Borkum Riff Mixture with Bourbon Whiskey (Bronze)

As I am relatively new to pipe tobbacco, having returned to it after years of not smoking at all due to work requirements, I have little by way of comparisson. So from a new pipesmokers perspective:

As I opened the pouh the first time, the scent of Bourbon was quite potent. It actually overpowered the scent of the tobbacco. Once the tobbacco had been lit, the flavour of Bourbon was present, But not as overpowering. It was quite a Nice flavour and kept that flavour through out.

My wife not being a fan of any whiskey did not enjoy the scent. She noted that it did Get to be a bit much whiskey. (She prefers the scent of vanillas etc ahead of this one. It has however grown on her and she claims it a taste she can aquire.)

Let me start out by saying that I may not be a Virginia fan. I mean, most of the virginia tobaccos that I have reviewed have gotten pretty unenthusiastic marks from me. Here we go with another less than wonderful blend. The smell out of the pouch is grassy and reminds me a lot of Sail or something close. I do n’t really smell the bourbon. The stuff packs well and it arrived at a good moisture level. The thickness of the packaging seems to have done a good job at keeping it fresh. It takes a couple of charring lights to get started and another full light to get the smoke going. The taste is of grass and a little earth. Again, the whiskey seems to be missing. In fact, this could almost pass as Borkum Riff Original if I didn’t have the pouch right in front of me. The aroma is that of a good Virginia and nothing else. By the way, the wife gives the room note a thumbs down. As the smoke continues, there is a little whiskey in the aroma, but it never shows in the taste. The burning quality is good, but you will want to keep your lighter handy if you start to talk or put the pipe down for any reason. There is no tongue bite and the taste is super mild. The ash is fine and there is no dottle left in the pipe. Although I do admit that the pipe tends to gurgle a little because I puff a little fast to get flavor or to keep it lit. Pouches are getting too expensive for such a lack-luster performance. But I can admit that others may find a lot here, but I found very little. Back to the Burley tobacco for me!

Not so terrible as described. The choice (ingredients’ selection) is ok: Virginia, Black Cavendish and Bourbon Whiskey blended together (really I don’t know if before it was better because I didn’t try the first “version” Virginia, Burley and Bourbon). I like this kind of flavoring (bourbon, rum, whiskey, cognac , brandy and so on) because I think it’s a perfect marriage. With these flavorings you can always perceive the tobacco. And indeed, in this mixture you can always savor the taste of tobacco. But it’s essential take care when you mix with others seasonings. I mean that if you are employing some spirit as a chief ingredient, consequently you have to be careful with the “casing” and with the final “top dressing”. And in this mixture you can perceive a bitter aftertaste, probably due to the wrong combination of some seasoning, incompatible with Bourbon Whiskey. For these reasons, in my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 6 and two stars.

The current version is both better and less so in some respects to the older version I smoked twenty plus years ago. The basic flavor seems consistent but lacks that extra bit of sweetness that rounded it out, likely due to ingredient restrictions these days of coarse. On the other hand, there is a real improvement over the older version that had a high amount of stems that were processed and incorporated into the black cavendish part of the blend that seriously affected the smoking experience. So, It's a smoother blend these days with a dark semi sweet character that is uniquely it's own and hard to describe. It doesn't taste or smell like whiskey. It's reminiscent of molasses, chocolate truffle and maybe a bit of dried fig. This is a dryer blend for an aromatic typical of European black cavendish along with the larger proportion of golden virginia it's blended with.

On a side note, I was reminded by this blend of the older Balkan Sobranie from the early 90's, it's base of light and dark virginias which I understand was cased and stoved-cavendish to make up the dark component. It is surprising how well this newer Borkum Riff works as a base for an English mixture; Just add turkish and latakia. It's not Balkan Sobranie but nevertheless it really works.

Living in a place that has limited available opportunities to buy pipe tobacco at a decent price. My go to tobacco was sold out and this was sitting there. I bought a pouch. I opened it and it was as dry as dehydrated water. There was no pouch note. No taste it burnt hot and bit like a rabid dog. Tossed the pouch. I am not going to rate this low nor high. I might amend my review at a later date.

I bought this in a pinch at a mini market.

Nice pouch aroma, looks really pretty in the pouch too. Nice fluffy ribbons that are easy to work with. Lights pretty easily too, with e few charrs to get it going.

The initial light gives a nice vanilla bourbon flavor that is unusual to a non aro smoker like me. The flavor is simple and the topping dies down a third through the smoke. It can nip at your tongue easily if you smoke it hot. It's not a great smoke though altogether. Pretty bland if you normally smoke something more complex. It'll do in a pinch, but may end up in the trash by the end of the day. Meh, 2 1/2 stars maybe. Moving on.

Aroma in the pouch is really compelling: sweet tobacco with a trace of woodiness most likely from the Bourbon. Moisture is perfect and the cut is a fine ribbon easy to load which burns evenly but, as every Whisky or Whiskey flavoured blend, it tends to smoke hot so you need some care to keep the right pace; despite the heat it doesn’t bite at all, it also has a nicotine level a bit over the usual border for this kind of blend. Taste is woody and sweet, it actually reminds to Whiskey and wife she loves the room note (surprisingly more than I do), all in all a decent blend but... unfortunately starting from the mid bowl it gets sour, this unpleasant flaw is the only real one I can tell but serious enough to ruin the smoke near the bottom.

I bought a pouch of this over the weekend because I was completely out of tobacco and wanted something right away, rather than ordering my favourites from online and having to wait a few days. Nearly $60 Australian for one 50g pouch of this. OUCH!

It's just very "OK" to me. It does the trick in a pinch, but I would not be buying this normally.

It smells nice in the pouch, but basically like every other non-fruity aromatic. I can't really smell any bourbon.

Smoking it, I can't really taste bourbon either. It burns my tongue pretty bad, but I puff pretty fast. I don't like having to constantly relight my pipes so I probably smoke them too fast.

Maybe it's because I hadn't had any pipes for a couple of months, but this stuff has been hitting me with a fairly hard nicotine kick. I had to put the pipe down before it was finished once, just because I was worried I'd start feeling ill.

I smoked this outdoors once in company with some cigarette smokers. One commented that she could really smell my tobacco, and I asked her if it smelled nice. The answer was along the lines of "not really nice, just different." So I probably wouldn't recommend this one to someone wanting a really pleasant room note.

tl;dr It's OK in a pinch, but not something I'd buy normally.

In the 1970s and 80s, I smoked the black and white tin Borkum Riff Whiskey and liked it very much. In time, I drifted into mixing my own blends as I think most of us do eventually. Recently, for the sake of nostalgia, I bought a pouch of the Bourbon Whiskey blend. It's true, you can't go back. The blending has changed to a degree that it's too sweet for me---leaves a bite I don't remember from the old blend. If you are on the road and forget your tobacco pouch, this would be an OK "drugstore" substitute; otherwise, might be best to wait until you get back home.