Peterson The Royal Yacht

I have smoked more than 80 tobaccos at this point, and I can't remember one that took me so long to get a handle on. This review is based on the Orlik blend. I had my first encounter with RB by smoking about one third of a tin a couple of years ago. I flat out didn't like it. I revisited the tin several months later and found the tobacco to still be boring. Having such a strong following I recently gave it one more shot. That was three fast tins ago! I seem to have found out what many lovers of this blend already know, it just a good solid tobacco. It offers a tin scent of a good vaper (although there is no perique in the blend), the usual raisins, figs etc. I don't get plum in the flavor but more of a carmel taste in the background of pure tobacco. I would disagree with those that rate the topping on this above mild. The tobacco flavor dominates for me. Royal Yacht seems to be in its own unique category taste wise and its on the strong side and slightly sweet. RY packs well, only needs a few minutes of dry time and leaves a white ash. This is one I'm glad I stuck with. Recommended.

After reading about this venerable blend, I had to get me a tin and see if the hype was for real or not. This will not disappoint in any way. Upon opening the tin, the moisture level is about perfect. Some will need to dry it for a while, but it won't need too much, YMMV. The nicotine level does grow as you smoke down the pipe, so be warned if you are sensitive to Vitamin N to be on a full stomach before filling up your pipe with this one. The tobacco used in this blend is first rate and it shows. The tin note and room note are of plums, or maybe raisins even comes through for you. Definitely recommended when you can get your hands on some.

While browsing my local tobacconist here, I found two tins of Royal Yacht hiding in a dark corner. This is not the Orlik blend, but the Murray blend. Seems that they were hiding there for quite a while. And having never tried this blend before, I picked up both tins without hesitation.

And as soon as I got home, I immediately put away a tin in storage, and opened the other. I wanted to dive right into this, as its reputation precedes itself.

The tin note is absolutely lovely. I get a lot of raisins and just good, honest, old fashioned tobacco, with that excellent Dunhill ribbon cut I love so much. It smells full, earthy and strong. And all of these flavors I would soon discover, translate into the actual smoke.

Packs very easily, and burns easily as well. Does not bite. Does not burn hot. But that's the thing - if you smoke this too fast, the nicotine will put you on your ass, and I'm not joking. This is meant to be smoked slow, and if you treat it with respect, it will give you a great smoke.

Because of the nicotine content, I smoke this in a small bowl. No way I'd put this into a big Nording because I simply couldn't handle the nicotine for an hour and a half. But for a nice half hour smoke, it does the job great.

The flavor on the other hand, is what I'm not too keen on. While it doesn't taste bad, it's just too one dimensional and tastes too much like strong cigarettes, and it has that room note as well. This is a no holds barred, serious pipe tobacco which packs a strong punch. This is not advised for the beginner. I'm sure even some seasoned smokers could have problems with the nicotine content here. This is a Virginia blend but it's dark and rich Virginia - no wheat, grass or lime notes here.

All that said, it is not a bad smoke by any means, just not for me personally, especially flavor wise. The nicotine is also far above my threshold, so I couldn't smoke it all day even if I wanted to. But nevertheless, it's an excellent tobacco. I can really see why people love this. It's strong, it's deep, it's honest, and it's very high quality.

Royal Yacht is very much like 1792. They are both high quality, very strong tobaccos with very distinct toppings. The cut here isn't a slightly rubbed out flake like 1792--it's more fine, and fully rubbed out, somewhat dissimilar to a ribbon cut. Whetever you call it, the cut lends particularly well to packing and burning. Lighting is no problem.

The tin that I have is an Orlik version--and though some have commented on its weaker nature--I fail to see how this thing could be any stronger. In my estimate, this KOs 1792 in the strength department, though the match is hard fought.

If you're looking for a description of the topping, I'm at a loss. It's there, it's different, and it's noticeable..in short, it's one of those love/hate type things like Blue Note--without the monstrous bite.

Royal Yacht clearly isn't for everyone, but it's nice when you want to get knocked on the floor. For those that are big fans of 1792, I'm sure you won't have a problem here. Whatever your gig, Royal Yacht will likely spark one's voice of opinion.

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.

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.

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.

"Now I will have to settle for Royal Yacht like that asshole Stalin"!

("It's okay -- some aromatics are actually pretty good") . . .

---

It's 2020 -- Royal Yacht has been around since before WWI began -- and I'm just now getting around to the latest iteration of this legendary blend for the very first time (more than a century after WWI ended).

Where to begin?

1) By reading all of the 1-star reviews 2) By reading all of the 2-star reviews 3) By reading all of the 3-star reviews 4) By reading all of the 4-star reviews, and finally, 5) By smoking a bowl of Royal Yacht.

Royal Yacht: An aromatic that I actually smoked all the way to the bottom of the bowl.

I typically do not purchase 3-star tobaccos, nor do I generally smoke them. For me, Royal Yacht would be a 4-star recommend, except for the following: 1) I would prefer actual Perique in my bowl as opposed to some artificial chemical perfume, and, 2) I woke this morning with a an aftertaste in my mouth which felt as though I had been kicked in the mouth by a bad cigar the night before (hence the 3-star recommend).

As a rule, I generally eschew aromatics (even though I started out with them). When I want to smoke tobacco, I want to smoke tobacco, and nothing else. But alas, there is no tobacco that has not been adulterated in one way or another with some form of additive, casing, topping, so, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone in search of aromatics that are actually smokeable. Royal Yacht is one of these.

So now I finally have three aromatics in my rotation (the other two being Frog Morton's Cellar and Watch City Deluxe Crumb Cut -- the latter two being 4-star blends for me).

This is an authentically old-school codger blend. If the only pipe tobacco I had access to was Royal Yacht, I suppose I would only smoke Royal Yacht (though I would pick up the pipe much less frequently than I currently do).

In summation, Royal Yacht is, in fact, a unique smoking blend -- a quintessentially classic mixture more than a century old -- and should be sampled by any piper who considers themself a piper.

Dunhill Royal Yacht is a pipe tobacco unlike any other. Composed of Virginia, the cut is a small ribbon, almost shag, and the color dark.

Royal Yacht has a distinct flavoring added. I am not sure just what goes in it, but I would suggest that plum, chocolate, and tonquin are all present. Is this a semi-aromatic or a light aromatic? I rate it a light aromatic, although the flavoring does not obscure the tobacco taste by any means.

The room note is OK, and more that of a Virginia rather than an aromatic.

Royal Yacht is almost legendary for its nicotine kick, and some warn that it should not be smoked on an empty stomach. Personally, I am not overly sensitive to nicotine, and I can smoke it on an empty stomach. But those who do not tolerate high nicotine levels should be wary of this tobacco.

This is a somewhat pricey pipe tobacco. somewhat more expensive than most other Dunhills. I enjoy smoking it, although there are a number of Virginias I like better, and almost all of them are cheaper. Nevertheless I give Royal Yacht three stars, and a recommended rating, for it is a most unusual smoke, and it is highly favored by a significant number of pipe smokers. Are you going to be one of that group? You will never know unless you try it.