@ghostofpompeii Keep us posted, I will wait to see what you think about it and comment on the smoke from both. Try to give as much detail as you can.
That brings me to next comment, since this is a post for us Aromatic Smokers maybe we should do reviews of what we smoke? I know PappyJoe did a couple reviews in the past and if we could list what we smoke and give some break down to what we thought, the aroma and taste and the linger maybe we could have better experiences.
What do you all think? We can do it right here on this post.
@wolf41035 - last year shortly after I joined TPL, I asked if they could create a category for tobacco reviews. The reply was "That's a great idea! We'll look into it." But the still haven't created the category.
On another note, I haven't done a tobacco review in about 6 months because I haven't smoked anything new that I felt warranted the effort.
@PappyJoe Well because of you and your thought we will try to do them here for Aromatic Tobacco. Maybe if it does well we can do one in another Post for non-Aromatic Tobacco....I will let you do that one unless you want me or someone else to start it up.
So everyone, even if you have only smoked one or two and are still on jut them please let us know about it. Brand, Name, types of tobacco if you know, flavors, aromas, linger time, after taste, after aroma, if it has bite, bitterness and so on and so on. Just give us your two cents and say if you would recommend t to anyone else and why.
Fruity, nutty, sweet, moist, dry, bitter, alcohol taste (type), Leathery, floral and so on....
Thanks everyone.
I will try to smoke a new aromatic today and do a review tonight or tomorrow.
Back to the pipes FULL TIME after about a 15 year jaunt with cigars being my main vice. Started pipe smoking over 50 years ago. I cannot believe the tremendous volume of pipe tobaccos available. Over the last months I have amassed about 40 different tobaccos and jarred them up for my "collection". I revisited some old favorites, and spent hours and hours on line and in different forums taking notes. I have always been an aromatic pipe tobacco smoker from day one ( in high school).
I try them all out at least 2 to 3 times as there are always variables involved in how pleasant a smoke can be, before I really make a judgement. This time of the year does not help as I cannot smoke in my house and have to wait for a decent day here in the NE or wait until I need to go somewhere in my PU truck.
At the current time I am smoking the crap out of my corn cobs instead of my briars. I have always been partial to the CC's and I actually have a MM CC that is well over 40 years old, stained, and smokes like you would not believe,
Having set that up, I am absolutely in love with the Lane Limited products. I have purchased multiple pounds of BCA, 1Q, Dark Red, Black Vanilla Cavendish, and RLP-6. I am having a very hard time choosing which one is my favorite but I lean towards the Dark Red and RLP-6.....but it will take many more bowls and probably many more pounds of tobacco to make a final decision. Meanwhile I will be enjoying the hell out of my testing. And for a change of pace I will often smoke up some of the other tobaccos and enjoy those as well. The only sad part is I have hundreds of top shelf cigars sitting in food grade containers with spanish cedar and Boveda bags keeping them perfect wondering when they will feel the warmth of a match.
As pwkarch said in the comment above it is best to smoke a blend a few times to get the full knowledge of a blend, also as he mentioned I am in same boat, when it is cold outside I don't smoke as much because I will not smoke in the house, but unlike him I will not smoke in any of my vehicles either, so that puts a little strain on me during the colder days but with that said....... We had a couple warm days and I did have time to smoke some of my Spring Blend, while I would like to smoke more before I make my full review or any comments on it for that matter I will say this, I enjoyed smoking it on the couple of warm days we had and it reminds you of Spring warmth, Spring plants coming back out to see us, birds, wind chimes and warm raining days. Now that should have everyone's interest peaked but the review won't be for a few more days. lol
I will try to do one or two reviews a week when the weather warms up, I would like to see everyone try to do at least one a month.....Please? LOL
@Wolf41035 Here is my message you asked me to post on this discussion board:
Last night I put on my Frankenstein lab coat and went all out creating a new blend that went beyond simply mixing existing blends or adding a touch of Perique or Latakia to an established blend. And since I've pretty much given up on English blends and happily accept the fact that I am and always will be an aromatic smoker I decided to expand my blending experiments by adding a combination of Watkins flavor extracts from the kitchen cupboard to an ancient can of Velvet Tobacco which has been gathering dust in my closet for over 20 years.
