Planta Danish Black Vanilla

My son brought this back to me from Germany where he was touring with his band. I've wanted to try this for a while but never seemed to find it. I really wanted it in flake version as I am a flake fancier.

Upon opening the tin there was a beautiful smell of vanilla with liquor overtones and quite appealing. The vanilla did not appear to smell in any way artificial (nor did it taste artificial while smoking). The appearance was of a loose cut mixture of black cavendish and medium browns. Loading and lighting were no problem. The tobacco was very fresh but surprisingly did not present any problems with lighting nor keeping the bowl lit. This tobacco was very tasty and maintained a combination of vanilla/liquor flavor until what was left was gray ash. It never smoked hot or bit. There was never a gurgle or dottle build up either.

Many reviews of this product have been very negative, but after 37 years of pipe smoking, I don't have anything bad to say about it. Although I generally favor stouter, more fuller-bodied smokes, DBV proved a nice change of pace and one (along with Capt Black Dark, which is similar) will remain in my weekly rotation. A solid recommended with 3.5 stars.

I really don't understand the reason of so many bad reviews: the tin smell is fantastic, to die for, the taste is of chocolate, vanilla and fruit, well melded and not overwhelming, the tobacco burns well to a gray ash. What can I ask more from an aromatic? I plan to try also the flake version, as soon as possible. Higly recommended.

UPDATE 2015-12-31 Now I've tried the flake version and it seems to me that both the tobacco and the topping are substantially the same as in the ribbon version; however I've tried also an old tin (don't know how much old ...) of the ribbon version and in fact the taste was much different. So I suspect that they have changed lately the ribbon version to reflect almost exactly the flake one...

First impression when i smelled the pouch was "is this really even tobacco?", the smell is very sweet and pleasant, something of tea, applepie and brandy mixed together, but definitely not natural vanilla, impossible to describe accurately, but the smell is just lovely. Ripped open the pouch and there was the second surprise; the tobacco was either very fresh, or very soaken to begin with, either way it gave the impression of having fresh tobacco, and it almost felt like delicious cookie dough minus the stickiness when i loaded it to my pipe, needless to say the scent supported the impression of handling something delicious.

I packed the pipe rather well, and well did it light up too. Some couple first puffs i mostly tasted what i had smelled so far, i didn't quite notice the smoke flavour, but the sweetness of the flavouring, which felt like i was rather drinking the tobacco with a straw rather than smoking it. Quickly the smoke came in as well, but the strenght was rather mild, but noticeable (as if it was possible not to notice that you are actually burning something in your pipe). Flavouring settled down to a level where i didn't feel like having a sweet drink anymore, but it was still present, and it never got sour or started to bite back as with so many aromatics. The smoke was superb smooth to inhale if you are into that, and well suited for smoke rings as it won't irritate your throat no matter what, and nonsmokers won't choke on your smoke. Unsurprisingly room note was easily tolerable as well, and still had some pleasant scent in it, but less noticeable that i would have tought for this sweet tobacco. The bowl burned pretty fast, but certainly not hot and there was totally no bite at all. It left very fine ash, unlike most aromatics i've smoked.

So good as it sounds it was both a very pleasant surprise for being so easy and sweet tobacco, as well as somewhat disappointing that it was so fast and mild that i was unsatisfied after a single bowl. My everyday smoking blend is 50/50 full flavour amphora and mac baren vanilla, which still results in pretty mild blend, but this Planta product is way milder that that. Might be of satisfactory in a big bowl in your "normal bowl situations" tho. Looking forward to give this another go, the sweetness got the best of me.

TL;DR: Very sweet, mild and fast tobacco, probably not strong enough for everyday use, but could do for "all day" use in a kingsized bowl. Great flavour, but whatever it is, it is not vanilla.

Planta - Danish Black Vanilla.

I used to smoke this a while back but never posted!

A pleasant enough blend, not too strongly flavoured so retro-haling the smoke brings out the ultimate flavour from it. The temperature of the smoke is quite cool, and there isn't a bite to be had! If not aired the fresh blend needs a few re-lights but providing it's had enough time the burn from D.B.V. is quite steady. There isn't much nicotine to be had, and the room-note's lovely.

A simple blend, albeit somewhat mundane after a while.

Somewhat recommended.

This is a typical Planta blend, which means heavily flavoured and artificial on the tongue with absolutely zero tobacco taste.

If you do enjoy this then you should quit smoking tobacco and start using vanilla oil in a vaporizer instead. It does what this Planta blend is supposed to do (delivering a little nicotine and alot artificial vanilla flavour) but without hassling around with the detour of using tobacco that could otherwise still be of use. Plus they build those in pipe shape too nowadays.

Another good use for this blend, instead of smoking it, is just having the open tin sit around and use it as an air scenter/freshener for your room.

