Peterson My Mixture 965

The quintessential English Blend, together with London Mixture. This is another tobacco that I would choose if I could smoke only one blend for the rest of my life.

The reasons? Well, it is a perfect mix. Very full, rather strong, but never aggressive: I like strong tastes, but while I love Nightcap, I think that 965 is much more suited for all-day smoking. It never tickles the throat or bites the tongue, regardless of how you smoke it. Just a bit in the nose, maybe, but it's an otherwise well-rounded mixture.

What shocks me is that this doesn't come at the expense of taste: this is one of the tastiest tobbaccos I have ever tried. Every mouthful of smoke gives you an almost culinary sense of fullness, as if you were eating some delightful "lasagne". It really makes you crave for more and more, never tiring: I find it perfect as appetizer, or after dinner, or in every other moment of the day. This is a tobacco that simply makes you love the taste of... tobacco! That burnt-wood, exotic taste that I have always been looking for in a tobacco...

I am a guy who loves to try different tobaccos to change tastes, but I feel that My Mixture 965 is a blend that MUST always be present in my collection, because it never grows tiresome. And it should serve as a warning to all "aromatic fans": don't try and go looking for taste in those boring and syrupy cherry-vanilla-fruit tobaccos... There's twice the taste in this and in London Mixture than in ANY aromatic, and it is a TRUE taste, the taste of real tobacco...

I also tend to recommend it to beginners: in my opinion, it is a much better choice than the usual drugstore tobaccos, or than the ultra-classic Early Morning Pipe. I began smoking a pipe with EMP, and I was a bit disappointed. And don't fear that it might be TOO tasty: it never goes over the top, and it is much more straightforward (which doesn't mean it lacks in subtlety) than my other beloved: Nightcap. Nightcap is even fuller and tastier, but it might be TOO spicy and "grand" for someone. 965 has also the advantage of releasing its taste from the start and keeping it very stable for the rest of the bowl, while Nightcap evolves and changes: nice for experienced smokers, but a bit disconcerting for someone else.

Packs easily, burns well (leaving a dry light grey ash), doesn't require a great smoking technique, tastes great. What else could you want?

A recommendation if you like this tobacco: as I said it is very similar to Dunhill London Mixture, but in my opinion it is less sweet and "licorice" tasting, verging on a "salty" tone instead. Probably due to the reduced amount of Virginia? You may want to try both, anyway.

Curious note: Many say that this kind of English blend (heavy on Latakia) can be unplesant to wives around you. To my surprise, this is a tobacco that my wife LOVES to smell when I smoke it! She hates aromatics, or "sweet" tobaccos: she prefers the room note of english blends, especially London Mixture and 965! Her sister, too, once asked me if she could try to take a puff out of my pipe when I was smoking this kind of tobacco! She, too, loved the smell of it (and she isn't even a cigarette smoker)! So it seems to be only a matter of taste... It has a strong room note, but someone may like it very much (and my cigarette smoking friends LOVE it).

UPDATE February 2004: After a couple of years and some tins more, I can say that this tobacco suffers from batch variations. Some tins can be great, while others can be nauseating, with a taste that is sweetish and spicy but in the wrong way, or because of a weak undistinct taste. Recently, it has become almost impossible to find a good tin... Not a very subtle tobacco, though, even when you get the good tin, and it probably has become stronger in nicotine while becoming generally worse in taste. I prefer London Mixture by a long shot, now. The rating reflects the average between the old 965 (****) and the new one (**).

UPDATE 2012: Ok, downgrading the rating AGAIN. While I enjoyed the recent Orlik versions of London Mixture (a bit thin, but fragrant and very balanced), Standard Mixture (not as juicy as it used to be, but still very... "standard") and even Early Morning Pipe (never my favourite, and still heavier than what the name would suggest, but very complex ad intriguingly oriental), this one is a BIG disappointment. Flat, carboardy, cigarettish. Not exactly offensive, and probably lighter in nicotine than the last Murray versions, but boooooring! Some slight harshness, too. Here and there a hint of the old greatness and of Dunhill's trademark style, but otherwise it's a miss.