Dream Castle Tobacco Company Black and Burley

This takes a while to dry, which is a must because it's very moist in the bag. The grassy, citrusy Virginia acts as a cooling base for the molasses sweet burley and toasted cavendish, and it doesn't do much else, because it's light on flavor. There's little nuttiness from the burleys unless you dry it a bit. The vanilla topping sublimates the tobaccos to a fair extent, though it could use a little more depth. Has very little nicotine. Won't bite or get harsh. Burns slow and clean with a consistent flavor. Leaves some moisture in the bowl, and needs relights. Has a decent after taste. An all day smoke.

-JimInks

I used to buy the big 14 oz bags of this under the brand Blenders Gold. I smoked it exclusively for a couple years, and I bought another bag recently for a trip down memory lane. As already noted, it may be the poor man's substitute for Capt Black, and I think it is very good in it's own right. I find it to be a simple, sweet tobacco especially suited for a paper filter drugstore pipe. The filter keeps things dry, and I swear I can taste a tobacco under all the goop. Once, I smoked a pipe of this outside in the parking ramp at work, and an annoyed cigarrette-head crossly asked if I was smoking a candy bar. I guess that answers for the room note! This tobacco stays fresh forever, so a 14 oz bag will fill the bill for an occasional sweet treat for years to come. It is fun to break out the old Dr. and have a bowl of the tobacco that lead to my current pipe collecting and smoking hobby. Even though I now enjoy all the high-end tinned stuff in my expensive fancy dancy briars, I still return to this once in a while. Try it- for the price, even if you don't like it you can give it away, or tuck it back in a drawer for next year.

The best feature of this tobacco is the price. That's alot of tobacco for only about $11.00. If I remember correctly, it was a 14oz. bag at my local drugstore. You can find better tobacco elsewhere, but at the time, it seemed like a good value. The bag has lasted three summers! So, I guess it was a pretty good investment.

Of all the flavors in this brand, this is my most favorite, and unfortunately the hardest for me to find around here. I am not sure if they do not sell it around here because it competes with Captain Black regular or not.

When they did sell it here it was almost good competition for the Captain Black that comes in the white wrapper. I say that it is competition for more than one reason. The first reason is because of price. Second, is because of flavoring. Third would have to be the aroma.

Of course there is no comparison in price. Close to 5 bucks for almost 2 ounces or the same price for 8 ounces. Really there is no comparison as far as this goes. However, lets look further...

Flavor...ahhhh...one of the main reasons I smoke a pipe. To say that this tobacco competes with Captain Black is like comparing Wal-mart brand food to Brand Name food. Which means...slightly less taste and slightly off aroma, but none-the-less, a good smoke. Like most tobaccos in this brand it tends to get kinda bland and foul tasting towards the bottom. I think this is because it begins to burn the condensation of water from smoking it in the first place. I notice, however, that it does not hurt the aroma too much even as it is doing this.

This tobacco is very sticky too...almost like they dripped syrup onto it and let it dry, which for all I know, is exactly what they did to it. I haven't had this brand in years simply because they do not sell it anymore in this area. However, if it were sold here I could interchange it with Captain Black on occassion and not feel too bad about it.

This is a very inexpensive, but pleasant aromatic if your tastes lean that way.

Typical choco-nilla liqueur type flavoring. Reminds me for all the world of McClelland's Mellow Mack, but with loads more PG.

Smoke this in a cob if you must smoke it at all.

There are mountains of aromatics available online that are better than this...

Here's your drugstore tobacco: sweet cavendish and burley. When I grow weary of 10 dollar a tin boutique blends worthy of a 1.5 kilogram straight grain freehand monster, I grab a grabow and pretend I'm 19 again. This fills the prescription just fine.

As before, the girls still seek the source of the aroma and giggle about how nobody smokes a pipe any more. Aloof, I puff thoughtfully and quote some beat philosopher. They sit with me and we drink horrid mature-sounding concoctions with drambuie mixed by an eye-rolling bartender after showing him our fake IDs. The now-tipsy blond wants a puff and I hand her the pipe. She inhales and coughs. We go back to the dorm together and try not to wake the roommate. I kept a condom handy in the pouch. Cool.

No wonder I smoke a pipe. This started it. Find your old grabow and reminisce. Life has been good at times, remember. It's so cheap you can throw out the rest of it until you need it again. Rock on, dudes.

This is a very nice smoke for the person on a budget. They sell this at Rite-Aid in both 1.5 oz. and bulk quanities. I like it's low key simple quality and find it easy to smoke. This is mild, tastes like tobacco and is my favorite of the Rite-Aid selections. I like blends where the burley is the star tobacco. It does leave some residue, somewhat like Prince Albert, so I wouldn't smoke it in a expensive pipe. It burns well even though it is heavily treated to stay moist. I like the smell of this tobacco even when not smoking it. I changed my review from saying I smoke this on occasion to it being one of my favorites because I like this tobacco so much. Pipe smoking doesn't have to be expensive to be enjoyable.

It is striking how much my experience with this tobacco follows that of Pounder5000. In my case as well, after trying several drugstore brands, that this is the tobacco which sold me on pipe smoking. Very consistent smoke, certainly the best tobacco at the local Rite-Aid. About the only thing I would add to the earlier review is that although the blend remains very moist, it does not really smoke "wet."

I decided to review this tobacco after seeing an old friend who had originally introduced it to me when I had first started smoking a pipe. At the time I had just bought my first pipe (from the esteemed Dr. Grabow!), and had only tried a few drugstore varieties. Although I somewhat enjoyed Captain Black Royal, I really wasn't getting sold on the whole pipe idea. My friend bought me a 1 pound bag of this stuff and gave it to me, promising that it was the real deal! Although I went on to try many premium tobaccos, this is the one that sold me on pipe smoking. A typical cheap cavendish, this stuff also had a true tobacco taste that intrigued me. The black cavendish was basically similiar to Captain Black but the burley and Virginia were what really got my attention. I will forever be indebted to this blend because of that. I recently went back to my collection and dug this out (I still have a 1/2 pound left of the original bag I got!). I loaded up my old Dr. Grabow and was reminded why I still smoke a pipe. Although the tobacco was typically still moist after all of this time (does glycol ever go away?), the beautiful aroma was still there and absolutely no tongue bite. A real winner for beginners. This blend may not be able to keep my attention for long anymore, but it is a great aromatic for the price.