This blend is recommended *alot* for the beginner allthough it is the exact opposite of what you should burden a beginner with. In that case it would be harsh on the tongue, wet on the bottom and not delivering any of the taste experiences pipe tobacco is notorious for. Please, i beg you, do *not* recommend this for beginners. Ever!

Ok, enough with the bashing and on with the positives: its dark, silky appearance is a treat for the eye. And the smell out of the open tin is absolutely nice. The lid of the tin has a depression as your pipe ashtray would have, which is meant for holding your pipe as a rest. Which is a nifty feature i wish where standard on all tins.

Ok, what else? Taste and room note are *very* strong, also the smoke has great volume. Ghosting of course is heavy. Thats about it ...

This was my very first pipe tobacco when I started smoking several years ago. It was recommended to me by my tobacconist, and I guess for a lot of people it was a "starter drug".

The tobacco consists mostly of Black Cavendish with just a few tan Burley leafs mixed into the ribbon cut. The tin note is overwhelmingly sweet, its vanilla scent superposing any genuine tobacco smell. Even though the tin discription states that real vanilla beans from Madagascar have been used to flavor the tobacco, the odor appears artificial to me like custard powder.

Filling and lighting your pipe is easy. It burns evenly and rather fast.

The taste of sweet vanilla is mind-blowing, and without any tobacco flavors at all. Like in many tobaccos manufactured by Planta, there's a certain mustiness, especially towards the end of the bowl. Danish Black Vanilla will give you a very mild smoke, even if it gets a little too hot, and without any tongue bite. This makes it in fact suitable for beginners. However, I don't like it any more.

The room note is very pleasant, sweet and aromatic, a crowd pleaser.

I got this as part of an assortment of tobaccos I was going to give as a present to my brother along with is first pipe for Xmas this year. I decided to hang onto this one and give it a try bc I'm trying to find some more house friendly blends.

Opening the tin blasts you with a wave of very pleasant vanilla. Sort of smells like a black and mild cigar from Middleton. Oddly, it's in a plastic Baggie inside. Loosely packed into the tin, I figured it would be damp, but it's not. Easier than normal to work out a bit of this from the tin for the pipe. Nice uniform ribbon cut, medium browns and yellows. Was expecting some jet black cavendish in here, but I don't see any. It packs and lights up easily enough.

On the charring light it's pretty sweet. Yet again, think black and mild cigars. Settles in to a pretty mellow smoke. Soft flavor of vanilla is persistent, yet diminishing slightly towards halfway mark on this pipe. Burns pretty quickly, and not the coolest. No tongue bite as yet, don't expect there will be. Not much nicotine present in my opinion. Flavor shifted towards the last quarter of the bowl. Has become kind of acrid. Still smoking dry and even though. Burned down to white ashes in the end, odd for an aro.

Having smoked a few bowls of this now, I would say it's not for me. It's not bad altogether, just not good. There's definitely better aromatic mixtures out there. I may have liked this more when I was 15 or 16 yrs old. The GF doesn't mind the smell in the house, which is nice for me. It just doesn't have the depth and character I have come to enjoy from stronger, purer tobaccos. Maybe my palate has been spoiled on full English blends too long. Can't say I recommend this, even for a beginner. Yet again it's not bad, just not good either. Maybe I can blend something else into this and beef it up some. I noticed someone else here said it leaves a funny feeling to your tongue, kid of gritty. I concur, oddly never experienced that from a tobacco before.

I got this blend as a birthday gift from a friend, who bought it after some tobacconist reccomendation. As a matter of fact, this blend seems to be quite popular among novice pipe smokers like me. Anyways, I found it to be extremely artificial. The topping is very strong, and the taste is overwhelming. At some point during the smoke i found it to taste like soap or something like that. I certainly do not recommend this one.

Enough of the tin. A nice gimmick, but without it, I doubt it would sell much. That said, I wanted this to be one of my favorites; this is not a bad smoke, but it's just another vanilla cased tobacco with all the usual positives and negatives that come with these aromatics.

The tin aroma is a pleasant vanilla, and as would be expected, the room aroma is inviting. There is a pleasant, mild vanilla taste, that is once your taste buds recover from the bite, if ever. That's my biggest problem. I don't see the point of smoking something that everyone else likes the smell of, all at the sacrifice of your taste buds.

If it's a mild pleasant taste you want to enjoy, without offending the non-smokers around you, I'd try a mild cavendish, which won't sting your tongue like this does.

The room not of this blend is simply delishious and like the scent of heaven! Thats everything good i can say about thus mixture. The first puffs are like cigarette smoke, at midbowl it turns to burning rubber tires or shoe soles. And my mouth turnes paper dry in an instant. I also missed out any vanilla flavour at all. Not recomended at all! (and i say this as an aromatic smoker)