Robert Lewis 123 Mixture

The richness of the lightly sweet and sour, earthy, woody, vegetative, mildly floral, smoky, herbal cigar leaf is very ably supported by other components, though it's overly cigar-forward blend. There's a light brown sugar sweetness from the black cavendish in the background for a smoothing essence. The lightly spicy, woody, herbal, floral, dry, slightly sour Orientals provides an undercurrent of flavor. The Cyprian Latakia is lightly added, but offers a little smoke, earth, wood and sweetness for further balance and complexity. The Virginia acts a well cured base for the other ingredients with grassy, woodsy, tart and tangy citrusy characteristics. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is n the center of mild to medium. Won't bite or get harsh. It burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a fairly consistent taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Has a pleasantly lightly lingering after taste and the room note is a step stronger. Not quite an all day smoke, it is best served in a pipe with a wide bowl to capture all the nuances this blend has to serve you.

-JimInks

Robert Lewis' 123 Mixture is one of my favorite cigar leaf blends. This blend has seems to have less of the cigar leaf than blends like Robusto, Stogie or Key Largo, but I find the flavor more rich, deeper and polished (if that can be said about tobacco) in flavor than those other blends. The cigar leaf IMHO is more of a supporting player in the 123 Mixture. The flavor bouquet is very rounded with the addition of cavendish adding a slight bit of underlying sweetness. In a tobacco world filled with lots of English choices, 123 Mixture's flavor profile is unique. Recommended.

First I'd like to say on the whole I really love this blend, it's one of my favorites. As an occasional cigar smoker I can't really taste much of the cigar leaf, but what is there is maybe more a "hint" or "note" rather than to flavor the blend. If I had it my way there might be a bit more, but if you go into it knowing it's not a predominate flavor and take it for what it is you should enjoy it just fine.

It loads very well into the bowl and burns consistently and evenly. It has a great creamy quality to the smoke with a really nice, almost sweet taste on the finish. The latakia in this blend isn't overwhelming either. Overall I'd say this is a really smooth, even blend. I'd recommend it highly as it's one of my favorite smokes.

I may have smoked this on rare occasion during the Fox era but don't remember it prior to that. The blend I am reviewing is the Kohlhase and Kopp variant. You know; the one with the semicircle sticker on the bottom of the tin lid covering the admonition "smoking kills"! Moving right along, let's get one thing out of the way. I have smoked Pease's Robusto and most of the other cigar leaf containing blends mentioned in these reviews and none of them smoke like 123 Mixture. For the most part, I have found them to smoke rather flat with a narrower range of aromas and tastes than this blend and less sweetly. 123 Mixture is first and foremost an English blend that happens to have a small amount of cigar leaf content. My first reaction to it was, wow, is this ever a fine medium range English blend. Then I remembered that it was supposed to be a cigar leaf blend and I began to search for it. I found it, ok, but that is not nearly as important as the overall smoking profile of this blend - sweet, rich and satisfying. 123 is a wonderful English blend with the added plus of some cigar leaf all married beautifully in the tin and that equals four stars.

Robert Lewis - 123 Mixture.

An early review I'm redoing.

The smoke isn't consumed by the cigar leaf. This often deters me from blends with cigar leaf, if I want my smoke to taste like a cigar I'll have a cigar! Similarly, if I want ice-cream I'll have a bowl of it, I'd be reticent about bunging a spoonful in my jug of gravy!

The cigar leaf tastes rich, but doesn't dry the smoke out. I get a heady flavour from the Turkish, it gives the smoke a fragrance, and prevents the cigar leaf from cartelizing and hogging it. I'd say the Turkish is the leading taste. The Cyprian Latakia has a slightly aromatic, sharp-peppery flavour, and is notable with ease. The Virginia and black Cavendish are the lighter of the ingredients, unlike the rest, these require looking for. 123 burns cool, maybe a little fast, and doesn't bite.

Nicotine: medium to strong. Room-note: pleasant.

Robert Lewis 123 Mixture? Unusual compared to other cigar leaf blends. Unusual, but an anomaly I'll happily keep in my cellar! Highly recommended:

Four stars.

