E. Hoffman Company Spilman Mixture

The awesome-looking tin won me over! Tin aroma is of a sweetened, kind of OTC-ish mustiness with some latakia present. Cut is a user friendly squarish chop - easy to load. Well, it would be easy to load if it didn't have so many stems in it. But so it goes.

This is something to smoke, I suppose. It's basically inoffensive and does nothing horribly wrong. The casing used could be toned down a bit for my taste, but the overall effect was "dirty", to use a strange word in the context of tobacco. It tasted old, and not old as in aged... old as in stale, but it wasn't stale. Hard to explain. The main flavor was very light latakia with some sort of sweetener and a good burley body. Orientals didn't come out much and the VA was just sort of a base without asserting itself, either. This reminded me of C&D's Americana but C&D did it so much better, IMHO. I made it through about 2 oz of this and gave the rest away. Probably the best thing I can say about this is that I gave it away to a pipesmoking couple. How cool is that?

It's something to try but it fails to distinguish itself. It just sort of "is" - nothing to get too excited over. As always, YMMV.

Tin aroma is a little weak; not much stands out. First light; latakia that quickly fades, a little sweetness, and ocassional burley-ness. Mid bowl; tastes like a standard codger burley with a ghost of latakia flitting in and out.

This really is not a very good blend. It's not bad, there's nothing to not like. It just doesn't have much going for it. The plus side; it stays lit well, and it won't overburden you with complexity. So, it's a good "driving tobacco" for those times when you don't want to fiddle with something, and want something other than Carter Hall. Of course, a can of this will set you back considerably more than CH.

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.

I do this review by memory. I don't think it's fair to review a blend while smoking something else, (Margate in my case) but I just stumbled upon it and felt the urge to write a few words about it.

Back in my beginnings as a pipe smoker, I've read that they are recreating this old school blend, and that it's going to be exactly like the old one was. There were very unlikely alive people that remember it from "back then", so we believe the advertising that it is just like in the old days. I was curious to try what the old days tasted like, so I ordered a big tin of it. The packaging was old style, I liked that. Everything else was just.. bad. There was constantly some aroma that you can't define what it is exactly, that is present all the way through your bowl. Other stuff, (tobacco) was somewhat mediocre. Or it was there, but was constantly muted by that undefinable note. I gave it however, to a friend of mine, and he liked it immensely. Enjoyed every last puff of it. Therefore I don't want to be judgmental, there are people that like this stuff. And they like it a lot. Not my cup of tea however. Cheers!

A bit too sweet for me. Tastes somewhere between aromatic and English probably nice transition bakky for someone wishing to convert to English without going all the way and visa versa for English smokers wanting aromatics.

"Anglo-American," perhaps: a tasty light English that's been sweetened with one of IRC's distinctive toppings; or a fine American with latakia for backbone. On first light the latakia stands out, but it recedes quickly and the sweets come forward. For much of the bowl it smokes like a crossover blend. Smooth sailing ... . At first I was reminded a bit of Pipeworks & Wilke #193, although I prefer this one because it's a bit fuller. Later I was reminded strongly of Iwan Reis' own Dr. Bradley'. (What is the flavor? There's certainly vanilla, but also something else).

The tin is a winner, Iwan Reis is the best tobacco shop in America, and I wish this blend well. If you want a sweet light English, this one's for you. Also worth a try if you're a fan of English blends but want something you can smoke around family without getting complaints.

The retro packaging is attractive; however, Spillman stings the tongue a bit and the flavor does not get any more complex than toasted marshmallow with a mild hickory smoke chaser. There is not a lot of nicotine here and the smoke is a bit thin of body. Overall, Spillman Mixture is not unpleasant, but if you want a better retro smoke, take a stroll over to Carter Hall.

I tried this blend while visiting my local pipe shop and bought a 2.5 oz tin.

Nice smell when opening the tin, a little different than what I ususally smoke. The scent from the tin is hard to describe - not really a particular smell that I can relate to. A little larger flakes than typical and a few of the VA or Burley pieces were stiff and required a little rubbing out to pack properly. The moisture level was good, a little dryer than my other tobaccos. I am comfortable in packing this into my pipe directly from the tin with no drying.

This tobacco packed and lit easily. Soft, light taste at light up that seems to mature as you get further down the bowl. I would describe the taste and room note as that of a classic simple tobacco. Very light taste and easy to smoke especially in the morning.

Burns evenly and smoothly with few re-lights required. It developed a little more character about 1/2 the way down the bowl. Smoked to a fine ash and left little residue in my pipe. One tin will last me a long time as it is not one I will go to often - but do enjoy it when I smoke it.

This would be a good tobacco for the new pipe smoker.