New Bengal Slices Any Good?
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Any good? And some! I was lucky enough to have tried a sample in London thanks to the pipe club there. I like many here are familiar with exactly the same ingredients in a blend, Virginias/oriental/Latakia etc. but I have never tasted a blend as fine as this. An absolute taste sensation!
I think Simon captured it's essence. Bengal Slices is more like a crumble cake in how it handles. Pack it loose and you're in for a delightful smoke. I also notice a slight anise taste in the background, but just a hint. It's a well done blend.
I agree with john on the slight anise taste...I think that adds a sweetness and from the black cavendish in this stuff. I personally enjoy the heck out of this stuff it has good orientals and the Latakia is there but not in your face. This blend is very well done and hopefully will be available for a long time to come.
pretty frigg'in phenomenal! i never had the chance to smoke the original, but this stuff is #3 on my list already. penzance is #1, stonehaven is #2, and the STP bengal slices is #3! if i only smoked these 3 baccy's for the rest of my life, i would die a happy man.
M
mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast
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It's good. It has a weird floral medical tape smell to me, but has a rich and complex smokey butterscotch sweetness. It's different and very good.
Good is a terribly insufficient word. To my old, abused palate it is a superlative blend. A tin will always be available.
And now a question: Where the hell is the Horse?
And now a question: Where the hell is the Horse?
I love this thread as I recently smoked the old and new to get my own personal impressions. Fortunately, I had a ripe old tin of the original English made Bengal Slices to compare the new blend to, as I smoked both over a period of days just a couple of weeks ago.
Original - I was absolutely wonderfully, delightfully, exquisitely overwhelmed by the depth of the flavor. I understand now why this one is considered to be one of the world's finest ever blends. Smooth and bulk building jet black cavendish, Latakia and Virginia leaf with depth of flavor like no other.
Russ's recreation - One of the few recreations of an old classic that even came close to matching the original. Only because I had smoked the original first could I detect the fresher, sharp edges of the leaf that will certainly round out with time. Although I have not done so yet, I am going to order a bunch of this for the cellar and hope that God allows me to live another five years or so as I bet the taste will improve this already delightful blend further as time goes by.
Original - I was absolutely wonderfully, delightfully, exquisitely overwhelmed by the depth of the flavor. I understand now why this one is considered to be one of the world's finest ever blends. Smooth and bulk building jet black cavendish, Latakia and Virginia leaf with depth of flavor like no other.
Russ's recreation - One of the few recreations of an old classic that even came close to matching the original. Only because I had smoked the original first could I detect the fresher, sharp edges of the leaf that will certainly round out with time. Although I have not done so yet, I am going to order a bunch of this for the cellar and hope that God allows me to live another five years or so as I bet the taste will improve this already delightful blend further as time goes by.
Thank you for your kind words - its sentiments like this that have made the whole project so worthwhile and rewarding. I have heard several people express similar sentiments about both Bengal Slices as well as the various John Cotton's blends. We have a few more surprises up our sleeve for 2016 which both myself and Dan think will absoluely delight the pipe smoking community.
I sorta went on a Grail Quest several years ago to experience the real essence of The Celebrated Bengal Slices of venerated legend. Let me see... there was Charles Fairmorn's Lancer's Slices and then RO's Fusilier's Ration. Maybe I hit on a house-blend try at a couple establishments. They all were quite fine, and I believe setting me up for a fantabulous experience of The Real Thing which just came into my quadrant of the galaxy not but a few weeks ago with the new and present reincarnation of the same! I add my own personal acclamation to all the stellar, exceptionally awesome, outa-da-park observations already uttered! Now... to somehow engineer Her Majesty's reckoning of the books to attempt to squirrel away ever larger quantities of the same! (Easier said than done... she's a CPA and CFO) Incidentally, I got on Standard Tobacco of PEEAY's mailing list as soon as I saw it and god bless him, The Dan himself, emailed me when the Bengal Slices became available!! One of the highpoints of my life!!! Aside: I felt compelled to throw in a tin of John Cotton's Smyrna on the self-same order... omg, two slam-dunk homers in a row!! Another thing to sneak by Her Majesty!! Hmmmmm... perhaps I could be said to "be on Her Majesty's Secret Service"!! heh heh...
She does actually! :D :D :D (look like a Bond Grrl!)... she's 5'11" (I'm 6'3")... she's lithe and handsome of Nordic grace... blonde... sapphire blue eyes... majestically mature and in command of Her Empire! I'm proud to be a part of it! 38 years together this year... 42 if you count longer than average engagements til we could both finish school!! And she really generally enjoys my forays into pipe-world! It is most definitely a GOOD thing that she rules the bank books... the average spasms of PAD/TAD... well, without controls, I pass out, and when I come to, there's several shipments of goodies in the ejecta zone. Without her, I would be smoking luxuriantly well but we probably wouldn't be eating, or, well, you know, food, clothing, and shelter and small pataytas like that! Cue 007 music! (Now to hide the tractor-trailer of Bengal Slices before she gets home!)
I am simply overwhelmed by the outpouring of support on this page.
Simon and I have invested quite a bit in this little endeavor over the past two and a half years: time, money and reputation, all of which have been in short supply. The payoff for us is seeing all of you with smiles and three thumbs up. They said it couldn't be done, and we're still pinching ourselves to make sure that they were wrong.
There's more on the way: War Horse loose cut will be available by the end of the month, God willin' and the creek don't rise. Then we have to shepherd War Horse Bar through the final gauntlet and try like hell to get it on the table at the Chicago show. After that, we have some nebulous plans that include expanding on the John Cotton's and War Horse selections and breathing life back in to two more long-gone brands. It's a long road. But having you folks behind us keeps us keeping on.
Thank you.
-Dan
Simon and I have invested quite a bit in this little endeavor over the past two and a half years: time, money and reputation, all of which have been in short supply. The payoff for us is seeing all of you with smiles and three thumbs up. They said it couldn't be done, and we're still pinching ourselves to make sure that they were wrong.
There's more on the way: War Horse loose cut will be available by the end of the month, God willin' and the creek don't rise. Then we have to shepherd War Horse Bar through the final gauntlet and try like hell to get it on the table at the Chicago show. After that, we have some nebulous plans that include expanding on the John Cotton's and War Horse selections and breathing life back in to two more long-gone brands. It's a long road. But having you folks behind us keeps us keeping on.
Thank you.
-Dan
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