Stanwell's Rose and Crown Pipe Tobacco Reviews

A somewhat moist, dark reddish-brown, broken-up flake with lighter and darker coloured fragments here and there. My sample of this required minimal rubbing out prior to smoking, since much of the broken flake was of a short stubby cut already.

This is a very aromatic Virginia that reminds me in many respects of the love-them-or-hate-them Erinmore tobaccos in its intensity. Its aromatic qualities are very rich, seemingly based on a raspberry flavouring, but without the cheapness of taste that I expect from heavily flavoured mixtures.

This is probably in part because decent-quality, sweet Virginias are what's holding the mixture together. Medium body and pretty smooth smoking, I'm surprised I like this one, since I generally don't care much for heavy fruit-flavoured blends. Its distinctive taste actually reminds me more of raspberry pie than just raspberry flavouring and there's something vaguely flowery about its aroma that my nose detects while smoking, although I don't actually taste this floral character at all.

Its smokes like a good Virginia - relatively cool on the tongue if smoked slowly, but will bite a bit if allowed to overheat or if the tobacco has dried out too much. The fruit flavouring remains throughout the smoke, but slowly dissipates somewhat during the second half of the bowl.

At the end, the extreme dryness of the smoke on my mouth reminds me that, ultimately, I'm finishing off a bowl of Virginia. Weaker than strong in terms of nicotine, this is a just a relaxing smoke, but not overly so. It leaves its marked aroma in your moustache and in the room, but the room aroma isn't quite as heavy or cloying as you might expect given the density of its taste.

I can't imagine anyone complaining about its aroma, but I'm sure there is someone somewhere that would... It burns clean and dry to a very white ash that intersperses with the blackish flecks of any unburnt tobacco.