I have postponed this for a while now ... I guess this is a very difficult review to write, as the temptation to write it in comparison to the predecessor of this heritage blend is very high. I will try to keep this as a single review, but please forgive me if I cannot refrain from mentioning Royal Yacht here and there. We have a Virginia based blend. To the naked eye it is a very dark blend, with lots of dark brown and black ribbons, and here and there you come across a small broken flake. I am no Virginia expert, but this is not your regular grassy Virginia, no sir. The nose is earthy, with a fine hint of plum topping. It packs nicely, although you may have to break the bits of broken flake if you have them laid out, otherwise you may need a few relights. The taste is sweet, but earthy, nothing but Virginia there, although not the grassy, citrussy light one. It's an upper medium nicotine blend, so you may want to watch your timing with your meal and all. I smoked this in filtered pipes (9mm ceramic), but then again Royal Yacht was another blend that I could only stand with a filter, otherwise it sure messed with my stomach. One question comes up ... where's the plum? While some considered the predecesor as a semi aromatic, I would definitely consider this blend a Virginia with some sort of topping. I say some sort, because the hint of plum is there, but it's more mute than the nose. After the second half of the bowl it seems to come out a tad more, but still quite discrete. I took my time with this. I used three different pipes in trying it out: Rossi 320, Savinelli Venere and a straight billiard Georg Jensen. The latter offered me the best experience of the three for the blend, not sure whether because the first two I used to smoke VA/Burs as well, and the third I keep just for Virginias, or may be the size of the bowl - the first two being quite bulky. When I say the best experience, again I am referring to the expected elements of the blend - so the third pipe better highlighted both the sweetness and the topping. Overall it's a good blend, not a Royal Yacht, or perhaps as forum member Ashdigger mentioned, it's a better version of Royal Yacht for the critics. I would give this a 3/4, and as a nostalgia element I would buy a tin every so often. I am sorry, I cannot appreciate this blend without mentioning the predecesor that otherwise was a 4/4 blend for me.
