Borkum Riff Mixture with Bourbon Whiskey (Bronze)

First smoke, descent, good room note, burns all the way down. No bite but just not my kind of tobacco. It doesn't have much flavor at all. I enjoy Carter Hall more, and will return to its mild taste again. I will try a few more bowls of BRBW and update my review later.

Okay, I've had more than enough bowls to know what I think about the "Riff" It's a good smoke, but nothing to write home about. Now I don't know how this blend was so popular in the 70's but it was.

Was the 70's blend different, because I don't taste anything!

I smoked two packages of this tobacco in a row this year. And I can say that, if you look for a tobacco which has a mild flavoring and taste, you had better to try this one.

Sweet burley, smokes very coolly. Aftertaste always gets me in these drug store baccys. Good price and I don't mind a bowl every now and them.

I have always preferred the aroma of someone else smoking this tobacco to the experience of smoking it myself. Although there are dissenters, most find the room note of Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey pleasant. As of the date of this review it is listed on this board both as "whiskey" and "bourbon whiskey" with about the same number of reviewers under each rubric. Since its introduction in the mid 1960's (if memory serves me correctly it was not until 1968 that it was imported to the US) this has been a good selling and widely available blend. Nevertheless, reviewers on this board have been largely negative, with more "not recommended" ratings than any other.

The current pouch identifies the contents as 35% black cavendish (burley?) and 65% Virginia. Smoked carelessly, it will bite like a constipated badger. Smoked carefully, it is still bite prone for smokers with sensitive tongues. Personally, with a relaxed puffing cadence, and remembering to hold the pipe in my hand and not clench it in my teeth, I can smoke it without biting.

The pouch aroma is somewhat mild for an aromatic. So too is the taste, a taste which I find pleasant, although not something to write home about. I doubt seriously that I could identify the taste as bourbon in a blind test.

I normally have about five tins or pouches open at one time. On the fairly infrequent times that I have Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey as one of these, I smoke it as often as the other blends open. When I do not like a tobacco, I cut it with something else. I have yet to find one that I cannot finish even if my cutting may create something far different from the original. (In over five decades, I have smoked well over 500 different tobaccos.) But I have never been tempted to cut Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey.

Bottom line: for me, this is a two star, "somewhat recommended" blend, but a two star rating given with a caveat for pipe smokers easily susceptible to tongue bite.

I gotta say I think this blend has gotten a little bit of a bad rap. Other reviews have mentioned tastes like tar and other off flavors. I certainly did not find these flavors, but that's the point. I did not find any flavor at all.

The packaging is so very elegant, the pouch aroma is nice, the room aroma is nice. The cut is just grand, and the moisture content is perfect. The only thing this blend is missing is taste. A little taste and this stuff would not be that bad.

Bourbon is not a very subtle flavor. If something is flavored with bourbon, it should be relatively easy to pick out. I taste absolutely nothing here. Not bourbon, not nothin. This stuff should be title "Borkum Riff Bland Steam" That would be an accurate name.

One mans trash is another mans treasure. This is by no means disgusting, and may be just what you are looking for, but for most of us, it caused us to just keep looking.

For me my oppinion, is only a very regular, common, Virginia-Burley Blend. Somewhat bitter taste and also slight large in Nicotine than desired and tendence to give Tongue Bite, and very dry. Not bad, but not remarkable also very similar to cigarrete tobacco. .

I first smoked this blend in Savinelli Oscar Elite, which is a giant size bowl. When smoked slowly I found the blend quite pleasant with very little to no tongue bite. As for the Bourbon, I could really only pick this up when smelling the pouch. But I will try again. The room note is pleasant enough. This is an ok aromatic blend, though far from spectacular.

I bought a pack and decided to smoke some. Like many have said it has no taste of either bourbon or whiskey but it has some taste to it. The scent it gives of when you smoke it is really good in my opinion. I really can't imagine people complaining about the room note, but know that the taste isn't as pleasant. You can get TB from this smoke but to get around it you simply don't take to heavy drags, not that hard to get around. I need to relight this a few times when I smoke it. Perhaps I'm a bad smoker but it just doesn't keep lit in the pipe. I think it would be a much better smoke if they had more of a tobacco flavor to it, it is somewhat mild for me. The fact that is has no distinct taste probably make it a good morning smoke after breakfast or with a cup of coffee. You don't want to have this as your main stock but it is both affordable and decent enough for you for a quick smoke IMO.

I really can't see people who bash this tobacco as hard as they do, it isn't a top notch tobacco and is a fairly cheap one. You really can't expect too much of such a product! It isn't as terrible as some say but I would not recommend you to smoke it in a designated pipe. It is a casual smoke now and then and should be take for what it is. It leave a nice aftertaste in the mouth that last for a ½ hour or so.

Don't get me wrong when you read this, you really shouldn't go out looking for it but if you come across it give it a try. Just don't expect to much from it.

I found this blend spicy and aromatic but I could not detect the Bourbon Whiskey. My strongest memory of it is the lingering aftertaste, which reminded me of premium cigars. So, I could recommend this blend to cigar smokers and I might give it a second chance myself - if I ever miss that odd aroma.