House of Windsor Barking Dog

The burleys were nutty, earthy, woody with a molasses taste, though I occasionally got some dull, sharp notes. The Virginia was grassy/hay-like with little citrus sweetness. The Cyprian Latakia flavor added a bit of smoke, earth and wood and a little sweetness as it competed with the burley for attention. The rum topping was very lightly present. The strength and taste levels were is the center of mild to medium. Had a slightly more than mild nic-hit. Like most HoW tobaccos, I had to smoke it slowly to avoid tongue bite. Burned well and very easy, even with some hydration, though I got a cigarette note or two near the finish. Left a little moisture in the bowl, and needed an average number of relights. Not quite a three star product, but it was a solid two and a half stars, and the 1980s production was three stars.

-JimInks

CapnStuby's review (9-22-2003) prettymuch nailed it for me, namely the last few sentences. I need to get more of this, I'm almost out. I bought a bag a few years ago, from pipesandcigars but I'm sure other sites have it, too. I think this would be a good latakia blend for somebody who's never tried latakia blends before and wants to explore them.

I just spent Father's Day 2003 enjoying multiple bowls of Barking Dog and Revelation -- both now being constructed at the House of Windsor.

Barking Dog indeed has no bite. Upon opening the tin, I smelled Latakia, but at the match that condimental leaf stayed deep in the background. The Perique was so far in the background that I only tasted hints of it from time to time - particularly near the bottom third of the smoke.

There is a delicate casing in this blend of Latakia/Burley/Perique/Virginia. Wonderful stuff, although I could not identify the flavor.

If you enjoy cheap and tasty, grab some Barking Dog. It's a pleasant puppy!

PS.....the more I smoke this blend the more I appreciate it. Barking Dog can be puffed on like there's no tomorrow and still be as biteless as any tobacco I've ever tried -- and I've tried a bunch!

I'll do a review on this one and follow up with some thoughts about this tobacco.

Pipe: Brookfield quarter-bent

Weather: Muggy

Modifications: Denicool crystals in bottom third of bowl, 9mm filters replaced as needed

Packaging: You can see the picture at the top; that's on the box. Inside is a foil pouch with a printed brownscale (various shades of brown) and white plaid outside decoration.

Initial Impressions: This is comprised of cubes of burley, with what seems to be some Latakia (by the pouch smell) and maybe a bit of Virginia. The color is brown, with flecks of gold and some ribbons of darker brown tobacco. The pouch smell is the heavenly and true spicy smell of tobacco mixed with latakia. I was unable to determine whether the latakia was Cyprian or not.

Unlit Taste: Spicy, with tobacco

Lighting: The cubes pack well, despite their size. You can always rub them out if you want a finer size. The tobacco was at the right moisture level right out of the box and it took a charring light and two good tamps to get it going. An occasional relight was needed, but it totalled 2 relights over the entire bowl.

Smoking (First Third): A wonderful nutty taste and a simple sweetness hits the mouth as great clouds of creamy, pleasant smoke wafts around the room. This smokes cool and a medium puffing speed is good to keep it going. Only a slight hint of spicyness if present. The tobacco has a light and fresh quality to the smoke.

Smoking (Second Third): The flavors really started to mature at this point, with the nuttiness giving way to a spicer and sweeter smoke. I'd recommend slowing down the puff speed to let that little bit of Virgina (it seems like Va, anyways) infuse the tobacco with a nice, mellow sweetness. A solid smoke all the way to the end.

Smoking (Bottom Third): As an interesting note, the Denicool crystals at the very bottom of the pipe were not dark brown, as is usually the case. I'm taking this to mean that a lower level of moisture and nicotine are standard with this tobacco. The room note remained pleasant, with bystanders complimenting me on a fine choice in smoking tobacco.

Aftereffects: A nice aftertaste is present, but this can be eliminated well with a brushing and some Biotene and about 30 minutes of waiting. The room note wasn't stale at all and had a nice quality to it.

Overall Recommendation: This is a GREAT tobacco that I am adding into my rotation as an all-day smoke. It's light enough and gentle enough to be at home in any pipe and it'd be great for building cake in a new pipe. This is a winner for Windsor and I'm planning on getting a large tin of this to ensure that I have some on hand at all times. Like it was said before, this isn't so complex, but it doesn't need to be complex. It's a simple, yet fine thing to experience!

Notes: This is a tobacco of wood-paneled station wagons, summer fishing with Dad and lazy summers in the hammock. This tobacco feels like Americana and it's not just the packaging! This is what the noxious Mixture no. 79, Half and Half and other common mixtures want to grow into. This is not only a hearkening back to a simpler time, but the smell unlocks particular memories of Grandad and fishing trips and crabapple tossing for me. If you compare it to a heavier blend, like McClelland's "British Woods" or a GL Pease English, this seems light and airy. To me, a full english is like a T-Bone steak; full and satisfying, but more than one is too much. Barking Dog is more like half a sub sandwich; satisfying and pleasant to get into, but never so much as to make you regret eating it. Thumbs up from me.

I enjoy the Sutliff Match (Man's Best Friend in tins) and so sought this out. As it was over ten years old, it needed a little rehydration, but not much. It burns fast, bites a bit in brairs, and works nicely in cobs. The room note is about as pleasant as you'll get from a blend with Latakia. The topping isn't overly-sweet or overwhelming, a shame this old blend is out of production, but the Match is very similar.

