Peretti Royal Blend

Only in the past few months have I discovered L.J. Peretti, after 35 years of pipe smoking. The shop is in Boston and my smoking years have been spent in the midwest, which could explain taking so long to discover this fine old shop. I can only thank this website for the introduction.

The gentlemen at Peretti's are especially vigilant about not divulging the inner workings of their blends, especially to newcomers. But their website is frank about Royal Blend containing a high measure of Yenidje tobacco. That alone was enough for me to place an order; my first truly satisfying smoking experience was with Balkan Sobranie's Original Mixture. For those who have never tasted that classic blend, you have missed Heaven in a pipe.

Royal Blend is as close as one can come today. To expect any blend to be EXACTLY like any other is folly; many secrets are taken to the grave. Any great tobacco mixture (and Royal is certainly among these) is far more than the sum of its parts. Whatever the constituent parts of Peretti's Royal Blend might be, they are brought together with unusual care and finesse, resulting in a rich, full, fascinating tobacco.

Best smoked after a rich evening meal, Royal Blend will introduce itself with a powerful handshake of Latakia, followed with the Turkish Yenidje. The Virginias can be recognized in the background, but only if one knows they are there. Lacking any English sweetness or piquancy, Royal is a Balkan blend, period.

Certain to win many friends among Latakia and Turkish smokers, Royal blend is a sure bet to lose as many among people who hate any tobacco smoke, let alone one as full as this.

But with friends like those, who needs friends?

Four out of four stars.

steelcowboy hit the nail on the head with his review of Royal Blend, it is indeed as stout an Oriental forward mixture that I have ever smoked. I have not actually smoked this one in some years, but have just ordered a dozen Peretti offerings based solely on the fact that I've not had them in awhile and always appreciated them. Royal Blend has depth all over the place, due in part to the top shelf and obviously well aged Yenidje. The Latakia was there, but softly and the Virginia, typical of Peretti, was of quality and a nice amount of depth. Not a smoke that will take you over the top, but will take you to the edge with excitement.

Looks and smells like Balkan Sobranie in the bag. Then again, we smokers have been promised dupes of that blend for years and, while some are sort of close, none of them could reasonably be called matches. That includes this one.

I think of Balkan blends as those with a heavy dose of orientals to the front, the latakia being a close second, followed by the Virginias to the rear. Royal Blend fits that category. The Yenidje is up front and this oriental has an almost mutualist relationship with latakia - the two always bring out the best in each other. I think there's an awful lot of Yenidje floating around in blends these days where the oriental variant simply isn't specified. In Royal Blend, the latakia is heavy enough to take advantage of this symbiotic process but doesn't overwhelm the Yenidje. So those two are working well. My one issue with this blend is the lack of Virginia sweetness. The original Balkan Sobranie had this (and a "soda note" that reviewer Jiminks so aptly described) and the blend was both sweet in a non-phony way and had a tastebud jump factor that I have yet to see duplicated. This is a very good blend, but should be taken on its own merits. However, in so doing, that Peretti-esque tendency of having Virginias that lack character and sweetness still hits me as this one's Achille's Heel. Even while this blend is supremely smokable, it doesn't make my rotation. But I do recommend giving this a spin if you love Yenidje and how it interacts with latakia (and vice versa).

This is truly a top blend with a wonderful room note. It leans a little to the dry, sour, slightly-heady side of things and comes up a tad short in slip stream complexity which I'm always searching for. Not that it doesn't score very well in this department, but is more sour-piquant as opposed to a rich, full spectrum of flavors, if you know what I mean. This no doubt comes from the yenidje and like other blends that lean on this leaf, Royal Blend also lists to port in this regard. While I think this blend must take a back seat to Hearth & Home's - "White Knight" in overall balance and complexity, it is still in the lead car; and others may very well find this more to their palatal preference than mine. This blend also beats out most of Pease's Balkan blends by a mile. IMHO, TR's overall 3.7 star rating is spot on.

