Tobaccos Borkum Riff - Cherry Liqueur

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3046)	2012-09-16		Very Mild	Strong	Very Mild	Pleasant

The cherry liqueur is very syrupy with a noticeable chemical taste. The lightly nutty, woody, earthy burly, and grassy, tangy citrusy Virginia are fairly sublimated, though they would show up a little after the half way point. The strength and taste levels are very mild. Virtually has no nicotine. Burns hot, quickly, and will bite even when puffed slowly. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but no dottle. Requires a tad less than an average number of relights. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering room note. An all day smoke.

-JimInks

12 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2004-12-19		Very Mild	Extra Strong	Mild	Pleasant

Dastardly, despicable and a downright abomination.

Shame on me. I knew better.

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jacinto Cupboard (209)	2014-03-08		Mild to Medium	Very Strong	Mild to Medium	Overwhelming

I bought this on a whim, knowing full well its bad reputation. Can a brand that has survived decades really be so bad? Yes it can.

There are probably low production cost issues that keep this sort of tobacco on shelves while esteemed brands disappear. Ribbon cut virginias predominate here, and these tobaccos, prior to casing, might well end up in cigarettes as well. Certainly this tobacco burns very hot and very fast. I would never risk a pipe trying it, but I have little doubt you could light up a bowl of this stuff, come back in 25 minutes and find it all burnt to a white ash.

So what is happening with this tobacco? Who smokes it and why? I think the answer is special occasion smokers and newcomers to the pipe. It stays lit by itself, pumps out a huge amount of cherry scented smoke to tell the world a pipe is alight, and is mercifully short. For the life of me I couldn't get a bowl to last longer than 30 minutes. I honestly believe the label tells no lies here. I think some nasty cherry liqueur HAS been sprayed abundantly on this tobacco, and the sugars and alcohol function as accelerants.

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Glorfindel (86)	2019-09-17		Mild	Mild	Mild	Very Pleasant

I have had many experiences with Borkum Riff over the years, mostly for the good. This blend was a pleasant surprise. The pouch aroma is wonderful with hints of cherry but mostly a full, rich pipe-tobacco scent. Upon lighting, the cherry note is light and compliments the burley and VA very well. As the cherry casing fades the tobacco flavor and strength begin to dominate. If you like the nostalgia of a classic cherry pouch blend that's widely available, give this one a try. You could spend a whole lot more and not do much better. The price and availability of all Borkum Riff mixtures have inducted many a pipe-smoker over the years, and this blend is no exception.

Pipe Used: Any

Age When Smoked: New Pouch

Purchased From: PipesandCigars.com

Similar Blends: Drugstore Cherry Blends.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	wintermute (90)	2019-04-25		Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I suspect that the majority of reviewers who trash this blend do not like Cherry in their tobacco. I can appreciate a good cherry so here we go. The Virginia and Burley tobacco are top quality. The moisture level in the pouch was just about right and the cut makes for easy packing. The pouch aroma is that of good tobacco tipped with a cherry liquor. That is important because the taste is more liquor than cherry to me. It lights well and provides a decent amount of smoke. The taste is just like the aroma in the pouch. To me, the Burley comes through very nicely while the Virginia stays in the background. The Cherry acts to sweeten rather than turn this into a cherry bomb. The room aroma is more tobacco than anything else. I am saying that the room aroma will not win non-smokers over only because of the tobacco side. There is actually not enough cherry in the aroma to cover it up. The same is true with the taste. There is quality tobacco with some cherry sweetness, but it is more of a liquor sweetness. I am reminded of Sir Walter Raleigh Full Aroma here. SWR is much more more Burley based, but it you love that blend, like I do, you should try this. The taste remains the same down to the bottom of the bowl. The ash is find and jumps out with a tap or two. This will ghost your pipe so be advised. This review is brought to you by a guy who trashed Captain Black Cheryy, but loved Peter Stokkebye's Cherry.

Pipe Used: MM Legend Straight

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

Similar Blends: Sir Walter Raleigh Full Aroma.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Duke Nukum (16)	2016-03-15		Extremely Mild	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant

Admittedly, it has been many years since I tried this but I remember it clearly. A mixture of light and dark tobaccos, ribbon cut, quite dry. Strong aroma of artificial cherry. Lights easily and burns like paper. Also tastes like shredded cardboard infused with cherry flavouring.

Don't smoke in a pipe you ever intend to use for anything else.

Pipe Used: Dr.Grabow bent billiard

Age When Smoked: As purchased

Purchased From: Generic tobacco shop

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	incognitopoet (37)	2014-10-03		Overwhelming	Extra Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable

This was my first tobacco. I bought a Dr. Grabow "Duke" and a pouch of this stuff in the spring of 1984.

