D & R Tobacco Vengeur Regular Blend

Sort of dark sand in color and uniform in cut, this came in a tin instead of a bag and I noticed very little "shake" as a result. Deep, earthy smell in the tin - very inviting. A little too dry to smoke as is but I tried one bowl anyway. Not much flavor and sort of harsh and dry. I was told to hydrate these D&R blends for the pipe as they are also cigarette tobaccos and cig smokers prefer them dry. I suppose cig smokers aren't as likely to dry out their weed as pipe smokers are to hydate! I'm ok with that.

With some hydration, this wasn't a bad blend. Hydration is usually the kiss of death with pipe blends but instead of losing flavor, this one picked up a bit with some moisture. I couldn't decide if the lightly citrusy and grassy Virginia was in the lead or the nutty, dry burley. Different bowls made me feel differently. The orientals had a slight floral nature with some sourness and were well to the rear but provided a zesty perfumed essence. I smoked about 6 bowls before deciding this blend wasn't very exciting, but it wasn't a bad smoke. I would imagine it would wow cigarette smokers more so than pipers, which is in keeping with my experience with this blender. Ultimately this blend did nothing terribly wrong, but there are many, many better VA/Bur/OR blends out there. But if you're a cigarette smoker looking for an upgrade to the usual run of the mill RYO's, this should fit the bill.