Rattray Red Rapparee

I enjoy red rapparree very much. Most Tobaccos I do, as I avoid pipe tobacco and cigars that seem to be revolting as we all should. To some this may sound arrogant but it is not. It is realistic. Don't smoke crap and for the sake of all that's holy avoid cigarettes. They will kill you! Never mind that they taste and smell like poo. Smoke Cigars, Smoke Pipes, and good cigars and good pipe tobacco at that! Especially pipes!!! Anyway, I am done with my rant and am probably preaching to the choir. Red Rapparee is delicious. It has some nice middle eastern tobaccos, a bit of virginies and a spot o' the tasty all time favorite latatkia. A good all around smoke, though my wife does not like the room note of this... no not at all my precious. Still this stuff is awsome. I like it as much as Hal O'the wynd even though it is so ridiculously different from it that a comparison is absurd. Another good blend from Rattrays, or the German Co. that blends this tobacco. Right tasty stuff!

Tin: Mostly bright, light-brown medium-to-long ribbon cut, some black, short ribbon, with a minute amount of olive medium-cut ribbon. I don't perceive a red tinge. Has a musty, raisin smell akin to McCranie's Red Ribbon.

Packing & Lighting: Easy to pack, gravity feed with tapping, then compress the top. Lightly moist, but the tobacco is easily rolled into a ball, but is not sticky. RRR requires no drying time. Lights easily and stays lit. No moisture problems at all; afterwards, when cleaning the pipe, there is only a little condensate left in the stem, none in the bowl. As an aside, if you were concerned about the tin description advertising, I wouldn't associate this good pipe tobacco with any aspect of a cigar.

Taste: Part of the way through the bowl, I was reminded of Dunhill 965, having a smooth quality akin to the cavendish in 965. I would say this is better than a comparable McClelland; not rough, sharp or harsh, retaining a spicy tang element as one signature component.

A quality tobacco that begs to be repeatedly tasted in short, rapid puffs. This elicits the qualities of a fine tobacco: soft balance of a cavendish, creamy, velvety, gentle sweetness, vaguely smoky.

In the starting blocks, it displays the prospects of a sharp, tangy VA, but soon settles into a splendid, multi-faceted experience: cool, dry, and clean. After getting past the tang at the top of the bowl, RRR has me constantly trying to savor the taste: vaguely sweet, musty, smoky.

Aroma: a soft, medium-strength tobacco, not pungent at all, vaguely musty, with perhaps a chocolate complexion. Nothing pungent, harsh, or strong about it, I would list it as mild to medium in all aspects, the epitome of ephemeral and eternal.

Having just finished a tin of McCranie's Red Ribbon, I'll compare it to Rattray's Red Ribbon. RRR has red ribbon, but the tin aroma is where the similarity stops. Past the top of the bowl, RRR has none of the tang and sharpness of MRR. RRR is a soft, mellow, sweet, musty, elusively smoky, piping experience. It burns clean and the bowl only gets hot right at the finish.

Nicotine: Medium, but not persistent. The quality of RRR is on par with Dunhill SM Medium or 965, except that RRR does not give the nicotine fix SMM is capable of.

Room Note: The nice soft scent of sandalwood, diminishing exponentially at bowl's end.

It's a really fine tobacco that is very well balanced. The baselines are very good Virginias, then there are the Orientals and the Latakia. The tobaccos are so well coordinated that no one takes the lead, first the Virginia is in front, then the Oriental, the Latakia never pushes itself to the fore, but rounds off this balance again and again. This results in a very lively play of aromas. For Latakia lovers it is probably not equipped with enough Latakia, but its very good balance and depth of aromas still make it worthwhile. I also recommend this tobacco to smokers who tend to avoid Latakia, and especially to newcomers.

Tin note - blue cheese sour and smokey - similar to Trafalgar! This is really a Balkan with some black cavendish. (So, I guess it's a Scottish Balkan?!)

This blend smokes and tastes exactly like the tin note - sour with a nice Latakia hit. Burns very dry and super clean. Some brief drying time required out of the tin/jar - about 30 mins. The cut is short ribbons and small pieces, so easy gravity feed, light tamp and go. Burns great to a powdery white ash. No noticeable nic hit.

After almost 5 months in the jar, this blend has aged quite well, increasing in both strength and character. Its definitely a solid Medium Balkan blend now. Exotic Orientals with plenty of Latakia. Burns slow and cool. No hint of tongue bite but it does have some pleasant sharpness from the Orientals. Nice Latakia aftertaste with a hint of sweetness.

Red Rapparee definitely lives up to its reputation as a genuine classic although it's not as sweet or rich as Black Mallory (which I prefer).