There is a definite sweetness here as well as a cigar like spicy mustiness. Latakia fills in the gaps but doesn't dominate. The flavour is layered and interesting but never over-taxing. The smoke is smooth and cool; 'creamy' is an often overused adjective in describing some tobaccos but I think it is genuinely applicable here.

I could smoke this all day with ease and continuous pleasure.

I have heard a lot about this blend and wanted to give it a try as the reports were very good. And so was this blend! I actually detected the fine cigar leaf (Cuban grown according to the descriptive), and the other components stayed in the background while lending support. Exceptional stuff!

Pipestud

Ah, so you want to try a cigar leaf blend? Well, seeing as you can't get the vaunted Pease or McClelland offerings here in the UK you're going to have to try something different.

My recommendation is to purchase a tin of the excellent Squadron Leader and a decent medium weight Cuban cigar. A Montecristo No 4 is ideal, you don't want anything too mild or the flavour will get lost. Take enough SL for a couple of bowls and put it in a jar, then take your cigar and use a cigar cutter to slice off a few discs of around 1mm thickness. How much is up to you...I usually go for around 1/6 or 1/5 the volume of pipe tobacco. Experiment and adjust to suit your taste and mood. Put the lid on the jar and give it a good shake to mix the components, then load up your pipe and enjoy.

I guarantee you, the result will be a darn sight better than the insipid 123 Mixture from Robert Lewis.

Sure, it ain't a cheap option and some folks might say it is a waste of a good Cuban cigar. Personally, I prefer to see it as getting the most out of my investment...one good cigar will last you for many, many bowls of tobacco!

In June 1983 I walked into the famous Dunhill store in Jermyn Street, London and bought my first pipe. A Dunhill Group 3 Billiard on the recommendation of the smart young man running the extensive and truly beautiful pipe and tobacco department. He had a pipe clenched between his teeth, a Dunhill off course, happily puffing away (those were the days). Back then the store used to make their own blends each month and the June 1983 blend was an English mixture with Havana cigar leaf added, and so I bought a 50 g tin. I also spotted the 965 mixture, which the smart young man explained was a complex and famous mixture loved by many experienced smokers. Having a fascination for numbers, I bought a tin of that too. Talk about going off the deep end! I struggled with that June 1983 mixture, being an inexperienced pipe smoker. I kept abandoning my pipe mainly because of tongue burn from the Virginias. But I kept going back to it because I loved the Latakia and it had a unique sweetness I've never found in any other tobacco since. Years later I kept thinking about that blend long after it was discontinued , but Dunhill made me up 5 tins as a special order, which have long since finished. So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered RL's 123 mixture. On first opening the tin I saw that the cigar leaf was rolled up like the other tobaccos in the blend making it a little hard to discern. That Dunhill mixture had flat flakes of Havana leaf peeking through the other tobaccos. Very neat although I doubt if that made any difference. On diving into the tin, nose first, I immediately detected that same unique sweetness to the aroma, amongst the Latakia and other tobaccos. Could this be it? Had I finally found my dream blend in RL's 123? Well....... I don't know! I've smoked half a tin now and my taste experience is nothing like during that Summer in 1983. But I was a brand new pipe smoker then and this is 40 years later. For sure, the Dunhill blend had much more of the acrid Virginia flavour, as most Dunhill blends do, and 123 is truly mild in comparison. The sweetness is there in smell but unlike the Dunhill in taste. So I'll just enjoy 123 for what it is, a subtle, mild, cleverly blended mixture, and just give up on my quest for that magic Dunhill June 1983 blend.

Far from a mild or medium english, this is a full english blend with plenty of latakia. The cigar leaf is closer to what you would taste in a cigar, not a damp, mushroomy blend like pure caribe. Has the same pleasant aftertaste that I get from an ashton maduro cigar. A hint of cedar within a scottish blend. As original as it gets, and a blender's masterpiece. This stuff is mighty tasty, and as good as any dunhill offering. In fact, I daresay that this blend, for many smokers might become their number 1. The room note is much more tolerable for non-smokers than most other latakia blends. This made my regular rotation along with tree mixture. Now that dunhill is gone, and only 965 is available under the old dublin label from peterson, Robert Lewis sure has some good replacements to turn to.

The most complex pipe tobacco that I have tried, this is in the same category as 965.