Peterson Elizabethan Mixture

Being more accustomed to smoking English blends, I was talked into trying this by the shop owner when stocking up on my favorites - Squadron Leader, EMP, 965, Artisan's. EM doesn't compare to any of these, so let me rate it for its own merits.

1, the smell of the fresh tobacco was sweeter than expected, which made me go for a pipe which is not dedicated to the English blends. (Not easy.) Settled on a rather large bowl Savinelli and filled it half way.

2, the tobacco felt almost too moist, but the cut looked just fine, longish, thin ribbons, and the color was a pleasant mix of light and dark, favoring the dark. I liked it.

3, it lit and stayed lit easily, giving a mild feel and aroma at first which slowly turned into a nicely balanced, medium strength and surprisingly tasty experience. Just a tad too much bite on the tongue for me.

Conclusion: Definitely a nice alternative to my favs. Give it a try!

edit: agree it needs to dry a bit.

So... finally i will do my first dunhill blends review... This tobacco was for me, in a first view, a common tobacco with a soap flavor... because I used a Metal pipe, a Streamliner, in this case I changed my pipe for a briar made. This situation has changed completely the flavor, and I liked... For me was a good blend, but, I thought be better... Three stars...

Ah, how I have missed Va/Pers. I have been smoking mostly English mixtures lately and some Lakeland ones I had almost forgotten the heavenly smell of Va/Pers. The tobacco smell is very typical of the STG Perique mélanges (figs, jams, fermentation). Pure bliss. From the look of it, it has less Perique than Escudo or DLNR.

Dried the tobacco a bit, packed and lit. I feel the Virginias very distinctively, and also the Perique is very distinguishable and is there just to give the mixture a kick. I don't get any added flavourings, just the natural tobacco flavours. Very high quality.

Will give it a 3 stars because I prefer DLNR. But still recommended.

having read the reviews of this tobacco...i was very pleased to see it in my local tobacconist and bought a 50g there and then,and im quite pleased that i did,its a blend that i have never tasted before and i like it very much easy to light and quite relaxing to smoke, nice tin aroma,and room note and no tounge bite,and i will buy this again without doubt but so far the best Dunhill for me so far is MM965 but Eliabethan mixture comes in at a very close 2nd.

Appearance: A slighly broad ribbon cut, about equal parts medium and dark colors. Ribbons are quite uniform, typical Dunhill attention to detail

Aroma: Good matured Va. sweetness, black Cavendish nutiness, and the sour tang of Perique. Yummy.

Packing: Packs easily in most pipes, group 3 and up.

Lighting: Typcal lighting procedure, not too quick or too slow.

Initial flavor: Lots of Virginia body, and the Perique asserts itself right away, although not too strongly. Just enough to let you know it?s there.

Mid-bowl: Good layering of flavors, sort of like Escudo Lite. A middle of the road Va/Perique mixture. Burns well, stays cool unless really puffed with vigor.

Finish: Burns clean and dry right to the end. Very little change in taste, maybe a tad more tingle from the Perique.

Summary: Stands alone as a great mixture, one of the few Va/Perique in ready-rubbed form. If you like the combo, try a can.

I had smoked one tin of the Murray era product about 20 years ago before recently consuming this year old tin Peterson tin. Despite my hazy memories of the era, I think this blend is pretty well standardized, with no significant difference in my subjective experience.

I would also posit that EM and GLP Stratford are first degree relatives in the VAPer family tree. Like Stratford, this is a near 50/50 mix of red and bright VA. Long cut Perique is a sprinkled lightly amongst the standard Dunhill ribbon cut VA. The tin aroma gives raisins, figs, prunes, and light sweetness. With oxygen, the tin note takes on a hay like aroma.

On false light there is a little fruitiness. The true light supplants this with yeasty, bready, toasty notes. There is some tanginess mid smoke that suggests a little acidity and some sour citrus on the palate. There are tastes of dried red fruit leather at the end of the bowl. The Perique is all about mild black peppercorns and is most notable on the tongue and palate. I can’t say I noticed the Perique in the retrohale.

