James Fox Provost Mixture

Not sure if the present version of James Fox’s Provost Mixture contains Latakia, but it’s certainly “smoky”, and this starts immediately when a tin is popped. In the tin one finds mostly short, chopped ribbons ranging from tan to light brown to deep, reddish brown, and there are also black chunks. Tin note is smoky, earthy silage. Though the TR blurb claims there is only VA Cavendish and bright VA here, I’m guessing the Cavendish is smoke cured, and I think there are air cured orange, brown and red VAs, as well. As for smoking PM, it got significantly better after it sat in its re-sealed tin for a couple of weeks, so I recommend starting out that way. Given this rest and some drying, PM lights and smokes down easily. Initial scents are “light, smoky English”, with earthy, savory scents and tastes added to the tin note, along with faint, fragrant meadow grass under the “smoke”. It gets more sour/acidic down the bowl, even as it gets sweeter. And that’s about it for me! Not bad at all, really, as whatever is in the blend winds up pretty well melded, balanced, and very consistent, top to bottom. On the other hand, it hardly stands out amongst 3 and 4 star English blends well known and readily available to TR readers. Strength is mild. Tastes push toward medium. Room note is tolerable. Smoked to 7/8, aftertaste is a trailing off of the best of the smoke, or it can be somewhat acrid if the bowl is smoked to the bottom.

I can remember, decades ago, enjoying Campanile and Dorisco on the rare occasions when I ran across them. As for the contemporary Provost Mixture, like I said, it’s not really bad at all (honest), it’s just not a repeater for me; so, 2 stars, it is.

I found very interesting DK’s review and the survey he did the last year but… I’m not convinced. Opening the tin (I bought my tin in Dublin) you can perceive a slight smell of Latakia and even letting the tobacco breathe for a long time the outcome doesn’t change. The smell endures. And then smoking. With a slow or quick cadence I always taste latakia, in the nose, in the tongue and in the mouth. A really delicate flavor (mouth and nose) of Latakia and I’m sure that this is not unflavored Cavendish and this is not toasted Cavendish. So I think there is Latakia: 1%, 2%, 3%? I don’t know, but something called Latakia is present here. Ultimately, if you are a Latakia lover this is not for you (not enough Latakia); if you are a Cavendish lover the Cavendish is unflavored and it has not a prominent role; if you are a Virginia lover you can perceive a great quality but not a real Virginia taste and for these reasons only two stars. But if you are looking for something different and above all something with a skillful balance and an harmonic composition in this case the score is four stars. In my personal system rating (from 1 to 10) my score is 8 and three stars.

This is my first tobacco based non-aromatic cavendish, its smell in a can is not anything different from an English tobacco even to open Tin thought was another blend English by its smell and appearance but reading the description does not contain own Englishmen Latakia, is a tobacco smoking soft and does not produce you burn on the tongue , the note in the room is tolerable as it has fallen leaves burned, its flavor is intense but it is not bitter which makes it very nice, it gives you a good hint of nicotine which makes you to have a pleasant, relaxing and enjoyable smoke.

I will be up front here. I like this blend just because. I have no real reason. I holds no great taste. Never makes me want to jump up for more. Nothing like it at all. Generic at best. But for me it fits like a well worn pair of shoes. I have a lot of tins of this and I always go back to it every time. It lights so well. Smokes every so good and I can be happy with it for at least an hour. It is cheap. Smokes well. Remains in my rotation until I can no longer find it.

Black-and-tan ribbon with a notable smokiness to it (I can see how people might think there's latakia in this) as well as chocolate, cherries, prunes.

Takes a light well and burns very steadily/evenly/cleanly.

I find it a bit sharp and monodimensional through the first half of the bowl. Not a lot going on besides an interesting soapiness and some mild tongue bite. If you can stick with it, it does open up nicely through the last 2/3rds to half of the bowl.

Doesn't blow my socks off, and I don't find it all that intriguing (I'd much rather fire up a bowl of Rich Virginia Ribbon, for example), but it's still an enjoyable smoke.

This blend is quite the hybrid. It's tastes/flavours lean towards an english but there is no latakia nor oriental in the mix. I've been cellaring this since 2002 and it just keeps getting better. I think the trick is to get it out of the can and into a sealed mason jar. It has a very suttle flavour that demands a slow puff. A fine smoke.

I recently purchased a tin of Fox Provost Mixture, circa 2002. The tin was sealed and the tobacco was still moist. The circular liner was completely brown where the moisture had soaked it over the years. I popped open the tin, and I am keeping it fresh in one of my humidors.

The tobacco? Ready to smoke right out of the tin. The tobacco is on the dry side. Packs easily. Burns like a fuse headed toward dynamite - I don't think the entire bowl of tobacco lasted a half hour. Any type of frequent puffing resulted in my bowl getting much too hot to touch. I had to set my Peterson bulldog briar pipe down several times, to let it cool down, for fear of cracking the pipe. Zero tongue bite. Zero nicotine. Pretty much zero enjoyment.

The flavor? Meh. Mild Cavendish tobaccos and mellow tasting, without any notes to savor. The tobacco burned so quickly, and so cleanly, that there was nothing in my pipe after I dumped out the ashes. Zero ash accumulation in the pipe. I will eventually smoke all of this tobacco, albeit at a much slower pace. I don't think that I will be buying Fox Provost Mixture again anytime soon.

The Latakia-like flavour fades somewhat after a few puffs, which is fine with me, as I'm not a fancier of the English blends.

Provost is no aromatic. I expect most Cavendish to be vanilla flavored, so I was expecting a sweet smoke, as stated on the tin description. Nope, this blend is not sweet. It's not smokey, either, though I don't doubt that a shot of Latakia would make this a more interesting smoke (I've tried that and it works perfectly).

The confusion surrounding the inclusion of Latakia (similar to Presbyterian) is understandable. In the tin, this is a dark mixture, with black leaf approaching well over fifty percent. It looks very much like an English blend, until you light it up and note the very neutral, non offensive nature of the smoke. Provost has a spiciness to it, and yet the description makes no mention of Oriental leaf. I recently opened up a tin of McConnell's "Oriental," and I find that the two have similar profiles in taste, strength, and looks. That blend is also quite dark in the tin, with a limited expression of Latakia.

As it is, Provost is rather boring and indistinct. I wouldn't quite go with medium on this, it's a little milder, to my tastes. The roomnote is quite nice, it has that toasted marshmallow scent that one often associates with aromatics like Captain Black. There's just not enough here to keep me coming back for more, and as I work my way through the last few bowls of my tin, I've grown fatigued. I have this feeling, like there's a quarter tin of Lemon Meringue pie left in the fridge, and I have to finish it off. It's not my favorite, or worst flavor, I'm simply averse, but looking at the thing sitting in the fridge annoys me.

A note on the tin art...

I loved the original packaging of Provost, and looked forward to the wonderful, bright reddish/orange tones of the Fox label. Some pay no attention to packaging, but I admit, I am more compelled to buy a blend that looks beautiful on the outside. My tin arrived with a generic white label and green print. There was a nasty sticker attached to the bottom, which I promptly removed, to absolute horror upon what it revealed--an anti smoking blurb common to the European market (where it was manufactured) that somehow destroyed the allure. I grabbed an old Sharpie and gave it coat after coat, which served no purpose in ending the madness of these anti tobacco forces. I'd like to grab that Sharpie and write nasty warning phrases on their foreheads. So I plopped the contents into a mason jar and tossed the tin. Oh well.