My mind raced like the mad scientist in an old Universal Horror Classic. In that instant I was a combination of both the brilliant Henry Frankenstein and his mentally and physically challenged assistant Fritz, madly eyeballing the pile of 20 year old Velvet tobacco in the Tupperware container, as dead and dry as a mummified corpse, hoping to infuse new life into the crumbling remains. With equal parts anatomy, applied science, culinary artistry, alchemy and astrology I prepared the potion that would bring my creation life starting with a mixture of orange concentrate (about six capfuls), followed by an additional four capfuls of pure vanilla extract, and for added measure another four capfuls of imitation caramel flavoring. I then transplanted a pinch of Out Of Office "Gone Fishing" caramel flavored tobacco into the still dormant cadaver - and as a finishing touch ... a light dusting of clove seasoning. I then began hand mixing and massaging the moist concoction until I felt a faint heartbeat. After screaming ... "It's Alive!" I closed the lid on the Tupperware container to contain the beast for at least 24 hours.
And this morning after opening the sealed container the unmistakable aroma of 'Dreamsicle' filled the air. The pouch note is a dead ringer for the orange and vanilla popsicle delight ... and the room note when smoking has a faint hint of it as well. Before telling her what I had created I asked my wife to sniff the contents of the Tupperware container and she immediately recognized the aroma as Dreamsicle. Even detected a trace amount in the room note while I was smoking. Unfortunately, although a very sweet and pleasant smoke I didn't detect that orange and vanilla flavor I was expecting. So I'll add a bit more tonight ... then let it age for a few days before trying again. It sure did smell nice though. If is ever tastes as good as it smells I'll have a real winner.
@Deadpool57 Thanks for adding that, when you have smoked a few bowls please leave a review so we know how it was. I was going to start a fire in the garage today and go out and smoke but I just don't feel like smoking my Spring Blend when it is so darn cold outside! Almost feel like getting one of the Holiday or Christmas Blends back out. Going to try to find some corncob pipe and button nose, that should be good for these colder days and nights! lol
Wish we had an EDIT Button, the above post was meant for @ghostsofpompeii not Deadpool57, although I am sure Deadpool will get a kick out of it! Anyway was commenting so much with Deadpool I guess I just type his ID without thinking when I was replying to ghostsofpompeii's comment. Anyhow maybe the admins.....aka Nicole will eventually give us that edit button we all so want?! LMAO
Spring is here, weather is going to start warming up and that means I will be sitting on the back deck or front porch smoking my pipe and cigars! I will be adding reviews soon!
Well I have to say back in October I purchased some Halloween blend called Sleepy Hollow from Strauss Tobacconist in Florence and didn't think much of it but yesterday it was cold and felt like October again so I pulled it out and tried it again, it changed and it was for the better! I like the stuff and glad I got over 4 ounces.I will give a review in the next few days, got to smoke a bit more of it first.
By the way, it is looking like I am going to have a warm weekend and week coming up, some days in the 70's so I will be smoking a lot of blends from my pipes, I will keep you posted on what blends and my personal reviews on each of them. I love warmer weather, time to get out the note pad, pen, Pipes, Tobacco blends and lighter and see how it goes.
Well I am sitting outside on the front porch smoking some Tsuge the first day of Spring so here is my personal review. When you open the tin you get a pleasant aroma, reminds you of Spring, the tobacco has many colors ( shades brown from blackish to almost white), packing is real easy, first light is hard but after second try it usually always lights up, the first few draws are very bitter with hardly any taste because of it, once it is going and you can regulate your draws it mellows a little, still has a bitterness to it though, I detect hints of leather, floral hints and a little hot cinnamon like the red candies, after smoking a while it tends to mellow out even more and I get what could be a cherry bloom like aroma and taste, the leather starts fading away as well but is still there, not to hot of a smoke, actually kind of cool, over all after about half way through it is not bad and you do get that nice feeling of spring. As for the aroma, it is very pleasant and if you can get past the tastes it put out the smell is great and not to many people will complain about the smell. Over all would I recommend it or buy it again, well if you want a solid flavor and don't like bitter pipe smoke then no, if you like changes and experiencing complex tobacco them yes, you just have to get past that first bitterness it seem to always start with!
