Dunhill Aperitif

(3.28)
A complex blend of Virginias, cavendish, Latakia and Oriental Leaf. The name 'Aperitif' suggests this well balanced medium mixture should be enjoyed prior to dinner.

Details

Brand Dunhill
Blended By Dunhill
Manufactured By  
Blend Type Scottish
Contents Cavendish, Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United Kingdom
Production No longer in production

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.28 / 4
69

52

20

4

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 69 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 14, 2014 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant
Dunhill - Aperitif.

The aroma from the blend immediately says "I contain Latakia"! The mixture includes a fair selection of different tobaccos, with a perfect content of moisture. The ribbons lean more towards the slender end of the scale, all very thin with a decent mixture of lengths. It's probably due to the delicate build that this gets lit very simply and once ignited it stays that way; even if you leave it for a little while un-attended it keeps burning.

Despite the aroma from the mix being heavier with Latakia, the flavour from the smoke is VERY even with the different constituents. It's a blend where you can easily pick each of them out without your palate being accosted by just one. Throughout the entire bowl I don't find tongue bite occurring, even if really strained. Aperitif also has a mild sweet addition to it, almost honey like.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: quite pleasant.

As an aperitif before a hearty meal? Well yes, it would set you up for a feast but I really think instead of 'Aperitif' it could be re-named "Dunhill Any time"! A very steady blend, highly recommended:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Peterson
PurchasedFrom: Smoke King
Age When Smoked: New
46 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 24, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
This was my father's favorite blend. It's reintroduction was bitter-sweet for me as his last wishes included one last taste of his favorite tobacco - something he had not had for several years. I picked up a single tin of this the next year while on vacation and immediately upon my return home ordered multiple tins for my cellar. I was expecting to be as disappointed with Aperitif as I had been with the current MM965. I could not have been more mistaken.

At first light Aperitif brought to my mind the flavor profile of the 1960's Dunhills (way back when they were packed in 2 and 4 ounce tins, not 50 gram ones). The cavendish here was very similar to the Brown cavendish used back then and the Turkish redolent of the Dubeck (code named Macedonia Bright) which was the Oriental backbone of the original 965. The Latakia, smokey but not heavy handed here.

I was excited at this blend and angered as well. If the current blenders can do so well on this, why did they louse up MM965 so badly? And why so long to bring it back? No matter.

This is one of the finest blends I have ever smoked.
Pipe Used: Large briars
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Current production
30 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 22, 2002 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
A real bell ringer for this cowboy. I found this blend to be subdued with its Latakia presentation, and a generous amount of oriental leaf was combined with some mighty fine old Virginia. I found the combination to be nothing short of spectacular when I tried one of these old tins a few years back. If you are an oriental fan then buy up all this stuff you can get your hands on. Just unique and truly wonderful!
28 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 26, 2014 Medium None Detected Very Full Tolerable to Strong
I visited my regular tobacconist - the only specialist tobacconist left in Bristol, the fine Birds of Baldwin Street - intent on buying a tin of Nightcap and a flake of some sort. I'm a bit of a latakia nutcase; it became a bit like a drug, were I was constantly seeking a stronger hit. It started with Dunhill London mixture, and discovering that it was the latakia layer that I especially loved, My Mixture 965 and Nightcap were suggested to me. 965 didn't do it for me; it had the latakia but it didn't have enough 'belly' to hold it up; the way I taste it is that the latakia is a top layer that needs a strong foundation. I had the same complaint with a recent recommendation, Rattray's Black Mallory. Some latakia in there, but the underbelly was thin. Once I'd discovered Nightcap I thought that was it; the quest was over. I like to smoke a good flake too so I soon found the strongest latakia flake available to me, Gawith's Balkan Flake. But due to sometimes having difficulty getting down to this only pipe tobacconist in town, I found myself having to settle for whatever the newsagent had; usually some aromatic such as Clan. But this was actually for the best; dull though it was it cleansed the palate, and made that first bowl of proper tobacco such a pleasure. Experimenting a little I often buy a tin of Gawith's Navy Flake, with its latakia-rum mixture. But now to the Aperitif. Reading the reviews below it seems like this has been around for a while. This is puzzling as I thought uBirds were introducing it as new from Dunhill. (Or perhaps that was the one next to it on the shelf - I may have made a mistake). Anyway, asking for a description, the gentleman opened his own stash to give me a whiff of it - boom. Sold. I hadn't smoked a decent tobacco in about a week (by which I mean an English blend, a Dunhill or Sam Gawith, instead tolerating newsagent fare such as Route 66 and lord forbid Condor, so once outside I was like a kid at Christmas. I'll cut to the chase now: this is even better than Nightcap. This is the finest English Blend I've ever smoked. Now, I need to do a 'pepsi challenge ' next to a Nightcap, but I sense that this has more latakia and a richer foundation on which to layer it. Golly it's a full flavour, and as a result i suffer no tongue bite from 'oversmoking' - (when I find myself charging at a lousy tobacco to try to get a flavour that isn't there, and burning it up in the process). Whether old, new, or re-introduced, what I'm experiencing right now is absolutely the finest, fullest latakia smoke I've come across. The only problem is how to hide the smell from my landlord... Ouch..
Pipe Used: Peterson Kilarney 150 Bulldog straight stem
PurchasedFrom: Birds of Baldwin Street, Bristol, England
Age When Smoked: New
27 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 10, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Very Pleasant
Oh wow! Oh wow! Oh wow!. I can't hardly think of anything else to say about this blend. I am not a fan of Latakia, but this blend has just the slightest Latakia edge, that blends with the other flavors rather than taking center-stage. This was coupled with some Orientals, and Cavendish everywhere, wonderfully sweet, not fruity, and silky smooth right to the last puff. The room note was incredible...a little spice, a bit of smokiness, and dark cavendish, mostly. No problems with lighting or burning. It's not real strong, but enough to be very satisfying, certainly better than most aromatics, which to me, mostly feel like flavored air. Absolutely no bite, or any other issues, except that I can only smoke so much at a time. I think I am in love......
Pipe Used: Missouri Meerschaum Mark Twain Cob
PurchasedFrom: Pipes and Cigars.com
Age When Smoked: new
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 30, 2017 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
“It probably isn’t that great, I just want to say I tried all the Dunhill’s” – Me

