Lane Limited Crown Achievement

Tin note is smoky, sour and Rasin. Looks like the typical English blend, blacks, dark browns and light browns, a mix cut: shag, ribbon and broken flake with a few stems and very dry. Burns easily, requires an average amount of relights. Orientals and Latakia takes the lead. The Virginia's trails and further back is the perique. The strength and nic are mild-med, and no flavoring detected. The taste is consistent and around the medium mark. Taste of earth, smoky wood, a few sour notes and slight sweet. I couldn't taste any spicy perique. Mildly offensive room note and a good after taste.

Whenever I order anything pipe related on the internet I always throw in 8oz of some kind of bulk I've never tried. Where as at the B&M I usually grab a few tins. I dropped a bag of this in my cart a few months ago. I can't give a solid review because I've only smoked a few bowls of the stuff but I'll give it a go.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the description included perique. I love a solid perique blend. That fermented figgieness is a lot of the reason I smoke a pipe. That however, to my pallette, is non-existant. I get a pepper on the back of my tongue, but that is mild at best. The lat and the orientals are there and they overpower any hay or sweetness from the Virginia. I like it, though, and even as I write I'm enjoying a bowl with a cup of coffee. It just isn't anything special. It gets a bit bitter at the bottom of the bowl but I'm not really complaining. My morning has been better because of the pipe. Smoking pipes says it is discontinued so I guess this is the last bag I'll buy. I wasn't going to buy anymore anyway. It's a solid Balkan that is good with coffee and contemplation.

Pretty standard aroma for an English blend. The VA's are ever present and you can tell they are decent leaf. I just wish they would have paired it with a better quality latakia. It's plenty smoky, but also a bit astringent. I don't take much notice of the orientals or perique in this blend. Overall unremarkable to me, although some may like it. About halfway through the 2 oz sample, I was ready for it to be all gone, as I don't like tossing tobacco unless its truly bad, so I smoked the rest and moved on.

Lights well and burns to a nice grey ash but is lacking in anything similar to a true English or Balkan blend. Very blah with no noticeable flavor.

At the match, Latakia and orientals....within a few minutes a little spice from the Perique. The first third of the bowl the flavor is the type medium English/Balkan that I totally fall for, the Latakia is ever present but not overwhelming and balanced well with the orientals. There are a few shortcomings; first it seems to get hot no matter how slow I smoke it, also it lacks a lot of flavor in smaller bowls. Where it really falls apart for me is that no matter how slow I smoke it the second half of the bowl gets harsh. I'm not sure if this is from the Virginias or the Orientals. The aftertaste isn't the worst but it's not great. Room note is great if you like Latakia and orientals but probably terrible if you don't.

I have smoked 2 sample bags of CA, about 4 bowls when it first was re-released and a sample bag of about 5 bowls over the last week. This is one of three Lane tobaccos I've been smoking regularly the last couple weeks and I would say I like Medal of Valor much more and surprisingly I even prefer the Lat heavy BS-005.

I'm giving it two stars because even though it disappoints me the second half of the bowl it was pleasant enough to finish both sample. I'd hope this might improve after a couple years in a tin.

I expected a well balanced V-O-L mixture but I found it's more oriental-oriented. Latakia is there but so much in the backgorund. This blend provides a cool smoke, a bit salty. Good only with the addition of some Latakia. Two unfortunate tins? 3,0/5 in my personal rating system.

10/24/2004: I would realistically give this two and a half stars. Pretty good taste in small doses or half a bowl. Not complex like the more popular Dunhills, Butera, G.L. Pease offerings. If you were unable to get any other Latakia blend this would do for a short interval. If you had to smoke it exclusively my guess is you would eventually give up smoking entirely! I think its' relative A-100 is better than C.A. A-100 tastes only of Latakia but the A-100 Latakia is smoother than C.A. And in my searches on the internet it C.A. is not cheaper than Dunhills tobacs especially in bulk. I would much rather smoke EMP, 965, or Nitecap all of which can be purchased in bulk for a similar price. I have never had the tinned version of C.A.

Update 11/23/2006: A pretty good English if you have limited access. The Latakia is a bit harsh.

When I first tried this blend, it was my first latakia blend, and I loved it. But after having tried many more latakia blends, it leaves me a bit disappointed. CA is not a bad tobacco, there really isn't anything wrong with it, but I feel that it is rather bland and unimpressive. For some, this is a decent value bulk tobacco and I recommend it for newbies to the latakia world, but for me it just isn't what I'm looking for.

This was almost as highly regarded by me as some of the Dunhills up until my last few purchases of 2 ounces at a time. It seems the most recent batches across our great nation have not been aged long enough. There are times when I taste a fine tobacco fusion, but overall, I get the burnt cardboard effect. This was once a 3-star for me, but has declined due to inconsistency. The tobaccos just do not seem to be married well together in this new age version of C.A. LL A-100 has taken the old Crown Achievement spot in my Lane's English pecking order. That's pretty sad, considering A-100 is more of a beginners English. Not to mention, any Lane English is really just there to satisfy a quick fix when a premium is not available.