Hope you enjoy reading my post, I am no professional and have not done reviews of tobacco other than a few personal reviews for Cigars so take it with a grain of salt and please don't complain about how it was done unless your going to do a bunch of them yourself....
Ok back out on the front porch, I was listening to L.A. Gunns what happened to Jane thinking of a girl I loved that was killed at a very young age when we first started hanging out....sad.
Anyway back to why I am posting, got another review! This time I am going to give my personal opinion on Straus tobacconist Halloween blend called Sleepy Hollow. As I said the first time I tried it I didn't think much of it but I came back a couple days ago after trying it again and said forget that it was alright.... Now for my actual review after smoking a bit of it, first off the aroma is unreal!, Something about it makes you want to eat it!. Kind of Moist yet only takes two times for it to burn very good, first is to char the top and tamp it down second lighting and your good to go, burns hot but smoke is not hot just a little warm, not much of a bite to it at all, the aroma is fantastic, smells like a bag of candy lol, the taste is complex, had hints of cushaw pie just a little over done or maybe a bland pumpkin pie over cooked, hints of mild chocolate or white chocolate, nutty at times with hints of spice, very little leather taste to this one but if you really trie I guess you might taste some, aroma while smoking is also very pleasant almost like a Holiday dinner or something, again not much bite at all, does get a little moist as you smoke it down but not so much that it makes a mess or gums up the pipe, burns hot if I didn't already say so but as I did say the smoke is just a little warm. Over all, good blend I would buy this again!
I think I have gotten a taste of nuts, and a pinch of floral but nothing to make a distinction of what.
Have fun and hope to be reading some of your reviews soon.
@Wolf41035 Thanks for the review of Sleepy Hollow. It's a blend I've always wanted to try but not such an easy blend to order. And since it's a seasonal blend only available for a limited period of time that makes it even harder. You can't order it on-line ... at least up to this point I haven't seen it listed anywhere. And since limiting purchases of my already stocked cellar the majority of recent tobacco purchases are spur of the moment impulse buys as I'm sitting at my computer. So if it's not easy to find, simple to order on line, and only available during the Fall months I doubt if I'll ever get the opportunity to buy up a batch. Seems like it was developed well after 2007 so it will probably be victim of the FDA Deeming Regulations, and might not even be offered this year. Based on that reason alone, since it is such a popular blend, Straus should continue to manufacture it throughout the remainder year until it's forced from the shelves. I personally didn't learn about the blend until a few weeks before Halloween last year when I engaged in a mad scramble to locate a source on-line and discovered it could only be purchased by phoning the company direct. I figured it was probably too late to place an order - and wasn't even sure of the price - so I opted for some bulk Sutliff Pumpkin Spice from P&C and tried to convince myself it would be an acceptable and readily available substitute for my Halloween blend.
@ghostsofpompeii I ended up buying 4 oz. of it, glad I did now. So how did you like the Pumpkin Spice? Do you have any left? Maybe we could make a small trade? I could send you an ounce or two of Sleepy Hollow for an ounce or two of Pumpkin Spice or something else you might have that is a good Aromatic?? Let me know.
Well I waited a while and decided to try Wenceslas again since sleepy hollow got better, not the case with Wenceslas, one of only a couple I don't like from Straus Tobacconist. OK first of it is still moist after a few months in a ziplock bag, it has a decent aroma out of the bag but not great, it lights easy, packs great, burn mild, burning smell is a dull sassafras or old root beer smell but the taste is very bitter and more like a normal non aromatic tobacco, it is a wet smoke, my bent stem pipe is gurgling and that is not normal for me at all, it is very bitter and the moisture that gurgles up is bitter and nasty, leaves a very bad bite on the tongue to the point of when you take a drink of anything it burns on your tongue! I will either trade this off or use it in other mixes, I will not be smoking this again. Going to go rinse my mouth real good and try something else!!
