Dan Tobacco Hamborger Veermaster

This is a really beautiful flake. Opening a fresh tin you notice striations varying from a medium brown thru some lighter shades like a dark cream. Opening an aged tin, as I have just done, all the colors appear to be a few shades darker. The tin aroma is light and airy without any hint of the pequency which portends the dreaded "Devourer of Tongues". The strips are fairly pliable, making for an easy "pack". I tend to roll some up and gently load my pipe then rub up a bit for the top as an aid to getting a good light. After a few minutes of gentle puffing, it settles down to an extremely soft, creamy, smoke. It tastes sweet as a good virginia should but not in the way of any artificial flavors or toppings. No uncomfortable heat, no bite. True, it is a bit one dimentional but who cares as long as that dimention resides well into "The Zone"! I think it is a good start for those who want to get into Virginia Flakes without worryin' about suckin' on a blowtorch. As far as the "Wife Rating" (room note), my wife has never complained. Course I ain't seen her in 30 years. But while I sometimes miss the steady companionship, I am in the envyable position of smokeing my pipe to please myself. And I like it!!! In conclusion, don't be put off by my "smoke this on occasion" rating. I like my tobaccos aged and I've only got 4 six year old tins left, so I'm tryin' to make it stretch. Rating - 85 out of 100!

As a predominantly English-Oriental smoker, this website has inspired me to explore the world of high quality VA blends which is why I decided to pick this one up off the shelf and give it a try. The aroma in the tin is that of a pretty sweet aromatic and it's amazing that this blend has no casings and all the sweetness is derived from the high quality VAs. It was easy to light and stay lit and burned completely cool. No tongue bite whatsoever. The end of the smoke in my oversized Savinelli Deluxe left absolutely no dottle or moisture which further lends credence to the thought that there are no casings here to speak of. This was a great smoke. I was pretty surprised at the mild buzz I received after a large bowlful. Perhaps the nicotine content is on the high side. The room note was terrific. This is a great change of pace smoke for me, and I'll be sure to always have some Veermaster on hand.

This a very easy-smoking virginia! It comes in loose slices that are very tolerant of packing technique. I generally just grab a bit, fold it in half, and shove it in the bowl. Burns fairly cool and consistent all the way down, with no hint of tongue bite. Good solid virginia sweetness and flavor with just a hint of fruit casing (peach?) if I puff it just right, but not enough to be distracting or for me to be really certain if it is indeed cased. The sweetness seems pretty naturally virginia to me.



It's not a particularly complex or powerful tobacco like some of the McClellands blends, but its low-hassle smokability and lack of catsup aroma more than compensates in my opinion. It possesses a medium body and flavor, although the flavor does intensify a bit towards the bottom of the bowl.



This is a very nice all-day virginia, definitely recommended. If you're one of those persons who are prone to tongue-bite (like me), it's highly recommended.

Dan Tobacco
Hamborger Veermaster

Blend notes: “ A genuine and classic English Virginia flake, just as the "sailors" on the "windjammers" (tall ships) loved to smoke it: The taste of genuine tobacco, not too mild, yet still "seut un' sacht" (sweet and mellow). The slow and cool burn offers the best premises for a quaffable, aromatic-mellow smoking pleasure! "Blow, boys, blow!" Regarding the name of this blend, which some people mistakenly think is 'Hamborger Beermaster' because of the typeface used on the tin (a variation of blackletter known as Fraktur where the B and V are easily confused); the ship on the front is a German four-masted windjammer, called a "Veermaster". This coupled with the fact that Dan Tobacco, the producer, lists this blend in their price lists as "Hamburger Veermaster".

This is a mild but tasty straight Virginia. Dan products have a ‘closer to natural tobacco’ taste — while I suspect C&D, GLP and others use unmentioned casings this is definitely not the case here.

This blend is perfectly competent Virginia. As mentioned, it is mild — I would argue it is very mid — so if you are a smoker who enjoys a straight Virginia, likely unadulterated by any casing, this could be the right ticket for you. It is grassy with a bit of mild sweetness.

Burns easily. Rubs out well. Mild to medium in flavor and taste. Same with nic-hit. Pleasant room note.

There is a tiny bit of spice or perhaps wet hay.

3 stars out of 4.

