Fribourg & Treyer Golden Mixture

This review might be colored by nostalgia and the fact that i owe this blend a favor - big time.

This is the very blend that took me off cigarettes. For many years i smoked Marlboros and Bali Red alongside my pipes. The problem was that I didn't want to smoke my pipe in the morning - I just did not feel like it, but my body craved nicotine nevertheless..

A friend said to me: This is the ultimate "out of the bed-blend", so I gave it a shot in a chalk pipe, to get the rough feel of a cigarette, and it worked.

Now I smoke several other blends in the morning, (in a pipe of course) and Golden Mixture is now better in the evenings, in a briar with a cup of coffee.

Quality leaf, with a light topping - it, somehow, tastes more exclusive than some of its similar blends, and MUCH better than Astley's Elizabethan, which is the closest to this blend; at least of what I have tried before.

Excellent

Jakob Kiilerich, Denmark

This is the tobacco that started my appreciation of straight Virginias. It was milder than most of the ones I tried, which might have been part of the initial attraction. The mellow, somewhat sweet and grassy taste, even though it is one dimensional, as is mentioned by others, is something that never gets old for me. I have, over time, developed a liking for some other Virginias, like Newminster 400 SNF and MB Pure Virginia Flake. But Golden Mixture is still my favorite.

Golden to light brown ribbon cut - almost a shag. Tin aroma of hay with some spice underneath. On the non-descript side. I dried this out just a bit for best results. Not too dry... just a hair drier than tin moisture.

Nice, enjoyable flavors that mirrored the tin aroma... sweet hay with a bit of spice. Reminded me a bit of Dunhill Light Flake without the huge burst of flavor. That was this one's downfall for me. It was just too light and devoid of any real depth. If this is E&C's Roanoke recipe, the Virginias have really deteriorated in quality, as this had none of Roanoke's intense depth, nor it's strength of flavor (I smoked a bowl of Roanoke to be sure, and the flavor difference is not all aging). This was light and airy with just a bit of spice... very inoffensive but offering little in the way of pizzazz. With F&T's CVP out there, this one kept making me think "there are probably WAY too many tobacco blends in existence, who needs this one?", Bertrand Russell notwithstanding. It has its fans, obviously (and detractors!) and I am neither. I finished the tin but was mostly bored. I mixed a bit of this with stoved VA with nice results, however. 3 stars but I could have gone to 2 and felt good about it.

Really mild and clean, in fact i can hardly taste this stuff ! Would make a good cigarette tobacco, not much fflavor wise in a pipe. Its sweet but one dimensional. Mix it with some burley and maybe you ll have something ?? Too bland for me.

Not for me, I'm afraid. I like Fribourg & Treyer's VAs in general but this is an exception. Very mild, not much taste, and no body - even a tin aroma is virtually non-existent. That said, it does have its fans (Bertrand Russell!), and taste is subjective, so it's worth a try at some point in your VA journey.

The flavors in Golden Mixture are top notch: good citrus flavor on the retro-inhale, a nice hay flavor, and malty/bready. It even has a slight top-note that I seem to agree with. This blend blows Mac Baren's Virginia No. 1 out of the water for flavor and lack of tongue bite. Oh, any Virginia will bite you, but Golden Mixture is very well-bahaved. It smokes cool, as long as you pay attention and don't tug on it really hard.

My problem is that I love straight Virginia blends, but they seem to have little body. I end up smoking a whole bowl of Virginias (and I really enjoy them), but it feels that, after I'm done, I haven't really smoked anything. I guess what I really want is a blend that has the strength of a Virginia-Burley and the flavor of a straight Virginia.

I'm having a tough time rating this. As a Virginia shag-cut, it's top-notch and it has plenty of flavor to keep me interested. It can get a bit muddled and ashy at the end of the bowl, but that;s really a problem with most tobaccos. It's well-deserving of four stars, but i'm not sure that I will buy it again. I'll call it a 3.5 with the possibility of gong up to a full four. I may get a craving for it and order it again. Who knows.

A very good quality mild virginia, as one would expect from F&T. A very fine cut tobacco, almost the consistency of cigarette tobacco (without wishing to be cruel or derogatory).

As has been noted, an excellent first pipe of the day. Although I myself might prefer a little more taste, of something, almost anything.

This is a nice easy going virginia, smooth and mild, well behaved, but not terribly exciting, this is the first F&T that does not have me looking forward to the next pipe. However, this is one F&T that has me going back to it time and time again when I'm just looking for an inoffensive smoke after a hard day. A good tobacco when I want a smoke while I look over my open tins (and while I'm trying very very hard not to open any more).

paddy's review says it all - with the exception that i find it a quite mild smoke, very well suited for the first pipe in the morning. i think this is very pure tobacco. can't detect that tell-tale smell and taste of propylene glycol, only grass- or hay-like, sweetish tobacco with a hint of old books (sic!).

a delightful smoke, and my absolute favourite among the f&t tobaccos which tend to be otherwise very similar.

I had a large sample of this from Mssrs Davidoff & Co in Madison Ave, who stock all the Fribourg & Treyer blends.

I largely concur with the review above, except to say that it burnt quite cool for me, to a degree surprising for so golden a Virginia. It is very mild and smooth, neither distracting nor boring. A peaceful smoke.

This is the kind of golden Virginia that is often used in "honeydew" aromatics. This one, however, is wholly un-cased, and smokes clean as a whistle. Very pleasant.