Peterson/Dunhill Standard Mixture, Short Review

[Pipelady20]

I liked this one. It's been classified as an English blend, of Virginia/Latakia/Orientals. Smoked this in a corncob.

Perfect moisture in the tin, packed easy, took a few lights to get started but i only had to relight a few times. Can tell the difference between this and Elizabethan (lack of spicy perique).

I can see buying more of this if I just want a basic smoke with no fruit, or incense odor. A good smoke.

 

[stogie37]

Never a bell-ringer for me, - only 4 Dunhill tins in the cellar. Hadn’t smoked it in a long while, so ordered a tin of the Peterson a month or so ago and slid it into the rotation. Just 2 bowls left at this point. As usual, superb burn, trademark toastiness (my favorite aspect of this blend) and at the two weeks open point, a more pronounced sweetness sets in. The quality, cut and burn are excellent and flavor is consistently good, but not great to me. So, I’ll sit on the 4 Dunhill tins until I decide to try it again in a few years, or until people start equating the Dunhill stamp as worthy of paying a premium - then off it goes!

 

[Pipelady20]

Never a bell-ringer for me, - only 4 Dunhill tins in the cellar. Hadn’t smoked it in a long while, so ordered a tin of the Peterson a month or so ago and slid it into the rotation. Just 2 bowls left at this point. As usual, superb burn, trademark toastiness (my favorite aspect of this blend) and at the two weeks open point, a more pronounced sweetness sets in. The quality, cut and burn are excellent and flavor is consistently good, but not great to me. So, I’ll sit on the 4 Dunhill tins until I decide to try it again in a few years, or until people start equating the Dunhill stamp as worthy of paying a premium - then off it goes!

Which 4 are your preferred?

 

[rushx9]

I've never smoked Standard, only Standard Mellow- which wasn't rereleased by Peterson. Standard Mellow has less latakia, more oriental and Va, and a slight apricot/plum topnote common to Dunhill. Every Dunhill tin I ever cracked tasted markedly better 3-5 days after popping the seal, and if SM is anything like SMM it will open up greatly, revealing the sweetness of the VA and sour complexity of the orientals. I usually smoke 1 bowl out of a fresh tin, just to ease the curiosity, but I remind myself to suspend judgment until I smoke it again after the 3 day mark. Sometimes the transformation is astonishing. If nothing else, the flavors will gain clarity.
Also, this has nothing to do with drying, so leaving the tin open won't hurry the process. There is an enzymatic shift after oxygen is reintroduced to the tin. Anaerobic microbes begin to die off and aerobic microbes come back to life and go to work.

 

[Pipelady20]

I've never smoked Standard, only Standard Mellow- which wasn't rereleased by Peterson. Standard Mellow has less latakia, more oriental and Va, and a slight apricot/plum topnote common to Dunhill. Every Dunhill tin I ever cracked tasted markedly better 3-5 days after popping the seal, and if SM is anything like SMM it will open up greatly, revealing the sweetness of the VA and sour complexity of the orientals. I usually smoke 1 bowl out of a fresh tin, just to ease the curiosity, but I remind myself to suspend judgment until I smoke it again after the 3 day mark. Sometimes the transformation is astonishing. If nothing else, the flavors will gain clarity.
Also, this has nothing to do with drying, so leaving the tin open won't hurry the process. There is an enzymatic shift after oxygen is reintroduced to the tin. Anaerobic microbes begin to die off and aerobic microbes come back to life and go to work.

I did notice a sort of harshness to this, I opened it yesterday. I'm not good with breaking down the types of tobacco but I'm assuming this was the amount of latakia that you say is different with the SMM? A few of the other English blends I've had seemed smoother to me, but I will try this again in a few days.

 

[mso489]

Standard is the only Dunhill blend that didn't click for me. I smoked the whole tin, since sometimes I can "learn" a blend and eventually appreciate it. I found it a little bland and a little harsh, without the compensating charm that most of the blends have, in some way. However, this was a long time ago. Another time, another tin, it might be a whole new day. I adapt to so many blends, I haven't re-ordered this one. But if you like it, that's the important thing.

