Harrods English Mixture

I recently picked up a bunch of old Harrod's blends Made by James J. Fox of Dublin & London, including this English Mixture which has a strange (but wonderful) casing the English used in their old blends. I can see why this no longer produced offering is missed... It is outstanding!

I found this blend disappointing. The tin smell wasn't as bad to me as others have claimed and reminded me of the same genre as Dunhill's (Murray) Three Year Matured. There are some similarities to that blend, but where TYM works for me, this one doesn't. I enjoyed the first couple of bowls and there is no doubt it was made from quality leaf. As I made my way through the tin the enjoyment slowly fizzled. The light casing just isn't to the quality of TYM and doesn't hold well throughout the smoke. I wonder who blended this as it appears that Murray's may have made this one as well, but that's nothing more than a guess.

This one is a bit strange -- it's a fine ribbon cut of what appears to be virginias, turkish, and possibly maryland, and seems to have a walnut or apple flavoring added. This tobacco doesn't have a "cased" feel, but it definitely smells and tastes flavored. My tins are a bit old, so I'm not absolutely sure of the flavoring -- it smells walnutty in the tin, but tastes a bit appley.



Packs well, burns well if a smidge fast, with little tongue bite. The flavor is that of roasting apples with a little bit of oriental pungency, and a little bit of sweetness to help bolster the apple flavor.



Pretty good, if you like this sort of thing, although it's not my idea of an "English" mixture.