I can’t say a single bad thing about Aperitif. In fact, I can only say great things: Creamy Latakia taste, smoky campfire and leathery flavor, spicy and flavorful Oriental’s that stimulate your taste buds, quality Cavendish to balance it all out, and a taste that never gets boring from start to finish. Aperitif goes great before or after a meal, during morning coffee, or having a beer or whisky towards the evening (one in the morning is fine as well, hell I won’t judge).

But see, that’s the point I am trying to make: As the title ‘Aperitif’ suggests, this tobacco is best paired alongside a meal or drink; it really does stimulate the appetite, at least for me anyways. Either that or I am a complete dope to autosuggestion from the name of the tin.

It is a shame Aperitif gets overlooked by other Dunhill blends, since it is definitely better than ‘Good Morning Pipe’ and right on par with My Mixture 965. Sometimes the most favorited and highest rated aren't always the winners *cough* Hillary *cough*; and it takes a 'high-energy' underdog like Aperitif to take center stage and make Dunhill great again.
16 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 22, 2009 Medium to Strong Very Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
When I first tried Aperitif, I was smoking 965 and Nightcap almost exclusively. This blend blew me away. It seemed to be a sweeter version of 965. That sounds very simplistic, and I am sure there was more going on than that, but I was a new smoker. I have smoked some Balkans that have a similar taste. It was as close to dessert blend as I enjoyed then. Toward the bottom of the bowl it almost had a very mild maple flavor. It was delicious. I hope to smoke it again one day. It made a great rotation blend. Of course the quality of the weed, was something Dunhill was famous for.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 30, 2014 Medium None Detected Full Tolerable
This blend blew me away. It reminded me of the murray's 965 which I throughly enjoyed. It has the distinctive dunhill signature, leathery, spicy and buttery thanks to the english canvendish. Easy to keep lit and full of flavour.
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 30, 2018 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
It's good to come back to a Dunhill blend. I've been smoking Samuel Gawith blends for the past two months or so and I can honestly say that I have missed Dunhill - especially their famous ribbon cut (still the best) and ease of smoking. You open the tin and it's ready to go - no need for drying out, no need for prep work, just fill your pipe and enjoy bliss.

Tin note is that of Orientals (being Turkish, I get the Turkish tobaccos in here very, very easily), Latakia, leather, some sweetness, some spice. It smells delicious.

And that's exactly what this blend offers, smoking bliss. The tin aroma gives off a nice whiff of Orientals, along with the Latakia. It's just a match made in heaven, and it's very hard to go wrong with a blend such as this. But this being Dunhill, it's been blended to perfection.

The smoke is sweet, silky smooth and just full of flavor. I prefer this to 965, which is also a great tobacco. But this is just sweeter, more mellow somehow, not as harsh. It's so easy to smoke that I barely even noticed that I was smoking it for nearly an hour. Also incredibly easy to light and maintain, no big surprise there. I'm sure I could have smoked down to the end of the bowl with just the initial light, but of course I tamped to have a more even burn. The ashes are quite fluffy and soft. The smoke itself produces thick clouds of white, soft smoke.

Really, this is an excellent, excellent blend. The nicotine level is quite normal for me so I could very easily smoke this all day. Goes great with strong black tea. Very impressed.

Pipe Used: Various
PurchasedFrom: Local tobacconist
Age When Smoked: New
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 07, 2016 Mild to Medium Medium Medium to Full Pleasant
I really do not smoke much. In fact just during my vacations in Greece, where I'm always looking for the Greek cigarette "Papastratos" later named "ASOS" and I always smoke these oval cigarettes without filter. By accident, I jumped into a very nice tobacco shop in Copenhagen telling about my Greek habit. Then I was introduced to the Dunhill Aperitif. One pibe a day while walking my hunting dog has now become a daily pleasure and I always get the same lovely feeling from an excellent blend of tobacco with this touch of Turkish intensity. I love it.
Pipe Used: Stanwell 2003 Silver edition
PurchasedFrom: The Danish Pibe Shop
Age When Smoked: 65
9 people found this review helpful.
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