Dan Tobacco Sweet Vanilla Honeydew

This blend has a split personality. Multi. In the pouch, is smells wonderful. So fragrant I could smell it in a sealed package that came in the mail. It smelled of a very perfumed vanilla and the ribbon cut was dark brown with some strands still pressed and needing rubbed out. It packed easily though a touch damp for my taste. It did light up on first light with quite a bit of rise so needed tamping back down from the start. Right off, I found it to unspectacular, almost bland and flat and thought this might not make it a full bowl. But after five minutes, it burst with flavor and taste and the aroma was incredible. The vanilla casing on a very sweet smoking virginia leaf is not overwhelming but is there and delicious. It also had a perfumed taste to it which I guess is the honeydew flavor. Somewhat honey like but to me a little like peach but not always there. It flitted in and out of the vanilla taste. It did heat my pipe up almost too hot, and it seemed a little hot on my tongue but it never caused any tongue bite or burn at all. The second half the smoke was rich and strong and very enjoyable. By the bottom of the bowl, most of the flavor was burned off and the taste of the virginia was dominant. It did require a few relights but burned all the way down to a gray ash with little leaf dottle. The bottom of my bowl was a little damp but no goop.

I was mixed between 3 and 4 stars as there are aros I like better like Pipeworks and Wilke #191 but I got so much enjoyment in my several pipefuls that I had to go 4 star. This one grows on you. I am going to order more of this in the future as just the room note and the middle of the smoke are incredible. This is a great Dan tobacco and worth buying in bulk.

This is another one of those "Babe Magnet" blends. Light up a bowl in public and the women come running because they love the smell. It is one of the few straight Virginia broken flake tobaccos on the market with flavoring. This blend does reek of quality, from the leaf to the top coating. It smoked mostly dry, and very cool considering the amount of casing. A perfect after dinner desert!

If you are an aromatic fan, and want to try a cased virginia (rather than the usual cased burley blends) then cash in on this one.

The Virginias offer a lot of grass, tart and tangy citrus, bread, light earth and wood with a few drops of honey and sugar, and touches of floralness and acidity. The vanilla topping has some depth, and mildly tones down the Virginias. The strength is just shy the center of mild to medium, while the taste level is a hair past that center. The nic-hit is a notch past the mild mark. Won’t bite, but fast puffing may get you a light tongue tingle. Burns slightly warm and slow, and very clean with a mostly consistent flavor from start to end. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires a few relights. Has pleasant, short lived after taste and room note. An all day smoke.

-JimInks

What a lovely one! After getting sick of flavoured tobaccos, this is still one of my favs. One tin is always there for the morning, better in good weather. Vanilla is huge, but somehow never overtaking. I love the way it leaves your mouth, with a mixture of gentle sweetness BUT with a good and honest (dark?)virginia note on the bottom of it, and it's lovely. Absolute party winner for the roomnote, not too moisty, super easy to smoke.

Update: before loving this baccy I had got quite sick with sweet flavoured tobaccos... well, 3 years later I am DEFINITELY disgusted by flavoured tobaccos, so I must downgrade this to two stars, only in the name of the old days.. and I wish you all to get through all these caramels and toppings, and to discover the wonderful Land of Natural Tobaccos (in the end, do they really even exist?!?)

When I look to satisfy a sweet tooth, Dan aromatics are hard to beat. The quality is outstanding--not your average cheap cut Burley sauced in buckets of chemicals to mask poor tobacco from the consumer. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Mixture 79, Captain Black, and Three Star Blue.

Still, using finer tobacco varieties can prove problematic. Virginias are considered by many to be poor choices for aromatics due to their high sugar count..which may yield a nasty, hot smoke with an applied casing.

And if you're going to smoke a quality blend, you normally don't opt for a sugar coating. You want to taste the natural flavor of the tobacco. So I guess that's why I like this aromatic series by Dan. It's unconventional. It satisfies my need for a classic taste with a twist.

So I appear to get along fine with Dan blends, and I've tried quite a few--Honeydew, Da Vinci, and that other one that seems to spark a lot of controversy, Blue Note. I like them all.

