Peterson The Royal Yacht

The tin aroma is pleasant of incense and tea, and a slight fruity tinge of lavashak. The tobacco in my tin, contrary to other reviewers’, was on the dry side with a barely noticeable casing of sorts. This, however, I fail to recognise upon smoking.

It lights and stays lit easily, and delivers a cool and full bodied smoke, with enough of vitamin N, I daresay, to satisfy most. Less fruity on the tongue, tea and incense is preserved from the aroma to the flavours in the smoke. It’s gentle to the tongue and throat, but is deserving of a slow smoke nonetheless, delivering thick smoke in even the smallest puffs. Truly and outstanding tobacco, leaving in my case a white and dry ash in the bowl.

I will recommend smoking it in a small-stemmed pipe also, being rather ashy in flavour in the churchwarden. Despite this, I haven’t had many tobaccos with this tea and incense smell and taste, which I find highly intriguing and mellow. If not to familiar with vitamin N, it will probably have you seated while smoking though.

Comes in ribbons, the usual Dunhill cut. Three shades of brown in almost equal parts. Tin note, while not very intense, has a faint ‘plumy’ note on a background of yeasty tobacco aroma. The freshly opened tin had optimal moisture to smoke so I jarred it straight away.

Royal Yacht is indeed a strong and full bodied smoke. Not unpleasantly so - at least for me. While smoking my first bowl I started to hiccup but it did not happen again. Tastewise, although tasty it’s not loaded with flavor. And despite the fact that it nominally has a plum flavouring, the dominant flavor is that of tobacco. It is quite dry and although a straight Virginia it does have some complexity. Actually the flavor, nutty, reminded me a little of Semois which is a Burley grown in Belgium. Royal Yacht is smoother though. When sipped I got some sweet notes as well. I can also imagine raisins and wood and some smoky dark fired notes and present are some yeasty and spicy notes as well. I’d classify Royal Yacht to the ‘cigarette-like’ tobaccos which means that it is very tobaccoey –despite the plum flavoring- and as such and because of its strength I’d recommend it to seasoned smokers. Room note is quite bold and it leaves an intense, mildly bitter, aftertaste on the mouth.

Do not get fooled by the flavouring, this is a true tobacco smoke. Not a typical Virginia, as I said I do get some Burley-like notes, but Royal Yacht is an outstanding tobacco but not exactly made for repeated use during the day.

I’d never had any particular interest in trying this blend. It was on my list, but nowhere near top priority. Virginia-based blends are not usually my first choice, and when I do smoke them, I prefer a much subtler topping than Royal Yacht’s was purported to be. I like the flavor of Virginia as it is; in fact, “straight Virginia” is probably my favorite genre of pipe tobacco. But Royal Yacht’s reputation preceded it. I’d read many of these reviews, and they skewed positive. So, finding myself in a tobacconist I’d never visited before, I picked up a tin. This particular place has a far better selection than my usual, more conveniently located option. Light on the aromatics and the house blends and a decent, if not world-class, array of tins. They didn’t have a straight Virginia, which was my first choice, so I settled for something “Virginia based”.

My first smoke of the Royal Yacht was right there on the shop’s tiny balcony. The shop is a cramped though inviting little space wedged above a hookah lounge and awkwardly off-adjacent to a tattoo parlor. The balcony seats exactly two. I made myself at home and cracked my tin. Smell out of the tin was sweet and metallic: fruit (I remembered the comparisons to Juicy Fruit gum and found them apt) layered over the sweet smell of dry grass, with some notes of dry autumn leaves. Old pennies, and far in the background is the faintest suggestion of spice, like curry powder. About medium in intensity; it doesn’t reek from the tin like Nightcap. It’s an odd smell, not offensive or off-putting, but unlike anything you are likely to encounter outside of the pipe-smoking hobby. My tin was a little wet, but not objectionably so. I probably could have loaded up and smoked as is, but I wasn’t in any kind of hurry, so I scooped out a bowl’s worth (kudos to Dunhill for packing their tins generously; McClelland, take note) and let it sit on the tin lid to dry for a minute.

