House of Windsor Barking Dog

Not really all that bad, I like it alot more then some of the other selections from this company. It is a good simple smoke with a room note that I like. For what they charge for it at one tobacco store, there are I like so many things better. If I had a good source to purchase it cheaply it might fall into my low end rotation. It doesn't qualify as a good value for what I get out of it.

This stuff comes from Yoe, Pennsylvania. I have no idea where that is, but if I?m ever in that part of the Keystone State, I plan on taking a little detour to Yoe to shake the hands of the eccentric people who still believe in tinning these old standard drug store blends. Barking Dog is so adorable, you?d buy it for the can alone. They also produce Model, Country Doctor, Field and Stream and a few other standbys in two ounce narrow tins. I have a feeling these little cans might become real collectors items one day on EBay. The beige tin with its droopy boxer on it and its motto ?Barking Dog Never Bites,? is enough of a seduction. Anyone who has fond memories of Sir Walter Raleigh, Half and Half or other American drug store burley cube cuts will find this an enjoyable whim. Yes, Boston, Jackie Gleason on Saturday nights is apropos. Tin aroma is sweetish with that five and dime light casing that might remind you of the first tobacco you ever smoked when you were 16. It takes about two or three lights to get this going, but once you do, it develops beautifully with a fragrant, unobtrusive aroma. I had a bowl of this the other day while driving through the industrial squalor of northwest Indiana with its fiery blast furnaces, vast marshalling yards and surreal refinery tanks. Like the landscape, Barking Dog was simple, matter-of-fact and largely one-dimensional. Yet, somehow, the drive, the smoke, the aroma all made sense, coalescing into a contented Saturday afternoon drive. Don?t expect too much from BD, at the same time, prepare to be pleasantly surprised; perhaps even more so if you?re in a comfy chair and not driving around Whiting, Indiana.

Three of five stars

Overall this is a pretty good tobacco at first glance. Taste, room note, and strength all seem good. Unless you like to inhale your smoke. "Never Bites" obviously doesn't apply to the harshness of the smoke. This stuff course on the throat. I love strong tobacco's like Nightcap and 1792 Flake but at least they are smooth. I would smoke this again in the future but there are too many better tobacco's around.

Last summer I smoked an ounce or so of this chunky American English. The flavor profile is very similar to Early Morning Pipe, except one changes out the VA for Burley. Not strong enough for me, even in the a.m., but tasty, though it will bite if overpuffed.

Comes dry as a bone as do the rest of HOW blends, I have found. Ok. Cheap. BD is better than most drug store blends.

I liked it better than Model or Briggs, not as much as Revelation and Country Doctor. Doubtful I'll be buying much of any of them in the future.

This is exactly what it says: burley and latakia! If you took a pouch of carter hall, added about 25% blending latakia, mixed well, aged for some time, and then cube cut the whole mess- you would have Barking Dog. This blend deserves some merit for the novelty of smoking an American Latakia blend. Other than that, it smokes hot, nips some, and has very poor burning characteristics. The end.

This is the first of the House of Windsor blends I tried. I recently got the "sampler set" which is a 2 oz. tin of each of the 10 blends they are re-releasing.

It surprised me that there were such things as "drugstore" blends that could best be classified as English and contained Latakia and other condiment leaf in them. Drugstore blends to me are the heavily cased aromatics such as Captain Black, Borkum Riff and others of the same ilk. Even though it clearly says Barking Dog contains latakia in the description, I wasn't prepared for the heavy Latakia scent upon popping the tin. Once upon a time not all that long ago, I was really into the English latakia blends. Somewhere along the line my tastes shifted to Virginia or Virgina/Perique blends. As a result, Barking Dog wasn't really up my alley.....too much Latakia for me.

I will say this......and I've noticed this with most of the HOW blends I've tried: the blends really balance out once the can has been opened for 2 or 3 days. What was initially a strong blast of Latakia has balanced with the other tobaccos so it's not as overbearing to me. Also, I'm very impressed with the quality of the HOW blends. I expected something bordering on the unsmokeable.......I was surprised to find quality that rivals anything else out there.....

random sized cube cut, showing some dark and light mottling in the cubes. Smells like a Burley base with some Latakia, and maybe a bit of Va. Packs easily, lights well, burns evenly and very cool. A very old fashioned American smoke, I enjoyed it occasionally.