While similar to Stratford, EM is darker in appearance. I can only guess that while the red/bright ratio is around 1:1 for both blends, EM may have a hair more red VA. The tin notes were quite similar, though EM had a slightly “dirtier” smell.

Similar to my recent experiences with other Peterson produced Dunhill blends, I found far more stems than I would have hoped. This is a benchmark VAPer that absolutely deserves consideration by those VAPer aficionados who have not yet tried it. It’s not the best VAPer I’ve ever had, but it is pretty damn good.

You can tell this is made from quality leaf. The perique adds a spicy, plum/dark fruit note that made my lips a bit numb, like biting into a pepper. The Virginias scream quality, and provide a mature, deep, unctuous flavor more alien to bread/beer rather than the grass/hay you might find elsewhere.

The cut is amazing, I’m a sucker for shag, sadly they are rare nowadays and thankfully I like this blend. As a shag, and it’s perique-iness being so prominent; one must respect this leaf and go slow, lest you get hit in the tongue, or the face.

I can only imagine what this’ll be like in 5 years! *drool*

My first tin of (Dunhill badged) Elizabethan and I've smoked very few Virinia/Perique blends in the past so have little to benchmark this with, but here goes.

Tightly packed in the tin, with I think just the right moitsure content to immediately smoke. As I've found with a number of Dunhill blends in recent years there are a few twigs in the mix, but nothing too annoying. Tin smell is nothing special.

This is a good smoke. Full flavour, with the perique spice kick developing as the bowl progresses (the last half always seems better than the first). No tongue bite, but it does burn hot (but most do for me, I tend to smoke quickly). Burn consitency is good and relights rare. It will normally burn to the bottom of the bowl with only ash remaining.

For me at least I've often find the nicotine hit for this blend at the high end of the scale, not for every bowl but sometimes it can catch me unawares.

Overall I think it's good, but I don't think I'm minded to be a regular VA/Per smoker, at least not for the time being so this is likely to b only an occasional purchase in the future now that Peterson have thankfully taken it over, but I can see why it is popular with others. Definately one that people should try at least once.

Before I start, I would like to inform the reader of this review that my notes are based on a Dunhill tin from 2016, that had dried out to the point of the tobacco leaves crumbling upon touch. Since then it was rehumidified twice and stored in a jar. I bought this tin during the early days of my pipe smoking career. In fact, this was my first nonaromatic blend. Truth be told, I found the beautiful tin art highly appealing with the clay pipe and the ship model, thereby conveying the impression that someone like Sir Francis Drake or Sir Walter Raleigh would have smoked this blend. Then again, this would be an anachronism, as Louisiana was not an English colony during the time of Queen Elizabeth...nevertheless a masterpiece of tin art design in my opinion.

Now to the blend itself. As I smoke it, this blend has already a transantlantic journey behind it, certainly comparable to the ones that those ancient explorers had to face (see introductory words of caution). Initially I was concerned I had rehumidified the blend too much, as the leaves felt very moist compared to some fresh tinned tobaccos in my stock. However, lighting and smoking was perfectly fine. No trouble with tongue bite whatsoever. Tastewise, after this amount of aging, there is a very intense amount of spiceyness from the perique. It almost tastes like an hot indian style dish. In terms of the VA, I notice mostly darker aromas, i.e., yeasty and bready ones. The VA and the perique create an excellent mélange at this point. From my memories I can tell that the perique was not as spicy and intense when I smoked this blend fresh out of the tin. Personally, I'd give this blend 3 stars in its current state, and 4 stars when fresh. The intense spiceyness right now is certainly very interesting but I just prefer a somewhat more modest taste. Many people refer to this blend as a prototypical VaPer and an all day smoke. In my opinion, this is not really the average representative per se, as I find it rather strong with a very generous nicotine amount. I prefer this blend during the evening hours. If you are looking for a more "middle of the road" VaPer, I would suggest looking somewhere else, nevertheless it is a very satisfying example of a VaPer.