 

[rushx9]

I did notice a sort of harshness to this, I opened it yesterday. I'm not good with breaking down the types of tobacco but I'm assuming this was the amount of latakia that you say is different with the SMM? A few of the other English blends I've had seemed smoother to me, but I will try this again in a few days.

It has more Latakia than SMM, but not nearly as much as Nightcap. Harsh can mean different things to different people with tobacco. The harshness you experienced could be from higher than ideal moisture content especially if it is a hot, bitey, acidic harshness. If you're talking bitter, acrid, or dry it could be more from the orientals or Lat. If it's just a harsh cigarette type note, it's probably from the flue-cured gold VA. The whole blend will settle after breathing a few days, but if it still seems harsh afterward then I'd recommend jarring it away for as long as possible and letting the VAs mellow. As you can see from some of the other posts, SM doesn't always click for everyone. This is likely why Dunhill traditionally made several similar English blends with slight variations, in hopes of one of them being someones perfect blend. EMP being the lightest in lat (but most cig like, imho). Standard Mellow being sweeter than EMP, and Standard being drier and in the middle of the latakia spectrum. London is more oriental forward, Durbar most oriental forward. 965 and Aperitif add Cavendish with Aperitif adding more orientals. Nightcap adds perique. Many of those descriptions won't mean much because some weren't rereleased, but that's the dunhill layout as I see it.
The VAs just climb from light to strong: Flake<RR<3YM<YOS<RY.
Same with VaPers:Elizabethan<Dark Flake<DNR.
I guess I should have listed that info in your thread asking about the similarities/differences between blends?

 

[Pipelady20]

The harshness you experienced could be from higher than ideal moisture content especially if it is a hot, bitey, acidic harshness. If you're talking bitter, acrid, or dry it could be more from the orientals or Lat. If it's just a harsh cigarette type note, it's probably from the flue-cured gold VA.

Good point. When I smoke it again I'll keep these in mind. From memory, I think the harshness was moreso an acidic harshness, but I'll think about this again.

The VAs just climb from light to strong: Flake<RR<3YM<YOS<RY.
Same with VaPers:Elizabethan<Dark Flake<DNR.
I guess I should have listed that info in your thread asking about the similarities/differences between blends?

This is helpful, saves me some time on what to expect! Have you had BB1938? If so where would you put this one on these scales?

 

[rushx9]

Have you had BB1938? If so where would you put this one on these scales?

I have not. I know that it wasn't an Alfred Dunhill recipe. Instead, it was the most popular recipe by Savory's, a strong competitor that Dunhill bought out.
It's marketed as being very smooth, and it contains no Turkish/Orientals if you have an aversion to those, but I have no clue where it would stand in the lineup.

 

[logs]

After all these years I've still never tried Standard Mixture. How does it compare against 965?

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Back in the days when I was smoking cigarettes and pipes on occasion this was my very favorite blend , that was back in 1990-2000 when it still was produced by Murray, if my memory serves , later when I had the same Standard Mix blended by STG it wasn't snymore that bold,rich tasting and head spinning tobacco as its predecessor was ,however it was nice on its own, today It is very seldom if I'm smoking anything with latakia, had my fair share of English blends those days,,couldn't even finish a tin of Presbyterian mix another week

 

[stogie37]

Which 4 are your preferred?

Not sure that I have 4 Dunhill blends I love... MM965 is on my short list of all time favorites and I’m cellared pretty deeply. London Mixture and Durbar are two others I like quite a bit. I blend the Aperitif with Pease Samarra and C&D Yale mixture which turns out delicious! However the Aperitif on its own is not that special to me. Nightcap, EMP, Royal Yacht, Flake and deLuxe Navy Rolls are all good at times, but the 4-6 tins of each In the cellar will probably see me through. I’ve still got a few tins of Standard Mild from back in the day and don’t recall ever smoking it?, so maybe we’ll see if it joins my 4 favorite Dunhill blends? Thanks for asking. - Stogie