll really love this. I'm a lady pipe smoker who really appreciate's,a good strong dose of latakia. I've enjoyed every smoking moment with Old Ironsides,I have smoked so far.

The first bowl took 3 to 5 relight's so,from then on I aired the tobacco out for 10 min's before packing.Only one relight was required after that. In one word "DELICIOUS" all the way to bowl's end. Definitely no sourness detected at all,without goop leaving a nice dark grey ash.

Highly recommended.