This review is not for those of you who are avowed Virginia aficionados. This is aimed more at those who, like me, need a little extra convincing. In my case, I enjoy an occasional high-quality Virginia, but it’s got to have enough going on that I will willingly forego my favored Balkans and Burleys. A very few do that: Reiner Gold, Solani Silver, which both get four-stars by me, or even something like Astley’s 44, which is a strong 3-star dark Virginia. Veermaster doesn’t quite hit that level for me, but I don’t regret the time I’ve spent with it as a mostly mild and mellow Virginia.

My tin had three years of age on it when opened, and then another 18 months as I checked it out every now and then. From the very first I enjoyed this more than Esoterica Tilbury which tastes like boring white bread to me. But I don’t really see the comparisons to Dunhill Flake, which is darker, richer and nuttier.

I’m fairly certain that I detect some honey ginger in the casing. Remember, casing formulas aren’t declared as “added flavorings,” and it is an easy flavor-steering trick to just add a teaspoon of honey-ginger crystals per liter of water, or use the drop form with some bee pollen granules. It’s done all the time, and I’ve done it myself. If taken too far, as in C&D’s Shandygaff then you get an extreme flavor profile. But here it is subtle, and other than the slightest hint of honey on the palate, you notice the spicy tickle of ginger (and coriander from this type of Virginia) if you retrohale vigorously. That’s why I release the smoke slowly, otherwise I begin to get some nasal irritation. But don’t mistake this as a flaw, it adds to the pleasure once you recognize what you’re dealing with.

So, as for the debate as to whether this improves with age or not. Some say once the subtle top note is gone there’s not much left, others say it develops nicely with age. Yes, the subtle top note eventually faded, though even when the tin was first opened I never did get “upside down cake” as some have suggested. I would simply say that it was an exceedingly mild creamy fruit nuance. Then it seems to go through a hollow or dormant phase when the top note has faded but before any real depth from aging has developed. Finally, with a good amount of age the base tobacco does take on a nice round and satisfying maturity. So my best advice would be to enjoy a tin when it’s quite young, and have another tin sitting in the cupboard for 3-5 years down the road.

This blend has a subtle sweet flavor similar to the same manufacturer's Mellow Mallard which I tried first. I initially thought it was the unique character of the African virginia's common to both. These blends are described as being naturally processed virginia blends but I have come to believe they share a similar light sweet casing. The flavor is simple, straightforward and lighter than average with a more pronounced sweet aroma of brown sugar, figs, honey, malt, oxidized bruised apple, sweet fresh cut grass and something darker like richer chocolate. It finanlly dawned on me that it may be Tonka beans/Coumarin. Despite this possible casing, I consider this blend natural enough and don't have much of a problem in augmenting blends in this way to make them more palatable. Contrast them with the harsher character of some of the Cornell & Diehl/GL Pease blends of purer tobacco. A very good, straight forward and uniform golden virginia flake with a touch of added sweetness.

Last week as the unbearable summer heat and stifling humidity pressed on, I found my favorite English blend was just too much, and my vaper wasn't delivering any great enjoyment. So I rummaged around my stock of tinned tobacco and chose Hamborger Veermaster. I recalled finding favor in this tobacco, but obviously not enough to have substantial back-stock. Because it is a flake, I cracked the tin open to flash off the moisture normally afforded to flake tobaccos, as well as, placed an estimated two day supply on the dash of my car for rapid de-humidification. I like my Virginians' dry. Well the result was my two day supply barely lasted a half day. I'm sure there's some rum and fruit topping on this weed but it didn't trump the tobacco taste. This isn't a tobacco of many subtleties, but rather just a light bodied smoke with ample strength. An inhale or two reminded I'm smoking tobacco. There may be a splash of Burley or even Kentucky- heck I don't care it just hit the spot. It didn't have the tang of say Hal O' The Wynd, but I wasn't looking for that component either. What a great break of pace- what a great tobacco, when I dry it out.

HV was among the first three or four tins I ever bought. And though I have since discovered that I prefer the English styles and LatBombs more often than not, this is the Virginia I reach for when I want to switch it up.

Again, I'm not deep into VA's - Hal O the Wind and McBaren Dark Twist are the only other two pure VA's I've tried - but both of those suffered from a too-tangy sweetness that turned me off before I could finish the tins. But Hamborger Veermaster keeps me coming back. This is a clean, easy smoke with a complexity that unfolds as you work through a bowl. Fun to play with too.

3 Stars - a solid smoke that I will continue to keep on hand.