Rattray Terry Red

Upon cracking open the tin and inhaling deeply with eyes closed, I find the odour sweet and pleasant. The first impression is of aged, spicy honey finishing with a hint of rum, cherry and a dash of licorice.

It packs easily enough into my Dinky 9, I'm still breaking it in so smoking it at half-bowl currently. I prime the pipe with two brief "false lights" and the initial intake is somewhat dry, quite sweet and profoundly peppery. The Cherry is quite understated and almost gets overwhelmed by the Wooden Casket nuances which have elements of both nut and ginger. It burns pretty easily and is smooth out the stem onto the tongue. It has a tendency to burn a little hot like most Aromatics if not smoked conscientiously.

Further into the smoke the slight rum taste becomes a little more pronounced while the peppery-ginger starts to dominate a little more than I would like leaving my mouth tingling. Now and again the taste become a little musty like breathing in the smell/taste of autumn leaves after the rain.

Burns to a light grey ash. Overall it is a little too sweet for my liking. The Wife hates the smell - she says it gives her a headache and stomach ache? Personally I think this is a pretty good blend you should at least try once while reading this review. I've got Rattray Sampler pack coming soon which should be interesting.

This is an aromatic with restraint. Flavored with rum, cherry, and ginger, those flavors are present pretty much in that order. The rum is gentle but flavorful throughout. The cherry appears occasionally, sometimes spiced with ginger.

It was at perfect moisture in the tin, and it burned beautifully in the bowl. It never got hot, bitey, or wet, and the flavor remained all the way down the bowl.

Those looking for a straightforward cherry blend will likely be disappointed. This is more nuanced than that.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I like this blend. It has a nice taste and tin aroma. I canned most of a tin to age.

I thought the cherry taste was subtle at best. It's not overwhelming, yet it gives a hint of sweetness to the taste buds. I would recommend this blend to the occasional aromatic smoker and the aromatic smoker looking for something a bit different.

Given the fine pedigree that the Rattray's tobacco family has, I found it "gutsy" to produce an aromatic blend. But when it was formulated, it was done so with intellegence and creativity. What called me to this blend was the merging of the toppings. How could a manufacturer do justice to Virginias,Carolinas and Black cavendish by giving it a topping of Cherry,Ginger and Rum? So being the tobacco adventurer that I am I jumped headlong into this tobacco with some reservations..So here goes....

Upon opening the tin I could detect a subdued cherry note and the snap of Ginger. The moisture level was a little high. So aready in my mind I was recalling the equation of Moisture + Aromatic Blend= Tongue bite. But not so... At initial lighting, the cherry and ginger fought for attention, but that was very short-lived.Things settled down nicely. The ginger gave the cherry a tart "dry martini" type of character, with the rum keeping down the subdued bass notes along with the natural sweetness of the Virginia and Black Cavendish tobaccos. No tongue burn. Packed nicely and lit fairly well even with the moisture content. Stayed lit and burned down to a fine mottled ash which poured out of the bowl cleanly at the end of the smoke. My only negative here is I could not smoke it as an all day smoke. However as a morning smoke, it would segue nicely into later day smoking of perhaps an English blend or a dark Virginia Flake mixture. Also no heavy after taste was noted. This was the maiden smoke in a new Butz Choquin calabash. So with a large gaged bowl and no previous adulterations to help it along, Terry Red was left on it's own island so to speak.. It was true to itself, and was pleasant..Good job Rattray's...

I had a different experience with Terry Red than some of the others. I should point out though, that mine was very well dried. In addition to cutting down a lot on the tongue bite of blends of this type (aromatic), I find that it also reduces the degree to which the casing overpowers the tobacco.

Terry Red, to me, had a nice middle-of-the-road flavor. The toppings were toned down by drying to the point that the ginger was subtle, the rum was a trace, and the cherry was undetectable. The toppings seemed to compliment the flavor of the Black Cavendish, and while it was not apparent on its own, the Va seemed impart a bit of natural sweetness, reducing the ?dry wine? taste I get from Black Cavendish.

TR isn?t a complex blend, but rather a nice change of pace from my usual fare, which is heavy English and Va - Va/Perique. If you have tried it and didn?t like it, try drying it a bit and see if this doesn?t help a bit. It worked for me.