James Fox Provost Mixture

After reading the reviews and all the discussion about what is or is not in this blend, I decided to give it a try. While others may disagree, here are my two cents. The manufacturer states this is a blend of Virginia and black Cavendish. I trust what they say, I see no good reason a manufacturer would include a tobacco and not list it as an ingredient. Upon opening the the tin I see ribbons of black, medium brown and lighter brown tobacco. The tin note is a tangy citrus with some mild sweetness and smoke. The blend packs well and is easy to light. The taste strikes me as much like the smell. There is a pleasant citrus tang, with some mild sweetness. Towards the end of the bowl I do get hints of smoke flavor but it too is very mild. I think the confusion comes in when we forget the blenders are artist. Two wine makers can take the same grape and come up with very different wines. One like refreshing crisp apples, the other like buttery oak and melons. The blender is much the same. Many claim this must have latakia, others swear by Orientals. This is a nod to the skill of the blender. Just because some exotic meat is described as tasting like chicken, it's still not a chicken. This produces a full yet dry tasting smoke. I enjoyed it and could see it serving as an all day smoke. If you are looking for a straightforward tobacco that taste good without all the bells and whistles this is it. It will make my rotation when I am looking for that kind of smoke.

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.

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.

I obtained three tins of this blend, Provost Mixture by James J. Fox,, in a 2017 "thin-down" buy out of another pipe smoker. Two tins were older, 2002 and 2007, and one tin was dated 7/9/14; the tin I opened for smoking and reviewing. I promised to open a tin of this blend in my "Similar to" section of my review of Drew Estate Luxury Flake, as both are Cavendish/Virginia blends of current or recent production. After a normal tin opening I found a ribbon-cut blend of relatively dark overall color. Though sealed in a normal appearance, the tobacco inside was surprisingly dry and ready to smoke. Now comes the contested part; lighting this blend up and tasting it. Some feel that there is a Latakia component, some feel that there is a Perique component and some feel that there is a Burley component. I don't. My tin sniff test detected something that was stoved , but nothing smoky. That would be the Cavendish coming through two different Virginias. This blend is much simpler than it is reputed to be and smokes in a no-nonsense manner. The stoved Cavendish and the Virginias play well together and provided me with an above average smoke in that huge category of non-English blends that I have been trying so hard to catch up on after a life of English blend living. On the other hand, I found it to smoke a little inconsistently down each bowl with pleasurable runs of richness punctuated by lesser areas. This was a characteristic of this blend from pipe to pipe. As to the comparison with Luxury Flake, well, there really isn't that much. Provost is much darker in color, more heavily stoved and smokes with a lower register than Luxury Flake. I liked them both about the same and gave each three stars.

Well I'm going to start by saying that this taste like a light Balkan blend to me, in the spirit of Presbyterian mixture , if you read the other reviews there seems to be all kind of crazy theories of how the this cavendish is presssed and they get this flavor or that flavor they only thing I know for sure is that I can smell the Latakia and taste a Basma like flavor, if this was cheaper it could consider as all day kinda blend, be sure to have a lot of pipe cleaners around because it does drip quite a bit, overall it's a solid mystery blend and definetly worth trying.