Royal Yacht: a new Guy's Initial Take.

[StrawBunyan]

Exactly one week into my pipe smoking. I smoked an entire tin of Flake, and half a tin of NightCap when my new shipment arrived. So this review is half a tin into Royal Yacht and you know my full blend experience.

"Royal Yacht" had me expecting some pompous blend for tanning on my schooner...now that I have smoked it, it seems to me like something a young Navy Man might have said when you asked him where he was in 1944..."on the Royal Yacht"...and what he meant was the "H.M.S. Tiger hunter"
It lights excellently and seems ready to load straight out of the tin with no dry time.
No matter how hard I bite on my pipe and puff puff puff it never gives off a hot smoke...in the other side, when I forget I'm smoking my pipe and am sure it must have gone out, Nope, no matter how little I pay attention it stays lit for me...
I really like this stuff.
I haven't gotten any exciting flavor from it. It's like smoking an unfiltered Marlboro red I guess... strong!

I don't know why they call this an Aromatic, I don't taste or smell anything. My university flake is more an aromatic than this.
If they cased it in anything I would say it was nicotine, and they used so much that they were required to call it an aromatic. Next time you are on night guard duty... this is the stuff to keep you alert.

 

[thebigragu]

I have not tried this blend, but from what I found online at pipe tobacco review it has a plum flavor. Perhaps the flavor adding is not for taste more for preservation so little is added and the taste is not noticeable.

 

[mikethompson]

Royal Yacht guys used to be run out of here in a rail. There was also a rumor that Stalin put this in his pipe. Reading a biography of him now that isn't mentioned.

Glad you found it to your tastes!

 

[saltedplug]

I hope that many of you come to love this blend, as, I think, there are few things in pipe smoking more sweet. I tried to love Royal Yacht, and in the ramping up phase, before establishing such love, was to buy a lot of it, in the end 50 tins, which was typical for a tobacco chowhound like me.

So I smoked a tin and found it mediocre: not much taste. I felt cheated as this was a venerable blend with strong parentage; the name Dunhill inspires respect even when you have stopped respecting it.

So I sold my stash to Deathmetal for a customer friendly price, not that that was the priced I asked, which he refused to pay, saying "We both know you didn't pay that."
It's often a revelation when you adopt the customer's perspective.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Royal Yacht guys used to be run out of here in a rail. There was also a rumor that Stalin put this in his pipe. Reading a biography of him now that isn't mentioned.

Glad you found it to your tastes!

Nah. There was one guy who was mental about Royal Yacht. I don't recall him being banned, or otherwise run out, but in any event, he's left the building.

I don't care what anyone likes, as long as he doesn't repeat it daily!

 

[mikethompson]

Nah. There was one guy who was mental about Royal Yacht. I don't recall him being banned, or otherwise run out, but in any event, he's left the building.

I don't care what anyone likes, as long as he doesn't repeat it daily!

Maybe he was just like about it. But Royal Yuck as it was referred to was the butt of jokes.

Just like Captain Black Grape, everything has its time.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes, a half dozen or so called it that. Sometimes just to rattle DM's cage. Hard to get objective about a blend that has such a nick.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm pretty sure that Deathmetal got banned. But, not because of the tobacco he liked and talked about. I think it had more to do for his "tastes" in subjects to start threads with.

I like RY, but as I hear more people say that it tastes great, so it sounds like they may have changed the recipe. Even though, I liked it, it wasn't easy to like. And, it's not something I ever wanted to smoke often. It was too strong to be an all day smoke, and not strong enough to put me to sleep at night, so I just never bought any more.

Yeh, it's a shame that people just won't let us make fun of a blend. It builds camaraderie, and allows us to make something the butt of a joke besides each other. I am still not sure why some guys stand up for little discussed blends like Mixture 79, RY, Grape Ape, or Middleton Cherry. It's not like any of them is going to go out of business because of a small minority of guys on a forum, and it's not like the tobacco has "feelings". And, it's better than making fun of a whole genre like aromatics, because guys tend to get their feelings hurt because it's all some guys like. :::sigh::: PC culture...

 

[mso489]

I like Royal Yacht. It was a long time on the shelf for me, with all the cross talk. But with encouragement from Forums members, I finally cracked the tin. It is a sturdy blend, but more medium than strong to me. It definitely has flavoring, presumably plum, but is also definitely tobacco-forward, which is the way I like my aromatics. It can have a bit of edge, but nothing oppressive. The over all effect reminds me of burley, though this is a Virginia based blend with no burley in it. Yes, Stalin was said to be a Royal Yacht smoker; I try not to think about that when I pack my pipe. And as noted in the review, it gives a good burn, nice and steady, not many relights.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It was a long time on the shelf for me

I remember that. Everytime we would discuss RY, you'd say, "I have a tin that someone gave me years ago..." and, we'd all give you grief for not going ahead and opening that tin, ha ha.

I set for the theory once that because RY was such an old blend, having changed blenders, and such over the years, that the plum sauce was to simulate the natural pluminess that develop in VaPers over time. I bet RY at one time had a natural plum flavor from the intermix of leaf varieties with the perique, but they had to add the sauce to simulate it. But, as the leaf varieties kept changing, they didn't fix the sauce to go along with it. When I smoked through about five or so tins of it, the sauce and leaf just seemed to conflict. It was not a good plum flavor, nor a good leaf flavor, but together the disharmony made it interesting enough to keep my attention... like playing hip hop and country music really loud at the same time.

But, of course there's no way to prove any of that... just what came to mind as I was smoking it.

 

[saltedplug]

I smoked through about five or so tins of it.

But, of course there's no way to prove any of that... just what came to mind as I was smoking it.

A five tin test-awesome. Closest I came was maybe two tins.

That's the rub for those of us who want conclusive results from such an utterly subjective mechanism--the palate, involving the mechanics of taste, semantic memory and the governing consciousness. No one else can get inside of that, and the only way we have to bring in others is the world of words, so unreliable.

 

[anotherbob]

I have not tried this blend, but from what I found online at pipe tobacco review it has a plum flavor. Perhaps the flavor adding is not for taste more for preservation so little is added and the taste is not noticeable.

I think it's like a few other virginia style aros where the flavor is more like salt added to enhance the flavor that is already in the leaf. More a just a step up from a casing if that makes sense. Not the star of the show but a supporting player.

 

[saltedplug]

Do you agree that the fault of inconsequential taste is in the VA? I apologize for the stupid question, because other than the topping, there's nothing else in the blend.

 

[Merton]

Royal Yacht guys used to be run out of here in a rail. There was also a rumor that Stalin put this in his pipe. Reading a biography of him now that isn't mentioned.

Glad you found it to your tastes!

always thought that Stalin smoked mostly Edgeworth Ready Rubbed

 

[cosmicfolklore]

always thought that Stalin smoked mostly Edgeworth Ready Rubbed

I really doubt any pipesmoker, even historical folks, smoked just one thing. Hell, Stalin was even known to crumple up old cigarette butts into his pipe. CS Lewis has boasted of smoking several different blends including Erinmore, Capstan, etc... I think that the saying, "put that in your pipe and smoke it," came from the notion that men would swap different blends, try new things, and just explore stuff. It was a wink wink to men's indiscriminate tastes for trying new blend sin their pipes.

Although, RY's reputation as a yucky VaBurPer/aro didn't help associating that strange blend with a dictator.

 

[mikethompson]

always thought that Stalin smoked mostly Edgeworth Ready Rubbed

According to my book, it was cigarette tobacco