Packing is simple, even though Royal Yacht is a little clumpier than I expect from Dunhill’s usual standards. I think of this as halfway between a ribbon cut and a ready-rubbed. Being so, it rubs out pretty much effortlessly. I found a medium pack to smoke a little hot, so I’m going to say pack this one a little firmer and sip slowly.

There’s a rough edge to this smoke, one that doesn’t smooth out as you smoke through the bowl. The metallic scent I pick up in the tin note translates to a weird coppery taste, like sucking on an old penny. It has an echo of the sourness of plums, but the sweetness is a function of the Virginias, not the topping, which I enjoy and prefer.

Honestly, this began as a bit of an enigma to me (with all my biases and predilections as a pipe smoker). Why the topping? Why would you take quality Virginias and squirt plum flavoring on them? Why plum? I’ve had some stoved dark straight Virginia that tasted of plum, of dark fruit, and I thoroughly enjoyed it (I’m thinking of Blackwoods Flake, which is my favorite blend). But to take a Virginia with one flavor and top it with a flavor that can be naturally found in other Virginias seems odd to me. I would love to try a version of this that replaces the flavoring with a naturally fruity stoved Virginia. I’m not averse to topped or cased tobaccos across the board, even aromatics: I smoked a big bowl of 1-Q this morning and have been smoking Carter Hall as my base tobacco as of late. It’s just that Royal Yacht is neither here nor there, neither one or the other. The tobaccos aren’t distinguished enough to make a first-class Virginia blend, and the topping isn’t tasty enough to make a quality aromatic.

However, subsequent smokes reveal a few pleasant surprises. The topping fades a little, moving from Juicy Fruit to a subtle, mild apricot that melds beautifully with the natural Virginia sweetness. There’s a little aromatic woodsiness — sandalwood? that puts me in mind of a fruit pit: that bitterness you get from biting into an apple seed or an unripe almond. It’s become a really vegetal smoke: fruity sweetness, clean woodiness, moldering brown leaves, a slight green bitterness. And it’s almost enough to redeem this tobacco for me. It’s a blend that will teach you to sip. Both the nicotine content and the harsh flavor that emerges at anything more than a controlled, almost somnolent cadence demand a measured pace. But the rewards of taking your time are quite pleasant indeed.

Royal Yacht is virtually tasteless in a meerschaum. When I cracked the tin, the topping made me worry about ghosting my briars, but I think that was unfounded, especially once the leaf has dried out and the the topping fades a little. I won’t be smoking this in anything but a briar pipe again.

The thing I really appreciate about Royal Yacht is its uniqueness. It is unapologetically, brashly itself. The bold flavor and the generous dose of nicotine combine to make a tobacco with a energetic and uninhibited personality. It’s pros are also it’s cons: it can be fussy, rough, and it is a slight enigma, which means smoking it is never a completely comfortable experience. It is an experience, though, and every pipe smoker ought to try it at least once.

Why: You have heard about it but are afraid to do it because you know it will automatically replace several other brands you have with many tins of this instead. It wins both as a top Virginia and a pipe tobacco. It scores tops on nearly every feature. You haven’t experienced a Virginia like it before.

Looks: The tin is unmissable. Yellow background with red foreground and fancy font. The tobacco is dark for a Virginia almost like a Cavendish or burley, but the texture is much lighter. There is a faint purple shine to it all. Smells deep spicey. All of this is because of the plum flavouring treatment.

Using?: If you have never seen a full pipe bowl top turn into a perfect coin shape of ash that just slides off, then Royal Yacht is the way. It burns perfectly. It goes straight into smolder. It never flames up. It never goes out very quickly. If it vanishes too fast, it’s for obvious reasons. You’re enjoying it. Quite smokey. Musty spicey plum taste and room note. The burn is unique. A small hot central heat that effortlessly smolders all the tobacco in concentric rings around it. Looks like a hot car lighter dimming out!