The pouch smelled really good, at the time. Smoking it was another matter entirely. It was really wet, so it was steamy. The charring light offered the only time that I could actually detect a cherry-like flavor. After that my tastebuds were too burned by the steam to taste anything.

I now understand that the steam oozing out of the bit of the heavily- varnished cheap pipe was a blessing in disguise. If I had been able to taste anything, my pallette would have been subjected to the flavor of burning cherry-flavored plastic. Just imagine taking some cherry cough drops and burning them in a cast iron skillet. I remember having a terrible cough just from the tiny amount that I accidentally inhaled.

This is the kind of product that turns people away from pipe smoking. Unfortunately many first-time smokers start off with something like this, and the pipe ends up in a drawer for a year before finally making it to the trashcan.

Pipe Used: Dr. Grabow

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: Drug store

Similar Blends: Burning cherry cough drops.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Zero_Gravity (5)	2014-08-05		Strong	Medium to Strong	Overwhelming	Very Strong

Most foul tasting product I have ever smoked. Would never bother with this brand again even if it was free. The smoke was full of chemical, and the taste before and after was very bad. Could not even finish a full bowl.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-09-18		Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable

After a 20 year hiatus from this blend, I just, groan, endured a bowl of this junk. After half a bowl I gave up and lit a cigarette just to try to restore my palette.....didn't work!

While this stuff smells rather nice in the pouch, once lit in the bowl it stinks and as far as taste goes, I haven't a clue....it turned my tongue into leather from the very first puff. Burns very hot in the bowl and there's lots of gurgle in the bottom of the bowl.

I found this strong and offensive. The room note is what I consider just tolerable.

Getting the junk out of my bowl was a chore. It wanted to glue itself in there.

Now I remember why I used to mix this with Amphora Regular 20 years ago. I would have thought BR would have got this one right by now.

Believe me....STAY AWAY from this stuff!!!

Oct.3 2009 Update:

I've found a way to make this horrible stuff at least tolerable: Mix it 50/50 with Amphora Mellow (yes I know, what a terrible waste of Amphora Mellow) and let it air dry for a week. It will bite a lot less once all the volatile oils have evaporated and I actually found it improved the room aroma a wee bit. Sure, it burned a bit faster but no hotter....how could it get any hotter? Besides, short to tossing it in the bin, what better way to use up a costly, but crappy tobacco quickly!

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	dbl-bbl (45)	2018-03-09		Mild	Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable

WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING ? ... all the negative reviews and I thought I could potentially find some redeeming qualities that others might have missed from "Bark-n-Ruff" ... well it didn't happen. After smoking this mess ... I shred the tobacco pouch and loaded it into my pipe ... it smoked much better than the tobacco !!!

Do yourself a favor ... just don't do it !

Pipe Used: Poor Old Corncob Ruined for Life

Age When Smoked: Freshly Terrible

Purchased From: Name has been withheld to protect an innocent retailer!

Similar Blends: Throw away the contents, shred the pouch & smoke it ... the pouch smokes & tastes much better.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stonedsour (8)	2018-02-15		Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

There is a very good reason why there a so many negative reviews. I've only been smoking for about a year and i decided to pick this up at a head shop instead of going to a proper tobacconist. Big mistake.

It burned so hot my bowl was radiating with heat and burned my fingers. The cherry flavoring is very artificial, very unpleasantly so even for a guy who likes sweet tobacco. On the pouch it says half of the blend is made of virginia's and cheap virginias too. I've heard the taste of them compared to pencil shavings and its bang on. It also gets very wet in the bowl and gurgles a lot.

For newbies who think this would be a good starter: go to your local, proper, tobacconist and pick up a house blend aromatic. Its from them where i started loving pipes. I'm sure you will too.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Greekpipesmoker (201)	2017-01-21		Very Mild	Strong	Full	Tolerable

Well after a 50 g pouch there's my opinion.when you open it you get cherry in a bad way.more moist than should,it needs a bit drying.when light you can feel the moist through the puffs.bites a lot even if you go easy.burns the bowl a lot.and destroys your aftertaste.the nicotine is really low here and you don't taste the virginias or burleys as a result of chemically blended.

Age When Smoked: After 2 weeks

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Rubagalline (6)	2016-04-27		Mild	Very Strong	Mild	Pleasant

It came as a gift, it left as garbage. R.I.P. Too gross for my tastes. If you have a sensitive tongue like I do, You'll feel like a plastic film put on it... It's like a condom for your tongue that somebody eventually sets on fire. On the bright side, at some point the burley will pat on your head in the attempt of uplifting your mood. The room note pleased my partner (but she can damn well forget about it). One star for the recovery is definitely possible.

Pipe Used: Savinelli 310 (briar poker)

Age When Smoked: nuclear

Purchased From: TBBC

Similar Blends: Chili condoms.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	chetking (54)	2010-08-22		Strong	Medium to Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable

Couldn't help but notice all the failed ratings for Borkum Riff Cherry Liqueur from fellow reviewers so I went out and bought a pouch as I am a fan of sweet cased aromatic varieties. Hate it when one of these gets ripped to shreds in the reviews.

