Esoterica Tobacciana Dunbar

The first half is very good, the second is superb. In the first half the Virginias bring more sweet citrus than hay and the Perique brings a bit of spice. The topping is extremely mild and mostly apricot to my taste. Fresh and zesty I'd call it. In the second half is where I realize that, at least some, of the Virginias have been Cavendish processed. A nice toasty note shows along with some dark fruit from the Perique. It's heavenly at this point and it finishes this way with the addition of a touch of earth. It's an outstanding smoke.

Medium in body and taste. Flavoring is extremely mild. Burns very well.

Upon opening the tin, I see ribbons of medium brown, yellow, and bits of black all mixed together. The tin smells sweet and fruity with just a hint of hay. It really smells good straight from the tin and has a bit of moisture, but not overly so. I have smoked this straight from the tin or let it dry out.

Loads very easily and stays lit with light tamping. I usually don't need a relight for this stuff and most times it takes just one match.

Upon lighting the bowl I got the usual flavors from the variety of VAPERs I have tried before, with light notes and hayish flavors balanced by slight plum, dark fruit, and pepper. It reminded me of Luxury Bullseye Flake quite a bit. But then as the bowl progresses, about 1/5 of the bowl down, the flavors become more rich and I would almost say dark tones started to show up, like some chocolate mixed with the dark fruit and maybe a bit of coffee. Very flavorful smoke after the initial light. The flavor is just a hint sweet, very savory with wood, deep plum and raisin, with just hints of hay and pepper. A great VaPer that seems to be a bit different than most with it's richness and dark plum tones. It has a decent strength as well. Doesn't bite and is very smooth.

The first time I sampled this tobacco, a friend of mine had given me a bowlful or two from a bag that had been aged (I think 6-10 years). That smoke I remember being absolutely amazing. It was creamy with the same profile I described above, but perhaps a bit subdued. I plan to age some of this for a good long while to experience it like this again.

To me, this is a soft tobacco. Gentle and warm, it sets you at ease through the pipe. Smoked in both briars and cobs I tend to enjoy it more so in my country gentleman Missouri Meerschaum but it’s been remarkable in my Savinelli Roma as of late. I had been anticipating this tobacco for some time and my expectations were at a premium. Dunbar was not a blow me away from first puff kind of smoke, nor was it a disappointment. This is a tobacco that slowly reveals itself; it has many layers and subtleties. This is, perhaps, due to the variety of Virginia leaf they loaded in this Esoterica mixture. If smoked immediately with no drying time, I got a slightly hot, hard to keep lit bowl. No problem, just a few minutes drying and the tobacco smoked cool and retained a light exceptionally well with very little relights, and puff slowly to reveal lots of dark fruit flavors that dance around the tongue, never fully exposing themselves for long. As the bowl progresses a nice tang starts to rear its head and do a little battle with the fleeting dark plummy traces of fruit that are in and out. This is where the smoke gets very enjoyable and puts you in a good spot. Back and forth, the flavors are here then there, plum, cherry, tang, plum, tang, grass, tang, dark cherry, plum, tang, grass, berry, tang, berry… but you are only going to achieve those flavors if you take care to nurse Dunbar. This is not a deep dark tobacco filled with red Virginia’s that are going to jump out at you at first light. The taste is deep, but it’s a deep bright… lots of fermented hay, deep grass flavors, playing right along with the plummy perique that is just slightly below the surface, making itself known only in sparse moments and even then there is a darkness in the flavor, no spice at all, to my palate. Dunbar really is a joy to smoke, if just for all the intricate details of each loaded pipe. At times the perique is present much more than at other times, when it seems it’s not a VaPer at all, but a straight bright Virginia. And that is where this gets interesting and grabs a hold of you. Just when you think you got it figured out, and know how you like to prepare it, what pipe you want to use, the blend reveals something else about itself opening up a whole new avenue of flavors and characteristics of which you didn’t think this little blend was capable. I smoked through four ounces of this and I’m still figuring it out. It’s soft, subtle, deep for a mostly bright Virginia, and constantly revealing new idiosyncrasies to the pipe smoker.

