Your Favorite Underrated Blend

[Butter Side Down]

Title pretty much says it all. What's your favorite blend that has very few reviews on TR and/or that has a substantial contingent that rate it as somewhere between Meh and Yuck?

Getting things started, mine is Rattray's 40 Virginia. Only twelve reviews, four of them two stars (including the illustrious JimInks).

I discovered it about a year ago and I've polished off three 100g tins since then. I only smoke one to three pipes per day, so for me that's quite a lot considering I also have about 20 other blends open. It's not my all-day every day; In fact it can go neglected for weeks at a time, but when I do pick it up, I'll often do three bowls back to back and then keep that rolling for a few days.

To me, it's a lot like Orlik Golden Sliced except with easier prep, a better burn, and condimental burley instead of perique.

It's probably going to be less well received by those who lean towards earthy and dark VAs. But if you're into the bright tart citrus type, which I am, it's a really good one.

There are some well-kept secrets I'm happier to keep in the dark, but I'm starting to worry this one is so well-kept that no one else is buying it, so it might get discontinued.

How about you guys?

 

[burleybreath]

\

There are some well-kept secrets I'm happier to keep in the dark, but I'm starting to worry this one is so well-kept that no one else is buying it, so it might get discontinued.

I like your thinking. Wouldn't want to start an Esoterica wildfire, but on the other hand lies extinction. One must keep a fine balance.

In my case I would choose Mixture 79, which I doubt faces either peril. I like it and always have. Decades ago, the aromatic component seemed like it was MUCH stronger, necessitating cutting it with PA or similar. Nowadays, unless it's my aging taster becoming defective, I take it straight with no problem. I'm a bowl sniffer, and it has a bowl aroma like no other that I'm aware of.

(But I have a secret, too, and it's time I came out of the closet. I like what used to be called OTCs better than most premium blends, based on comparing simple weight ratios actually smoked. I like the "chemicals." Perhaps that explains my above depravity.)

 

[Chasing Embers]

In my case I would choose Mixture 79,

I like what used to be called OTCs better than most premium blends

Really, same on both counts.

 

[FurCoat]

I ain't talkin..

 

[makhorkasmoker]

My favorite pipe tobacco has no reviews on the tobacco reviews site that I can find. Nor does it get much coverage here—at least that I have seen. For me it is the best burley out there and I’ve tried quite a few. It’s whole leaf tobacco’s Kentucky Burley. This is arguably not a blend. It’s whole leaves from a bale of burley grown in Kentucky. You could even say it’s an anti-blend, in that i love it (and I suspect other smokers do too) precisely because no professional blender has messed with it. Second runner up would be WLT’s Dark Air Cured.

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

Brebbia Balkan doesn’t get much talk and I find it better than most Pease blends. GL Pease Charing Cross and most Drucquer&Sons blends are the same way and are in my rotation. Now, for a brand that is well known and overrated, I actually really enjoy Margate.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Mixture 79 has 191 reviews. Is that few or many?
Is there a way to search tobaccoreviews to see which tobaccos have the least reviews? I am not a regular user of that website.

 

[BingBong]

I am smoking a bowl of Gold Block at the moment, comparing with Germain's Gold Leaf. Hitherto, it has been the most widely available pipe tobacco in the UK along with St Bruno, so clearly it has sold in huge amounts. But the reviews would have us believe it awful. It's not as sweet and nice as Gold Leaf's Virginia purity, but it's a Va/Bur which is quite smokeable if unremarkable and, blended with St Bruno, makes a pleasant mixture in its own right.

Big flavors, no. Good for mindless puffing while pottering about? Just the ticket. Perhaps that is its true strength.

 

[First Sealord]

Dunhill/Peterson Standard Mixture. Such a great smoke and barely anybody, if anybody at all, talks about it.

 

[Kingsley]

Underrated is tough, used to LOVE Brown Clunee, but I think it got messed with. However, while I rarely smoke anything other than VA’s, once in the bluest of moons, I love a good bowl of Captain Earle’s Mystic Blend. Really, really good stuff.

 

[Butter Side Down]

Mixture 79 has 191 reviews. Is that few or many?
Is there a way to search tobaccoreviews to see which tobaccos have the least reviews? I am not a regular user of that website.

True it has a lot of reviews, but a lot of them are negative and I've often heard it maligned here and elsewhere so I'd say it definitely qualifies as under-rated if you're one of the ones who enjoys it

For your other question [side-junket], the answer is: sort of. The "filter search" gets you access to more granular search controls. You used to be able to sort all results by number of reviews and level of rating, but that and several other useful and handy features were removed during the last rebuild. In fact the first version of the rebuild, you couldn't even sort by date (oldest/newest). It defaulted to "most helpful" which makes sense until you get into stuff like Nightcap (where the most helpful review was submitted when it was still produced by Murray's) and Gordon Pym (where the most useful review was submitted back when it still had Syrian Latakia).

 

[autumnfog]

Balkan Sasieni.

 

[fireground_piper]

Balkan Sasieni.

And it used to be so cheap! Just a few years ago it was still running only like $8 a tin and everything else was in the $11-$12 range.

 

[upnorth1]

John Patton blends. I particularly like Dark Horse, Storm Front and Moes Confetti. They are only available at 4 Noggins, and the only if you use the search function. They are all bulk blends.

 

[AcesAndEights]

I like Country Squire’s Faulkner Flake. I read where someone said it’s like bulk Capstan Blue. The only tin of Capstan I’ve smoked had 6 years on it and I’ve only had Faulkner Flake fresh. Little different because of that, but both very good. Still, I can see how the comparison was made.

 

[Servant King]

Ashton Gold Rush, with Peterson Sherlock Holmes a close second.

 

[Butter Side Down]

Ashton Gold Rush

I just picked up a tin of this! Haven't cracked it yet. Too much open at the moment. Looking forward to it though.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Dunhill/Peterson - Dark Flake
It gets good reviews but I rarely see it mentioned on here. A few years in the tin and it's amazing stuff.

Another one that gets good reviews but is rarely mentioned is Samuel Gawith - Golden Glow. A medium straight Virginia that ages really well.

 

[fireground_piper]

Dunhill/Peterson - Dark Flake
It gets good reviews but I rarely see it mentioned on here. A few years in the tin and it's amazing stuff.

Probably doesn’t help that it never came back to the US. I picked up the pipe in 2018 and it was already discontinued.

I’m a big advocate for blockade runner which many have seemingly not enjoyed in reviews.

 

[Servant King]

Too much open at the moment.

This sentence basically sums up my life for the last four years!

About 30 jars at the moment, for the record, so I hear ya about the Gold Rush. Once it's time though, I think you'll dig it!