But the critics are absolutely "spot on." Riff is an old, respected house and considered a premium blend among supermarket and drug store customers - but apparently some of their batches imported these days to the U.S. are simply sub par.

It kills me to say it about a sweet cased aromatic - but this tobac is simply dreadful. Reminds me of the moist concoction tobac derivatives used by hookah smokers.

Only way I could salvage any of it without tossing was to mix it with some Admiral's Choice Cherry Cavendish from the CVS Pharmacy. And then on about a 5 to 1 ratio so it gives you an idea of what is going down.

Emitted a totally bitter taste from light up to cool down, didn't stay lit, left a goopy after burn and after taste as well - all the pejorative qualities that make up one lousey smoke. I've got a pouch of BK Cherry Cavendish and I'll open that one soon and let you know. Astonishing and shocking. Rating: Thoroughly Unacceptable...

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JustMe (4)	2020-04-18		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I am a fan of Virginia/perique blends. However, once in awhile stray back to old standards like Prince Albert, Half and Half and Velvet for nostalgic purposes. I smoked Borkum Riff Whiskey blend back in the day. Smoked pretty hot, but never tried the cherry liquer. Ordered a pouch just out of curiosity. Albeit, a lot of reviews claim it is hot and overly cased, I found this to be pleasant and not gooey or cloying. I will agree that it burns faster than flaked tobaccos, I did not experience tongue bite. Enjoyed this very much.

Pipe Used: Petersen 3/4 bent

Age When Smoked: Newly purchased

Purchased From: Cup o Joes

Similar Blends: Macbarren 7 Seas Cherry..

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2081)	2017-12-07		Mild	Extra Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Borkum Riff - Cherry Liqueur.

I had to wait until I'd stopped guffawing to be able to type this: Pipestud's review of it made my day! I don't think he's a fan ;)

Two words would do as a review of this: strong aromatic! Right from when I stuck my nose in the pouch this was the situation: stone me, it reeks! The blend contains three colours, light, medium, and dark brown. There's no problem with my pouch's moisture.

It lights easy enough, and then goes like the clappers: hotter than hell and as fast as Usain Bolt. Don't expect much tobacco taste from it, or even ANY: it's 100% topping. The cherry liqueur is like a dichotomy of fruit and toxicity: a sweet leading taste with a chlorine-like background note. Mentioning the tobacco flavours would be moot as I can't taste any.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: nice.

If Cherry Liqueur thinks its sorry ass is going to be saved by the redeeming feature of quite a nice room-note it's wrong! Not recommended:

One star.

Pipe Used: Cob

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stinkypipe (155)	2017-01-23		Extremely Mild	None Detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Unnoticeable

I had a little of this at a football game because I forgot to bring a supply. My friend offer me some of this. I was appreciative to smoke anything until I lit it up. Good Lord is this awful stuff. Like smoking a throat lozenge. My friend asked me how I liked it and I smiled and told him not bad. I was truthful as it is not bad......it's friggin awful! This is almost the worst I have ever smoked. No stars for me but a great big trash can!! I will not go into tin note (cause it doesn't come in a tin but a sack) or room note or heaven forbid taste. Avoid this like it's medicine cause that is what it taste like.

Pipe Used: I threw it away

Age When Smoked: Does it matter?

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jestersage (1)	2015-05-25		Strong	Very Strong	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

A jar of this stuff was given to me by a friend of mine. Since I need to burn-in my clay pipe, I figure I would use this jar of stuff to do so. Nope -- not even clay pipe can save this blend.

There are a few problem of this blend. First off, it has this artificial flavor that seems to be just slightly better than those employed by cigarettes, so the flavor is strong in a bad way. Yet at the same time it definitely is strong in nicotine (surprisingly). Now I like my tobacco strong, but only when both my tastebud and my head come to the agreement to the feeling.

The other problem is that it will clog up your pipe during smoking. For clay pipe this is an even greater problem, since airway for the pipe is much smaller than those of wooden/corncob pipe, so much that you are unable to smoke more than half a bowl because it simply refuse to burn through the remaining bowl properly if at all -- you just feel your draw to be worse and worse in the same bowl, until you just cannot draw at all with half a bowl to go. Now I have not encountered the souring problem, but do note that I used my clay pipe for this.

So I decide to do a try with a woodie MM which I have broke in somewhat... in short, it BURNED away quite a bit of the sidewall. Good thing MM woodie is just as easy to replace, but I am still miffed. Picture this: MM woodie is probably one of the most common drugstore pipes, and the tobacco managed to ruin the bowl.

In short, if you have any pipe that you remotely like, do not put them into the bowl. I am not even letting it touch my tobacco pouch.

