Exclusiv Royal
I had bought a pipe nearly 20 years earlier - Kings Cross Featherweight - and finally decided it was time to give it a try. This was about 3 years ago. I spent a couple of months reading up on pipe smoking before deciding it was for me. I didn't want to smoke aromatics, that much I was sure of. When I began my search around Mexico City for a pipe tobacco blend all I could find was unconvincing so I started with straight cigar leaf. I finally came across some Exclusiv Royal, my first blend. This stuff is a real tongue scorcher and couple that with inexperience, you can only imagine.
Soon I got a tin of Irish Oak, very smooth but it tasted too much like Canadian cigarette tobacco.
Next was a tin of Early Morning Pipe, great tin aroma but it tasted too much like hot air.
I then cracked a tin of Irish Flake and began to appreciated the variety available and the journey I had ahead to discover my blends - and the rest is history.
I did, however, buy up a dozen or so pouches of the Exclusiv Royal and have revisited it, but low and behold there are far more better quality blends in my modest cellar of about 4 lbs. to bother with this tasty tongue scorcher.
Currently my favorites are London Mixture, Golden Extra and Cube Silver.