Dunhill Durbar

This is definitely one of the better offerings from Dunhill.

If you like Nightcap, but want something a bit lighter, Durbar could be for you. That isn't to say it tastes like Nightcap Light - they're completely different. What I am saying here is that where Nightcap is a heavy flavor, Durbar is just a bit more reserved overall.

It's nice to see a Dunhill English blend that doesn't taste like cavendish. Good quality Orientals and a healthy dose of quality VA mingle ahd give complexity with a Latakia backdrop.

I purchased a tin of Durbar a week ago to get me by till my next shipment from C&D arrived in the mail. Oh boy have I enjoyed this! The latakia is very flavourfull and there are lots of other more discrete componants popping up throughout the bowl. It is very smooth and as yet has not overpowered my senses once. I'm quite sure that I will buy this again.

*Update* It is now 2015. Re-released, this blend has changed.

Now, it is the most pleasant of the Dunhill Latakia mixtures. Pleasant means it smokes silky smooth, with no irritation, no harshness, an easy English. Not too much Latakia, and the orientals are very incense-like. Richer and smoother than EMP, London, or SMM, while at the same time the various tobaccos don't interplay so much as combine. Body has dropped down to medium. Perhaps some would find it unexciting, but I think it's delicious, almost an all day type of English. Nothing like the Balkan Bomb it once was, it is much more approachable. This is becoming one of my favorites.

*Update* Well I must agree the quality dropped on this both in the late tins from Murray and in the new stuff from Orlik. Both taste equally flat to me. It's still not bad, just not as described in most of these reviews (unless you get an older tin).

Fickle as I am, I've now dropped LM in favor of Durbar in my ever changing rotation. Durbar stands out in the Dunhill lineup as the only Dunhill English which actually tastes sweet to me, (must be the use of a different kind of VA), and the other reviewer is spot on in comparing this to Penzance in flavor profile. I find it smoother and more complex than LM, sweeter and less dark and bitter than Nightcap, and less dark, but richer, than 965. It does pack a wallop, but again this depends on how it is smoked. It can be very gentle and nutty ( roasted cashews) and often reminds me of a very good Dominican Cigar with a CT wrapper. Like a box of Davidoff Super Rs crammed in 8 dollar tin. A super rich and nutty experience, it does leave an odd mouth coating as has also been mentioned. (Citrus fruit seems to take this away).

[Review based on tins manufactured in 2004]

A stout, well-balanced blend with considerable nicotine punch. Durbar has deep rounded notes and for the most part of the bowl rolls along pleasantly enough with little variation, but becomes almost on the verge of being overpowering (like 965 is to me). While I enjoy this blend, there are too many other blends that do what Durbar does better, with less harshness. Though I believe, of the current Dunhill blends, Durbar is among the top of the class.

I've tried both versions, the commercial one and the hand-blended in the London shop. The first is fuller, tastier, in the sense that after a bowl your tastebuds are really tired! But it's so good I'm glad they worked so much! It's really spicy, more turkish-oriented than any other Dunhill I've tried before. Excellent. The hand-blended version is slightly lighter in taste, but with a balance that verges on perfection. The great difference is into the Virginia used: Cavendish in the commercial version, straight VA in the hand blended one. This, together with the less amount of orientals, makes the second a sweeter and rounder tobacco.

05/21/05 Update.

Bought another tin of Durbar .. must have had a bad tin. No pepper at all and smoother than the other tin. This tin has been a delight. Changing my rating to 8/10.

Also very fortunate to win an eBay auction for three 2 ounce tins of SUllivan & Powell "00" Oriental Mixture. Can't wait for it to arrive to see how it compares.

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This tobacco would be the one for me if not for the peppery perique-like pop at about the middle of the bowl. I just don't like perique at all. I thought maybe I was having a bad day and the pop did not occur, so I waited a couple of days and packed a well broken in Savinelli Autograph with Durbar and again began to savor the wonderful taste and aroma. But mid-bowl, there it goes again, the perique pop. None of these reviews or the Dunhill blurb mentions perique, but it's got to be something grinding the pepper midbowl. Alas, I shall keep searching for a Sullivan's "00" replacment.

Cut/Appearance: Pressed, ribbon cut, moist Latakia, Orientals and strands of lovely yellow exotics.

Casing/Aromatics: very little if any detected. Pure tobacco pleasure for which Dunhill is justly famous.

Tin notes: Deep and rich. More aggressive and smoky than Aperitif. A latakia lover?s delight. Stronger than Aperitif, milder & more complex than Nightcap. Best sniffed a few inches away from the nose.

Room/Burn notes: A great English standby that fills the room with rich, spicy aromas quickly dissipating soon after smoking.

Taste: If Aperitif is the appetizer, this is the entrée. Taste is immense and powerful. High quality latakias are most pronounced, with hints of spicy Balkan. One of the greats. Best in a small bent briar or a meerschaum, which bring out the natural flavors and aromas.

Comments: This is an evening, after dinner or bedtime blend. It?s more complex and well rounded than Nightcap. The nicotine doesn?t knock me over like Elizabethan or Royal Yacht, which is a good thing. This shouldn?t be smoked all day due to its fullness, but rather, enjoyed after other tobaccos, such as Aperitif has been taken to prepare the palate. Musically speaking, Aperitif may serve as the crescendo to the fortissimo arrived at in this exuberant blend. After two to three weeks of the tin vacuum being broken, the flavors take on greater depth and complexity. The bowl is left clean and dry. Easy to smoke right down to the end until all that?s left is a fine, gray ash.

Four and a half of five stars

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update 4/19 - Sorry to say, but after the 3rd tin of this stuff, i'm downgrading, and big time. Dunhill has taken a turn for the worse. Durbar is largely flat, insipid and tar-laden. There's no complexity to the blend; it's merely hot and smokey. Were it not for the dunhill name on the tin, you probably wouldn't buy it. I heard that their factory has been relocated once again, and obviously, signs of decline are starkly evident. Nightcap and 957 are also big disappointments. I have an unopened tin of Apertif that I'm aging. If that turns out to be a bust, I'm finished with Dunhill. There's too many other wonderful products out there to waste time and money with what used to be the most venerable name in pipes & tobacciana. I hate dramatic changes, and I hate seeing great institutions fall by the wayside, but I suppose, as with all things, it's inevitable. too bad!

Two of five stars

To date, this is one of my favorite Dunhill tobaccos. Very different from 965, another favorite Dunhill blend. Durbar is very earthy, with a deep smokey flavor likened to that of your favorite pure malt scotch. Not as complex as 965, yet it has never disappointed. It's quite an enjoyable late night smoke, the kind where you park yourself in front of the fireplace and just relax. The taste doesn't take any real turns - the flavor stays relatively the same to the bottom of the bowl other than to deepen slightly at the halfway point. I like to sit back in the recliner with my favorite pipe, and a snort of Johnnie Walker Green Label and spend the next hour or two watching a great movie on the tube, or listen to Miles Davis playing "Kind of Blue". Pure relaxation, and easy to manage in the bowl. You just can't argue with this kind of quality, especially if rich full flavored taste is to your liking. Durbar is very satisfying - but smoke it slow like all of the Dunhill english blends and savor the flavor. Grab a tin of this one!

Durbar sits at the very top of the Dunhill family tree. Very rich, complex, exotic and intoxicating with a lingering sweetness that stays to the very end of the bowl. Quite strong for all day smoking, but reserved for special moments can lead you to places that very few blends can.