Pipe Used: Clay Pipe, MM Woodie

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	mmjk (4)	2015-02-08		Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant

Borkum Riff Cherry Liquor is typical in it's fashion. Once properly set out this makes a fantastic Cherry tobacco with a wonderful room note. No tongue bite unless you are a soft Virginia only kind of guy. A must try for aromatic smokers.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Harleykop (4)	2013-02-26		Medium to Strong	Very Strong	Medium	Tolerable

I bought a sample pack of Borkum Riff. Cherry Liqueur is smokeable but barely. The chemical taste is obvious, the tongue bite almost painful. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-06-28		Mild	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant to Tolerable

Bought this from a local discount tobacco shop (not my usual fine tobacconist), thinking it would be smokable. Ugh, that was clearly an unreasonable expectation. What I got was smokable, in a sense, but airy, ashy, cigarette-like tobacco with minimal flavor. I can't honestly say if it was all the tobacco's fault, because what I got was bone dry, golden colored tobacco without almost any noticeable casing, much less the gloopy red mess I've heard from others. Taste and strength are negligible, except for an extreme bite and ashy chemical smell. Room note seems like it'd be not too objectionable.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-04-23		Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild	Pleasant

In the pouch, this stringy, fine-cut mixture has an authentic cherry liqueur scent, behind which some huskier tobacco scents can be detected.

A blend of cavendished bright VAs and burleys along with a significant portion of black cavendish, the flavor tilts to the darkly sweet end of the spectrum. And though sweet, it is not jarring, and the topping does not intrude.

Cavendish fans will find Cherry Liqueur to be contemplative and quite refined. This will ghost a briar and seemed best in narrow to medium gauge chambers.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Fofo (81)	2009-02-14		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Not bad but nothing great either. A bit too dry. I'd smoke this again if I can't find anything else. Be careful because it bites.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stoney (2)	2021-09-24		Mild	Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable to Strong

An exciting blend of burning car tyres, burning plastic and chemical artificial cherry. This is the pipe tobacco you get a new pipe smoker to smoke so they know to never ever go down that road again. Gastly

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	FlatCapMatt (59)	2021-06-08		Mild	Very Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

Just get the cherry cavendish one instead.

This doesn't have anywhere near as nice of a cherry flavour or aroma as the cherry cavendish.

Maybe try it if you think the other one has too much flavouring. It was disappointing to me.

Pipe Used: Missouri Meerschaum Corncob and Hardwood

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: tobaccoblends.com.au

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-07-05		Very Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

I have received a few pouches of this as gifts over the years, and it must be said that the blend has improved a bit over the decades that I've been familiar with it. Still, this is a mediocre blend at best.

Upon initially opening a new pouch, one is greeted with a powerful maraschino cherry aroma. I happen to love cherries, and find this an irresistible invitation to load up and fire away. Sadly, the smoking experience goes quite downhill from there.

Borkum Riff Cherry Liqueur is very moist upon first opening, is not at all appealing from a visual standpoint, and feels not unlike cold spaghetti to the fingers as one loads up. It is a very difficult smoke to manage effectively. One must sip very slowly to avoid tongue bite, and this means frequent relights as the mixture just won't stay lit unless you constantly draw upon on it. Even when sipped cautiously, one will still find their pipe gurgling away by mid-bowl.

Flavor is another disappointment--weak and insipid, there just isn't much here. This is a very light burley mixture, and the primary flavor note is that of very mild Burley with additions of sweetness and a Merlot-like tang from the cherry casing. Acrid, ashy off-notes are also ever-present here. Note that I said Merlot, rather than cherry. The lack of genuine cherry notes here was another letdown.

On a positive note, the blend does present a pleasant cherry aroma to the nose and elicits positive reactions from those sharing the room. Truly, this is a blend that may well be enjoyed more by the bystander than by those smoking it.

All in all, this blend is generally not recommended. This was the first blend I ever purchased when getting into pipe smoking decades ago, and it was such a difficult and unrewarding exercise that I was left to wonder if pipe smoking was even worth the bother. Absolutely not recommended to the beginner, this may hold a few rewards for the experienced piper wishing for a very light blend that will likely please those around him.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	22yrsonthepipe (22)	2012-01-16		Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Unnoticeable

I must have got an old dry packet as there was no goopy red mess. What little taste I can detect is actually a very pleasant nectarine/champagne like flavor. Nothing at all resembling cherry.

My local tobacconist in New Zealand tried to sell me this a while back and that pouch had a strong artificial-cherry-flavored-medicine aroma so I decided not to be extorted the US$40 a pouch of tobacco costs in NZ.

The Australian stuff is quite different, it has a very mild almost undetectable nectarine pouch aroma similar to the taste, which is why I decided to give it a whirl, as I love nectarines.