Now don't misunderstand. These are not regular, everyday smokes. But they're handy to have around when you need a break from the serious tobacco.

"Sweet Honeydew" pretty much hits the mark straight on. The flavor of the blend instantly invokes its name. My only complaint is the rather weak nature of the blend. It's not tame, but I like to add Perique to bolster the strength. Call it a sugar Vaper or something. I don't know, but it works.

This ready rubbed mixture is the only vanilla flavored pure Virginia blend I know, which makes this tobacco somewhat special.

The tin note is very sweet and pleasant, almost like custard with underlying haylike scent from the Virginias.

The pipe should not be filled to tightly. Lighting is quite easy.

Despite the strong top flavor, the aroma of vanilla is not overpowering and appears supprisingly inartificial. Underneath the casing, you can still taste the natural caramel sweetness of the Virginias with a slight spiciness that seems to become more pronounced towards the end of the bowl. In other words, this aromatic still tastes of tobacco. It's a smooth, creamy smoke, as long as you enjoy it coolly.

The room note is very pleasant even for non-smokers.

I'm an avowed aromatic smoker so I had high expectations for this tobaccoand it did not disappoint. The smell of the toppings makes me think that this tobacco is one branch removed on CAO's family tree from Blue Note (in a positive Darwinian direction). The tin aroma is certainly indicative of it's relationship but is a more coherent vanilla instead of the rather schizoid vanilla-fruit-whatever of that blend.

Many aromatics seem to use the topping to hide low-grade tobacco. Not so in this case. This may well be a prototypical vanilla aromatic but CAO's use of high-quality tobaccos and subsequent attention to detail during it's blending elevate it high above the competition. The tobacco maintains a pronounced Virginia taste and sometimes lets you know that it's stronger than you may have initially thought.

Despite being fairly moist in the tin, it lights easily and burns evenly throughout the bowl. The finish is surprisingly dry given how moist the tobacco is. I haven't experienced the tongue burn potential that other reviewers mention, and I'm prone to it due to occasional poor smoking form.

In closing, this tobacco is highly recommended if you have any love of sweet aromatic tobaccos. I've finished my first tin and am beginning to stockpile it for the upcoming Y3K crisis.

Basically a Virginia with vanilla flavoring added. This is a good tobacco. Sweet, creamy, medium mild in strength and a good vitamin N kick. The aroma is very nice, I call it old school pipey! Some complain about bite on this but all Virginia will bite due to the high sugar content that naturally occurs. This has a non sweetened vanilla flavor because it smokes cool. Another scourge of many virginia tobacco if smoked too fast. This actually reminds me more of a Dutch aromatic or an old school Danish that's not confection sweet. This is good ! If you like sweet that's clean and with a little kick, this will do you well.

Seeing flint's review of Sweet Vanilla Honeydew reminded me of the time I purchased a tin. It's been more than two years ago, but I well remember the shock of not having the smell match the flavor.

Upon opening the tin, I discovered an absolutely beautiful, mostly rubbed out bright Virginia leaf that smelled heavenly. That is usually my first indication that, at the match, I won't like it. This was different though. I tasted a quality Virginia that was only lightly artifically sweetened. Despite the casing, it did not burn hot unless I puffed too agressivly.

Although I did smoke a few bowls just for fun, it will not make my regular rotation. I probably won't even buy another tin in my lifetime (which, unfortunately, gets shorter by the moment!) But, if you are a fan of aromatics and want to taste tobacco as you smoke, you could sure do worse than this stuff.

This has to be taken for what it is: a ready rubbed Virginia with a strong Vanilla pudding casing. It is a welcome change to the millions of Black Cavendish based aromatics. Due to the VA base, it has to be smoked extra slowly, or it will bite. The Vanilla flavor stays nearly until the end of the bowl, where you get a hint of the VAs, which seem to be Dan's standard Mysore type. It will ghost a pipe, so dedicate one, or more, to it, if you want to add it to your rotation.