Borkum Riff Mixture with Bourbon Whiskey (Bronze)

Borkum Riff- Bourbon Whiskey Mixture

Well I can’t say I expected much from this one, I was gifted the pouch from and in law earlier this year. I stuff this away into a container with my other assorted tobaccos. I found this pouch today and am smoking it currently.

Pouch note is very nice as is the room note, tobacco tastes okay, get some hay Virginia’s and a little touch of cavendish on occasion, the bourbon is mostly non existent.

I am not an aromatic fan, and will say avoid this, buy yourself a bulk aromatic from Lane or Sutliff. The pouch is not worth the price.

Now to figure out what to do with this stuff. Hopefully the in laws don’t ask how I liked it.

Just awfull tobacco. No flavor, no strength, no taste... is just bland. Like smoking grass that you find on the side of the road. Also burns extremely hot. For me it was just fuel for nightmares, and I feared for the integrity of my pipe.During my pipe tobacco blends exploration phase this was one of the lowest moments, and I will never try another Borkum Riff again, unless recommended from a very reliable source.

All I can taste in this blend is cheap whiskey. I get no tobacco flavor at all. I know many people smoke it, but this blend bites my tongue like a rabid badger. I can't get past a third of a bowl.

This now goes under the name of “Bronze” it is truly awful. It burns fast and very, very hot. It had little smell from the packet and even less taste, no bourbon or tobacco, just horrible heat. I tried it in a selection of bowl sizes and also my Churchwarden, that particular pipe calms the most savage of heat yielding baccys but not this vile rubbish. I got this ad a gift, I had previously tried BR cherry and that wasn’t up to much either. Never again will I put a match to a Borkum Riff blend.

I really don't like bashing blends, but this really isn't a good one. I didn't enjoy the first pouch, found it dull and didn't like the whiskey aroma. Gave it an honest chance by buying another bag later on, but no improvement for me, sorry!

Reading some of the reviews here and am floored by all the one star ratings. When I first started pipe smoking twenty some odd years ago this was one of the first blends I tried. I'm not a fan of Borkum Riff, but I've been playing around with this one. I usually smoke Smoker's Pride Whiskey. Sutliff also makes a wonderful Whiskey Cavendish, but it's a little on the sweet side. Think of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears if you choose BRW. In this case BRW is the Pappa Bear of the three brands: strong and straightforward with less sweetness. If you dry out on parchment paper 6-8 hours, the flavors are more well rounded. It doesn't burn as hot and offers a dryer smoke. This makes a good mixer. I have a special blend called Bad River Blend with BRW as the base, Toasted Cavendish and Dutch Masters President cigars for a smoky, creamy note. Turned out to be a very pleasant smoke. If you like strong, straightforward blends with less sweetness this might become a staple in your stockpile. Some people complain BRW is too bitey. Actually, what you're tasting is the burn of the alcohol playing off the sugars in the virginias. The burley is smooth throughout minus the sourness.The black Cavendish balances it all out. The key is to air this out over night to acieve the best flavor. Aging in mason jars highly reccomended. So for it's versatility, decent flavor, price, room note and sticking to honest ingredients I'll give it three stars.

My nephew gave me a sample of this after I told him I had never tried it. It is something I did not want to spend money on as I feared I would not like it. I am a huge whiskey fan as it is always my preferred alcoholic beverage when given a choice, but I have yet to really find a whiskey flavored tobacco that I really like despite trying several. My favorite so far is Peterson's Irish whiskey; and I think that is more out of the base component tobaccos than it is about the topping(s).

I have often seen BR's bourbon whiskey referred to as "bitey" and I often chalk this up to inexperience of the smoker as it tends to be a pervasive over the counter blend that a new comer to the hobby would see in a lot of tobacco shops. Now that I have actually smoked this blend, I can see where it would be seen as "bitey" as it did get pretty hot on the tongue when my concentration slipped.

As to the whiskey flavor, I found it light and inoffensive, but it was nothing like a nice glass of Woodford Reserve on the rocks. As to the underlying leaf, there was nothing to write home about here. No deep earthiness like the aforementioned Peterson blend.

To its credit, I did not find this blend to be goopy like a captain black blend or something such as that. This is likely due to the fact that this is a European aromatic and also, the reason I tend to prefer European aros over our American version of the same.

To this end, I did not really like this blend, but did not really dislike it either. I am leaving it a 2 stars as it did not repulse me enough to throw it out.

I smoked this couples of days after trying the Borkum Riff Original When opening the package, you can get that strong smell of whiskey. I love the flavour, and after only 3 puffs, I get that nicotine stroke which made my head spins. In overall, it was an okay smoke, not to good, but not too bad However, when mixed with Mac Baren Aromatic, with a bit of Wo Larson Belle Epoque (i have no idea what this means), the flavour is blend in to absolute perfection. Everything you want in a pipe tobacco is there, the flavour, the smell, the strenght,... I've been having a hard time finding this pack again I recommend this to smokers who have the patience to get other blends ti mix it with, and wait for the flavours to marinate

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.