D & R Tobacco London Dock

This is my opinion based on the 10 bowls of London Dock I've smoked so far.

Label says Rum, cherry and vanilla. Premium Double Toasted Barley, Flue Cured Virginias, and Orientals with a touch of Louisiana Perique.

The pipe shop where the New Orleans Pipe Club holds its monthly meeting provided us with a fresh tin of D&R London Dock to sample. Four of us stood around smoking it and talking about it.

The first smoke I found it to have a consistent cherry flavor throughout the bowl and I kept getting hints of vanilla. The spiciness of the perique keeps peeking through also.

I don’t get the rum.

Three other New Orleans Pipe Club members to varying degrees found the cherry flavor to drop off mid-way through the bowl and it briefly tasted a little ashy but then the vanilla and the cherry came back. In my opinion, this is because the blend is burley forward. I personally didn’t get the ashy taste until the very end of the bowl when I pretty much was smoking just ash.

I find that it burns good. So far, every time I’ve smoked it, it smoked down to a fine ash with just very small particles of tobacco. I have smoked it in a Missouri Meerschaum Diplomat, two different Meerschaums and a variety of briars.

It has not bitten me yet.

The tin note does have a cherry hard candy aroma bordering on cherry cough drop, but I don't get any weird or chemical after taste. I don't know about room note because I generally don't smoke indoors. But, while smoking it outside yesterday, the wife said it smelled nice and she picked up the sweetness and the cherry smell when the smoke drifted in her direction.

Is it the best cherry tobacco on the market? Maybe not but I won't hesitate to buy more of it. I also can't compare it to the original London Dock because I have never smoked it.

𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝗸 I want to preference this review by stating that I haven’t smoked aromatic tobacco in years because of the after-taste and moisture left at the bottom of my pipe bowls. This is aromatic tobacco and is one of two that I really like. It has a very pleasant fragrance inside the can and inside the pipe before you light the pipe. The flavor is tasted as you smoke the tobacco and the taste does not change or get stronger as you smoke London Dock. Bitterness and bite are non-existent in this sweet and relaxing blend. To my surprise, this aromatic tobacco burns cleanly to gray ash instead of a wet bowl. Athey, another aromatic blend from D & R Tobacco, also smokes to clean gray ash and it has a completely different fragrance. Neither blend is hot smoking and that is the main reason I quit smoking aromatic blends. This particular blend leaves me feeling very calm after smoking a bowl of it. I highly recommend this blend for those who want a relaxing, enjoyable, and cool smoking tobacco. The clean after-taste stays in my mouth.