Astley's No.2 Virginia Mixture

I absolutely love the way astley's does virginias... in my opinion they often get overlooked and overshadowed by companies like Dunhill.. #2 throws in a light but pleasant addition of perique... just right.. smokes cool.. a true medium smoke... the Virginia's are warm and earthy.. this is an all day smoke. If you like rattray's wonderful holy trinity, and you enjoy McConnell's offerings give this one a try... definitely similar yet has enough going on to stand on its own. Gonna age some. As an added note- what a great morning smoke... beautiful light lifting smoke... very gentle perique maybe a slight but well placed topping.. a gentle yet invigorating smoke.

Update! Boy oh boy is there a casing/topping on this.. some say clove.. may be true.. my overall perception and maybe it's how the flavoring tastes with the tobacco... almost honeydew melon meets candied lime (or sweet green apple?) flavoring.. very odd.. but subtle enough.. some say it's a closeted aromatic.. I just think it works..

I have often seen the word "subtle" used to describe tobaccos that seem thin, etheral, wispy, and generally just not there. In this case, "subtle" is a good beginning adjective for this fine Virginia-Perique from Astley's. "Enigmatic" might be an even better word, as I find this tobacco wonderfully mutable and varied the more I smoke it.

At the top of the bowl, the spiciness of the Perique is the main attraction, but as the bowl progresses, the tastes deepen and alternate between a mellow sweetness and a richer, meatier taste. I smoked four tins of this tobacco before writing this review and I can honestly say the taste has never bored me and I always look forward to the next bowl. Nor do I think I've done service to the complexity of this particular blend.

For a Virginia-Perique, the blend is relatively bite-free, although it will nip you if you mistreat it. I find it works well for a working smoke but really shines when you have the opportunity to pay more attention to it.

If you like heavier, more nicotine-laden smokes, this won't work for you. Otherwise, I'd say you should give this blend a try. It has become a "go-to" daytime smoke for me, knocking several worthy tobaccos lower in my rotation.

Thanks to Bear Graves for turning me on to this fine blend.

9/21/05--Downgrading my previous rating a notch b/c after smoking a lot of this blend, I find that I enjoy McClelland 2015 just as much, if not more. No. 2 is a fine achievement, but aged 2015 is better, to my tastes, than aged No. 2, and much cheaper.

A very good tobacco. IMO, almost identical to Esoterica?s Dorchester. Fruity to an almost pungent extent, and captivatingly piquant, its Virginia leaf is perhaps of a less sugary variety, and the Perique a tad stronger. Other than that I don?t see any major difference. It belongs in the same category with Solani?s 633 and Peterson?s Irish Oak.

Though I find it to be of supreme quality, my love affair with this type of Va/Perique blends is still on the making, so I much prefer Astleys? straight Virginia range (N°44 in particular).

This is simply one of my favorite blends. The Virginias and Perique come together and produce a wonderful and destinctive flavor that must be experienced to be believed. The taste is natural, sweet, a little peppery, and totally balanced and never dull. Right down to the bottom of the bowl it is superb. Everything from the ribbon cut, the magnificent tin aroma, the moisture level, to the uniform burn and room note leave nothing more to be desired except for having another bowl without delay. Highest Recommendation to all those who enjoy the taste of tobacco.

Tin note of ketchup, dark fruit and spices. Tobacco is a ready rub of tan, light brown and brown with a little dark brown mixed in. Moisture content is ok. Some pipe smokers will want to dry it a bit. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild to medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is mild to medium and very consistent, with notes of ripe dark plum, tangy raisin, sugar, musty vegetation, bread, spices, floral, wood, tart citrus, savory, grass/hay, rich earth, acidic, a zesty tangy orange peel background note, and a peppery retro. Virginia is leading with Perique supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Appearance: By a sad "tradition" the can of the German manufacturer had only the excise label as a date marker - "Q1 2021". The tobacco is a fairly typical Virginia blend, dominated by light varieties, with a little perique thrown in for show. The mixture is sliced ribbon, often there are uncut layers, similar to the broken flake, but not pressed. Open tobacco over time goes from strawy to slightly darker, gaining shades of brown. With the moisture, however, I personally had questions. The tin I opened had perfect humidity, and the tobacco I smoked was lighter (and, as a consequence, its volume for the same weight was greater) than what was given out at the championship. It burned slowly, evenly, and coolly. As a result, the test smoking for time gave me a result of more than an hour and a half. Tobacco taken from another tin, opened after the championship at the meeting of a club, was much more moist, almost sticky and didn't want to burn at all. So the quality of the tobacco is not stable.