Another typical tasteless Borkum. If there was more flavoring it would not be that bad at all. It has slighlty more detecable flavor than Borkum original, Vanilla cavendish and Black cavendish so it gets two stars.

If you want a good "drug store" cherry, try the Borkum cherry cavendish (the crimson pouch), it is vastly better than this and actually tastes like real black cherries.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	atomicbuster (79)	2011-08-28		Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Unnoticeable

In my locale, there are only 2 otc brands available: Captain Black and Borkum Riff. I tried nearly all the CBs and they actually weren't that bad. I figured I would try BR so I purchased this Cherry Liqueur and Bourbon Whiskey (reviewed separately). It was only after I had purchased these and a few other tobaccos that I started reading tobaccoreviews.com. Well here's my experience. Please pass it on, especially to newbies.

I read that it tastes like chemicals, burns the tongue easily, and leaves a bad room note. I think someone complained about it leaving a goop in the bowl after smoking it. I've read that it ghosts your pipe. To reduce the possibility of goop and bite I left it open in its pouch for 2 days. It was fairly dry when I smoked it. It started OK, but there was very little flavor. I had trouble keeping it lit. I think because of the frequent relights and the irresistable urge to puff harder to try to get some flavor, you end up getting tongue bite. So I let it cool about a minute between relights and I relaxed my puffing cadence. It bit much less. Now for me, there was never any cherry flavor, not even a scent in the pouch when it was first opened. What I tasted in the smoke was plastic. Very unpleasant. Some of the worst cigarettes I've smoked tasted better than this smoke. It left a stale aroma in the air afterwards, worse than the aforementioned cigarettes. At the very least it did not ghost my pipe, maybe cuz I only allowed the smoke to take 15 minutes. Lastly, although it was not cheap at $10, I couldn't force myself to consider smoking another bowl ever again. I tossed it in the garbage. The Bourbon Whiskey was only marginally better, but still bad. I can't recommend this tobacco when the other otc brand does it so much better.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Arkie (129)	2011-01-25		Mild	Strong	Medium	Pleasant

Over the last 40 years I have tried all the BR blends. Even the ones such as cognac blend and rum blend which are no longer available. IMHO, Of all the BR blends, the black cavendish and the cherry liqueur are the only ones that are bad. It's true none of them are top notch but they are better than most OTC blends.

As others have noted, cherry liqueur is syrupy and goopy and it does bite. Another BR blend, cherry cavendish, is often confused with the cherry liqueur blend. The cherry cavendish is ok.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-01-08		Extremely Mild	Extra Strong	Overwhelming	Overwhelming

This was the second pouch I bought when I first started pipe smoking. I walked into the smoke shop and asked what he recommended, and was then told that "this one is popular".

Packed a bowl of goopy red tobacco into a new missouri meerschaum, and attempted to light it. Finally it did light, and then it bit my tounge.

I then threw the missouri meerschaum and the pouch into the trash. This was, and still is, the worst tobacco I have ever smoked.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-10-16		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I bought this from a local smoke shop; I was looking for the Cherry Cavendish. This one is very mild, the cherry liquer is there but is almost non-existant. Instead of sweet cherry you get a sour cherry-like flavor to it. The burley and virginia compliment each other in there own right but this is only one tiny step better than the whiskey blend they have.

If you can't find the cherry cavendish, keep looking. The smoke shop owner told me this would satisfy me until they recieve the cherry cavendish. LOL DOn't believe the hipe, keep looking or go for Captain Black Cherry if you just need a cherry flavor to carry you through.

Some people might like this blend, but it certainly is not for me. I bought the pouch 6-months ago and the pouch is still full!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-08-03		Mild	Mild	Mild	Tolerable

I bought a pouch of this stuff a little while ago. I told the lady at the tobacco shop I wanted to try something different so she pointed this out to me and said a lot of her regulars buy it. The tobacco itself smells really nice. I've been told there is nothing really special about the room note by those who are around me when I smoke it...don't really get any compliments on the smell. It burns the mouth when you smoke it. I don't know if it's because it burns so hot or what, but to me it's starting to taste more and more like smoking burnt plastic. Has a really nasty chemical-like aftertaste to it. Won't be buying it again.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-05-04		Mild	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant

This "thing" cannot be identified as tobacco.

It bites terribly.

It deserves to be punished.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrDyson (148)	2009-11-15		Mild to Medium	Very Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Blecchh!!! I wish - oh, how I wish - it were possible to give a negative quantity of stars! Borkum Riff Cherry Liqueur is a crime against humanity; it really is.

Having been invited to try it, I did so out of curiosity, knowing I probably wouldn't like it (because of the flavouring). Why review it then? you ask. Fair question, I suppose; but I wanted to try to be objective, and to broaden my education. What a mistake! God, this is horrible! Until last Friday, Craven Aromatic and Craven Ready Rubbed were jointly at the top of my list of tobaccos to be avoided. They've just been demoted to joint second by this filthy stuff. I wouldn't wish it on Dr Goebbels.

