Lane Limited Crown Achievement

This review is of the new tinned version.

This one frustrates me. It's muddled. I can get flashes of something good then it disappears as soon as it shows. No one component dominates they just show and disappear in random fashion. It also burns a bit warm regardless of the rate at which it is smoked. Can't recommend this one.

Thought I'd like this blend, and tin description sure sounds enticing. Opening the tin I get the usual latakia smokiness, which my wife refers to as a campfire but to me resembles my fireplace the morning after I burned a stack of oak. It's on lighting up that anything positive about the blend goes out the window. First off, it's a Lat-bomb, so that's about all the taste you're going to get here. And the latakia seems to be acrid, sharp, and just all-around unpleasant. Latakia to me is the steak sauce of tobacco. A well prepared steak needs little to none of the sauce, a well prepared tobacco blend should have at most a minor amount of latakia. It's a spice tobacco, and when it's over used all other components are drowned. To me, lat-bombs are for those without refined palettes, like those who drown a steak in A-1 sauce can't be true steak lovers.

Anyhow, that's my anti-lat-bomb rant. Back to CA, this stuff is not only dominated and covered up by the acrid latakia, but the flavor is totally flat and one-dimensional. There's a disproportionately low amount of flavor, driving you to want to puff faster to get something out of it, which then leads to dry mouth and bite. Perique is absolutely undetectable. Virginia is detectable only by a low-key sweetness that just as well could be from the Orientals. You'll never be able to tell because you'll be busy choking on the latakia. The orientals do peek through from time to time, but only for a flash before they're gone again. Murdered before their time by the lat-beast. I am sorry, I respect Lane, but this is a really poorly blended attempt at an English. I will not purchase again, and cannot recommend to those who haven't tried it. I sincerely hope this isn't literally their crown achievement!

Certainly not what it name implies. I did not find this new version as I had remembered the original. I was disappointed and was anticipated more turkish flavor and less latakia influence. I like latakia blends and feel that there are several others on the market that provide a better smoke IMHO.

My friend loves this blend. However I think it is underwhelming. Nothing works together in this blend and even the subtle undertones of the orientals taste flat. It was a chore for me to smoke, even after revisiting it months later. I'll let my friend enjoy it!

Lane Limited - Crown Achievement.

The current description on here ends with 'Recognized as the worlds most outstanding smoking mixture'. Well, that's slightly arrogant! But is it an apt description?

The flavour's nowhere near as smoky as I was expecting from the pouch note, together with the Oriental, the Latakia makes quite a woody flavour. That's good, yeah? No, because as well as the woody taste it also forms a sour flavour; too sour. The Virginia gives a lemony taste but to be honest, with the overly sour Orientals, it turns it into a bitter mess. The Perique?...... where is it!!!

On the positive side of things it burns well, albeit quite fast, doesn't bite, has a medium nicotine amount, and gives an alright room-note.

Recognized as the worlds most outstanding smoking mixture? Recognized by whom?! Not me:

One star.

A freshly popped tin starts out great but after the air gets at it even transferring to a mason jar it completely falls apart, muddy and mute which is never good in my books therefore I cannot recommend it and I'll never buy it again.

This is a copycat blend that has been around for awhile. Both times I've bought it, I was trying to help a guy out - you know, the friendly sort trying to make a go of it in a BM tobac. Both times, it was presented as a more reasonably priced Red Rapparee. The only problem is that it is nothing like RR. If I ever smoke stable hay, then maybe this is the preview. For the past year, I've been playing with my supply of CA, adding both Latakias, Orientals and some dark Virginias with moderate success. For the most part, it continues to taste like a cheap cigar. Maybe the mold will take the matter out of my hands.

Meerschaum Man Smoking an SMS Smooth Panel Bent

The secret to a good English or Balkan style blend consists of allowing the different tobaccos to breathe and thus both contrast one another, and blend into a single sweet-spicy flavor. That piquant aspect makes English blends so popular.

"Crown Achievement" came relatively dry in the tin, with a slightly rougher cut than expected. Latakia wafted upward first, then the fermented smell of Perique, followed by the abundant Orientals. Any Virginias took a back seat, and the flavor bears this out, with a faint background sweetness dominated by the real power of this blend, which is the complement between the Latakia and Perique to make the Orientals move from sour to a sweet, spicy and sour flavor. If you are thinking Kung Pao Chicken or a good vinegar barbecue, you are on the right track.

Unfortunately, the result is somewhat unbalanced. Too much of the Latakia flavor, and somewhat of a chaotic interplay between the Orientals, has created a blend that like some of the early American attempts at re-introducing an English proves jagged instead of a fine balance like the Dunhill blends. Nonetheless, I enjoy this blend for its richness of flavor; it might be better as an American English, with more Virginia and a fair dose of Burley to widen the flavor profile and allow the individual leaf varieties to tangle in the opened space, especially if those Orientals can be made to complement one another and not simply clash. If you mix in about 60% "Five Brothers," the smoking experience notably improves, which is usually a key that a condimental leaf has been overused.

I'm just not much of a fan of this one. It's fine but to me it doesn't wow me. Too sweet for my tastes. Kind of sickening.