Smoker's Haven's America's Best Blend Pipe Tobacco Reviews

With such a pompous name, this stuff had better be good. Well, it is. This is a medium-full English blend that is ribbon-cut for the most part and with a distinct, mottled appearance due to the mix of blond, medium-brown and black tobaccos.

It has quite a spicy, woodsy taste, a nice balance between high-quality, smoky latakia and complementary Virginia sweetness, as well as some Turkish I believe and perhaps even a smattering of perique.

The lively flavour of this blend is very similar to The Smoker's Smoker II, but is perhaps a little sharper and not quite as full. Although I like the blacker, more mellow English blends a lot as well, if not more, I like how the pronounced latakia flavour in this one becomes so zingy tasting.

In this respect, I am reminded of such vibrant, but richer, blends as McConnell's Oriental and Balkan Sobranie 759, or perhaps what C&D's NO.416 Plantation Evening would be like if it contained more latakia. I suppose this really is a full English, at least in flavour, but the body of the smoke is more medium than full, reflecting the lighter Virginias in the mixture.

It really is a nice, relaxing latakia-flavoured smoke with a decent strength, but one that would probably appeal most to those who prefer a medium-bodied smoke to a heavier, more velvety one.

Burns clean and dry to a fine, grey ash. Leaves that beautiful, smoky latakia aroma behind in the room upon smoking. It is definitely very good. But I think I have the right to sue them for calling it America's Best, since it's not my absolute all-time favourite.