Dunhill Aperitif

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.

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!

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..

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......

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.