I bought an ounce of this about 4 yrs ago and just recently smoked through it. I only really bought this upon the recommendations of others while placing a large order and I am glad that I only purchased on ounce. This was not to my personal liking, but still was far from bad.

I have gotten to the point where these VLOs (Virginia, Latakia, Oriental blends) that are sharp and edgy and mostly sour are too tiresome on my palate and I find this to be amongst that variety. I tend to prefer the "creamy and smoky" or the "really sweet with a touch of sour and smoke" varieties.

In this blend, I had pinpointed the oriental used as yenidje before I knew it was in the blend. I find it a distinct flavor to pick out. I do not really like the taste of this leaf, particularly when it is used in a relatively large quantity, but the aroma from the sidestream is out of this world. Such is the case with this one and the primary reason I did not care for it. I found the Yenidje to be too assertive for my tastes, but sniffing the pipe bowl as it burned was a pleasure. So I will leave this at a 2.5 rounding up to 3 stars.

Let me stary by saying that I am on a quest to find my favorite balkan blend. My requirements are that i want it to have a full complex taste, medium or more strength, some sweetness but most importantly I want it to start out with a tantalizing sort of zing to the tastebuds and meld on from there. Royal blend is an excellent Balkan blend. It is woody, smokey, slighly saltted buttery and has a little sweetness, grass and spice. It builds to a little deeper interplay as you get down the bowl and then melds into a singular woody taste. Royal Blend however doesn't start with a tantalizing zing to my taste buds. Its kind of starts off how i want my ideal balkan to be about midbowl. That is its only fault. If you dont need that more agressive jumpstart at first light this may be a winner for you. The taste and mouth feel is medium. The nic hit is mild to medium. Edited to add there is a slight peppermint topping

I am a Huge fan of Peretti tobacco . i have tried several of the blends and have been to the store many time while in Boston. this blend has many of the flavors that i like , it is a nice well balanced English style blend. I would say its half way down the list of my favorites from them . give it try. as with all there products they are very well crafted with great ingredients . its a 3.2 in my book

This is the first Peretti blend I have tried. I ordered this because its description includes some yenidje tobacco, which of course was one of the condiment tobaccos in Balkan Sobranie 759. Apparently the yenidje is the light olive green ribbons, because this blend had that also.

Like all of the Peretti blends in my order, this is a ribbon tobacco that comes quite dry. The ribbons in some of these blends are on the longish side and need to be broken down somewhat for best packing. Burning qualities are excellent. I noticed that I was lighting this less often than some of my regulars. The flavor is of medium latakia with some of the condimental tobaccos, presumably the yenidje, producing some interesting flavors. The Virginia element is not particularly strong. The bowl starts out a little bitter, but then evens out and builds flavor to the bottom. It produces a fine white ash and leaves almost no dottle.

This is an excellent tobacco that I'm sure will find a place in my rotation.

LJ Peretti
Royal Blend
(Bulk)

Blend notes: “ A blend of the choicest matured Virginian and the finest Oriental tobaccos. It contains a high percentage of the finest Yenidje (Turkish) leaf.”

Royal Blend is essentially a mild English with the oriental tobacco Yenidje as the star. That is, if Yenidje is being used. Any number of reports suggest it is rarely available. Regardless this is a fine, mild tobacco that is Oriental forward.

The Oriental leaf brings a mild, musty, perhaps creamy taste to the blend. It might be described as buttery. It is not spicy or peppery.

The Latakia is recessed into a corner; present but more like a condiment. The structure and slight sweetness likely comes from the Virginias which also provide a bit of bread and hay. Or from the Oriental leaf working in concert with the Virginia. No citrus here.

Overall I find Royal blend to be a tad boring. It’s decent tobacco. On my palate it tastes a bit too much like a cigarette. I love Oriental leaf in general do it may just be that Yenidje is too mild for me.

Generally I’m a huge fan of LJ Peretti blends — Tashkent, Omega and British Blend are in my top 10. And their No Name is a riot if you want to take a stroll into Lakeland.

I’ll give Royal Blend 2.5 stars rounded to 3.