Rattray Charles Mixture

My first review, and I just want to say I'm happy to be amongst such a fine group of people! Onward...

I acquired as a gift a Rattray's sample pack of 6 tobaccos, Charles' mixture being one. Upon opening the gold foil sample pouch, I saw a pretty tobacco of golds and dark browns, and I was greeted loudly with the smell of fruit, mostly a cherry-like aroma. Here I must interject that I like cherries two ways: fruit off the tree and in a well-made homemade pie. There are no exceptions.

In an effort to be fair to the tobacco, I let the pouch open for airing to see if the initial aromatic qualities would mellow out a bit. After about 30 minutes, the cherry overtones did subside enough for me to pack a moderately sized Alpha apple and give it a go.

Lighting was work. It took three Swans, but finally the tobacco consented to the flame. The initial smoke was sweet, but not overly so. In fact, there was a berry-ness about the tobacco for which I was glad, given my first impressions. However, the flavor was so subtle it was barely noticeable past a slight sweetness. Keeping the stuff lit was also irritatingly difficult.

Unfortunately, there were no discernable tobacco flavors to back up the very mild casing. I'm sure, being a Rattray's blend, that the tobaccos were top-notch, but the flavor just wasn't there. As I progressed into the second half of the bowl, I did notice a fair amount of smoke, but my visiting friend (and fellow pipesmoker), had this to say about the room aroma -- "Eh." Also, for a rather flavorless blend to my palate, the tobacco did develop a fair amount of heat on my tongue, unfortunatley further alienating me from it.

There may (and obviously are) fellow pipe smokers who would enjoy this blend, and perhaps they have a tongue more suited to this mixture's subtleties. I, however, must pass.

I tried this blend based on Rattray's reputation and after smoking and thoroughly enjoying several of their other blends. Also, from the description on the tin it sounded like a great blend.... Hmmm...tin aroma delicious, beautiful golden virginia, Carolina broadleaf, Cavendish, dark leafed varieties, very pleasant to look at, packs easily,(filled one of my best pipes to the very top). Now for the the reward, touch of a match and started puffing. Not bad, kind of sweet, no wait, awful sweet....I mean awful and sweet! This is an aromatic gone berzerk. I tasted very little tobacco and a lot of Pina Colada. If you like the taste of burning coconuts then you'll probably enjoy Charles Mixture, otherwise you might want to pass on this one. Oh well, even the Yankees lose once in a while.

Another shit in a tin blend by Rattray. Sour and bitey with no personality even though soaked to the bone in casing.

Sour and bitey aromatic, without much vanilla taste (which is nauseating even if you just take a sniff to the tin). An aromatic with no personality like many others, drowned in its casing.

I had tried this a while back and found I just could not deal with it. The perfect smoke? Don't think so. Full aromatic and pleasing aroma? Sure, many may possibly say that. Light tasting and blended mildly for the palate and tongue? Not to my palate & tongue. I like many of the Rattray's tobacs and keep them on hand. I thought CM might be one I could smoke in the house as a compromise for LSW. WRONG! She liked the room aroma, as did I, but I can't get past the hot smoking, sharp tasting properties I find w/this blend. Perhaps it's me and my taster and/or the fact that I'm really not a fan of this style of full aromatic. Maybe I'm biased. I'll stick with the other Rattray's stuff and be content at that. Gave it a good shot, but it does not work for me.

I tried this thinking it was going to be a high quality aromatic blend. In some ways this is high quality in that there is good leaf in the blend as is the case with all of the other rattrays blends i've tried, however this is very heavily cased and is not to my liking. It reminded me of a pina colada.If you are into highly flavored tobaccos than this may be a hit for you, however this just did not go well for me. I will say that when I tried it in a meerschaum it was not as overwhelming although it was still not to my liking.

This is not,"the perfect smoke" as the manufacturers decription touts.In fact,I would'nt even desribe it as a good smoke.It is more akin to something you would smoke on a dare. For all you "Parrot Heads" this may very well be the blend for you! This is the taste of the islands gone wild. Pina Colada Oh Yeh..tobacco flavor zipppppo.This stuff tastes like a Hallmark shop candle smells. No joke, I'm coming to the bottom of a bowl full as I type this review and I'm astouded at the absence of any tobacco flavor from start to finish.To it's credit I must say that it smokes very cool. A surprize for tobacco cased this heavily. What a pity to waste a perfectly good tobacco tin on this crapolla. Sorry Charley....I mean Charles.