Quote Originally Posted by c.ortiz108 View Post
Pete, I was just looking up Fribourg & Treyer blends after you mentioned them on the pipe deals thread (having never heard of them). They look interesting! Wondering if you'd care to comment on a review of Golden Mixture on TR, which says:

If you have been in mourning ever since the passing of Elephant & Castle, and their all-Virginia blend "The Roanoke" in particular, be of good cheer: F&T's Golden Mixture _is_ the Roanoke. It is the Ken McConnell blend that McConnell himself replicated for E&C at a time when the original Golden Mixture was not being made. Well, E&C is has been gone these 14 years since Ken McConnell's retirement (alas!), but Golden Mixture is back. Although it is no longer London-made, I am happy to report it has made the transition to Germany with all its qualities intact.
Hi Chico,

I've read that review and it's intentions are good but it's incorrect. At the beginning of this thread I wrote...

The most difficult was the Golden Mixture reproduction that was originally a shag of mostly American sourced lemon virginia that was no longer available. By 1982, India was the main source of these types of tobacco but they were stronger and had more citrus and edge so we had to scrap the idea and make an entirely new blend. I worked extensively with Ken until we’d made a thicker cut (ribbon) that was fuller and more nuanced and that used a wide variety of matured leaf, especially Pekoe Virginia and this became The Roanoke.

The Roanoke ended up very different from Golden Mixture and they would never have been confused visually or in a blind taste test with each other. I suspect that the reviewer never had Golden Mixture from the 1960s (or before), when McConnell made it, and based his comments on some other incarnation of GM or comments that he read.

Golden Mixture needs to be smoked very slowly (shag cut) and if it's not made from the correct tobacco stocks, (Lemon Virginia and New Belt Carolina), as they were in the 1960s (and before), then you lose the nuance and bottom. It was very flat in our trials. We couldn't source these tobaccos in the 1980s because of a reduction in American farmland. The Roanoke is a ribbon cut (thicker) so it's not as difficult to smoke (optimally) but it too is best smoked slowly. It has a good portion of Pekoe Virginia (USA) that was available, for body and to smooth the Indian Lemon Virginia and then some Red Virginia, both tobaccos are not in Golden Mixture.

When Ken first suggested Indian Virginia I was horrified only to learn that it has many superior qualities to it's American counterpart, deeper and more distinct flavor, some edge and a lot of nuance and it behaves very well with many other types of leaf. India is the world's second largest grower of tobacco (after China) but much of their Virginia crop is now bought by huge cigarette manufacturers to add flavor to their blends. By the time that we were making The Roanoke (and E&C in general), most of the famous British Virginia cigarettes, like Senior Service, were made with Indian Virginia, something that would horrify purists like my friend Marc S. (not on this forum).

Golden Mixture was cut like angel hair and was a true MILD mixture but the original had some character and nuance. The Roanoke is a mile-MEDIUM mixture with, I feel, more flavor, less temperamental and more character and nuance. I am biased because The Roanoke was, at least through the 1980s, my all-time favorite mixture (The Stout my favorite latakia). I was in the fortunate position to be the guy making it so I made it the way that I liked it best.