E. Hoffman Company Spilman Mixture

I'm on my fifth tin of Spilman Mixture now, having first tried it about five years ago. This is a mild and cool-smoking blend that I can always trust to provide a reasonably-priced and consistently flavorful smoke.

While the tin aroma is rather musty but not unpleasant, Spilman Mixture when lit yields a sort of "red velvet cake" flavor, sweet but subtle and almost creamy thanks to the burley used. Along with that flavor, there's also a sort of antique furniture aroma, delicate, dry, and almost phenolic. Combined, these two elements provide a taste that's even and pleasant, yet shifts around elusively to provide a stimulating, intriguing balance.

The room note of Spilman Mixture reminds me of somewhat sweet and smoky single malts like Scapa or Inchgower.

I received a sample from a pipe smoking fellow from Switzerland. The cut is coarse, with heterogenous cuts and colours from light to dark ribbons and cubes.

The smell is special as it is very distinctly peppery and smoky yet has enormous sweetness to it.

I took a small canadian Saint-Claude pipe I use to test Latakia blends in an stuffed it for my test drive. First puffs are of very sweet, sugary and irresistible high quality Virginias married to the smoky, peppery and velvety tones of the Latakia. The Orientals give some herb, spice and slightly floral hints to the mélange. The Burley? They give a nice round nutty and toasty taste to this beautiful mixture.

Light, utterly charming and an all day mixture which I highly recommend. One small issue is I believe it smokes a tad too fast.

I'm not even going to try and figure out if I got a bad tin or not. The aftertaste I have in my mouth right now is something I don't ever want to risk tasting again. This blend has a mustiness that is akin to mildew. I could barely taste any real tobacco flavor because of it. I'm done with this one.

I know this blend will not affect everyone the way it does me and I don't want to trash it for what is likely just my personal taste but.......Spilman mixture smells or taste or both like a wet dog to me. I don't know about you but that flavor is not one I crave in a smoking tobacco. I am aware that others like this blend and as I stated it's just me with doggie thing but I can't handle it. Spilman gags me!

I confess, I bought my first 7oz tin of this because of the tin design. It just looks old-timey. The tobacco within more than lives up to the motto on the tin. "Without a bite or a regret." A wonderful mixture that I immediately knew would be in my rotation. Just a trifle damp from the tin, five minutes cures that and then its smooth sailing the rest of the bowl.A smokey blending of burley, VA, latakia and some turkish results in a very enjoyable experience for the novice and the experienced pipe smoker. The tobaccos compliment each other throughout the bowl with no particular one overpowering the others. I can't wait to see what a year or so in the cellar will do for it. Five stars for all around enjoyment. Maybe its an English but if it is, then its a very American-English. UPDATE 01 FEB 08: I liked the first tin of this blend so much that I bought two tins this time expecting to smoke one and cellar the other. I received them yesterday put one in the cellar and opened up the other. Disaster. Foul, chemical, YUCK. I don't know if its a quality control problem or this tin(dammit) probably both of them got contaminated but I do know that this tobacco is off my buy list. I cannot recommend anyone spend the money for what may turn out to be seven ozs of totally unsmokable tobacco. I am so disappointed. If there were categories of Taste: Chemical. Flavoring: Clorox I would immediately append them to this.

This blend came to me in an ebay purchase made just prior to last year's NASPC show and I put it on my table as an afterthought. No one paid any attention to it and I brought it back home to smoke, eventually. The tin bore a purchase date of June 2010, though it appeared somewhat older than that with numerous rust spots on the bottom. On close examination I discovered that one small spot had rusted through and I ripped it open right away. Some moisture still remained in the mixture to the touch and it appeared to be in a smokeable condition. The tin presentation is of a rough and disheveled wide ribbon cut of varying hues of brown ranging down toward black. The tin aroma, though noticeably English in nature, is somewhat weak and no one tobacco stands out in the profile. The cut of this blend, though a ribbon, is rough enough that you have to rub it out to get it into the pipe. I've smoked this mixture in several pipes and it seems to prefer the tall and narrow chambers over all others. In them I can sense what this blend is all about; in wider bowls things become lost. I found a subtle Burley and Latakia interplay in the smoke that I really wanted to enjoy. Unfortunately, this aroma and taste combination was weak throughout the smoke from top to bottom. I agree with reviewer Captain Pete 2008-09-05 in his first small paragraph and I've spent a lot of time trying to coax more flavor out of this blend; to no avail. The top third of each bowl was thin and confused in what it was trying to do. The remainder of each bowl was a little better - just a little. Since I don't know how old this tin is, I don't know whether I'm smoking the original mixture or the current revival. Either way, I can only somewhat recommend this blend and score it as two stars.

"E. Hoffman Company" - Spilman Mixture

My personal feeling is that the phrases "dumbed down" and "liquorice flavored" sum this tobacco up succinctly.

...And now this review exceeds the minimum twenty-six word requirement.

Sour, acrid, and reminiscent of a burning tire. There must be something critical about personal chemistry with this blend, or the batch quality is highly variable, because it is remarkable how far apart the 4 star reviews and 1 star reviews are.

Whereas Distinguished Gentleman is altogether most friendly and fine, Spilman is simply vile - and consistently so: even several months after first trying it, it repeats its foul performance. Even the room note is detestable.

Not much to add to what already said. This is a mild, enjoyable, good-quality English mixture, very cool burning, with enough Latakia and some mild sweetener which could be liquorice. I like it. The only hook is that it comes quite wet, so it is hard to burn and tends to go out often. I ground it with a marijuana grinder and the burning improved. It's a shame they don't export it to Europe apparently. Recommended.