Robert McConnell Red Virginia

For me, the Red Virginia starts out very nice and slightly sweet. The first 2/3 is a good straight forward, easy going smoke. The last 1/3 starts to get a slightly sharp edge ... Just not the finish I had hoped for.

The tin had 9 years on it so the perique was muted. I’ll bet the two to four year old tins are better. This tobacco has the potential to produce a mild bite so puff slowly and don’t push.

tabacco molto buono, di facile fumata, aromatico al punto giusto. L'ho comprato chiedendo una miscela a base di Virginia, aromatica ma non troppo, leggera. Questa miscela rispecchia tutte le mie richieste.

Not bad itself, but that chemically sweet smell when you open the tin is the killer. No information at all about flavoring on the tin, so that was a little unpleasant surprise. After 2 years of aging the smell is much softer, but still not consistent with the overall tobacco flavor. Packing and lighting easily. At first flavor is quite pleasant, although the sweet artificial smell remains, but after half of the bowl it disappears. If you like virginia based flavored tobaccos, then it's maybe worth to try, but that's not my favorite.

Bites like a bat biting things hard. Other than that I love it. But goodness, hard to get over that.

The tin here is red and says "The Original RED VIRGINIA". I cannot find even a dash of perique. The scent is alcoolic, and it burns like hell. I tried smoking this blend in bigger and smaller pipes, to try to avoid overburning, but no chance. My impression is that what is making the tobacco burn like this is the flavoring! Among over 200 blends, this is probably one of the worst I have tried, and I will not keep up trying to find a pipe for this blend which will end up entirely in the garden , or to feed the chickens.

This is great tobacco. The two last comments are just nuts. Chocolate topping? That is just nuts.

I first discovered this blend in 1989 when I was stationed in Bahrain, and it became my preferred blend. Then I couldn't find it. About a year ago I was going through a box of stuff that I had in storage, and low and behold there was an unopened tin that I'm guessing I bought in 1990. Damn! Good stuff, and pre-K&K. I finally smoked up the last of it about two weeks ago.

The tin I am reviewing now is the K&K version, it just came in the mail today along with a Peterson Aran XL02 pipe, which I am breaking in with the Red Virginia.

I wasn't happy with the tin, because it was a bear to open! However, the toby itself is superb. Not as good as the pre-K&K version, but superb none-the-less. The tobacco inside is primarily high-grade Red Virginia with just a bit of Perique. A wonderful berry topping has been applied, and to me it smells like a mixture of strawberry and cherry. That tin note translates to room note, and the room note gets high marks from others. However, at least for me, those notes do not translate to taste - I simply taste naturally sweet high grade Virginia with a whisper of Perique. It has wonderfully rich, but not strong, Virgina flavor (with that fine whisper of Perique). It reminds me very much of Peterson's Sherlock Holmes, only much fuller.

If you like well-behaved Virginia blends, or well-mannered Va/Pers, I think you will like this. Nuanced it ain't, but a fantastic Virginny it is. Most times I just want a rich and relaxing pipe, and if sipped slowly this blend really delivers and without any bite. I'm going to have to next smoke this is one of my pipes that is already broke it. I have complete confidence that it will be even better.

Reading reviews from others on this blend, it seems either one hates it or loves it. I fall in the love it camp with one caveat, the tin I am smoking from is dated 06/99 so it is well aged and with a Va blend, that makes a large difference. The tin note when opening is of a sweet and tart red VA. It has a touch of spicyness if you really give it a good smell. It is a ribbon but in mostly a deep brown leaf with a little bit of darker leaf intermingled. The tin I have is just the right moisture content so no drying out was required. I loaded easily into my pipe and was very easy to light up. It does require a relight now and then but I find this true of most red VA blends as I tend to sip them slowly. After lighting up, the room note that I got was very pleasant. The taste of the smoke is very sweet, with just a touch of spicyness. The spicyness would be from the small dose of perique in it. The perique is used more as a spice and never becomes the main player in this blend. But it does add to it. The sweetness of the smoke is not just the hay like sweetness and this is supposed to have a top dressing though I can't guess what it is as I never really tasted it or smelled it. It just gives an extra punch to it. It burns nice and slow in the pipe and burns literally down to a soft grey ash and no dottle in the bottom of the pipe. I never got any of the tongue bite that some complain about, I just found it to be a very good full VA blend that I like. I have smoked five bowls in a row today and my tongue is just fine. I think that Robert McConnell blend tend to get overlooked but they make fine blends and this is one of them. I highly recommend giving it a try.

Berries and figs in the tin. Lights well and the wonderful sweet, earthy aroma of berries and baccy begin. The taste is wonderful and it just smells great. It does give one quite a bit of tongue bite...it's needs to be smoked very slowly. Wonderful Virginia blend and would have to agree with Dub, that it seems to be a semi-aromatic.