Red Rapparee. Tin note is reminiscent of matured serrano ham spiced with a little extra smokyness. Attention! This tobacco can disrupt (more precisely stop) working effectively. I can only imagine creative brainstorming while smoking this. It burns easily and cool. In the first half, Virginia effectively adds the sweet, Orientals the spicy, and Latakia the bitter smoky flavors. Yet the taste is a consistent. None of them comes forward, but rather takes turns balancing out each other, stimulating the whole tongue. This makes it very exciting and completely attracts people's attention to smoking. In the second half, Virginia’s sweets are pushed little bit into the background, but the Orientals add multiple flavors. Smoke volume is moderate, but it is not pungent, it's just good. Nicotine is not dangerous in my opinion, it can be puffed up all day. Just don't be surprised if we don't have a productive day, but existing in zen state. Highly recommended!

Red Rapparee - I opened a 1 year old can of RR a couple of months ago , smoked a few bowls and was not impressed at all . I jarred up the rest and put it away . I’ve read about how tin to jar + time really makes a big difference in a blend so I gave it a try . It has improved greatly . Fruity sweet Red Virginias, spicy delicious Orientals and the Lat is just right . The Cavendish is acceptable and sugary sweet . Sweet, sour and salty contrast , very nice . It’s more traditional English than Balkan and a fine one at that . I say 4 star English or Scottish I guess

When I came to revisit this tobacco after several decades, I expected a different flavor profile from the original blend made in Perth, Scotland back in the day. Indeed K and K's version is definitely lighter in body compared to its Scottish namesake, different but not inferior. The German version a bit lighter and a bit more Oriental forward than the Scottish version, one of the differences being the presence of Cyprian latakia as contrasted to the Syrian latakia used by British blenders in the old days. However this is not to downgrade the modern product, it is quite good, similar in character to Dunhill London Mixture, which alas, is apparently gone forever. A previous reviewer stated that the modern Red Rapp is flavored as evidenced by his government's analysis may be true, but the assertion that is has to be factual because the government says so may give us a bit of a window into how this Americans natural distrust of such authority defines a key difference between the two cultures. Be that as it may the present version of Red Rapp is worth a try, 4 stars standing on its own merit, regardless of what name is on the tin.

After having made some critical comments on Marlin Flake as well as Old Gowrie I am happy to move on to my review of Red Rapparee, which is an utterly delightful tobacco.

As the other previously mentioned baccys, Red Rapparee also seems to contain some flavoring according to the following webpage of tobacco additives, which is run by the German state and thus factual: https://service.bmel.de/tabakerzeugnisse/index2.php?detail_id=104660&site_key=153&stichw_suche=red+rapparee&zeilenzahl_zaehler=2

I do not have any problems with that as long as it does not overpower the tobacco but enhance it and this is exactly what happens with Red Rapparree.

I smoke this baccy throughout the day but get the best experience out of it early in the morning with a cup of English Breakfast loose leaf tea with a splash of milk. It is an amazing combination of flavors. Red Rapparee is a slow starter that sneaks on you only after the first few drags. It starts with sweet nuances from the VA in the foreground and progresses to incorporate more and more notes of exotic spices while remaining fairly mild and refined. The growing complexity of this blend as the bowl progresses offers me unparalleled joys but never becomes tiresome.

In short, this is one of my all time favorites and I cannot recommend this tobacco too much. Just try it our for yourselves.

4 out of 4 stars

This mixture ticks all of the boxes for me! It's full of flavour, nuance and intrigue.

The tobacco comes as a neat and extremely colourful ribbon cut, and as your eyes are feasting, so are you nostrils: the tin note is sweet and sour all in one - a foretelling of what is to come when one puts a flame to the leaf.

The charring light provides one with a sweet toasty flavour; sip on this until it dies down before relighting your pipe. The true light creates a spicy, almost sour smoke which should be expected from an Oriental forward blend such as this. Far from putting me off, this flavour draws me in and I tend to puff at it enthusiastically until it develops a distinct sweetness. This sweetness is not quite that which one would associate with Virginias and so I accredit it to the Cavendish, which makes a fine addition to the blend. The interplay between sweet and sour makes Red Rapparee sublime (if not a little distracting if one is attempting to get on with something while they enjoy a smoke).

The bottom of a bowl gives a more robust smoke and at this point I sometimes notice a bite of sorts. Not of the tongue, more the roof of my mouth. This bite, which I'm sure is personal to every smoker, would be my only criticism of Red Rapparee. It is one of only two tobacco blends (at the time of writing this review) which have given me a near uncontrollable desire to refill my pipe and smoke it all over again. It has become a firm favourite of mine!