Full Review: Davidoff - Danish Mixture (20 yrs aged)

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hfearly

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 11, 2012
822
2
Canada
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Tin Description

Zino Davidoff's Special Blend of the finest tobaccos, very mild in taste. Manufactured in Denmark
Tin Dating

Tin dated from 1993, first year of operation of the smaller B&M were I found the stash of these vintage tins. Similar to Dunhill tins, the older Davidoff tins have a round raised ledge at the bottom, and multiple coin insert/twist inserts around the top. Also, tins after ca. 2003 have the wording "Made in Denmark", and a Euro-Zone "e" symbol after "50 grs"
Packaging

The blend comes in a standard "Orlik" tin, the label on top is painted right onto the metal in a negative print, i.e., the letters are cut out from the black paint, such that the original tin metal shines through. This gives the tin a very posh, elegant appearance. Much, much nicer than today's paper stickers! The blend comes in a 50 gram size, upon opening you have the standard paper wrapper, and a paper lid insert. In this older variant, the paper insert is solid without the cut-out that allows you to easily lift the insert.
Presentation

Upon opening the tin, you are greeted with a very inviting, quite sweet smell of darkened hues of brown, with the occasional piece of Black Cavendish. The cut is a quite coarse shag cut, and I was impressed by the complete absence of stems and other low quality filler material.
The smell presents notes of honey, maple, brown sugar, oranges, raisins, a hint of vanilla, Danish Buttercookies - but not in the over-sauced way we know of modern aromatics! There is no cloying or chemical component here, and the tobacco is oily to the touch, but not moist. Either age has completely done away with the initial saucing, or they used a different process and recipes back in the days.
In fact, the tobacco has a very natural Virginia smell of butter, hay, grass to it that I very much appreciate. From the presentation alone, I can tell that this is not your standard 0815 blend: this is a very natural Virginia blend that "magically" happens to have an extremely pleasant flavoring to it, while still staying as natural as possible. Quite impressive!
Packing

I selected a classic "E. Wilke" (made from air-cured Algerian briar by the famous Joe Cartigano, who later cut pipes for Ed Burak of Connoisseur) natural Canadian, filter-less pipe for this review. The thick walls, and long shank and stem help keep the smoke nice and cool and allow to taste this blend in full glory.
No drying or further preparation of the tobacco was needed, I packed it straight out of the tin. I packed the bowl fairly tight, using a modified "Frank" packing method (take a good size pinch, and fill it in all at once, using rotation / spiraling, such that on the outside the tobacco is loosely packed, and towards the middle it's packed very tightly).
First Light

The blends takes flame very easily - this is a no-fuss blend! Light, puff, tamp. That's all that's needed to get a very nice even burn, all within 5 or so seconds. How wonderful! Some blends really take four or five lights to get a half-even glow going, but not so Danish Mixture.
The first puffs present the palate with a nice flavor of roasted coffee, a hint of vanilla, hazelnut, and most impressively, very natural sweet Virginia taste. That came quite unexpected, as based on the tin smell of the blend I would have expected a full-on aromatic in the likes of W.O. Larsen's Classic mixture. I really do like how this is foremost a natural Virginia blend, and a Danish aromatic second!
First Third

This blend is very smooth! The burn is perfect, only occasional tamping down is required. Sweet Virginia tobacco in the foreground - I'd say very much along the lines of Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, but even a notch better (probably due to the extensive aging on this tin). In the background notes of honey, brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate, stewed fruit, raisins, butter, sweet cream. These background notes come and go seemingly at random, and I'm always excited and surprised what the next puff brings. Bravo!
Second Third

Not much different from the first. I puff quite a bit, because the taste is just oh-so-good! Most noticeably, no tongue burn that would usually set in with blends like Larsen's Classic or MacBarens at this point. This blend is extremely smooth and mild, and I think even the most sensitive smoker will rejoice. Burns down perfectly to white ash, only occasional tamping required. Doesn't lose flavor even when pushing hard.
Last Third

This is the *real* test for most aromatic blends, as the last third tends to go down-hill quite fast, leaving a bitter tasting, biting mess. Much to my surprise, Danish Mixture masters the last third with flying colors. The taste stays consistent down to the last 2-3 minutes or so of the smoke (at which point one really is down to mostly tasting the ashes anyway). That's quite an achievement by itself, I can count the blends that stayed with me until the very end of the bowl on one hand. The tobacco burned down to the very last bit, leaving only very fine white ash - speaking of the outstanding quality of Virginia tobacco used in manufacturing.
As if that wasn't enough praise for an already amazing performance, there was no condensation what-so-ever. I assume due to the lack of saucing when the blend was flavored, and the age, the burn was completely dry, even though I pushed it quite a bit in the second third. The Wilke Canadian tends to require a quick swap with a pipe cleaner in the second third with most other blends, but none with Danish Mixture.
Final Verdict

HEUREKA! I've finally found what I consider THE benchmark in Danish blends. This is truly an old-world tobacco, just how pipe tobacco used to be in the golden days of pipe smoking! No chemical saucing, just a really sweet, pure, delicious Virginia tobacco that is pleasantly flavored. In fact, the chosen mix of flavors works so well together, that the result is a complex, well-bodied, yet unbelievably smooth and harmonious smoke. And the room note will be liked by even the most picky "war department".
This blend will surely satisfy pure Virginia smokers as much as fans of Aromatic tobaccos, and perfectly bridges both worlds. Absolute recommendation!

 
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