Isn't it amazing, how the tastes of human beings can differ! So many excellent tobaccos have disappeared over the years, yet wretched offerings like this continue to be produced – and, presumably, find a ready market. There must be people out there who buy this evil substance and smoke it for pleasure!

I know – I don't understand it, but I know – that some people like their tobacco to taste of cherries. Cherries don't taste like this, though. The flavouring reminds me of the very cheap soft drinks that one used to be able to buy as a child. "A delicious blend . . . cool smoking . . .". Don't believe it, people. I've sampled some pretty blasphemous tobaccos in my time, but seldom, if ever, anything as deplorable as this. Cherry Liqueur is hotter than Satan's chestnuts, tastes like second-hand sandals, smokes wet, and leaves a liquid in your pipe that you could probably develop film in. O Lord, it's bad! It also leaves behind a ghost that will wail at you for ever. Frightful. Absolutely abominable.

A positive point: governments wishing to discourage people from smoking could sponsor stuff like this. There's absolutely nothing else to be said for Cherry Liqueur. It's a horrible travesty; the kind of profanities that would best describe it are probably not allowed on this site. The ascetically minded might like to consider smoking it during Lent, as a penance.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Hawkeyeted (16)	2008-09-20		Mild to Medium	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

OK, I didn't believe anyone on this one, so I had to try it myself. Do yourself a favor - DON'T DO IT! In my admittedly non-professional opinion, the cherry topping is overwhelmingly artificial and doesn't even smell good in the room. If this had been my first tobacco I'd smoked, I would stopped right there and never had taken it up.

1 person found this review helpful.

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	Papillon6 (24)	2008-07-13		Medium	Medium to Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable to Strong

Ok, if you like cherry flavoured tobacco pass on this one. It taste more like plastic then cherries. The only good thing is the room note, but not the taste. It has an ok tobacco base quality wise but the cherry casing is horrendous. It is not the best of the Borkum Riff line at all and I didn't finish the bag. Borkum Riff is known as a not so bad 'drug store' brand that I pick up now and then as a replacement to 'proper' tobaccos. It's cheap no matter what other flavour you try so it ranges in taste from 'cheap' to 'worthwhile'. Their other blends aren't bad but this on is not good at all unless you want to burn it as incense over a fire. Don't know if they use a natural casing or not but I've tasted many other cheap cherry blends that didn't go down so nastily. Sorry guys but your casing is made from recycled tyres or something.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	churchwarden398 (19)	2007-09-25		Mild	Very Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

Some years ago, this was in my opinion the best of the Borkum Riff offerings. I went back to it several weeks ago. After a ten year hiatus. It reminded me of that song "Good Morning Starshine" from the 60 or early 70s - "Gloopy,gloop,gloopy;gloppy glop,gloppy". I am so glad I did not waste it on my favorite pipe. Paper-thin strands of tobacco wannabe. It did light. I enjoy pipe smoking and I even enjoy the cleaning process.It was a wise decision to smoke this in a corn cob.I hate to see a good corn cob meet its end. It was either that or smoke it a beloved briar and end up calling the nearest HAZ-MAT team. This deserves one star

1 person found this review helpful.

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	SopwithCamel (255)	2006-11-06		Mild	Very Strong	Full	Pleasant

This blend is for people who want to smoke a pipe without knowing they are smoking tobacco.

It reminds me of how my wife drinks coffee: 3/4 a cup of cream or milk, 1/4 cup of coffee, 4 tsp. of sugar. Need I add she doesn't like coffee...?

1 person found this review helpful.

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	Pkloop (53)	2005-01-01		Mild	Very Strong	Medium	Tolerable

Last few weeks I've had a cherry craving. Now I don't. In fact I don't think I ever will again. While not horrible this blend leaves one wanting something. What is that something? A bowl of something resembling tobacco thats what. Rev 1/1/05 Happy New Years

1 person found this review helpful.

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	Emeritus Account (30167)	2004-11-20		Mild to Medium	Strong	Full	Tolerable

I don't think I fancy another shot of this liqueur, unless I'm in need of something to top off some kind of cyanide concoction. A goopy, stinky, cherry overdose, with what tastes like poor-quality leaf (insofar as the casing allows one to taste anything, ever again) to boot. Perfect for repenting sins, and giving to enemies as a Christmas present.

1 person found this review helpful.

