Dunhill Virginia Ready Rubbed

Lovely sweet virgina !! Just bought lot of tins (50years approx) with perfect kept vacuum. Its a pleasure to open. 🙏 tobacco is well aged with little bit „sugar“-feeling. Wonderful in pipe .....

I loved smoking this old classic Virginia broken flake. It reminded me of Dunhill Light Flake with the strength meter turned down just a little and much more naturally sweet. Sugar crystals abounded in the 35 year old tin that I popped the lid on, and each puff was indeed very much on the sweet side. It was beautiful after dinner "dessert" smoke. Pipestud

This is a sweet smoke, with a kind of gum resin under-taste, probably due to the natural sugars in the leaf and the way it's processed and matured. Was never really into it, but I did smoke it a number of times. Mild to medium in strength, it lacks, in my view, the deeper notes of Light Flake, and it's definitely a far cry from Royal Yatch.

If anything it's very similar to Three Year Mature. Funky sweet and comfortably tacky.

Like my fellow reviewer Beer, my 100 gram tin is old - about 25 years old. The only difference is that mine has been opened. I probably have smoked at least 3 or 4 other tins of this blend when it was still available over 20 years ago, but did tire of it. My biggest problem was the floral-like smell which pervaded the taste, as well as it smoking too hot with lots of tongue bite. I contribute the latter to my still novice ways of smoking at that time, and Virginia Ready Rubbed fell out of favor.

My smoking technique has greatly improved over the years - and so did my opened tin of VRR. It was nearly full as I probably had only one bowl-full of it after first opening it long ago, but that floral-like essence was no where to be found to my great delight. What remained was a beautiful, darker in color than what I remember (mahogany brown), ribbon cut Virginia with just the right moisture content. After packing I was rewarded with a very flavorful Virginia which was in no way overbearing. It burned clean to the bottom of my pipe bowl and without moisture or tongue bite (I took my time sipping it lightly). The Virginia was still tasty after all of those long years stored away in my tobacco cabinet and the room note was commented on favorably by the non-smokers in my house. I wish it were still available as I would enjoy it again (after aging to rid it of that floral essence) for its ability to satisfy. All in all I rate it 3 out of 4 stars.

My tin was stored for about 20 years, and its seal was intact: so, I was greeted by nicely aged tobacco, in the same cut of many Dunhill Mixtures, and at the perfect moisture level! Was I eager to try it? Well, not completely: I have never been a fan of Dunhill's non-Latakia mixtures, to be honest. But, hey, why not? The tin aroma is very similar to Light Flake, but more intense. You can smell mature, sweet virginias, but also some sort of flavoring which can be described as apple-like, a bit floral in the English way. After firing the tobacco, you are welcomed by a very smooth smoke: this definitely is a sweet but not nauseating virginia, perhaps a bit monochromatic but not bad. My personal problem with it is that the flavoring, which could be appreciated by some, is a bit too evident and artificial from the beginning to the end of the bowl. It's not "bad", just "weird". With some approximation, I could say that the taste can be compared by a hybrid between a more flavored version of Light Flake and the other Dunhill classic that is Royal Yacht. Luckily the nicotine content is not as high as in Royal Yacht, making this blend much more tolerable. Tonguebite is completely absent, in spite of a very pronounced but still delicate sweet taste that can be enhanced by slow smoking. An offbeat virginia, not as pleasant and "straight" like some of my favorites (McClelland, for example), but interesting.