Peterson Elizabethan Mixture

Earthy bread-like red Virginia’s are the first thing I smell when opening my jar. The second sniff reminds me of compost and black tea, with a little stone fruit in the background.

Dunhill’s ribbon cut is the best in the business. This blend packs well, lights easily, and smokes to the bottom with few re-lights.

The smoke is simple, but good. A flavorful Virginia taste, with a little Perique spice in the back of my throat. The only drawback is it can burn a little hot, and taste a little cigarette-like, if puffed too fast.

I'd purchased EM based upon the enthusiastic reviews I'd seen here and on YT. I'm a long time Escudo fan and I'd gotten used to (spoiled by?) that familiar figgy raisin smell from my VaPers. EM's tin note has none of that to my nose, instead you are treated to a wonderful yeasty, bready aroma - a clue to the quality Virginias in this mixture. This is also indicative of how this blend smokes. The cut is that marvelous Dunhill ribbon. Packs, lights and burns like a dream. Very few relights, mostly due to my inattention. That said, the first few bowls left me disappointed. My experience was that EM burned hot, could bite and was very cigarette-like in the smoke and in the room note. Perhaps you've guessed the problem - yes, I was smoking too fast, rushing into what I was sure was going to be a new VaPer favorite. Shame on me. This is not a tobacco that suffers fools gladly. If you hurry it along, you will lose the subtleties of the blend. The Virginias are excellent, and the touch of Perique adds a slight peppery spice to the experience. Notice I said, 'touch' of Perique, for that is at most all that is present here. Those looking for a Perique-forward mixture along the lines of Beacon Extra, DH Navy Rolls or Escudo will not find it here. Rather, Elizabethan Mixture is a refined Virginia smoke, with excellent aroma and taste and a little something extra from St James. Take it slow and you'll bring out the best in it. Note that EM is a moderate to higher nicotine blend. Those with less tolerance should probably partake only after a nice meal. FPh

I have come to love the Va/Pers as I age. I tend to like Escudo and St James, this is a little different. The sweetness is much more forward than the spice, though there is spice. I have gotten used to blends with the perique more prominent, but I read the reviews and was braced for it, and I think I like it.

It's a great companion to a book. I'm researching how to write grant applications and it's not the most exciting reading; Elizabeth was good company. The sweetness was there, the heat wasn't too much and every now and again Perique would surface and call for some attention. One light was fine. Didn't tamp after the char, and didn't really notice how much I enjoyed it, though I clearly was.

The nicotine is pretty aggressive, I am a wanderer unless it's late at night and my pipes go out a lot while I do things. I should have taken that tack with this. Instead I sat on the porch and did some reading until I found I had to let it go out and take a break while my heart slowed down.

This is the third of the recently reintroduced blends that Dunhill has put out and I have since tried. And, to me, this is the best of the bunch. The tobaccos used in this blend are first rate all the way. Opening up the tin, you are seeing and smelling one fine looking blend. The tin note and taste are spot on with most of the other reviewers opinions and the moisture level is just right for me, YMMV on these points. It produces a nice amount of smoke. The nicotine level is a little on the high side, but I like that in a pipe full of tobacco. Will definitely be revisiting this one often. Highly recommended as soon as it is available in your neck of the woods.

This is a wonderful blend that has been copied many times. Yes, I have had old U.K. made Elizabethan and there is no need for those who have not to feel like they are "missing out". For me this is a must have and has both the complexity and medium strength that I most often look for in a blend. You will get some sweetness, and you will get some spice, but never too much of either. This is about as easy burning and packing as a cut can get and does well in many different chamber sizes. Many people recommend Escudo as a starting point for those looking to explore Virginia and, more specifically, VA/Perique blends. I think both Escudo and Elizabethan should be a part of that introduction.

Delightful blend with an excellent virginia and the right amount of perique. For me, much better than the navy rolls, or anything else VaPer. As usual with all Dunhill's tobaccos, also this one does light up perfectly and requires no further lightning. An absolute must-have for vaPer lovers. I will buy again and again, in place of navy rolls.

