So I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable than I about the pipe tobacco business can tell me anything they know about why Dunhill changed their subtle yet delicious casing on one of my favorite tins of tobacco. What dI’d fellow smokers think about the change? I stopped smoking it for a number of years, but have since returned because their tobacco is such high quality and the casing note retreats rather quickly. Was there micromanaging going on? Change for changes sake? Someone at Dunhill upset their baby was going Ireland? I seek closure.
Gettin on the Yacht
- Thread starter JP64
- Start date
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Well, Dunhill hasn't produced tobacco for decades and each time their blends changed hands from blender to blender, they recipe changed. The most recent label change from Dunhill to Peterson though was just a brand change. The most recent blends have been produced by STG since 2013.
get used to it. 
pipe tobaccos will never stay the same. Think about it this way if you gave the same recipe to ten restaurants you'd get ten versions of the dish. That's basically what's happening. If you buy the recipe for a blend doesn't mean you even know where or what specific leaf from what farm they buy or how the treat the leaf before blending. Even if you know how doesn't mean you equipment will even be able to replicate the same thing. Then to really kick the seat of our pants. Tobacco is a living thing and subject to changes outside the control of people. Peoples tastes change sometimes subtly sometimes not. Best to be Zen about it and say you can't cross the same river twice, since it will have already changed by the time you get back to cross it again.
pipe tobaccos will never stay the same. Think about it this way if you gave the same recipe to ten restaurants you'd get ten versions of the dish. That's basically what's happening. If you buy the recipe for a blend doesn't mean you even know where or what specific leaf from what farm they buy or how the treat the leaf before blending. Even if you know how doesn't mean you equipment will even be able to replicate the same thing. Then to really kick the seat of our pants. Tobacco is a living thing and subject to changes outside the control of people. Peoples tastes change sometimes subtly sometimes not. Best to be Zen about it and say you can't cross the same river twice, since it will have already changed by the time you get back to cross it again.
You don't get moved around a lot with being negatively affected. The last move caused no harm to the Dunhill brand even though it became Peterson,
The individual to ask would be Pipestud, whose love of Royal Yacht is legendary amongst pipe-smokers. Perhaps you could convince him to try the Peterson iteration, and then report to us here how it compares with the "real thing."
If you had a stock of the previous version of the blend, properly stored, it would still be changed by aging. Though the Virginia base might improve, the flavoring would probably fade to some degree.
Also, though I regret to point it out, peoples' sense of taste changes to a degree over time, so the cherished blend might not taste as good, or at least not the same.
So, seize the day, find a blend you enjoy today, and let tomorrow take care of itself, and yesterday as well.
Also, though I regret to point it out, peoples' sense of taste changes to a degree over time, so the cherished blend might not taste as good, or at least not the same.
So, seize the day, find a blend you enjoy today, and let tomorrow take care of itself, and yesterday as well.
That is why I stick to twists and certain plugs as it is all but impossible to f*ck them up - in fact it takes a particular talent to mess up twisting leaves into a rope and changing the taste!
I'll sure give it a try, but since it's still Orlik made I can't imagine much change - except fresher. My favorite era was Murray's because it had more of that mysterious casing in it than the original Dunhill London made version. The Orlik version - according to my taste buds - just never has had the exact same casing in it as its predecessors. Similar, but not the same. As for the actual tobacco - leaf from different sources means different flavors, and while it has been awhile since I tried an Orlik version of the Yacht, I'm sure it is still a fine tobacco in a different way than what I am used to with Murray's era Yacht.
Steve
Thank you for your insight. I do now enjoy my Royal Yacht again even though it has changed a bit. It’s a pleasant all day smoke and I’m grateful that Peterson was able to Carry on making it. Maybe in the future someone will buy the rights to some of McClelland’s standout blends. I miss Classic Samson.get used to it.
Never going to happen for oh so many reasons, starting with the result being due to the McNeil’s handling of the processing and continuing with the problem of obtaining the right components.
Add to that the McNeils decision not to trust their creations to other hands. The result is never the same.
Be happy with happy memories and enjoy what’s available.
I know this is all speculation on my part since we don't know what their processes and components were but do people think that components are the really the issue? It seems like blenders haven't been hampered by the available tobacco (maybe except perique and Cyprian latakia).
Emphatically yes, one of the main reasons they shuttered the operation was THEY could not even the right component leaf anymore. That is first hand info straight from Mikes mouth.
Agree with all of this. Also I'll add even when a tobacco stays with the same blender, there will be changes from year to year due to what the tobacco plants were experiencing that year and how that had an effect on how they grow, taste, blah blah. Just like what happens with wine. It might be more subtle. I'm not sure I personally can taste it. But I know it happens and I believe at least some people can taste the difference.get used to it.
I enjoy these types of threads, because “what would we know about what is going on in the tobacco assembly line?” So, we just speculate and argue amongst other people here that don’t know as well… until someone states the real reasons, and then the companies get scared and come on here to gaslight us, and call us insulting names. And then the bootlickers hurrah, and the rest of us get bored, and just start talking about our cats and the finer points of cooking asparagus. Ha ha.
I haven’t had the newly branded Royal Yacht, because I still have a few reams of the older stuff. But, in true forum fashion, I will assert that without a doubt this can be blamed on the cockiness of the blenders. They think we are stupid and gullible and won’t notice that they are adding grass clippings and leaf mould to the blends. Now… prove me wrong. Ha ha.
I haven’t had the newly branded Royal Yacht, because I still have a few reams of the older stuff. But, in true forum fashion, I will assert that without a doubt this can be blamed on the cockiness of the blenders. They think we are stupid and gullible and won’t notice that they are adding grass clippings and leaf mould to the blends. Now… prove me wrong. Ha ha.
No argument here. I agree that asparagus is far better when cooked. My dog also concurs.
If you’ve never had it fresh out of the garden, still warmed by the sun, you’re missing out. I will add chopped raw asparagus to salads sometimes. But, when eaten raw, it does make your piss smell pungent.
They seemed to think so, since that's what they wrote in one of their statements about why they were closing up. To which they added that the ending of subsidies to tobacco farmers played a role in the loss of quality, as well as shortcuts in harvesting. They even destroyed their final batch of 5100, right at the end, because it didn't meet their metric.
So I'm reasonably confident that they were telling it as they experienced it.
I’d add that if the process was easy to turn over to someone else, and if the tobaccos were really available… then it doesn’t make any sense that they wouldn’t just have hired people to work for them or sell the recipes. Therefore, we have to believe that what they said was true. Otherwise, they just shot themself in the foot.
I for one am grateful that they didn’t just allow some corporate hack take it over and sell us vinegar piss with the McClelland label stuck on it.
It seems like many are suggesting that they would prefer this, as if the label is more important than what is inside the tins.
Indeed!
Murray's really liked to add lots of casing. Peterson's Irish Whiskey's casing was so pronounced it was almost sickening. I bought a lot of Erinmore Flake, Peterson and Dunhill tobaccos in the 1990s all the way to until they closed down and I found their tobaccos lacked consistency from one tin to the other.
STG, on the other hand, did manage to maintain consistency. Besides a different cut and less casing, I haven't found an enormous difference between both versions.