Personal opinion, some of you might like it??? Not me though.
Ok on to number two today.... another Straus Tobacconist blend, it is an Aromatic called Pondleton, I have smoked this a couple times and it is a good smoke, packs great, aroma from bag is good, lights easy and fast, has a great burning Aroma almost like camp fire marsh mellows and cinnamon toast mixture, taste is mellow cinnamon toast kind of taste with hints of sweet wood, hard to explain this one sometimes has a fruit taste and then nuts, very complex almost want to say also has a aged bourbon taste as well. Worth trying with out a doubt! No bitterness, no bite, very pleasant and relaxing. Kind of wish I bought more of this and less of the Wenceslas!
My next reviews will not be all Straus Tobacconist I promise, I know not everyone has access to their pipe tobacco and depending on what happens with the Tobacco laws they might not be making these blends anymore.... SAD!
@Wolf41035 Keep those reviews coming. Sadly most of the Straus blends I'll probably never have an opportunity to try ... and if they are about to end the blends it would be foolish to try now if only to discover what you're about to be deprived of. I didn't order enough of the Sutliff Pumpkin Spice to made a trade but appreciate the offer. I did like it enough to buy again so I hope to purchase somewhere between four and eight ounces so I'll have it for the Fall season. Mind you, it's not just a Fall blend ... but really goes well with that time of year. Sounds like the Wenceslas might be where my Root Beer Float blend might be headed. The only difference is my concoction isn't bitter - maybe too sweet, and taste exactly like root beer or sassafras.
@ghostsofpompeii I can say this Wenceslas would be nothing like your Root beer float other than the aroma you smell, the taste is nothing like root beer, wish it was but it was bad. lol Your Root Beer sounds really good and pleasant, hope you can figure your mixture enough to make more or at least make something very near what you did the first time.
Thanks for reading and liking my reviews, I will do more later in the week, raining and cold so going to stay in and work on my hand made pipes today.
Might do a review today, going to be partly cloudy and 65, might grab a jacket and sit out there and do a review on some of the good old Holiday Blends......
@Wolf41035 -- I did the same, but didn't write anything. I went outside in a flannel shirt, sat on the deck, and smoked my first bowl in over two weeks. It's been cold -- a week ago there was snow on the ground; today it was in the high 50's.
Found an aromatic I don't like. I tried it last summer, put it in a mason jar and finally re-opened it yesterday and smoked a bowl. CAO Bella Vanilla just doesn't come close to being a good smoke in my opinion.
It doesn't smell bad but I personally get an aftertaste that borders on why bother smoking this crap. CAO needs to just say no to producing more of this tobacco. It tarnishes their good name.
@motie2 oh wow even 50's is to cold for me, today it was in the 70's but all the rest of the week it is going to be 50's and low 60's, I hate cold weather. LOL
@PappyJoe yeah some companies should listen to us smokers when it comes to bad smokes, hurts their name when they have some great ones out their. I will be posting two more reviews in a few minutes.
H&H Egg Nog Good aroma in the bag, smells like cake, almost wedding cake smell, packs good, lights good, color is nice, smoke is cool to medium warm, taste is kind of watered down cake or milk type taste, not good, smell as burning is very pleasant reminds me of spring flowers blooming over all not worth buying unless you want people to think you smell pretty when you smoke....lol H&H this is dissapointing!
Comments
That brings me to next comment, since this is a post for us Aromatic Smokers maybe we should do reviews of what we smoke? I know PappyJoe did a couple reviews in the past and if we could list what we smoke and give some break down to what we thought, the aroma and taste and the linger maybe we could have better experiences.
What do you all think?
We can do it right here on this post.
So everyone, even if you have only smoked one or two and are still on jut them please let us know about it. Brand, Name, types of tobacco if you know, flavors, aromas, linger time, after taste, after aroma, if it has bite, bitterness and so on and so on. Just give us your two cents and say if you would recommend t to anyone else and why.
