Latakia / English Tobacco » Dunhill My Mixture 965 Tobacco Reviews

A Great Latakia Blend

This is a new tin from 2010.

The tin aroma is a strong, sweet and smoky smell with a light hint of spice. The moisture level was good for smoking right away, but some drying time would not hurt.

At the beginning of the bowl, there was a nice smoky tobacco flavor with some sweetness in the background. There were also hints of a pleasant, complex BBQ flavor.

Around the 3/4 bowl point, I picked up on some hints of black coffee that replaced the BBQ flavor.

By the mid-bowl point the black coffee notes were gone and the BBQ flavor came back into play.

The last 1/4 of the bowl tasted the same as the mid-bowl point, but there was a bit of spiciness that I felt on my palate.

This is a very good complex blend that smoked cool, dry and didn't bite. I Highly Recommend it!

Read my full review here:
PipesMagazine.com - Dunhill My Mixture 965 Pipe Tobacco Reviews

A different sort of blend

This review is based on a 2011 offering, smoked through a variety of pipe shapes.

I really wanted to like this blend. I mean, I really, really wanted to like this blend. I figured if offered everything I was looking for; savory Latakia, sweet Cavendish, and enough nicotine to satisfy through the day.
I cracked the tin with excitement, and as I lifted the cardboard flap, was amazed at the smell eminating from the tobacco. Dark browns, golds, and, of course, a healthy dose of black ribbons offer up aromas of brown sugar, paprika, and cedar smoke, with a slightly tangy hint of vinegar. Prolonged proboscal exposure brings out the peatier notes, but also reveals a strange, almost chemical odour.
I noted that the tobacco was slightly damp on opening, and benefits from about 15 minutes breathing time before packing. Like all Dunhill blends, the tobacco is high quality and uniform, allowing for easy packing.

On initial light, I am blasted with a hit of smoky-sweetness; the first few puffs of the bowl is like sinking your teeth into a well prepared barbequed rib. Sadly, this doesn't last very long before the strange chemical aroma I alluded to in the tin aroma begins to come through in the flavours. My supposition is that it is something contained in the Cavendish; I've smoked all the other leaf in this blend in the other Dunhill offerings, and quite enjoy them.
Certainly, the quality of the leaf is there, and wonderful flavours of cedar and peat, earthy sweetness, and pecan pie float around, but unfortunately, for my palate at least, this is all masked throughout the bowl by the prevailing chemical taste. Even when dried to the point of crumbling to dust, I detect this flavour...and it just doesn't agree with me. I would love to talk about how the flavour progressess for the better through the course of the bowl, but alas, I find that whatever I am detecting seems to grow stronger through the course of the bowl.
I found this blend can be pushed pretty hard before the bite kicks in. I had my best luck keeping the tobacco flavours more to the forefront using a squat pipe.

The room note on this tobacco is fairly pleasant, as far as Latakia blends go - which is to say while I enjoy it, my wife (a competative barbequer...barbequess?) likens it to the smell of her gear after a weekend in the rain.

The nicotine level in this blend, like in all of the Dunhill blends, is healthy; for a cigarette smoker, this will keep the cravings away, and is mild enough that the occasional (small) inhale won't bring up a lung.

All in all, this is an easy smoking blend that doesn't bite easily, but alas, the tobacco flavours are masked behind a strange chemical flavour that just doesn't agree with me. While I wouldn't turn down a bowl if offered, I would rather look to other sweet/savory blends when the craving takes me. Sadly, not 965 is not my mixture.

Best Dunhill blend for me

This is the best Dunhill blend ever done in my opinion. Classic balanced smoky taste, fullfilling and mild. Was my fave English blend for long time and now it is gone... Albeit I have learnt there is a new version made in DK now I have not tastaed that as of yet....Thank God Mac Baren put out HH vintage syrian which is quite good and in the same mood of 965. Go get it. Happy puffing.

Excellent Modern English

This is one the best Dunhill blends except for rollcake stuff.

Can't be improved upon

Tasting my way through the Dunhill offerings being, well, offered in my home country, I picked up a tin of MM956 recently. The label on the rear of the tin says it's VA-based Cavendish and Latakia with some Orientals, and the ribbons in the tin bear that out pretty well.

Now, I enjoy the more radical Balkans and English blends (like DTM/CAO Old Ironsides, Bill Bailey's Balkan Blend, London Blend No. 1000, etc.), and really love the salty-savoury taste of those heavy-on-the-Latakia blends. I also love the combination of that with the sweetness of good VA as in, say, SG's Navy Flake or DTM Holly's Discovery.

Well, MM965 is something that has been very carefully blended, and tested, and re-blended, until they made it perfect. Make no mistake: I do not believe there is any way to improve this blend. For what it is--a sweet-savoury English--it is 110%. No harshness, but enough Vitamin N. Beautifully sweet, but not cloying or sharp. Solid smoke from top to bottom, a minimum of medium-grey ashes left after the smoke, just... practically perfect. Want a mellow yet full English, this is IT.