I made it easy for EM to succeed. It had to take but a step to cross the finish line a winner. Unfortunately, EM has yet to even lace up its shoes. EM didn't even have to match past incarnations of itself. It had to be in the same genre and flavor profile: clean, smooth, full-ish and a bit toasty. Orlik's debut is not in the same arena as previous EM productions. In fact, it went to the wrong city.

The smoke is acrid and harsh with only unfulfilled teases of Virginia sweetness. The perique is all that EM has going for it, despite there being only a modicum of it in the blend. The room note is "Vegas Casino." At least it doesn't bite. It burns well. The cut and packing are lovely. If presentation could be "enough," EM would suffice as is. Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes to the bone.

The extra, sealed tin I purchased will stay in training and benched until First Team VAPER is exhausted and it's time to send in the freshman players.

History records that tobacco smoking flourished in the civilized world during England’s Elizabethan era. The Golden Age of revival in the arts, music, sciences, and mostly importantly personal liberties. Pursuant to the movement, the custom of pipe smoking afforded to the massed primarily came in the venues of refined Shakespearian-based theaters or the common man’s ale houses where “drinking tobacco” was the charm of the day.

The anti-smoking rabble began not shortly thereafter. The present day mainstream narrative finds origin with King James (early 1700’s) who characterized the act of partaking pipe tobacco as a loathsome custom, carrying a black stinking fume equal to the ghastly stench of Stygian smoke from a bottomless pit. Despite all his defamatory anti-Indian weed bombast, good King James loved to tax the hell out of its importation, thereby enriching his personal coiffures. Uh-huh. It seems like politicians were politician even back in the days of the goofy trousers.

So, showing my posture on this debate, see that I raise my Baraccini Raffinnato 413 to the good sires of the era with a cheery bowl of, what else, Peterson’s Elizabethan Mixture on this fine Friday. Not loathsome nor stinking but in fact a delicious indulgence made from choice Virginias and Louisiana Perique. Being one of my preferred VaPers, EM brings a true renaissance of flavor that vitalizes a peppered fruitiness layered upon the native splendors of assorted Virginian strains. A blend fit for a Queen but crafted to be enjoyed by us, the proletarian class. Huzzah pied pipers!

This came as a strong recommendation from a member of the YTPC who may or may not talk about stuff and, occasionally, even things.

I used to smoke cigarettes which my wife despised the smell of when lit and when I’d finished. I stopped smoking for a while and agreed that the car, and indeed the house, smelt like a dockers armpit because of the tobacco stink. We negotiated and decided that I could smoke some pipe blends, as long as they were pleasantly scented and didn’t stink the whole house out and the wife came up with a three tiered “acceptance policy” of which 1) is allowed to be smoked indoors, downstairs, 2) had to be smoked in the bathroom with some form of incense burning and 3) has to be smoked outside at the bottom of the garden, preferably in the next county and she doesn’t want to see me for half an hour after the whole thing has been smoked.

Lizzy’s mix comes in at a 3 to a 3.5 on the acceptance policy.

I smoked a bowl one Friday night when she had gone away; I got the fire going, put my feet up and smoke the backside off several pipes while watching Withnail and I - all was right with the world until lunchtime on the Sunday when she came back in a whirlwind of opening windows and spraying Fabreze around the place like it was half priced pepper spray in the middle of a riot.

That cat and I were sent to Coventry while she stripped and made beds, washed the life out of everything that would go in the washing machine and came up with some amusing, if slightly worrying, industrial language that I hadn’t heard before.

Needless to say, this now lives in a jar in the shed and I am only allowed to smoke it on the outer rings of Saturn.

The blend’s not bad but it does taste and smoke like a tab. The smell lingers and gets everywhere.

I know some people will say “I smoke what I want, when I want and where I want! I couldn’t give a tinker’s cuss what anybody says!” but these people are probably divorced because of their choice of tobacco and lack of appreciation that the wife doesn’t “want to go to the hairdressers smelling like a dockers armpit!”

Anyway, thanks for listening Dear Deidre - happy pipes men.