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	Emeritus Account (30167)	2003-09-25		Strong	Very Strong	Overwhelming	Tolerable to Strong

I?m pretty tolerant of Borkum Riff, I?ve been generous in other reviews of their products but I have to draw the line on this one. Don?t believe a word in its description. This is not high quality nor is it a light aromatic blend. There is no exquisite taste and aroma with the sweetness of a fine cherry liqueur. This is sickly, sweet cherry liqueur that overwhelms any tobacco taste that might be present in the pouch. The flavor when smoking is so pronounced that you could be smoking anything but tobacco because you can?t taste or smell anything else. It might as well be shredded newspaper with cherry liqueur. If you have to smoke Borkum Riff cherry at least smoke the Cherry Cavendish but beware this blend unless you want to see just how bad a blend can be.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JaWiBr (558)	2022-12-15		Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Very Pleasant

Package note of apricots, cherry syrup, and liquor. Tobacco is ribbon cut and mostly dark brown with a little black and tan. Moisture content is a little high, drying may be needed. Burns fast with few relights. The strength is mild and nic is very mild. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of sweet cherries. Taste is mild and consistent, with notes of mildly spicy, woody, mild sweet grass, dry earth, mild toasted bitter nut, a mild lemony background note, and a peppery retro. Flavoring is leading but gets overtaken by the dry Burly at the halfway mark, when the flavoring begins to wane. The Virginias are supporting throughout. Room note is very pleasant, and aftertaste is good.

Pipe Used: 2015 XXX Ashton Brindle Author

Age When Smoked: 3 years

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CatGat (4)	2021-10-10		Very Mild	Very Strong	Overwhelming	Very Pleasant

Borkum Riff Cherry Liqueur has a very pleasant note, which mean that pretty much anyone, with the exception of the most zealous of anti-smoking folk, will tolerate that you light up even when standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them. However, the room note is the only redeeming feature.

The smell of cherries right out of the pouch remind me of those little paper tree-fresheners you hang inside cars. That does not make me more amiable towards this one, to say the least... It seemed quite dry in the pouch, maybe due to the fact that the stuff was a bit old when I bought it. I dare not even think of how a pouch might smell when completely fresh.

As for smoking, this option is pretty much on par with tearing up a cherry tree-freshener as a substitute for tobacco. It is a very fine-cut tobacco, so keeping it burning is no problem. You must, however, be careful with the pace; puff too fast and you will feel as if you recieved a sip of very concentrated cherry-flavoured riot control agent. Of several aromatics I smoked, this one is probably one of those that gargled the most. The pipe I used to smoke this smells distinctly now, even after a salt and alcohol-treatment with 160 proof rum. Hence, you might want to think twice before sacrificing an expensive pipe.

With all this considered, I dare suggest that there are better options than this if you want a cherry aromatic or if you want to smoke Borkum Riff.

Pipe Used: Cheap "basket" pipe

Age When Smoked: Unknown

Purchased From: Supermarket

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	Curtis W (4)	2021-02-28		Strong	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable

Terrible! It tastes just like it's name—some sort of cheap cherry vodka. It bit my tongue and left it sore for days. I would never buy again.

Pipe Used: Meerschaum cob

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	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-11-03		Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium	Tolerable

New to pipe smoking and this about turned me off to it. This is the worst crap I have ever smoked. I became ill feeling after putting this poison into my body. Do not make the same mistake and buy this crap.

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	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-04-14		Medium	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I guess you get what you pay for. This was my first blend and, though I enjoyed it the first times, I can't imagine myself having it again after trying better matches for my aromatic cravings. Chemical taste, a lot of tongue-bite.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-10-24		Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

This stuff is the worst tobacco I have ever smoked, bar none. A strong, overwhelming chemical taste; very acrid, just plain awful.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-09-28		Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Vile!!! its like smoking a cigarette inside a pipe, and watch out it burns HOT! I'm not gonna buy this crap never again

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-10-05		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

I bought this as a trial bag at a shop that sold bulk. I liked the aroma of it in the jar, so I got a sample. Big disappointment! This stuff is, how shall I put it, vile. It is like a stale cigar with nasty chemical sour cherry flavoring. It is only slightly less vile than Capt. Black Cherry cigarillos which are quite nasty themselves. I only smoked the rest of this stuff as I was out of tobacco and didn't have the time to get to my usual tobacco shop for some "good stuff." Don't bother with this stuff.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-07-25		Mild	Medium	Mild	Tolerable

I don't remember this tobacco being as awful as majorly claimed by my fellow reviewers. But I didn't smoke a lot of it and threw it away after a week because the casing had dissipated and the tobacco tasted like air.

I smoked this a while ago, in my first couple years as a pipe smoker. I thought then that Captain Black was good tobacco.

But I didn't know better at that time...

