Esoterica Tobacciana Dunbar

About a month ago, a fellow pipe club member gave me a zip lock bag labeled Dunbar that I am pretty sure had been previously given to him and he asked me to try it. A few days later I tried it and from the tin note (zip lock bag) I detected mostly perique or a moldy bread smell possibly from the Virginias, at least to me that is what I could make out. It smoked kind of one dimensional, bland, tasteless, etc. A week later he asked me how it was. I am not one to insult a gift but asked him if it had been home blended with other ingredients and he replied no. I said I thank you for the gift but if you want my honest opinion it really was a one-dimensional smoke as stated earlier. He said he could not get any Virginia taste out of it either as was the opinion of others in our club. I was hesitant to write this review because maybe it was mislabeled by accident with no malice intended or sat out on the other guys dashboard for a long time. Ha. I have smoked some more of this and I keep looking for the 11 herbs and spices and I can’t find them. And this one gets a lot of glowing reviews about all of the flavors. I wish I could get my hands on a tin or a bag but the only place I could find it offered was 140 bucks for an 8 oz bag and way out of my price range to compare the difference. I am curious but not at that price. I am giving this a 2 star in the hopes that I can come across some more at a future date and will update this review but what I smoked I can not really recommend at this time. Esoterica tobaccos are as hard to get as looking for a needle in a haystack but recently my luck has changed and I was able to buy a tin of Pembroke, and we also were allowed the opportunity to buy one ounce of Penzance. I am looking forward to reviewing these two shortly. Most of my reviews are probably more about the experience surrounding the blends that I try. Here is my expertise when it comes to tobaccos, yep that is an English blend, yep that is a Virginia blend, yep Perique in there and yep that is definitely an aromatic. Anyhow I have fun keeping track of what I have tried and I am wondering if I am getting addicted to writing reviews. Maybe that is why I buy something different every week. I hope not, I am running out of cellar space. Ha.

I am a VaPer fan smoking Escudo a lot so when I got a tin of this I was excited to try it. Upon opening the tin, the smell of musty and spicy. It is a ribbon cut mostly light colored tobacco and come pretty moist in the tin so I dry it out some before smoking it. It does pack easy in the pipe and lights easy, one to raise the crown and one after tamping it level with the bowl. It burns well and stays lit and does burn all the way down to a fine whitish grey ash with some dark areas. The taste is of a nice virginia but not sweet or hay like and the perique is right there from the start. It picks up it's presence as one smokes the bowl down and I like the perique used, it is nice an spicy and gives the blend a kick. However, without the stweetness of the VA coming through like a lot of good vapors, I grow bored with it before finishing the bowl. I have tried it right out of the tin, somewhat dried and very dry and get the same result. Also have smoked it in numerous pipes. I do like the final third of the bowl, then it has a lot of taste and flavor, and I like the room note it leaves. But I think there are many VaPors that are much better than this one. I do recommend trying it but I think it will drive one back to the better Vapers.

1/8/2013

I was gifted another tin of this blend that the sender had left it out to dry out and it appears to be aged. I have been smoking it this week and it does age well, it is very mellow and the VA in it is a little sweeter now. I do enjoy this blend, but I still find it to be a little too mild for my tastes. I much prefer aged Escudo if I am smoking VA/Pers. It is a good blend that I will smokke if gifted but would not buy it myself.

Appearance: A mixture of coarse ribbon and broken flake. Color runs the gamut of medium light through dark.

Aroma: Typical Esoterica aroma, quite musty, almost unpleasant. I assume it has something to due with the maturing process, as Tilbury has a similar aroma. It does not ever go away, only becomes less noticeable.

Packing: Must be packed with some care, owing to the coarseness of the cut. Never packs easily into a small bowl.

Lighting: Somewhat slower than average to catch fire. Sometimes needs two matches for a good charring light.

Initial flavor: Very full bodied Virginia flavor. Sweet with a trace of sour, peppery tang. Lacking in complexity or layering.

Mid-bowl: Still somewhat monochromatic in flavor. Tends to be boring in a tall bowl, but not well suited to a small pipe. (See note on packing).

Finish: Ends not with a bang, but a whimper. No significant change at the end. Leaves a clean ash.

Summary: For me, there are much more rewarding Va/Per blends out there. Worth a try, but I won?t be back.

Not very sweet, at times even sour... At the beginning of the bowl it may remind of Cairo, then it becomes tastier, fuller. At the bottom of the bowl, it has become VERY tasty. Think of Tribute, but more on the sour side and not toasted at all. A nice tobacco, but I find it a bit too heavy for my taste. Not nicotine-heavy (though not light at all!), just heavy as impact on the palate and on the senses: probably due to the high amount of Perique, which I don't consider myself a fan of.

As usual with Esoterica, the moisture level when fresh is too high, and when you open the tin you have to beware for rust and internal corrosion because it will happen soon.

A good tobacco if you like this kind of thick and heavy stuff, but not elegant enough for me.

