House of Windsor Barking Dog

As a lover of American English blends, I highly recommend Barking Dog, one of a trio of superb American Englishes (the others being Country Doctor and Revelation) offered by the HOW.

Cubed burley and latakia: simple, consistent, and satisfying. A delicious aroma in the pouch and in your pipe, and it always smokes dry, leaving a nice ash with little dottle. My sole complaint is that it bites a little--yes, barking dogs can bite!

All in all, very nice.

A nutty flavored cube cut burley with a sweet Virginia, a touch of smokey Latakia and just a pinch perique. I taste the nuttiness of a good cube cut burley with just enough Latakia to enhance the overall flavor. Yummy stuff this.

My first pipeful of Barking Dog almost led to my re-appelation of it as simply an ill-tempered cur. The chunky-cut blend was hard to light, and I had a hard time keeping it lit after that, tempted to over-puff it and chance a bitten tongue. The second go round was much better, when I packed it loosely to give those burley plugs more air circulation. Then, I was rewarded with a great smoke.

The old-fashioned burley taste comes through in full form, nutty and brisk, hitting on tangy notes along the way as the Virginia components catch on. There's not enough latakia or perique in the blend to provide any more than perhaps a seasoning effect. Properly packed, it burns fairly steady to the end, signaling some slight bitterness in the final stretch, not unexpected from a burley plug mixture.

After a 2 oz. tin's worth, I would say BD is a good burley blend that deserves recognition. Although I prefer Revelation, I wouldn't rule out buying it again.

I will begin by saying that I do like this tobacco, although it is not my favorite tobacco of this type (see my reviews of Uhle's non-aromatics). I think when you factor in the price, this is definitely a good smoke for not a lot of money but I don't smoke a lot and am usually willing to spend more money for better quality leaf. I have not yet made up my mind on whether I will be keeping this on hand, but I suspect I will perhaps purchase it again as a occasional summertime smoke. There is a nice spicy taste that I like on occasion and although the burley in there isn't the best stuff I've ever had it makes a decent blend overall. Despite the claim, as others have mentioned it will irritate the tongue if you aren't careful and it can dry out the mouth and throat a bit. I found it to be a friendlier mixture if humidified just the tiniest amount. I had noticed that I had to pack it extremely tightly to control the burning rate, which was still too fast as I could hear it crackling with even a gentle puff. I had purchased it in bulk, and while it was not too dry as would be the case if it had been stored improperly, it is, I think, just a very dry tobacco to begin with. With a tiny amount of humidity it seems to slow the burning rate and it is less harsh. Worth a try.

I just couldn't resist the pup on the cup! It takes you back to a much happier and simpler time.The flavor is rather bland with just a hint of Latakia in the blend to give it some texture.It is an unpretencious and straightforward blend. A good blend while outside-it never burns hot. It is worth a try just to remember the past- a time when pipe smokers were looked upon with a certain admiration and not fanatical disgust by the politically correct.Let this take you down memory lane and remember"Barking Dog Never Bites!"

This is another of the burley blends from HOW that I found lacking both in taste and flavoring. And Latakia? Where is it? It didn?t bite me but I did find it somewhat harsh as others have noted. I find this to be true with some other HOW blends. Maybe it?s the quality of the burley or quality control issues at HOW. To wit and as an aside, my first tin of Country Doctor was delightful, the second tin of CD proved to be quite the opposite. The tins were bought months apart. Why the disparity? The quality of the tobacco used in each or quality control? But Barking Dog was a disappointment. Nothing special or worth trying IMO. ?DOG?gone it, you may be ?BARKING? up the wrong tree with this blend. Also note how most of the earlier reviews for Barking Dog are mostly favorable while most of the latter reviews tend to be negative. Is this a coincidence or is it perhaps indicative that the HOW blends aren?t what they used to be when they were first introduced. First impressions are lasting? Not always. I rate this tobacco 5.5 out of 10

Update 1/10/2005

My ?sniffer? and tastebuds may have been under the weather when I first tried BD. I recently finished (6 months later) what remained of the tin contents I had stored away in a ball jar. This time I had a complete change of heart. This is just a great American blend from times past. If you are not old enough to remember those times, I can?t help you but do try BD for a whiff and taste of that era.

