John Cotton's No. 1&2 Medium

John Cotton's numbered mixtures are the best-known products of the brand's Edinburgh-rooted history. This record, a medium-strength combination of the No. 1 and No. 2 blends, is noted alongside 'No. 1 Mild' in a 1986 Gallaher document; the brand's trail is lost after that date, and in the years production rights changed hands the product was listed under the Orlik Tobacco Company A/S name.

The blend is a classic latakia-built English-type mixture: Virginia leaves supply the base body, latakia the smoky, incense-like layer, and oriental leaves the tart spice. Its ribbon cut and medium strength strike a balance a smoker new to latakia mixtures can also follow; records note that extended tin aging pulls the latakia's sharpness back and lets the orientals come forward.