Peterson Standard Mixture

A predominant Latakia smell right from the tin. Orientals are there, subdued though, by the black leaf.

Taste is full. Latakia forward, full of that woody-leathery taste. The orientals give their best appearance when the fire is slightly buring. If you turn your pipe into a caminet, this will not work. Keep it burning low, just before the fire is out. That is when you get this buttery taste, orientals are well known for. There is some spice, but its not the blends strongest trait. Virginias are just an adhesive here. The body is almost full.

Room note is torelable. For a fellow pipe smoker is heaven. For a wife is an excuse to throw you out in the back yard.

It pairs excellent with all kinds of beverages. Personally i always find myself with a glass of single malt whiskey on one hand and a bowl packed with Standar mixture on the other.

One of the most representative english blends. For me its one of my favourites. People should compare every english blend they smoke with this one. Its neither light nor heavy. Its standar but not basic. Its an everyday blend for every pipe smoker.

Standard mix was the first english blend i had tried and untill now, i coudnt find any english blend better than this. its great, carefully and prefesionally blended. very nicely balanced between vi, latakia and oriental. 4 star blend

This is both a truly exceptional and a very standard English mixture. Normally I describe my experience with a blend in very specific terms, but this one just calls for broad strokes. Savory spice up front, slight sweet and spice on the finish. Strength is nothing to worry about, but lets itself be known. Exactly what you'd expect from a quality English mixture.

It has been a while since I've reviewed any tobacco, and that is not because I haven't been smoking good ones. Quite the contrary. Among my favourites are Dunhill Night Cap, MyMixture 965, MCClennand "Frog on a Log" and G.L. Pease Westminster (all of which I haven't yet reviewed).

But Standard Mixture? Simply superb. It's what I turn to when I want to have a really good smoke and concentrate. After smoking a bowl, I simply focus better. I do believe that comes from the healthy dose of nicotine therein. It is a consistent smoke that does not disappoint. It's easy on the palette, and I love the tin and room notes. It is my favourite tobacco right now.

Highly recommend it.

This is awesome. I don't know if it's considered a Balkan blend. But it tasted better than any Balkan blend I've ever had. This is what oriental tobacco should taste like. Not too strong, not too weak and just a wonderful flavor. And, the tin aroma is to die for.

This is my favorite Dunhill blend. When I opened the tin, I didn't get that generic leather smell that is characteristic of most English blends. The Virginia is superb, and the Latakia is a very mild addition to the blend just giving it a perfect bit of smokey flavor. Perfect moisture level, only one relight after char. Burned down to a white ash. I would smoke this all day if I could afford to.

I betray my lack of discernment, perhaps, but no matter who blends this (is it on its fourth or fifth version now?), whenever I have opened a new tin of this over the years, the aroma and presentation always seem familiar.

This is one of three mixtures I would recommend to someone looking to understand what an English blend is like.

With one proviso. I'm far from nicotine averse, quite the opposite. As I was enjoying the smooth, balance of the tobaccos used, no one thing demanding attention, I realized to my surprise that I was somewhat feeling the effect of the vitamin N! There's sinew in there...

This is my favorite in Dunhill lines, and maybe in all Balkan blends. I practically use it as my standard to evaluate Balkan blends, and that's how I love it. I rank the room note as pleasant because I love the smell so much and couldn't care less for what others think.

Opening the tin reveals tightly packed, finely cut and quite short ribbons - not totally unlike any other Dunhill mixture. There didn't appear to be many stems, at least not while digging around in the outer layer when fluffing up the tobacco for closer inspection. It appears to be a pretty even mix of lighter brown and darker to black tobaccos. A smaller portion have a nice olive green tint to them.

The tin note is remarkably unassuming at first glance. On closer inspection it does let it be known that there is indeed latakia in here, but I actually was anticipating a more powerful aroma. There is a leathery smoky component for sure, but it intermingles well with the overall sweet tartness of the scent. There is also an earthy and spicy element here that I like very much. But neither of these notes that I detect are very bold and up front. Overall the tin note comes across as quite muted.

To the touch the tobacco from the newly opened tin is drier than anticipated, and leaves some stickiness on the fingers after compressing between the fingers - this little test tells me that this is a pretty good condition for just loading into the pipe and light up.

Packing the pipe is easy and a quick pre-light draw reveals an airy sweetness on the tongue. Upon charring there is some increased spicy sweetness, and I'm briefly reminded of Old Dublin. Puffing gently after true-lighting the turkish makes itself immediately known, a bit less sweet than London Mixture, and I also think there is a greater part of latakia here compared to LM, and overall more incense like spice throughout, both in taste and smell.

Wood and spice becomes more evident in the later stages of the smoke. It also evolves into a more full finish. Never bitter or unpleasant, and always with a somewhat velvety mouthfeel. A good end to a nice smoke with a perfectly acceptable nicotine punch, just the way I like it. At first I did not pick up at all on any of the toastiness others have reported, which perplexed me a little, but eventually found it in the 1/3 of the pipe in subsequent smokes; mainly in the nasal exhales. I didn't find it to be a very protrudent component of the smoke (hence the billing as "lightly toasted", I suppose).

The room note is nothing a non-smoker, or one not accustomed to englishes, would cheer for, I'd imagine. But then again, I didn't find it lingering or too obtrusive whilst it lasted either. Definately not when compared to, say, Nightcap, Commonwealth, or even 965.

I did get tend to get the odd gurgling now and then, which makes me think that perhaps I should take care to let it air for a bit before packing the pipe, or perhaps I didn't pace myself quite as well as I thought I was. But the tobacco behaves pretty well regardless; especially considering it's still a relatively new tin. I'd say that perhaps it's not suited for mindless puffing, as some slight irritation on the tongue follows upon doing so - but that might just be me nitpicking, I've had much worse tonguemanglings from other blends at their best than this did at its worst.

My overall impression after just about half way through the tin is that there is definately potential here for something nice, and it does improve around the 2-3 week mark of being opened. In my experience this is common with any blend, but Dunhill's in particular. There is also reason to suspect that this will greatly improve if aged, especially the virginias - they are pretty sweet as they are, albeit perhaps a bit dull (they lack that clarity and edge that I always find myself looking for anytime there's Virginia involved). If that aspect gets more developed, this could become really good. Three years in the cellar, like someone before me suggested sounds about right. A bit much for the impatient, perhaps, but there are enough interesting things going on here that it might be worth the effort, and maybe when aged it can truly live up to the claim of setting the standard.

Will it replace LM or 965 for me? Probably not, but I think that if you're not quite into the sweet oriental thing that Early Morning Pipe has going on, or if the turkish is too much in London Mixture, or the force of My Mixture 965 is just too much to handle, then Standard Mixture might just be the middle ground you're looking for.

That being said, there is still a lot to like here and I might just gather an extra tin or three and see what happens down the road. In the meantime, I might just keep smoking it for the sake variation to the usual suspects. All in all, it strikes me as just a little bit too crude to deserve an instant 4-star grade. Had decimals been allowed, I wouldn't argue too much with something in the 3.5 range.

Recommended.