If you've ever smoked a blend and then made a guessing game about the flavoring ingredients, then Sutliff's complex R-Blend might appeal to you. Better yet, smoke this mild and mellow blend with fellow pipe smokers to see if a consensus can be reached as to the flavors. To compound the issue, seven distinct flavors are present, yet none dominate or are readily identifiable. The base is an equally complex mixture of Burley, Virginia, Latakia, Perique and Flake.
I don't often smoke English blends due to the fact some are like putting a country ham in your pipe. Too much Latakia in some of those out there, but this one is a perfect balance of the tobaccos used in this blend. It's smooth, a little smokey, swee... Read Moret and spicy all in one. It reminds me of times past when people read by oil lamp, sit by the fireplace and life was a lot more simple than it is now. This is one I'll come back to again and again. Read Less
Sadly, R-Blend has been discontinued. That is a sad loss; this was my very favorite of the Sutliffs that I tried. I think it was a bad decision on their part. This was a really good tobacco. Nevertheless, here is my original A+ review:
R-Ble... Read Morend is a terrific smoke. It has an adult flavor that seems somehow spiritually familiar, like you're tapping into a past life, or making some profound connection with your forefathers...hard to describe. But nonetheless, this R-Blend seems to fit like an old familiar shoe, or a comfy chair. Nice, refined bite -not too much, and just enough- and just plain old tobacco goodness without too many aromatics. This wonderful blend shows off the tobaccos, based on their own accords - and boy, do they shine. A seriously yummy smoke that you can focus on with delight, and space off with for a while and come back to the smoke and be in just as good of hands as you were when you zoned off. Easy to see why Einstein was fond of this - it's a quality roamer. Beautifully done. A+ Read Less