I update my rating of this tobacco to an 8.0 out of 10.

A great American classic! Sometimes we look for renowned tobaccos, for great complex flavors... and forget that simple is often good.

Yes, this tobacco is as simple and unpretentious as it comes: granular burley (with bigger pieces than in C&D blends), some latakia and probably a hint of Virginia for sweetness.

The result is stunning: it takes a bit more to light due to the burley "pellets", but then you are in heaven. This blend offers a smoke dominated by the nutty, earthy quality of the burley: it's high grade stuff because it never gets bitter! Latakia is not present in high quantities, but you can definitely feel its taste, which complements the burley just perfectly with its spicy smokiness. It's a blend which truly stays consistent from beginning to end, without off-notes or weird developments. Sure, it could offer more nuances and it doesn't have the dancing alternative paces of flavor of a GLPease, but you'll enjoy it a lot.

A word about the "never bites" ad: well, my tongue is certainly quite rested after a couple of bowls of it. No noticeable irritation, which is good. The smoke is, however, quite full and pleasantly rough: it has a slightly astringent, mouth-drying, heavy on the palate quality. Nothing particularly bad, or long-lasting like tonguebite could be, but the burley sure is a "rustic" taste that could not appeal to those who want smooth and delicate stuff. This doesn't mean that it's a harsh smoke, anyway! For such a tasty blend, this is incredibly easy-going and tolerable: it simply has a "presence" in your mouth which at times doesn't go unnoticed.

This is a good alternative to a classic EM, a blend you could smoke all day long without growing tired, as it's not too rich or cloying. If it weren't for the lack of "wonder factor", I might even upgrade its rating to the maximum. It's THAT good, and I might even do the update in the future...

I really expected to like this tobacco. I first heard about it as the choice of a character in a novel I was reading. I like the taste of burley. I liked the character; I even like dogs. The picture on the can is nice, too. I was anxious to try the tobacco after I read the reviews here. Alas, I could not find it in a local store. I eventually mail-ordered a pouch of it. I found it to be quite a disappointment. It is a very coarse-cut cubed burley that looks a lot like the mulch that comes out of my garden-waste shredder. It is difficult to light and, once lit, burns as though the pipe is filled with charcoal briquets. The experience was hot and harsh. I gave it three tries and then stashed the rest of the pouch away. Maybe I'll try it again someday, but probably not as long as there is anything else around the house to smoke. If you are interested in a Burley-Latakia blend, you should try C & D Morley's Best - it is wonderful. I will avoid the Barking Dog from now on.

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Time has passed, I have re-tasted the pouch of this I abandoned a year ago, and I have changed my mind about this tobacco. The rating is upgraded accordingly. The old-fashioned lawn-mulch cut of this tobacco makes it possible to pour it into a pipe and light it; tamping is impossible and unnecessary. I smoked more carefully this time to control the heat and found that the smoke was very tasty, with the light touch of latakia that I enjoy. If I have a complaint about the smoke, it is that it seems a little thin. I have obtained a large tin of this, and expect to be smoking more of it.

With the fairly recent resurgence in trying old time blends, I picked up a pouch of this to try on vacation. I like to think of this blend as inexpensive, rather than cheap. The aroma definitely brought back memories of my Dad "kicking" back in his lazy-boy on a Saturday Night watching the Jackie Gleason Show after a full work week. On to the review. The appearance is the old style cube-cut-coarse, with the burley-base the main component. Yes, there is bright virginia and latakia also. As a matter-of-fact, this was a great change of pace for this puffer. While not a big fan of high percentage latakia blends, I do usually enjoy a higher percentage than found in this blend. However, with the cooling base of burley, this is a delightful change of pace. As one progresses the length of the bowl, the flavor slightly intensifies with a nice melding of the components; but ever so gently. It burns to a nice dry dottle. This is one of those blends I like to smoke for the overall experience. A Nice Smoke.