D & R Tobacco Ryback

This blend is absolutely delicious, but can pack a punch if you're not careful. The dark fired Kentucky gives it a nice pepperiness that can be a little overwhelming if not sipped and the burley gives it a very strong nicotine hit. The Virginia is a slight background note that is fleeting and gets overpowered by the other tobaccos. After two bowls, there's no trace of tongue bite and it burned clean all the way down with no relights. This is a blend I'll definitely keep in my rotation and I'll be interested to see how it cellars.

This is an odd Black Cav. Flavor is mostly Burley earthiness with just a touch of Black Cav toastiness. There's a mild sweet note as well. All in all a decent flavor. Of course, it's dry and burns quick with a little harshness.

Medium in body and flavor.

This tobacco I should have ordered it in gold to be honest. I smoked it out of a cigarette tube and well it tasted like a marlboro full flavor on steroids. Right off the bat you open the bag and it smells similar to copenhagen. That kind of bothered me but didn't deter me from trying. It actually had excellent flavor little harsh i'm sure it's easier in an actual pipe.

I know I am treading into one of those love-or-hate scenarios here, but I am a fan of these thinly cut tobaccos (shag) that contains Burley and Kentucky (Five Brothers, Dark Birds Eye, Kendal Dark, etc.). They are quite easy to pack, and smoke really well releasing plenty of flavour. The combination of these three tobaccos seems quite balanced in this rendition, and I cannot detect any toppings or added flavours. Because of the dark profile the burley-based tobacco gives this blend, some smokers might mistakenly interpret it as having a sharp edge or tongue bite, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is a full-body blend that needs to be smoked slowly with a nice cup of coffee to fully appreciate it. My only complaint is that these types of tobacco smoke best when they are properly hydrated, and it is needless to say most of the D&R's blends come to the consumer bone dry. Mark Ryan told me once this is because he won't have the customer pay for water, and I agree with him. At the end of the day, all you have to do is rehydrate to your own taste and specifications and move on. I am not going to give you a description of the different flavours I can detect because this is highly subjective, but one word that pops to mind is "molasses." All and all this is a nice tobacco and I highly recommend it if you are a burley smoker and have some appreciation for shag tobacco.

This will take the dubious honor of being one of the most memorable blends I’ve ever tried. In this case, possibly the worst. I seriously have to wonder if what I got in the can is what others have reviewed here. Tin note of vinegary ketchup that makes McClellands seem mild. Flavor shock: taste of radish and smoked iodine. Ambient aroma of some kind of weird herbal cigarette.

Once jarred and allowed to settle for a couple months, I tentatively tried it again. Now mostly cigarette taste, with nuances of alfalfa and dandelion weed. I’m sorry, but there was just no way to salvage this unless I drowned it in something like maple syrup. To the compost heap it went.