This is (at this moment in time) my favorite Virginia Perique blend available today. Whatever Germain does to these VA's is simply brilliant! I imagine other tobacco manufacturers would die to get their hands on a copy of their technique as no one else has been able to cure Virginia tobaccos like J.F. Germain, everything else falls short in comparison. This is currently my all day smoke and I never tire of it. There is true depth to this smoke, you get more low notes than most VaPers but there are some splendid high notes that work synergisticly with the low notes to create a beautiful symphony in your mouth (Cheesy). To this date I have only had fresh Dunbar but I can only imagine this one will age gracefully, and I have plenty in the cellar so I will one day find out. I have nothing negative to say about this one as there are no negatives to speak of, ya can't mess with perfection, and Dunbar is indeed perfect. Unfortunately this one, along with every other Esoterica is very hard to come by because the demand for such a high grade tobacco is high and I will say the hype is very well justified with this one. I just hope I can get my hands on enough to last me the rest of my years.

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

Edit 3-20-19* Two years after my initial review and I’ve only come to love it even more. I just opened a jar of 2 year aged Dunbar and it’s just pure heaven! I’m stocked up well on this one and I can’t wait to try it as it continues to age, 2, 4, 6, 8 and even 10 years from now, I imagine it will just keep getting sweeter and sweeter. As far as VaPers go, all roads lead to Dunbar

I have been attempting to compare and contrast Dunbar and Dorchester for a few months now and they are very similar. They are both excellent quality with about the same amount perique that is contained in our benchmark Orlik Golden. Dunbar and Dorchester are natural and smoke wonderfully. These blends definitely provide a unique experience worth trying. the difference in taste between the two is small, but dorchester is lighter, sweeter, and fruitier while dunbar is spicier and has more of a rich plum taste. If you could only choose to try one, I would personally recommend Dorchester.

Well folks... it seems Vapers are getting a bad rap in the Press again. To combat this negative talk, I decided to bust out one of my 8 oz bags of the Esoterica blend, Dunbar. This brute of a blend is bound to wallop some sense into any Virginia Perique naysayers. Why, it contains not five, not six, but a walloping seven different Virginias, topped off with some genuine St James perique! This blend is the schoolyard bully your dad warned you about back when you smoked your first bowl of Lane BCA. But upon opening this bag and examining it's contents, I was greeted not with a clashing mix of tobacco, but rather a beautiful, harmonious looking blend of thin strands of Virginias. Just a smattering of perique contrasts this heavenly, golden concoction of seemingly first rate tobacco. Interesting indeed. Not the thug I was expecting by any means. Still, you can't underestimate some of these non-aromatic blends on looks alone. You could get bitten, no pun intended. I decided to break out my trusty Luigi Viprati pipe, which I acquired for a small fortune, but has only been graced with the finest of Virginia Perique blends since in my possesion. In short, this pipe can tame even the meanest of VaPers. I figured the only thing to do at this point this was to attack it full on with my trusty match, (the only proper way to light virginias IMO) with the charring light, to show him who is boss. But I was shocked to notice this blend didn't fight back at all. It responded with a wonderfully sweet, hay like taste with a bit of stoved in the background. Curious, I thought. After tamping, I approached it a bit more affection. This blend wasn't the thug I had been warned about it appeared. As I slowly sipped and pondered what I was tasting, I realized no 2 puffs had tasted alike. The perique joined the little party shortly in, and countered the the sweet and grassyness with its usual spice and bit of sour aftertaste. How pleasant, I thought. At this point I noticed the tin I have has a different description than the larger bag does, but they both use the term "marriage" to describe the seven Virginia's togetherness. How appropriate, I thought. By the time I was finished with this bowl, I knew I'd smoke something special. This ain't no Burley Light Without Bite, that's for sure!! Suffice to say, this Esoteric blend has reinforced my love for this type of blend, the relatively new guy on the block, Mr. Virginia/Perique. I honestly can't think of two tobacco's belonging together more than these two. Obviously that has much to do with the quality of tobaccos being used by Esoterica. They say on the bags" Utilizing finest whole leaf and traditional production techniques. We take pleasure in presenting a wide variety of Premium pipe tobacco" You see folks, contrary to popular belief, not all pipe tobacco is created equal. Just like with anything else, extra time and extra care generally leads to an extra special product. This bag will last me a long time, as I plan to savor this, and other premium tobaccos like this, so that each smoke is meaningful. Esoterica Blends aren't just coveted because they are hard to find, they are hard to find because they are coveted. I firmly believe it is the variety that makes this Hobby as rewarding as it is. We live in a great time of online Commerce, and blends that were never available to the average person are accessible now with a little time and effort. Take advantage of it while you can, who knows when our governments will mess that up. Ladies and gentlemen, smoke up and smoke often (but not too often😉). And for the love of Pete, go out and smoke something new this year!

