Frederick Tranter St. John's Mixture

I got my pinch of St. John at the Oxford Store. As soon as I opened such wrap, that in turn was stowed in a shopper bag, I got surrounded by a pungent odour, frankly speaking it smelled like mothball.

Therefore, I decided to let my tobacco rest for a while before lighting it up, also because was too moist. I disposed off the plastic wrap provided by the tobacconist and poured it into a glass can. I left it open without closing the lid for almost a day.

Well the result was great, the mothball smell turned into a leathery one, a way more pleasant and also the bowl ignition was fair.

Compared to the other blends I used to smoke (Davidoff) it's less mellow, then leaves a dry however good aftertaste.

When you puff it the latakia part is extremely evident.

Frederick Tranter - St. Johns Mixture.

The note from the pouch isn't particularly pleasant: slightly leathery, slightly bitter and a touch musty. Not exactly intriguing! This pouch has been in my cellar for about three months and as it's not factory sealed it may have been breathing as the hydration is great.

It packs and lights well giving off a reasonable temperature smoke that gives little, to no, bite.

The flavour? This is only my opinion but I really don't find it agreeable. The smoke has all of the bad things about Latakia yet none of the good things. It doesn't have any cedar, woodsy or smoky qualities; instead it emanates a stale bitterness that I find most unpleasant.

On to the Virginia now: this seems non-existent. It gives body to the smoke yet pretty much no taste.

Lets have one of the few good points. Nicotine. It falls easily into the mild to medium category. This suits me very well!

I don't seem to stumble across a one star blend too often but I have with this. I really don't like St. Johns Mix.

Not recommended.