Ashton Artisan's Blend

If you are an English Blend lover this is simply a must try. Exceptional quality. Nicely blended. It's complex but not scatter brained. sweet, salty, and spicy all in the right balance to my tastes and a very smooth mouth feel.

I also enjoy Lancer's Slices, Westminster, Stokkebye Full English Balkan Sasieni and others. But this is my current #1 "English" blend.

I cant' guarantee this will rock your world. We all differ in tastes and preference. But it is certainly an extremely well done English and you owe it to yourself to give it shot.

I wanted to try something different other than my usual Dunhill Early Morning/Nightcap, so I picked up a tin of this on my way to Goettingen. I am fond of Latakia and Perique in English blends, but I found maybe this product has a bit too much of both to be really enjoyable. The initial aroma on tin opening was spicy, so my first thoughts were of strong Latakia, but the flavor on the first pull to the bowl bottom were not what I would consider well-blended; it kept shifting. If this is your sort of thing, then I recommend it, but I enjoy a consistent flavor throughout a smoke...

Additionally, I found this product to burn much hotter than my Dunhill typicals. If you are so inclined to pick this up, easy does it, unless you like tongue bite. It gives a nice hefty dark grey ash and packs nicely into the bowl. As I stated, my only complaint was the variety of flavor throughout the smoke.....

I quite enjoy this blend. I tried it while on a random buying spree @ the local tobacconist and never looked back. I smoke primarily MAGNUM/GIANT pipes and this tobacco really opens up nicely in the huge bowl. I am a BIG fan of Perique, in fact I can still smell this blend now as I write (I am not smoking it presently...LOL). I found this to be a much better smoke if done so quite slowly and not with smoke billowing out of my mouth but allowing the smoke to subtly engulf your entire head, just enjoying the fragrance one puff at a time. This greatly enhances it's flavor (as it should). I definitely found that the strength of this one enhances as you make it past the 1/2 way point, although this may again be because of the size of pipe I smoke it in... Overall a great smoke for me.

I will add a more fleshed-out review another time, but I had to add another 4 star rec for this blend. Very comparable to GL Pease's Blackpoint, but with the increasingly rare syrian latakia instead of cyprian latakia. Highly praised, highly recommended.

This is a good creamy smoke with a hint of perique.

that complements its creamy taste in a way that makes the flavor into something that you look forward to.

eat a bit before you smoke it its not terribly strong but definitely have some coffee with it. its is a great mid-day cup compliment.

its seems to dry out fast if left in the tin so maybe use a jar or a humidi pac or something.

this stuff and some boswells northwoods are great to switch out in a rotation.

Awesome.

High qualities tobaccos blended in a complex mixture. I love the perique of this blend.

Can't stay without this tobacco for long. Tried several other Latakia blends, but no one so far can compare to this one. It doesn't always taste good, when I'm not up for it it's to bitter and tary in the mouth. I usually smoke it one bowl out of four, but when I really feel for smoking it's wonderful. Very full bodied, let's out big, thick clouds of smoke. Burns quite quick so sometimes I need to smoke two pipes to be satisfied. The taste is something like: smoke leather bitter pepper sweet wood earth tar. Maybe doesn't sound to good, but that's how i like to describe it.

if you like latakia you would love this tobacco otherwise dont try it.im a fan of english blends so i loved it.its a very good mix of latakia with turkish orientals and very little virginia so you wont trace the sweetness that much,more spicy than sweet. lovely mix.

I've mainly been smoking VA/Per & straight VA blends & I have now tried several Latakia blends. They all start off OK, but bite like hades during the second half. I'm giving up on English blends, but will still pursue the Balkans. Will probably start mixing my own. Moisture content seemed just right out of the tin & had a good burn rate. Strange how Latakia seems tasteless but you know it's there because of the smell and bitey/numbing mouth feel. It smoked very mild (inhaled) and had a fairly good nicotine content. This is a pretty good English that smokes well initially, but must be finessed during the second half. It's just not exceptional IMHO & therefore, I will rate Artisan's Blend two **s only because of tongue & palate discomfort which requires days to recover. Can only be smoked occasionally & couldn't possibly be an all day smoke for me!