This is one difficult blend to lay ones paws on! If you can find it buy it, if you can find more, buy more and cellar. I had to smoke this in several pipes to be able to give an accurate review. This is a great VaPer blend. The tin/bag note on this tobacco is fantastic. When you open the bag you are hit with a sweet, raisin/fig/apricot scent that almost knocks you over. I could spend all day with my nose in this tobacco. The sweetness in the nose is not fully realized in the smoke, but the favors are there. From first light to the bottom of the bowl this is a Virginia forward smoke, It starts out sweet with the figgy taste and a bread and hay flavor that last throughout the bowl. The perique in this blend is relatively light. When you look at the ribbons the perique is lightly spread throughout the blend. In the smoke you get the peppery mouth feel and the tingle in your nose but the sweet flavors seem to more from the Virginia's than the perique.

I had the best smoke in a meer. This can bite if you are a puffer, or in this case are eager for another taste and go back to the well too quickly. I found in a full sized meer you can enjoy every nuance of this blend and not have to worry about tongue bite or getting a burnt taste from overzealous puffing. It comes a bit wet in the bag and some drying time is needed, especially briars. I did smoke a few bowls straight away in the meer and the moister tobacco did provide a more full flavored smoke. I tried the same in a briar and was sucking on ice cubes an hour later. I am off to my bag of Dorchester next. I didn't want to touch it until I really vetted Dunbar out. Another fantastic blend from Esoterica / JF Germaine.

Dunbar is something out of this world. An unbelievable VaPer and hands down my favorite VaPer blend, yes it's that good. It's an shame that it's so difficult to obtain.

As you open the tin for the very first time, you are greeted with the sweet smell of Virginia tobacco and a wonderful grassy, hay-like Virginia at that. Simply wonderful. After the tin has been opened, the sweet smell dissipates and the grassy/ hay smell moves to the forefront upon future openings of it. This is a smell that I cannot get enough of, makes me want to chew on it, it smells that good. It is a little moist upon initial opening, so give it a little dry time and it will light great.

As for the tobacco quality, it is second to none and in a class of its own. Not sure what Virginias they use in Esoterica blends, but they are so unique and have an aged taste a and smell to them, all while not tasting "too old" if that makes sense? It is top notch in quality and the consistency from tin to tin is great for this particular blend, which cannot be said of some of their other blends.

Smoking the blend: It is subtly sweet, distinctly rich and extremely smooth. It won't bite like other VaPers sometimes do. It's a cool smoke and it's white and billowy as you exhale as well. The perique is in the background in this one, contrary to what some have said. There is definitely more perique in, or at the very least, it is far more pronounced in Dorchester than Dunbar. I like Dunbar a great deal more than its cousin (Dorchester). The taste of Dunbar is buttery and almost creamy in nature. You really just taste the phenomenal Virginias and what I really like about it is the smell of the tobacco out of the tin translates very well into what you taste as you smoke it. That is such a good thing in this case because that smell out of the tin is so incredibly rich and deep smelling. In short and as I mentioned earlier, this is a top notch, "hit it out of the park" blend and i couldn't be happier with it. I've been smoking for 5 years now and have had the pleasure of smoking this blend for much of that 5 years and it is something that i never get tired of, is in my regular rotation each week and a blend i look forward to smoking, even after all these years. I hope this review helps you all on your quest for great smokes. All the best to you all.

This my humble remark based on the tobacco of 2012 in a creamy-gray bag. I smoke it and think, it is tasty ... the most delicious.