Just For Him Ruins of Isengard

My favorite tobacco out there! Just amazing how the flavors and smells come together in this cool, well behaved blend. The smoke seems thicker than normal comming from this blend, probabley from better lighting and burning than most blends. The Middle Earth series is a masterblended series and not some cheap knock off from a movie in order to make money.

Couldn't resist--smoked a bowl of this last night while reading about the destruction of Isengard by the Ents, in a Savinelli Gandalf churchwarden.

I like this blend. I smoke aromatics, with a few drugstore burley blends as well, but this is a good cross-over for me. The latakia was very noticeable but balanced, no bite, lit well and burned well, only one re-light. I would recommend to aromatic fans looking to broaden their horizons. I have no insight into the minds of the non-aromatic smoker.

updated my review, room note is better than tolerable.

I found that I really liked this blend at first, it reminded me of butterscotch and caramel with just a hint of latakia. The thing was that while I really enjoyed it at first it got to be just to sweet for me in the long run. I found that it smoked just a tad to wet and goopy for me and the sweetness hung in my throat and I started getting soar throats after every smoke. With that said, I loved exhaling this one through my nose and it has a wonderful room note! Sometimes I just opened the baggie to smell it and then put it away to smoke something else...

Delicious

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I am normally a burley man but this mixture is supurb and will be in my pipe often, may become my regular blend even. I has a soft creamy taste with a sweetness from the virginias but I never detected a casing or infusion flavor at all. I belive the dark cavendish is of the natural toasted variety. There is some Latakia in this but not strong, just enough to give it a toastiness. I smells sweet in the bad and the room note is wonderful. Like sweet fruitwood burning in the fireplace. This is the best of the middle earth series and in my opinion the best JFH blend of all..It tastes good from lighting to the bottom of the bowl. I love it!

I am fairly certain that ROI is one of my favorites in this sampler, Old Toby being the first.

ROI is a very generous blend. I believe it to be the stronger of the group in terms of flavor and strength.

Very nice smoke for when you just want to be.

Just moved over from STM in Just For Him's Middle Earth Sampler. It was like a lighter tasting STM for me. The room note a bit sweeter and not offensive. Burns hotter, can't puff on this stuff too fast (not that you should anyway!). Lots of creamy looking smoke though... Just the stuff to practice your smoke rings on. I find it a bit of a plain smoke... but I like Latikia and can only taste a hint of it here. Burns down to a nice white ash like others in the Middle Earth series. I found it overall just okay.

STM was the first I tried in this series. I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd try the others. I was expecting ROI to be just okay, since it didn't get quite the rave reviews of STM. I was wrong; this is a subtle, well-balanced blend. Nutty and oakey right from the first light, cool burning, no hissing. All-around this is very pleasant. You can't beat the price. I'm impressed with the Middle-Earth Pipeweed series so far.

Terrific Smoke! Still have not decided which one is my favorite STM or this one. It arrived a little on the wet side, needs a little drying. When you open the bag it strikes: Latakia! My precious! Very thick smoke as other JFH blends, very enjoyable. Hard to catch the other tobaccos (burley, VA, and the two Cavendish) by themselves but the blend definitely works. Just great!

Update: The only thing is that this is not STM

Okay--It seems like a lot of people head toward the Lord of the Rings tobaccos. But a name is just a name, and your tastes shouldn't be swayed by the idea of smoking a tobacco in a churchwarden pipe just because that's how Tolkien's literary characters smoked in the movies.

That said, this is a great blend. Not quite as good as Shortcut to Mushrooms (ironically from the same Middle Earth tobacco series from JFH), but different enough to stand on its own. It has a good, thick flavor and leaves a very pleasing aftertaste that almost commands you to relax. Give Shortcut to Mushrooms a try, but keep some Ruins around for it's more pleasing room note and social smoking situations.