Fruity, nutty, sweet, moist, dry, bitter, alcohol taste (type), Leathery, floral and so on....
Thanks everyone.
I will try to smoke a new aromatic today and do a review tonight or tomorrow.
We had a couple warm days and I did have time to smoke some of my Spring Blend, while I would like to smoke more before I make my full review or any comments on it for that matter I will say this, I enjoyed smoking it on the couple of warm days we had and it reminds you of Spring warmth, Spring plants coming back out to see us, birds, wind chimes and warm raining days. Now that should have everyone's interest peaked but the review won't be for a few more days. lol
I will try to do one or two reviews a week when the weather warms up, I would like to see everyone try to do at least one a month.....Please? LOL
@Wolf41035 Here is my message you asked me to post on this discussion board:
Last night I put on my Frankenstein lab coat and went all out creating a new blend that went beyond simply mixing existing blends or adding a touch of Perique or Latakia to an established blend. And since I've pretty much given up on English blends and happily accept the fact that I am and always will be an aromatic smoker I decided to expand my blending experiments by adding a combination of Watkins flavor extracts from the kitchen cupboard to an ancient can of Velvet Tobacco which has been gathering dust in my closet for over 20 years.
My mind raced like the mad scientist in an old Universal Horror Classic. In that instant I was a combination of both the brilliant Henry Frankenstein and his mentally and physically challenged assistant Fritz, madly eyeballing the pile of 20 year old Velvet tobacco in the Tupperware container, as dead and dry as a mummified corpse, hoping to infuse new life into the crumbling remains. With equal parts anatomy, applied science, culinary artistry, alchemy and astrology I prepared the potion that would bring my creation life starting with a mixture of orange concentrate (about six capfuls), followed by an additional four capfuls of pure vanilla extract, and for added measure another four capfuls of imitation caramel flavoring. I then transplanted a pinch of Out Of Office "Gone Fishing" caramel flavored tobacco into the still dormant cadaver - and as a finishing touch ... a light dusting of clove seasoning. I then began hand mixing and massaging the moist concoction until I felt a faint heartbeat. After screaming ... "It's Alive!" I closed the lid on the Tupperware container to contain the beast for at least 24 hours.
And this morning after opening the sealed container the unmistakable aroma of 'Dreamsicle' filled the air. The pouch note is a dead ringer for the orange and vanilla popsicle delight ... and the room note when smoking has a faint hint of it as well. Before telling her what I had created I asked my wife to sniff the contents of the Tupperware container and she immediately recognized the aroma as Dreamsicle. Even detected a trace amount in the room note while I was smoking. Unfortunately, although a very sweet and pleasant smoke I didn't detect that orange and vanilla flavor I was expecting. So I'll add a bit more tonight ... then let it age for a few days before trying again. It sure did smell nice though. If is ever tastes as good as it smells I'll have a real winner.
I was going to start a fire in the garage today and go out and smoke but I just don't feel like smoking my Spring Blend when it is so darn cold outside! Almost feel like getting one of the Holiday or Christmas Blends back out. Going to try to find some corncob pipe and button nose, that should be good for these colder days and nights! lol
Anyhow maybe the admins.....aka Nicole will eventually give us that edit button we all so want?! LMAO
called Sleepy Hollow from Strauss Tobacconist in Florence and didn't
think much of it but yesterday it was cold and felt like October again
so I pulled it out and tried it again, it changed and it was for the
better! I like the stuff and glad I got over 4 ounces.I will give a review in the next few days, got to smoke a bit more of it first.
When you open the tin you get a pleasant aroma, reminds you of Spring, the tobacco has many colors ( shades brown from blackish to almost white), packing is real easy, first light is hard but after second try it usually always lights up, the first few draws are very bitter with hardly any taste because of it, once it is going and you can regulate your draws it mellows a little, still has a bitterness to it though, I detect hints of leather, floral hints and a little hot cinnamon like the red candies, after smoking a while it tends to mellow out even more and I get what could be a cherry bloom like aroma and taste, the leather starts fading away as well but is still there, not to hot of a smoke, actually kind of cool, over all after about half way through it is not bad and you do get that nice feeling of spring.
