Tom Eltang Mixture

The dark burley is the most noticeable ingredient; earthy, wood and nutty with a hint of molasses, and creates most of the strength, partly because it's the highest percentage of tobacco as well as having some inherent boldness to its character. The red Virginia offers tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, and is a minor player along with the tartly citrusy, hay-like bright Virginias. The perique is even more of a minor component, and is as raisiny and plumy as it is spicy. You don't always notice it in the smoke. Won't bite, and has no harsh spots. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is in the center of mild to medium. Burns at a slow pace, clean and cool with a very consistent flavor. Requires some relights, and leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but no dottle. Has a short lived, pleasant after taste and room note. Not quite an all day smoke.

-JimInks

I got a few samples of this blend in recent orders that I placed with SmokingPipes. The pouch note is very reminiscent of Briar Fox, sort of a sour, fermented, fresh mowed lawn and manure kind of smell. The flavor is definitely burley driven. It’s earthy, woody, somewhat bitter and altogether not too spicy or complex. Tom Eltang Mixture is a very enjoyable concoction with a natural tasting flair. Most blends with this much burley gives me a good case of tongue bite, but this one does not. Any bite is tempered nicely by the sweet Virginia's, which add to the richness of the burley flavor without de-emphasizing it. There’s just a hint of perique here. However, its attributes are almost unnoticeable and I personally would prefer just a little more.

High quality tobacco with good burley flavor, no harshness, no bite. What's not to like here?

Recommended.

The Burley is dominant and nutty with just a touch of earth. The Virginias are citrusy sweet with a hint of hay. The Perique is so light that it may as well not be in there. This Burley has a bit of harshness to it that is just on the borderline of what I'm willing to tolerate. Not a terrible blend, but just barely 2 stars.

Medium in body and flavor. Burns well.

Another sample from our wonderful friends at smokingpipes.com. In the bag it was somewhat sweet yet slightly musty, little hints of maybe caramel and cocoa. It packs well, lights easily, burns to a nice white ash. The initial taste is a wheat like, nutty taste I'm assuming it is the burley with the Virginias. Then that spicy note comes through. It is nice for a bit, but it overpowers the smoke. It gets a bit sour as it combines with the acidity of the Virginias. I like the coolness of the smoke, but I dislike the spicy sour taste. I really would have liked to see more sweetness from the Virginias. It's not bad but it could have been a bit more smoother and sweeter.

Tin Appearance: Looks almost like straight burley/dark burley mix. Very consistent dark tan to light brown coloring, very consistent breaking of the flakes. Tin Aroma: Very interesting. In fact, very good. Lots of plum from the perique, with some hay and just a tiny bit of cocoa I think I smelled, but with a hint of fermentation putting a kind of slight sour note on it all. Taste: Very pleasant. On a slow smoke and exhale I get light sweet Virginia with a touch of hay and just a hint of natural cocoa flavor from the burley here and there, perique definitely present but not in the forefront except on the retrohale. However, the burley tends to take over the taste a great deal. It’s good burley, but it’s too evident. Smoking: Very little drying time required. When packed light, burns evenly and well without the need to relight. No noticeable bite, and I’m a quick puffer. Thoughts: It’s a pleasant va/bur with, to my taste, too little perique and too much burley. The burley works beautifully to cool the smoke, it’s not a hot smoke, but it came to the forefront too often for me. Not enough to overpower the blend, but enough for me to wish for more Virginia flavor as well. Recommend to: Va/bur lovers, those who like light amounts of perique. Suspect it will improve a great deal with age. Summary: A good blend that will most likely improve with age, and is definitely one to buy 2 tins of and cellar the extra. Could use less burley and more perique in my opinion. Most would probably say more Virginia and less burley. Tin note is excellent.

Tom Eltang - Mixture.

From my friend Gentleman Zombie, thanks Franck!

It's a well broken flake, just a touch heavier than a straight ribbon blend. There's next to nothing in the way of an aroma: uncased tobacco. The moisture's good but I'm unsure as to how long Franck's had the seal ofF the tin. Either way, it's good to go!

