Borkum Riff Mixture with Bourbon Whiskey (Bronze)

I have smoked this several times over my pipe smoking career and have never been able to get attached to it. This is one of those drug store blends that I buy because there is no tobacconist for miles and I?m desperate. Every time I end up with tongue bite and a nasty taste in my mouth. I?ve never been all that good at smoking Danish blends and maybe I just smoke it too hard, but I?m always sorry I purchased this one. I never can taste the whiskey unless that is what is so hot. Some day I would like to try the cherry version of this however I?m afraid that one will really be a scorcher! Some day , somewhere in a small town out of the way I may meet a bag of cherry Borkum R. and we will see just what kind of dare devil I can be.

well i have to start out saying,this isn't what i expected,i didn't taste the whiskey,it initially had some tongue bite,although slight,it went away the more i smoked it.i expected more of a aroma,by the smell of the pouch when first opened it i figured there would be more of a aroma.it certainly isn't strong so i would say its good for newbies.i would buy this in a pinch.

My Dad smoked this, so in his memory, I decided to give it a try. The pouch aroma took me back to when I was a kid and would smell the contents in the black and white pouch with a picture of a sailing ship on it. And there ends anything pleasant I have to say about this blend. There are drugstore blends I can tolerate, and there are one or two I'd say I like. I enjoy all types of blends, aromatics, english, crossover hybrids, burley-based, VAs, etc. With Borkum Riff Whiskey, where the flavoring failed to disappoint me, the smoking characteristics and flavor of the crappy tobacco when it finally made its appearance took over where the atrocious casing left off. Sorry Dad.

Never again. Not if it was the last tobacco on earth.

I signed on to this site as a reviewer just so I could pan this tobacco. Once upon a time, I decided to quit cigarettes and smoke a pipe, actually a small collection of pipes inherited from Granddad-decent pipes. So off to the drugstore to get, you guessed it ?Borkum Riff-Whiskey?.

For two hellish months of torture I dump bowl after bowl of soggy, gooey, sticky, smelly, nasty, putrid remnants of each end bowl trying to learn ?technique?, build cake, packing, etc. with my pipes. The physical effects of this experience included tongue incineration, scorched mouth, nausea, sinus headaches, you get the idea.

Finally, I switched to a real tobacco and the story has a happy ending. Smoking real tobacco in a briar pipe is a joy to me today.

For the uninitiated to this concoction: BEWARE-STAY AWAY FROM BORKUM RIFF!!!

Wwow!! when you smoke this stuff you had better have a fire extinguisher ,or a bucket -o- water around because this stuff burns hot! hot!! hot!!! I could not get this stuff to burn cool no matter how I packed the bowl. I found the tast to be too much for me as well. I suppose the the room note was o. k. Not recommended.

I smoked this on occasion back in the 1970's and to tell the truth, either I have changed over time or the tobacco has changed. I won't bother to go over the smoking qualities since there a gaggle of reviews on this blend already and I aggree with almost all of them.

However, let me point out and recommend to everyone that if Borkum Riff Whiskey or any flavored whiskey blend is a factor to the taste buds. Then forget this stuff!! Try Finck's Whiskey from Finck Cigar Company. It's made by Peter Stokebye and is a hell of an improvement over this p*ss soaked cardboard from Borkum Riff.

After years, I tried this stuff again for a bit of nostalgia. Bad decision. It is sad that this is one of the main offerings to newer pipe smokers.

This gunk, packed into a Dr. Grabow, touched off by a match produces a blowtorch effect that could cut a rusted bolt off of a battleship anchor.

The room note is o.k., but what would you expect from boiling caramel? I like my wife's Yankee Candles too, but I have never felt the need to dump the molten wax on some Burley and light it in a pipe. I rated the flavoring as strong, only because it is unrestrained topping dumped on Burley. I have no clue as to the quality of the Virginia because all semblance of tobacco is eclipsed by the cheap flavoring.

My only regret, aside from trying this stuff again, is that I actually have to give this stuff a star. There should be a no-star catagory for assaultive sugared-up goop.

Produced in Denmark for the Swedish Match Company, Borkum Riff Whiskey is an easily accessible and low cost tobacco mixture that is not necessarily favored by dedicated pipe tobacco smokers.

The pouch aroma is of flavored figs and is certainly one-dimensional. There is little doubt that Borkum Riff Whiskey has a medium strong casing. This blend is comprised of lower quality Virginia and Burley tobaccos. The color of the blend has an even distribution of dark brown, light brown, and orange/yellow shades.

The cut is somewhat crude and resembles a refined shag cut. Packing is simple and the initial moisture is not overwhelming, but nonetheless it needs some drying. Borkum Riff Whiskey, if allowed to remain exposed to the open air, will not dry completely but instead remain slightly spongy. The heavy addition of a humectant to this tobacco blend is responsible for the aforementioned characteristic.

Lighting of this blend is simple enough and the burn of Borkum Riff Whiskey is quite rapid, uneven, and leaves dottle in the darker colored ash. A good amount of gooey resin is always present at the bottom of the bowl by the end of the smoke. The room note tends to be somewhat ashy.

The whiskey component cannot be detected easily in the flavor of this mixture. Instead, a bland and at times sour ashy taste remains painfully present in the flavor. Little true tobacco taste makes itself know while smoking this blend. Even when forced dried, Borkum Riff Whiskey still bites and tends to leave an unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth.

Although Borkum Riff Whiskey may certainly not be the worst of the convenience store pipe tobacco blends, it still falls short of being a decent tobacco.