As for the aroma, it is very pleasant and if you can get past the tastes it put out the smell is great and not to many people will complain about the smell.
Over all would I recommend it or buy it again, well if you want a solid flavor and don't like bitter pipe smoke then no, if you like changes and experiencing complex tobacco them yes, you just have to get past that first bitterness it seem to always start with!
Hope you enjoy reading my post, I am no professional and have not done reviews of tobacco other than a few personal reviews for Cigars so take it with a grain of salt and please don't complain about how it was done unless your going to do a bunch of them yourself....
Anyway back to why I am posting, got another review!
This time I am going to give my personal opinion on Straus tobacconist Halloween blend called Sleepy Hollow.
As I said the first time I tried it I didn't think much of it but I came back a couple days ago after trying it again and said forget that it was alright....
Now for my actual review after smoking a bit of it, first off the aroma is unreal!, Something about it makes you want to eat it!. Kind of Moist yet only takes two times for it to burn very good, first is to char the top and tamp it down second lighting and your good to go, burns hot but smoke is not hot just a little warm, not much of a bite to it at all, the aroma is fantastic, smells like a bag of candy lol, the taste is complex, had hints of cushaw pie just a little over done or maybe a bland pumpkin pie over cooked, hints of mild chocolate or white chocolate, nutty at times with hints of spice, very little leather taste to this one but if you really trie I guess you might taste some, aroma while smoking is also very pleasant almost like a Holiday dinner or something, again not much bite at all, does get a little moist as you smoke it down but not so much that it makes a mess or gums up the pipe, burns hot if I didn't already say so but as I did say the smoke is just a little warm.
Over all, good blend I would buy this again!
I think I have gotten a taste of nuts, and a pinch of floral but nothing to make a distinction of what.
Have fun and hope to be reading some of your reviews soon.
OK first of it is still moist after a few months in a ziplock bag, it has a decent aroma out of the bag but not great, it lights easy, packs great, burn mild, burning smell is a dull sassafras or old root beer smell but the taste is very bitter and more like a normal non aromatic tobacco, it is a wet smoke, my bent stem pipe is gurgling and that is not normal for me at all, it is very bitter and the moisture that gurgles up is bitter and nasty, leaves a very bad bite on the tongue to the point of when you take a drink of anything it burns on your tongue! I will either trade this off or use it in other mixes, I will not be smoking this again.
Going to go rinse my mouth real good and try something else!!
Personal opinion, some of you might like it??? Not me though.
another Straus Tobacconist blend, it is an Aromatic called Pondleton, I have smoked this a couple times and it is a good smoke, packs great, aroma from bag is good, lights easy and fast, has a great burning Aroma almost like camp fire marsh mellows and cinnamon toast mixture, taste is mellow cinnamon toast kind of taste with hints of sweet wood, hard to explain this one sometimes has a fruit taste and then nuts, very complex almost want to say also has a aged bourbon taste as well. Worth trying with out a doubt!
No bitterness, no bite, very pleasant and relaxing.
Kind of wish I bought more of this and less of the Wenceslas!
My next reviews will not be all Straus Tobacconist I promise, I know not everyone has access to their pipe tobacco and depending on what happens with the Tobacco laws they might not be making these blends anymore.... SAD!
Your Root Beer sounds really good and pleasant, hope you can figure your mixture enough to make more or at least make something very near what you did the first time.
Thanks for reading and liking my reviews, I will do more later in the week, raining and cold so going to stay in and work on my hand made pipes today.
@PappyJoe yeah some companies should listen to us smokers when it comes to bad smokes, hurts their name when they have some great ones out their.
I will be posting two more reviews in a few minutes.
Good aroma in the bag, smells like cake, almost wedding cake smell, packs good, lights good, color is nice, smoke is cool to medium warm, taste is kind of watered down cake or milk type taste, not good, smell as burning is very pleasant reminds me of spring flowers blooming over all not worth buying unless you want people to think you smell pretty when you smoke....lol
H&H this is dissapointing!