Here we have another Virginia/Perique blend with wonderful smoking properties. I don't find this as flavorful as Dorchester; it's more on a par with Escudo for me, though it doesn't taste exactly the same. The sample bag smell is close to Dorchester: a mild, medium tobacco smell with little or no sweetness. It appears to be a mostly rubbed out flake, with about 10% still unrubbed. The color of the leaf is mainly medium brown, with some darker browns thrown in as well. It is on the dry side, has a medium to long cut, packs well and lights easily, puffing up as the flame hits it. It also burns well, requiring less than the average number of mid-bowl relights. In the first third, the flavor is very ordinary, just an average, medium Virginia flavor without the normal Virginia sweetness. There are several layers of this medium flavor, though, and I notice a bare hint of spice in the background. In the second third, I'm noticing an element of sweetness, and a slightly stronger spice note. The Virginia flavor has also changed, becoming more mature and complex. The multilayered effect is nice, and the tobacco is thus far free of tongue bite. The taste is somewhat delicate, not exactly full but flavorful nonetheless. In the final third of the bowl, the flavors mature and merge, though the spice remains a fairly minor part of the blend compared to its role in Dorchester. This part is especially good if you leave the pipe overnight and go back to it (DGT-style). It is by no means full or highly complex, but it is a nice, tasty smoke that has only minor bite problems and no moisture build-up at all. Overall, a very nice but not overly special blend. I much prefer Dorchester to this one, even though it bites more for me. For best effect, use a deep bowl and smoke slowly. Virginia/Perique fans should enjoy this one, and I should have no problems finishing my sample.

What an odd one this was!

I had high expectations, as I had found a stash of this and some of the rare ones at a B&M that I claimed without delay.

This needed to be dried out for quite a while. I loaded it from the freshly opened tin and nearly used a book of matches trying to keep the thing going, whilst giving myself dry-mouth in the process (rookie at the time), but then took some out and dried it and lit up for round 2.

Tangy, sour, grassy, almost slimey texture from it. I liked it, the smoke was very interesting in the aroma with a lot going on and clearly high quality, but there was something in that taste that made my face pucker up like man eating a whole lemon.

I admit, the nuances are beyond my palate's limitations so I don't want to talk down something due to not understanding, but for my taste, I couldn't get into it, and traded it on to someone who might appreciate.

Good quality, complicated, but not for me.

Hey fellers, Red here. Esoterica's Dunbar is an interesting Va/Per that is pressed and aged in a way that creates an interesting blur of flavors. In most well executed Va/Pers the Virginia and Perique come at you one at a time, each rising then falling in their turn, until building to a crescendo in a symphony of sweet and spice. In some blends the Virginias stand out, and in some it's the Perique. Not so with Dunbar. This Va/Per resonates consistently throughout the bowl with a harmonic balance of sweet/spice an octave or two above one dimentional. Don't get me wrong, I don't find this Va/Per boring. What's more, I think it was well done keeping a blend this flavorful marching in such well drilled cadence. However, where in most good Va/Pers the Virginias are there in all their naturally sweet glory, Dunbar seems to use less than prime Virginias and compensate by adding a smidge of sugar. Tastes slightly fraudulent. Like a good knock-off, it works when you realize what it is and accept it for itself without trying to compare it to Escudo or some of the other 4 star Va/Pers. Worth a smoke if you are out of the great stuff. Borderline 3 star but I can't get over the sugar, which should not be necessary.

Two Stars.

PS: Don't be alarmed, the tin note that is a witches brew of prunes and vinegar doesn't carry over into the smoke. Thank god, or else this would be one radical aromatic.......

Couldn't resist any longer. This tin has been sitting in the cabinet patiently for months, and I just cracked it open. I knew this was a very familiar aroma, but what was it? Oh, yeah! V8 Juice! And I don't mean kind of like, I mean exactly like V8. I was surprised by this, because the only tomato-ketchup smell I've experienced is from McClelland tobaccos.

The leaf is very brightly colored, beautiful actually, and cut into long ribbons. They're packed together tightly in the tin. I didn't give it time to dry, and maybe that was its downfall, since I was very underwhelmed with this weed.

I love Esoterica's Penzance and Stonehaven, but this stuff just did not do it for me. Way too austere and bitter. Maybe it was an off day, maybe the wrong pipe. I'll keep trying and will update if things change with a few months of aging. I'll stick with Escudo and St. James Woods for my current Vaper rotation.

Notes: I have smoked this in bulk and from the tin. I prefer it tinned and with several months of age on it. It seems to do well in most pipes, being, while not insensate, somewhat less sensitive than most blends to the selection of pipe.

Appearance: A pressed brown flake, rubbed out partially.

Aroma: Quite mild, sugary, fresh-cut hay, sour prunes, musty books, smoke.

Taste: Grassy, smoky, mild, yet pungent with a propensity to burn the tongue if care is not taken. Sour prunes, raisins, button mushrooms, hay, autumn leaves.

Comparisons: Very much in line with other Virginia-perique blends, such as Revelation, but a bit more sugary perhaps.

Bottom Line: Those who fancy Virginia-Perique blends should give this one a try at least once. For those who fancy a smoky, sweeter, slightly salty-sour Virginia blend, here you go.