Being new to pipes it is hard to compare to other tobaccos I'm not familiar with, so my review will be very subjective.

I first received a sample of Barking Dog as part of a pipe and tobacco order. I liked it immediately, with its strong pleasant odor when opening the pouch. My sample was a little dry and therefore smoked milder than I've found it to be since. It was good enough to make me buy more.

Other reviews have a strangely differing opinion on the amount of latakia - I would say there is almost half and half mixture and in keeping with the 60/40 that others mention. It packs nicely and I have not had problems with keeping it lit, even in different pipes.

The Dog has a very rich and full taste on first light, but soon settles into a very smooth and satisfying smoke. This is the first tobacco I've tried that is noticeably cool on the draw, and a pleasure to the palate. I find definite sweet overtones for the first 3/4 of the bowl, so much so that I often smack my lips between puffs to savor the flavor. I like the fact that it has good taste without seeming like its been truly "flavored" or made to be something its not (like a berry or vanilla might be).

I enjoy the smoke smell on the nose while smoking. I don't smoke indoors so the true room smell is a guess, but I do enjoy the linger when in the garage or other enclosed spaces.

Update 6/10/2020

I've been smoking quite a bit of this lately, from a couple of different era's. True to its claim of never biting, this is one smooth OTC-style latakia blend. Absolutely no bite and yet it has a nice flavor burst on the tongue. The burley and latakia compete for the lead but due to my latakia sensitivity, the lat wins. Someone without that issue would probably say they are equal partners. This is a great OTC and I wish it were still around. Sutliff made some match attempts that failed miserably (I know... shocking!) and I'm down to less than 2 oz.

Original Review 1/27/09

I experimented with a full can of this, smoking it moist, dried out to various degrees, re-humidified, etc. I absolutely loved the flavor of this! It was very tasty... that is, when it would hold a light. For some reason, I had to relight this several times during a smoke. I tried different packing methods, different pipes, different types of pipes (briar, meerschaum, clay, cob) and in every instance, the smoke was compromised by the fact that I just couldn't keep it lit.

It's true that I'm not used to a pure cube cut and that may be part of the problem. I'm used to flakes, broken flakes and ribbon or coarse cuts. I spoke with others that were more knowledgable about how to load a cube cut into a pipe, I followed their suggestions, and I just couldn't make this stuff work. Some other reviewers have had similar problems and some haven't. Hopefully anyone reading this has better luck than I.

Recommended for taste, not recommended for the effort required.

Beautiful package, but inside is lackluster burley with a harsh flavor. Tough to keep lit, and pretty bitey. Too bad.

Get Prince Albert instead.

I wanted to like this. God help me, I wanted to. It has everything I thought I liked in a tobacco. It was a classic American blend with a burley base, a cube cut burley base; I love cube cut. It was augmented with Virginia and Latakia that I suspected would be a pleasent note to remind me of the days when I was a devoted smoker of English mixtures. Many good people whom I have so often taken heed of in the past were heard to rave about this stuff. I was all set for a true treat.

Fie. And fie again. The first thing I noticed when opening the tin was how wet this stuff came. I don't like wet tobacco. Moist perhaps, but I distinctly remember the leaves sticking to my fingers. What's more, it didn't seem to dry out over time. Such things seem unnatural to me.

I did eventually smoke some. I asked myself one thing from the outset, and continued to ask it during every subsiquent smoke. This question: Where is the burley?

I very much enjoy the taste of burley. I will often choose a tobacco described as having something like 'a pernounced burley character' and am rarely sorry I did so. If one is going to have a tobacco whith a burley base, that tobacco should have some taste of burley. Barking Dog does not taste like burley. It tastes like Latakia, not burley. Where is the burley? Where? What do they think they are doing? Did they think I wouldn't notice? Well let me tell you---

Sorry.

Honestly though, Latakia was the only thing I could taste in this mixture. I finished the entire can, for some reason, and such was always the case. There is nothing wrong with Latakia, but when I am smoking what is called a blend I would like to taste other tabacco as well, like burley, you clods at House of Windsor.

Still though, people continue to rave over this blend. I don't know why. Perhaps it's me. Not likely, but perhaps. I still maintain that I would like this style of tobacco if only it were done right and I could taste the burley, which I couldn't, you see. I understand that Cornell&Diehl has a clone of Barking Dog. I have always known Mr. Tarler to be a man that makes a blend that has a taste like unto the tobaccos he claims to put into said blend, unlike some companies whose name begins with 'H' and ends with 'indsor'. Yes, perhaps I need to look to Junkyard Dawg. 'Dawg', mind you. More later.

Regards, A. Morley Jaques

I am a voracious applauder of Morley's Best so looked forward to this mixing of the burl and the lat. The Latakia here is delicious, rich and smooth. I prefer it to the more chunky Latakia in the Morles. The Burley, however, is a bit bland (as others note) and the mixture doesn't quite add up to my Morleyiana-adoration-song.

Images evoked include a Darwin-Fish, with legs, being roasted on a spit over a barely-flickering propane stove on a hungry and hollow night. Where are my propane accessories?