Flavor: The complex topping of vanilla, clove, cocoa, and citrus gives it quite dense, almost chemical notes. In fact, it is chemical - they obviously didn't spare the eugenol here. The usual Virginia notes - hay, flowery herbs, bread note - come through only after a few minutes. As for the notes of perique, due to its small amount and abundant aroma, trying to catch a whiff of it is pointless.

Taste: the topping has left its mark here as well - the blend has a distinctly artificial sweetness, notes of clove, chocolate and citrus. In addition to these, the woody component is clearly felt, but there are obvious problems with the rest of the Virginia notes at the beginning. You can just forget about the perique until about the middle of the pipe, and only when the eugenol begins to actively evaporate due to heating, there is a slight hint of brine and plum flavors. Around this time, the rest of the usual Virginia flavor notes also come to the aid of the perique - some fresh bread, a little bit of hay, and a slight earthiness. As I wrote above, the speed, stability and temperature of the combustion depends on whether or not you have any luck with the can. Nevertheless, the tobacco is mild enough, it doesn't bite. However, another disappointment awaits fans of dense Virginia here - the tobacco has almost no strength. Even the largest of my Virginia pipes didn't allow me to feel any signs of nicotine kick. The tobacco burns into a gray ash, a fairly coarse fraction. The presence of moisture in the pipe depends directly on the consistency and pace of smoking, so in my case there was little of it. The aftertaste is woody, weakly pronounced, not persistent.

The smoke from the tobacco has a distinct woody, clovey smell, similar to the smoke from Djarum cigarettes. Certainly not everyone will like it.

What's the result? An unstable by moisture, obviously flavored Virginia blend of average quality with a slight hint of perique and a fairly persistent smell from the smoke. Some may like it. I, on the other hand, would rather avoid it.

The tin note is grassy with the smell of sweet condiment. It tastes condimental as well but the sweetness of Virginis is present. It is also spicy down the bowl. I would prefer a neutral Virginia but this one is not bad at all.

Once the tin opens a very sweet topping wich i cannot identify comes out.a deeper smell reveals some citruses accompanied from some plum notes.the blend texture is nice packs well,though some serius drying is needed because it's very moist.lights easy with a few relights needed through the process.while burning the virginias are the main player offering cituses.grass,dark friuts and lots of lemon notes.perique is added in small amount though it makes the difference.plum ,spices and some fig notes are working well with the virginias.the topping wich is nice is there from the beginning till the end doesn't fit the other compoments all the time because it makes the flavour sweeter than needed and some times makes the flavours one dimentional.burns fast and medium hot to perfect ash with a few moisture being created at the fliter.the nicotine level is medium and the room note pleasant.if smoked peacefully no tongue bite appaers.generally this is a pleasant alla day smoke but not something unique.though i am a va/per lover i was not as pleased as i expected from this blend.

The Virginias are soft and sweet and more breadlike than grassy, with a fruity character in the realm of peaches and pears -- as opposed to citrus. There is also a darker, raisiny bottom end (probably from the Perique, though I don't get much peppery pinch.)

Some subtle suggestion of clove, as subdued as it is ineffable, adds to the intrigue of the blend; and it complements the tobacco flavor(s) very well.

A good change of pace blend that satisfies an itch for something sweeter, with intriguing spicy subtleties; but the spice may annoy a VaPer purist.