Borkum Riff – Bourbon Whiskey

Borkum Riff’s Bourbon Whiskey is a blend of Virginia and Burley. The Burley used in this blend is grown in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Brand: Borkum Riff

Container : Pouch

Ounces : 1.5

Tobacco’s: Virgina & Burley

Flavor: Bourbon Whiskey

MSRP: $5.00

 

 

The  pre-light smell of the tobacco is  quite amazing. It has all the notes of Whiskey with a strong chocolate somewhere inside. The chocolate is probably due to the Burley, since that’s a common feature of that tobacco.

When I took a pinch for the photo it seemed to be blended well, not to stringy and not dry at all.

So far so good!

 

There Website says the tobacco’s are infused with eight-year old Kentucky Bourbon.

 

 

 

The pipe I’ve chosen for this smoke is actually nothing to special, but it works like a charm. I picked this up from my local B&M for about $30.00

Time to pack it.

 

I did the normal three layer stack.

Seems like the blend contains more Virgina then Burley. Sometimes I wish the blender’s broke it down in parts.

The tobacco was very springy and needed more force then usual to press down the final third.

I always draw air through the pipe after it’s packed, to insure nothing is blocked and to taste the flavor’s.

The Bourbon Whiskey taste was the main thing I was picking up before the light.

 

 

 

First Third:

I found the first third hard to keep lit.  Even after the charring light it remained tougher then normal to keep the “home fire” burning.

The initial flavor’s were mainly the chocolaty hint of the burley with the Bourbon Whiskey finishing up.

The aroma seemed to have lost it’s Whiskey quality but kept a very sweet tone that wouldn’t offend.

During the first third I kept getting this nutty flavor that I couldn’t exactly place my finger on yet. With all the burley in this blend I was hoping for a more creamy smoke but so far I wasn’t finding that.

 

Second Third:

During the second third, nothing had really changed, I was finding this to be a very one dimensional smoke. It offered that hint of whiskey, with a sweet hazelnut, the burley gave a small chocolaty finish but over all it wasn’t very powerful in the flavor aspect.

I didn’t have any re-lights during the second third. It really got going smoke wise, and the room note definatly increases but just stayed sweet.

Towards the end of the second third the Burley finish really began to mellow and the Virgina started to come alive. Even though the natural tobacco taste changed it seemed to actually offer less in terms of flavor.

Final Third:

As the Final Third came around I was still enjoying the mellow flavor’s but it just seemed to lack that one thing it needed to push it over the edge and make it memorable. Even though this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for at the time it does have it’s place. This would make an excellent early morning smoke when you don’t want to be over-powered, or right before dinner when you don’t want to ruin the flavor’s of your food.

The sweetness really increased in the Final Third and I had to re-light it once, but that was expected since I couldn’t devote all my time to it due to a phone call.

Overall:

I think this is a great quality smoke at the end of it all, it just doesn’t really ever come alive, but it’s always just enough flavor to make you smoke further down to find more.

I think this would make a great introductory smoke for someone just looking to get into pipe tobacco’s. It is light enough to keep a new comer interested, and tasty enough to make someone adventure out for something else.

For a 5 dollar pouch it is not bad at all. But having smoked other Borkum Riff products I guess I was just expecting somthing more.

Liked it: Yes

Buy it again: Possibly but wouldn’t be smoked often.

Recommend it: Even though I didn’t think it was quite there on the flavor side, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to try pipe tobacco’s or has been unable to find something that would go well in the morning. If you have friends interested in trying pipe smoking I wouldn’t hesitate to offer them this.

Advertisement