Esoterica Tobacciana Tilbury

02-11-2005 Ready Rubbed Stonehaven anyone?

Appearance and Tin Aroma: Matured Va, some fortified hay notes. The leaf is mostly light brown to medium brown.

Packing and Lighting: The ribbons pack easily, although I prefer to let the tin breath with the lid off for a day before smoking the contents. Lit after 2-3 lights.

Initial Flavor: Delicious! I suspect that this is Stonehaven before the pressing and further stoving process.

Mid-Bowl: the strength and richness is definitely there, but in a refined way. The flavor does remind one of a fine cigar.

Bottom of Bowl: Yes, this does build up strength and richness, but before you know it, you are done. This is a one bowl a dayblend max for me.

Overall: When I want a fine stoved VA, I am hard pressed to decide between this and Stonehaven. Both are delicious! I suppose the analogy would be thus: Tilbury is a fine Godiva Semi-sweet Chocolate and Stonehaven is a fine Godiva dark chocolate. Both are delicious, but both are distinct. Regardless, I find this blend to be a occaisonal special treat smoke due to its richness. Lastly, I usually prefer this in a group 3 or smaller pipe.

Rating: 5 out of 5 points

Esoterica has a unique blending process and there is a taste that seems to be common to all their blend that I've tried. I don't think it's a topping but rather something in their process. When I first tried Tilbury I was a little underwhelmed and found that it didn't have the oomph of a comparable GL Pease Virginia. I didn't disklike it but put it aside for a while. As time went on I would smoke a bowl occasionally, and found that it grew on me to the point that it became a favorite change of pace tobacco. I wouldn't class this as a favorite but recommend it to VA lovers who are looking for something a little different than you standard VA blend.

This certainly is a unique tobacco. It fits in a niche all by itself. It is obviously made with high quality as all of Esoterica's blends are. The flavor is unlike that of any other VA/Burley I have ever tried. It has a very musty taste that reminds me of old books, but in a good way. There is definitely a touch of cigar leaf here, perhaps some Conneticut shade leaf wrapper, ala' Dunhill Blue Label. This only makes the blend that much more interesting and distinguished. I can pick up on lots of complexity and very little heat which is a big plus. This blend does dry my mouth out quite a bit and I need to have something on hand to drink. Coffee will wash all of the flavors out, and thus a nice light ale or glass of cool water is a better choice. This is one I will enjoy on special ocassions.

(5/10/03) The aroma is kind of musty and sweet, with hints of figs and dates. it's fairly dry tobacco right out of the tin. There is Burley in this blend but there are no hints of it in the aroma. The aroma is pure high quality Virginia. This tobacco packs easily and fires up easily. I like to smoke this in a large size bowl. The first third of the bowl offers a tangy and at the same time, semi-sweet flavor profile. This is obviously high quality stuff. The second third picks up a little spiciness but the overall flavor profile is pure Virginia, just delicious. The last third is slightly richer and spicier than the first and even the second but only slightly, however, it's in the final third of the bowl that you begin to feel the nicotine strength, and this blend offers a fair amount! Also, this is a blend that does not bite easily. I am an aggressive smoker and have never had a problem with this blend. Another great Virginia Blend, I love it and will always have some on hand!

I have mixed feelings for Tilbury. The tin aroma is very similar to Three Nuns (it took me a while to identify it, so definitively a one of a kind aroma. The cut is a long, almost shag cut and most of the leaf is pale brown with some medium and spare dark broken flakes. I do not really see this one a a ready rubbed version of Stonehaven, they come as different to me in flavour. It sure smokes well but because of the high content of pale brown leaf, it tends to bite my tongue, which is really a pipty. It certainly has a nice taste which confirms I am dealing with matured VAs. It is not full of complexity but I can only recommend you try it.

This blend comes in a nice copper colored tin with a white label affixed to the front; the font is fancy on the tin label and very appealing to my eye. Upon opening I was greeted with a sweet, fig-like aroma...very pungent. The cut is that of long ribbons and after about an hour was at the perfect humidification for packing and smoking. This blend lit very well and produced a good volume of smoke.

The taste and aroma was heavenly. The Virginias were smooth but had a wonderful strength to them. There was a creamy nuttiness due to the burlies and I found this blend to be very satisfying. There was minimal tongue bite at first due to my excitement but things cooled down as I slowed down a bit. This is now one of my favorite blends and I look forward to trying it's cousin Stonehaven soon.

Tilbury, well I liked this blend. Again it smelled like a fine wine perhaps a Merlot out of the tin. The taste was very strong, it also seemed high in nicoten even though I am also a cigarette smoker this could easily replace a cig. Again it seems to be a slow smoker it gets really juicy when smoked fast. It is really nice in the winter time. I never smoked this one outside. However I did have to fight with my wife to smoke this. Not because of the room note but because she liked it herself. I got maybe three bowls out of the entire tin, she smoked the rest down in like three days. She only gave it an 8 of 10 stars. My personal Notes have it at a 8.9 I guess because I didn't get to smoke much of it and that I liked Pembroke better.

I popped open an older tin of Tilbury before Butera's name was on the label. The tin aroma was a wonderful pungeant straight tobacco smell and age had done a wonderful job on this tobacco. Almost a greasy look to the fine cut ribbon. It packs easily and burns very nice. Might need just a little drying out before packing. The flavor is a rich, creamy pure tobacco flavor. It is a very nice change of pace Virginia tobacco. I will put some away for the future.

Recently purchased some of this in bulk and have been enjoying it over the past few weeks. It burns nicely and VERY cool - no tongue bite with this one.

If you like VA's this is nice stuff, but be aware that its flavor does have that distinct chocolate/nutty flavor of burley in it. In fact, I would almost say that this blend tastes more like a burley with VA than the other way around. Paired with a coffee/espresso drink this blend could keep you up all night since it is a pretty strong blend in terms of nicotine - I can only finish half the bowl in one session (but I am a lightweight in this dept). I have never gotten dizzy though - I think that's just a marketing ploy on the part of Esoterica!

Too strong to be a regular thing for me but a good alternative to a fine (and usually expensive) cigar if you want that level of flavor/nicotine strength.