Borkum Riff Original

This is actually a very good aromatic. At its price point, I expect it is a competitor to Captain Black. It stands well above the Captain in my opinion.

The package notes about chocolate and fruits is pretty accurate. The room note is pleasant for bystanders.

This is one mixture with which I can actually taste the Virginias. That makes this a great experience for me, being able to taste the Virginias in the mixture.

I have found this tobacco can be harsh and will bite if pushed too much. By sipping. I get the most out of this tobacco. It reminds me of MacBaren products in this regard.

So, if you like aromatic tobaccos, this is a great choice for a drugstore type tobacco. I was very pleased and it exceeded the low expectations I had set for it.

I tried this mixture a couple of times. When I open the packet, I first enjoy in the smell that comes out. It says that it has 'chocolate, prune and fruity notes.' And it really smells like there's chocolate and prunes in there. This tobacco has a good moisture and when I fill the pipe it lights well and it smokes nicely. I usually have to re-light it a couple of times, but it's more of my fault, because I tend to wander away with my thoughts. I would prefer it if it had a bit stronger taste, but it's also not to strong, so if you are just starting to smoke, or if you're looking for something light to smoke throughout the day, this is a good choice.

Although this is called a drug store tobacco, few drug stores actually sell pipe tobacco anymore. Thus, the price on this pouch is a bit high for what it is and one needs to have a healthy nostalgia fix in place to buy it. My pouch was pretty dry and I had to sprinkle some water on it and wait about an hour. When I opened the pouch, it smelled like chewing tobacco. The cut was nice and it packs and lights easily. The taste immediately reminds me of Sail Green, only with more flavor. It is primarily Virginia and a little Burley. The other flavors like vanilla are very light indeed and need to sought out. The first of the bowl is aromatic enough for the wife to tolerate, but it is not the smell of baking cookies by any means. It is simply the smell of gass and some vanilla which eventually turns more like natural tobacco further down the bowl. Lots of thick smoke and little tongue bite. Just go easy and all is good. It will start to gurgle and I use a pipe cleaner during the smoke with most aromatics anyway. When you are done there is a fine ash that practically falls out of the pipe when knocked. This is important to me in that I think it speaks to the purity of the product. And nothing is left in the bowl save only the ghost of the flavor. So, for those who smoke many kinds of tobaccos, I say dedicate a pipe to this for the duration or smoke other Virginia blends that can get along with their grassy brothers.

I bought a sample pack of Borkum Riff as it seems to be one of the more readily availible tobaccos in the uk. The first thing I noticed was that it was very dry, meaning it was very easily lit. Infact one breif lick of a match was all that was needed for the whole bowl. I have to say there was no immediately noticable flavour, but as I sipped away very subtle notes of vanilla came through. I smoked the bowl very slowly and had next to no tongue bite but suspect if smoked any quicker it would have been very unforgiving. All in all it was not an unpleasant smoke, but is certainly not a game changer for me. There was a plesant aftertaste and the bowl was very dry at the end, no goop left at all - to be expected from such a dry mix.

So I got this blend in a starter pack, and due to bad ratings, I decided not to open it first. Instead, I went with some very tasty aromatics that were very pleasant. After a couple of months of trying some different tobaccos, I decided to open up my BR original. I went into this with an open mind even though I had read some poor reviews. Alas, my open mind was closed quickly. Opening aroma was not bad, but tobacco seemed very dry. Char light was easy, and it kept alight well. However, the bite hit pretty quickly, and I never really recovered. This was my first smoke that I had to keep short, and I only managed half a bowl until I gave up. At this very moment I have replaced it with a wonderfully smooth molte dulce from Suttcliff, and once again I am happy smoking my pipe. I don't even think I will keep my BR original for emergencies even. Sorry BR!!!

When I first began pipe smoking this was my first tobacco. Back then it seemed nice. But recently I went to buy another pouch of Borkum Riff because I was out of tobacco, didn't have much money on me and I was curious about it,to see if the pleasant memory I had was real. It wasn't. The tobacco seemed perfectly fine, for a low end one, but when I lighted it it was terrible. I recall there were tears coming to my eyes. The synthetic taste was so overpowering I did three or four puffs, took the tobacco of the bowl, cleaned it very well, and put the pouch of BR right in the first garbage can. Will never bought this tobacco again, unless I hear it have changed. If you're a new pipe smoker and don't want to spend much money on your first tobacco, and want a mild but pleasant smoking experience, buy Amphora Full Aroma instead, because this is a genocide for your taste buds.

This is a perfectly pleasant tobacco. Nice vanilla aroma and taste, no real tendency to bite. Maybe not up there with the greatest, but nothing much wrong with it in my opinion.

It's not often I write a review of a tobacco I doubt I'll purchase again, but it's not so much a review as a note to my future self should I be tempted again...

Based on a prior experience, years ago, with one of Borkum Riff's cherry blends (it's always a bad sign when the tobacco reeks through the sealed pouch, and a worse one when it's so moist it needs more to be wrung-out than dried-out) I haven't bothered with their offerings since. Oh, temptation! I added a pouch to an order. Upon lighting up, the first few puffs were a revelation! Tobacco! The taste was somehow reminiscent of cedar pencil shavings, in a good way. Then the additives kicked in, and took over the whole experience. I found little tobacco satisfaction, mediocre flavouring, and next to no nicotine kick. And as the reviewer Craig noted, the bottom of the bowl proffered a very unpleasant chemical experience.

If this is your thing, enjoy. I think that, for me, there are too many aromatics of much higher quality, in the same price range, to bother.

Hello folks! This particular Borkum Riff is probably of the most neutral tobaccos I have tried, with a slight vanilla flavoring, that, at least to me, is noticeable enough! It is better than SKANDINAVIK Vanilla, but slightly reminds me of it, and its strength is mostly Mild. The only reason why I put 'Mild to Medium' is because it somewhat affected my throat (more cough etc), and because it overheats easily! I mean, not only had I tried the first 3-4 draws, when my tongue was bit, and the pipe was almost heated(and although I lack pipe experience, this seldom happens to me at the very first draws of my pipe 'sessions')! It might be that my tobacconist hadn't preserved it appropriately, but I don't think that's the case, because he keeps all tobaccos in a humidor, and most of the pouches I have bought, are fine! I recommend it to beginners like myself, because it is highly aromatic, pleasant, and the others around you might as well love its odor and not complaint about your smoke!