Virginia Tobacco » Dan Tobacco Hamborger Veermaster Tobacco Reviews

Great all-day flake

Dan Tobacco's Hamborger Veermaster (named for a sea-shanty about a dilapidated four-master during the 1848 California gold rush; you would not want to book passage on this vessel...), described on the tin as "seut un' sacht" (Low German for "sweet and mellow"), turns out to be just that. I would not want to expose a new pipe smoker to it; the mellowness of this blend is a relative experience.

That said, Hamborger Veermaster is a mostly-VA flake with some Burley in it and a gentle top-flavour applied; the slices in the tin are not very moist and rather crumbly (as of this time, DTM does not use glue or humectants for any of its blends, as opposed to most of the big names). Folding and sinking is still possible, and gives a very nice, long-lasting, cool and sweet smoke.

I have smoked this blend in almost storm-strength winds, and it still behaved perfectly well, needing little maintenance and burning down to a diminutive amount of light grey, mottled ashes.

It's not your typical all-out bright-yellow VA flake in the vein of Dunhill Flake or Poul Ilsted's Own Golden Flake. Then again, it does not burn quite as hot either, and whatever the guys at DTM use as a topping works remarkably well for me. The Nicotine level is in the mild-to-medium range, the room note well acceptable, handling a no-brainer in a small pipe.

Overall, a good blend recommended for the VA smoker who wants something easy to handle, affordable and capable of carrying the day.