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-11-24		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

This blend seems to be in every tobacco shop and drug store in the country, that is the USA. I bought my first pouch in 1978 when I was a newbie pipe smoker. I thought at the time it was decent, smelling nice, like an aromatic should. The way it tastes and smells are quite different. Not a strong Cherry flavor, I think I was looking for tobacco that tasted like candy, this tasted well, like tobacco. It wound up in my sock drawer, and kept the socks smelling nice for many a year. I tried other Cherry tobaccos through out the years, and most of them taste like cough syrup, which has made me hate Cherry tobacco. Tried a new pouch of this stuff late last year for nostalgic purposes, it has become expensive ($6.50 opposed to 90 cents in the 70's), still has a nice room note but no flavor. It also bit my entire mouth, not just the tongue. People must like it because it's everywhere, maybe it is good for keeping sock drawers smelling nice, which is where my new pouch is.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-10-23		Medium to Strong	Very Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable

I have only been smoking a pipe for a few months at this point, but I know that this one is something to avoid. I bought a pouch of it from my local smoke shop, because the price was a few dollars higher than the other pouches beside it and I (VERY MISTAKENLY) mentally equated that with quality. I tried it in a pipe I wasn't overly fond of anyway, thankfully, because I don't ever want to taste that again. It tasted like someone was spraying my tongue with hot, wet, sour cherry pits. I feel I must emphasize the "sour cherry" part of this review, as that is the most terrible cherry taste I have ever experienced. I threw the pouch away at that point, I can't imagine wanting to try that ever again, and I sure don't want to torment my friends with that.

I hope I don't have to bury my pipe to get away from that awful memory.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-09-25		Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable

The local smoke store owner knows that I've been trying a lot of different things of late and did his best impression of a side show hawker to get me to buy a pouch of this. Though it had two strikes against it as far as I was concerned, (I've tried other Borkum Riff blends and didn't like any of them, and the fact that I've noticed that not a single pouch has been sold out of the display), I finally agreed and bought a pouch.

I have come to the conclusion that he clearly hates me. Either that or he is desperate to get rid of the stuff. I have always liked the smell of cherry in a pipe tobacco. I have yet to find one that doesn't taste like vomit.

First, this stuff bites. Not kidding. Secondly it actually made my cob gurgle. I've never had a tobacco that could make my cobs gurgle before. I'm glad I didn't try this in my good pipes. My wife claims that the room note isn't very good and she'd rather I didn't buy 'any of that carp' again. She doesn't have to worry.

I won't throw it away. There is always the chance I will run into someone born with no taste buds who might like it.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2009-05-20		Medium	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

"Be careful because it bites. OK, I didn't believe anyone on this one, so I had to try it myself. Do yourself a favor - DON'T DO IT! Why, oh why did I do this??? Dastardly, despicable and a downright abomination."

AWFULL!!! HORRIBLE!!! PLASTIC TASTING!!! "DON'T DO IT!!!" This stuff needs taken off the market...can you spell G R O S S???

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-12-19		Very Mild	Extra Strong	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant to Tolerable

Why, oh why did I do this???

One word sums up this noxious blend.....Eeeeeeeeeew

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2006-06-22		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant

I started pipe smoking a few months ago and this was one of my first two blends that i purchased. The first time i smoked this blend, it was right out of the just opened pouch and it was horrible. It was acrid and bitter.

Well I just purchased a new pipe, dr grabow duke - bent, and the first thing i tried was a blend of Prince Albert and Captain Black Cherry that refused to light. So i dumped that out and filled my new pipe with Borkum Riff Cherry Liqueur.

Well the pipe is misdrilled, the air channel from the bowl hits the middle of the filter. So basically i smoked it in an unfiltered pipe.

Well it was a wonderful smoke. It was generally very smooth and mild. The only tongue bite was at the charring light, initial and two relights.

I had a verry hard time detecting a roomnote, but the taste was wonderful. Not only did i get a good strong taste of chocolate (think high end Belgian chocolate) but it had a strong hint of cherry in the background, and i do NOT mean artificial cherry kool aid flavoring, i mean fresh, over ripe cherries you just picked from the garden.

Well I need to update my post on this tobacco. I am seeing that the packaging has changed so maybe the formula has been changed. At this moment I need to include the fact that the compounds produced by this tobacco stick to your pipe like fresh manure to your shoe treads. Very hard to get out, actually, i dont think i have gotten it out. and ive sanded the chamber down to bare wood twice now, and scrubbed it out with high proof alcohol many times. As well as smoking some extremely goopy products from tobacco galleria. OTher wise its a great tobacco.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2003-09-25		Medium	Extra Strong	Overwhelming	Pleasant to Tolerable

Well, Borkum has capitalized on yet another opportunity to follow a bad idea to its ultimate conclusion. The composition of tobaccos "a delicious blend of light aromatic Virginia and rich, cool smoking Burley tobaccos" could be anything, 'cause there is no room for tobacco flavor in this experience.

I had to try this on my quest for the ideal cherry blend, but had my already low expectations dashed after trying a bowl from a friend's pouch. I almost gave up before even trying as the sticky texture was horrid. About 1/2 a bowl was more than enough for me.

My recommendation: do not insult any pipe you respect with this blend.

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