Sutliff Tobacco Company Sunrise Smoke

The Cyprian latakia is present, but not strong, and its woody, earthy, sweet smokiness is complemented very nicely by the grass and citrus of the Virginia. The lemon Va. is citrusy, and mildly tangy sweet as a competitor to the other Virginia. The woody, earthy, lightly buttery sweet and sour, mildly floral Turkish is just above being a condiment. The rum topping mellows the blend, but it doesn't sublimate the tobaccos much as you'll notice their respective aspects in every puff. The strength is a couple of steps past the mild mark, and the taste is just past the center of mild to medium. The nic-hit is mild, and it won't bite or get harsh. Burns just a tad slow, cool, clean and fairly smooth from start to finish with a very consistent flavor. Leaves little moisture in the bowl and has a pleasant, short lived after taste. Needs a few relights. I give it three stars for mild to medium English blends. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

Sutliffe has been hitting the market the last couple of years with some very fine and inexpensive blends that have been well received. This is another one of their attempts at creating something worthy of a good pipe.

Sunrise Blend does not have the strength or Oriental presence of Dunhill's famous Early Morning Pipe. Additionally, this blend has a mild casing (as do other Sutliffe English blends such as #5). The combination is unique and palate pleasing. There is a bit of an edge to this blend which suggests less than top-shelf Virginia.

All in all, a nice change of pace but not a blend that I'll go back to very often.

Many thanks to Altadis and Sutliffe for their continuing efforts on behalf of the world's pipe smokers.

Provided to me because some people just love to force me to perform blind taste tests and they seem to get further joy in subjecting me to Sutliff blends. I only smoked 3 bowls of this, which makes this "review" far from reliable.

Interesting mix of dark and light ribbons. I guessed this as a Sutliff blend before I even lit it, as it had the signature Sutliff chemical aroma along with some kind of topping... rum, perhaps? Something alcohol. There was a light latakia aroma as well. The chemical aroma transferred to the taste, unfortunately. There was a decent flavor or two from the orientals but my personal tastebuds elevate a foreign topping if it's not done properly... the aforementioned chemical taste that many, many smokers have come to associate with Sutliff. Too bad, as without that topping, this could have been a decent blend. When asked to name the blend, my reply was Sutliff Light English Chemical Blend??? Nope, it was one of those "perfect for fans of x" sort of "match" blends that Sutliff made. Match for Early Morning Pipe??? Since when did Dunhill add a rum topping? What's with these Sutliff guys?!!? Anyway, the bottom line is that, again based on my 3 bowls, if you're looking for an Early Morning Pipe clone, you will be sorely disappointed. If you're looking for a mild English with some nice orientals and some red Virginia, this might work for you, as long as you can tolerate the foreign substances. I do not recommend this blend, however - there are many better choices in this genre out there. That could be why this one has been discontinued. I doubt there were many fans.

Mellow, smooth, and sweet with trace amounts of Latakia and some kind of a topping I can’t quite identify. I’m not an aro guy, but it’s tolerable. For me it was a much better smoke after drying out and sitting in a jar for a few years.

This is an interesting blend. I am claiming the black pressed ribbon in the description is a burley-based unflavored black cavendish, and this is what gives it the mild sweet flavor and some of the burley notes other reviewers have mentioned. There may be a slight sweet topping, or the black cavendish has me thinking there is one.

I have had EMP, but it has been a while, and I did not pay a lot of attention. I am rating this on its own merits and not by comparison to EMP.

The orientals and latakia are there in the flavor profile. You notice them, but they are fairly subdued. Of the two I get a little more latakia. I can identify a bright Virginia in the mix.

The operative word here is mild. This is good, but I would like to try it with less (or none) of the "black pressed ribbon." If you are interested in a lighter Va/Black_cav with English tendencies, you should get some of this.

This blend just doesn't do it for me. The tin note is OK and the initial light gives the promise of a decent smoke...an empty promise. After about the first 1/4 of the bowl, any flavor the initial light may have hinted at is gone and I was left with an acrid cigarette taste. I don't smoke cigarettes and don't like being tricked into tasting one. Aside from the bad taste, I kept getting an odd whiff of something that I can only describe as a gunpowder smell...yuk. I really like light English tobaccos and this one makes many promises it just couldn't deliver on. Avoid this one.

OK, I wasn't going to comment on this but when I saw it said it was perfect for fans of Dunhill EMP. Maybe if Dunhill had been in a horrible nuclear accident. To compare this to EMP is akin to comparing single malt scotch to evan williams. Not even close.

But to take it on it's own merit. It's not a bad smoke. It's a little too cased but still not bad. Tin aroma is sweet but you can't detect much of the latakia.

Burns fairly cool and the flavor is decent. It's almost not an aromatic but with the casing, I have to call it an aro.

Probably not a "go to" smoke but not too bad either.

Highly disappointed in this one. The tin aroma reminded me of Jose Cuervo. The flavor is what I would guess it would taste like if you smoked stale Cavendish out of a pipe made from Play-doh. And the room aroma is awful. I smoked half a bowl and didn't bother to relight it when it went out.

This Sutliff Private Stock blend, unlike most others, was always around in brick and mortars in my area and, maybe, that's why I never smoked it. I was told it was sub-par and weak as an English blend. Then one tin showed up in a recent buy and we're going to open it right now. As soon as I opened the tin, I knew it wasn't a replication of Dunhill Early Morning Pipe; it's overall appearance was too dark and it's cut was a bit too rough. The tin aroma was surprisingly strong for a blend labeled as weak by others and it had the familiar aroma of an old and true formula for an English blend: Latakia, Oriental and Virginia. As soon as I lit my first bowl, I knew it would be a medium range English smoke and it smoked in a very familiar way for that genre. The top third flirted with four stars before giving way to a much tamer middle third. Fortunately, the bottom third showed up with some force and I was happy with the overall experience. Now, was it an Early Morning experience; not quite. Do I care; no. I think that Sunrise Smoke deserves to stand on it's own two feet as an independent blend. At it's strongest moments, Sunrise Smoke seemed like smoking something akin to the old Dunhill Standard Mixture Full and in it's weaker moments, Standard Mixture Mild. But, on the average, I would compare it to Standard Mixture Medium. I recommend this blend at three stars and state, for the record, that I do not understand all of the commentaries about it being weak and horrible.

This smoke is quite nice. Other who gave this a negative smoke came into this thing with too many expectations and presuppositions. By itself, without any comparison, this tobacco is FANTASTIC. Hits the nail on the head. Perfect morning smoke. It’s light and mild with the perfect amount of spice and zing from the orientals and Latakia, to wake up the pallete. Virginia’s are SO sweet. Great early morning puffer and I think the quality is good as well. Light topping has to be maple. Yum!!!