The smoke tastes a lot closer to a straight Burley, than anything else. There's a smattering of Virginia, but I can't taste any Perique. A bowl of Mixture burns well, giving a comfy smoke: cool, no bite, and it's of medium thickness.

The nicotine's medium, and the room-note's pleasant to tolerable.

A nice and simple smoke, thanks Franck, recommended.

Three stars.

This is the tobacco I take to the bar at *Shangri-la* because when I’m smoking in public (see note below) want to focus on enjoying the atmosphere and conversation not babysit a high maintenance tobacco: 1. Easy to pack and stays lit, smokes to the bottom, 2. Relatively slow burner so doesn’t require frequent pipe refilling, 3. medium strength flavor that doesn’t retreat with the drinks but doesn’t challenge them either. The virginias make more of an impression than the burleys, but that may just be my palate/ physiology. In short, a clean no-nonsense smoking medium strength tobacco. (I live in China so still have freedom to smoke in public spaces, sorry to all you living under anti-smoking nanny-fascism forcing you to retreat to the caves and deserts when you want to enjoy a tobacco).

I was given a half ounce sample of this gratis from Smokingpipes.com when it first came out. I knew nothing of the blend when I had my first bowl of it, but it did not take me long to recognize this as something produced by C&D.

A VaBurPer, with the emphasis on the Bur, that has a slight flavoring added to it. It is a familiar recipe amongst the pantheon of C&D blends. I have tried many of these and have generally liked them all, some better than others. To my palette this is one of the better ones. It is burley forward with a lighter touch of perique than say OJK or Haunted Bookshop.

The use of perique is enough to combat any tongue problems though as this is just a nice easy cool smoking blend. It is almost more a high quality codger burley to my tastes than a complicated VaPer variation. I will likely buy more of this one. It didn't blow me away, but it was just a nice pleasant smoke.

During the earlier stages of my tin of Mixture, I found it to be my favorite of the C&D’s Tom Eltang series of blends. But, having the tin in my pipe room for nearly a year, I find myself struggling to finish it. The Burley dominates Mixture and the Perique is barely noticeable. The red Virginia offers a bit of tang and a very small amount of sweetness and easier to notice than the bright Virginia. The flavor is fairly stout and consists mainly of the earthy, somewhat nutty Burley. I have found the Eltang blends to be a bit of a disappointment and while I enjoy Mixture more than the others, there are simply better blends in the genre. I think that it is that “rough” quality to C&D tobaccos that some love and other don’t and I generally am in the “don’t” group. Possibly some age would help to bring out the Virginia's a little more and better balance out the blend. I think that Mixture is better than a two star blend for me personally, but falls short of a three star tobacco and not one that I would buy again.

Typically, I don't go for tobaccos made by Pipe Makers (Peterson being an exception). But this stuff was refreshingly enjoyable (Not too surprising given my C&D preferences).

Hard to tell that there is anything other than Burley in here upon the initial view. Mostly a cardboard brown color in a cut that's very similar to the Burley Flake series.

In my experience this bowl starts a lot like Old Joe Krantz; piquant, rich, even spicy. I got mostly straight unflavored burley with sharp notes of perique. But it subsides after the first several puffs and evens out. From the first 1/4 to the last 1/4 of the bowl are very burley forward while Mr. Perique pops in and out. The VAs build steadily and there are hints of raisins, honey, molasses and sweet sweet red VA. The last 1/4 of the bowl is simply amazing. Sweet, spicy and nutty. I appreciate these changes int he smoke as I don't believe it is pure luck, but rather designed by the blender.

This stuff burns very cool, with little moisture and leaves a nice white ash at the bottom of your pipe. For any fans of Burley/BurVaPers, I highly recommend this.

I felt this was much sweeter than Burley Flake #3 and less intense than Old Joe Krantz. To me it's the smallest brother in that family. Well done C&D!