Result: You can learn a lot from this tobacco namely because it sets a benchmark. Other mixes may do better than it in some areas but usually not in the others like the Royal Yaught way. Also realizing it’s only a Virginia with some flavouring treatment doing all this is astonishing. It tastes spicey all the way through.

Conclusion: Dunhill has a tobacco that undermines all its other brands. I can easily see people dispense with Early Morning Pipe and Night Cap and use this instead and maybe even for the whole day as some believers have turned to it. The only reason I will still use Early Morning and Night Cap is because Royal Yacht can be a little heavier for some people. I can safely say that Royal Yacht has easily become a bulk order to replace several other well known brands in my collection. That’s how good it really is.

Royal Yacht is not royal at all! Actually, it's not even a yacht. It's a casual fishboat... with a hole in the deck. I cannot understand those delighted reviews - a dry nicotine-bomb, Virginia without any surprise. Maybe good as a background for your own home-made mixtures, but not for that price. Royal Yacht is a typical overrated pipe tobacco. There was a Monty Python's sketch desribing this quite good.

Interviewer (Michael Palin): Good evening. I have with me in the studio tonight one of the country's leading skin specialists - Raymond Luxury Yacht.

Raymond (Graham Chapman): That's not my name!

Interviewer: I'm sorry - Raymond Luxury Yach-t.

Raymond: No, no, no - it's spelt Raymond Luxury Yach-t, but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove".

... the same problem is with Dunhill Royal Yacht.

simply a superb tobacco blend ! very satisfying and a beautifully nuanced smoking experience; strong in taste and nicotine. To date, it's the only blend that gives me that "not wanting more feeling" As a heavy "roll up" smoker I think I have found a more refined smoking replacement - Royal Yacht = instant smoking satisfaction. A proper baccy for serious smokers, try it you won't be disappointed.

Strong virginia, rich in taste and strength, ready to be smoked. I found this blend a little bit too dry, but exceptionally good. The Dunhill Nightcap does for EM what the Royal Yacht does for virginia. If you are searching for tasty and strong blend virtginia based, with nothing else, this is it. I think it is a must-try for people that use to smoke FVF, for example, because this virginia is imho much better.

The name is identical to the taste. Such a strange statement to start with though this is true. When I smoke this Virginia tobacco it makes me feel I am in a luxurious world far from everyone, very relaxed accompanied by a very distinguished viginia taste but still different taste of virginia. It burns quickly with high nicotine and that is why I smoke it slowly in a small pipe so that I will not feel very dizzy. Some of the readers may be amazed to know that I like also to smoke it in the morning but for a short period of time to enjoy its distinguished mild taste. Also, I smoke it for a long time before I go to bed. During the night and because of the nicotine in my body I have different dreams and I write what I dream of in my journal and create ideas for some of my short stories. I do not recommend pressing the tobacco because this will affect the taste. Great for smoking while watching movies but not while reading. From my point of view this is a great tobacco and its worth smoking on regular bases though as I have said it burns quickly. Great taste that can not be described in words. If you love to imagine and feel unique, it is time to sail in the Royal Yacht.

This is my first try at RY. I usually smoke Dunhill's LM or MM 965 and many of the Pease tobaccos. Tin note is medium with the scent of hay and newly mowed grass and rather sweet. Moisture seems about right and it packs easily. The smoke gets richer as the bowl progresses and tastes a great deal like the tin aroma. No tongue bite but I did smoke it in one of Petersons with a P-lip mouthpiece. Not an over powering flavor like Latakia tobaccos but an extremely rich and satisfying smoke than develops over time. Clean after taste. I can't recall any tobacco that tastes anything like RY. A VERY big nicotine hit - the most of any of my tried tobaccos even more than Dunhill's Night Cap. As with all Virginia tobaccos I smoke, it seems to smoke best in my Peterson pipes for whatever reason. A wonderful and very satisfying tobacco. I like it more each time I smoke it. Most highly recommended.