Watch City Cigar Old Black Magic

The caramel is smooth and mild, and doesn’t detract from the tobaccos. The very creamy brown sugary black cavendish may be unsweetened, but I get a hint of vanilla at times. It's moderately present. The perique has a few fig, plum and raisin notes along with some spice, but it never rises above being a supporting player. The tart and tangy citrusy, dark fruity Virginias have a grassy, slightly earthy, woody base for the other components, and aren't always that obvious to the tongue. The spice and sweetness works with the light breadiness of the Virginias to remind me of something I might taste in a bakery. The smoky, woody, earthy, musty, incense-like Cyprian Latakia offers a hint of a taste push to the proceedings. Despite how my review reads, this is just a shade over mild in the sweet department. The strength is just past the center of mild to medium, and taste level is medium. The nic-hit is in the center of mild to medium. The crumble cake is easy to break apart, and the sweet, mildly spicy and savory flavor is very consistent to the finish. Burns a little slow and smoothly cool, won’t bite, and leaves just a little moisture in the bowl. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and room note. Made for the experienced aro smoker who’s looking for a different twist on the genre. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

UPDATE 10/24/18

The more I smoke of this, the more this has become a favorite. It's dark caramel/toffee flavor satisfies my sweet tooth and the backbone of tobacco spice and depth satisfies the tobacco-holic in me. This has become one of 5 WC blends to make my regular rotation.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

A black brick with a few blond stands thrown in. Pouch aroma of a basic aromatic, which did not excite me. This is simple to crumble and smoke, and I found no differences in the flavor by changing how I crumbled or cut. Still, this is an interesting one.

I did not get a lot of perique flavor from this one, as it was way in the background for me. The flavor description of caramel from the Cavendish was spot on. I tasted a mildly spicy caramel from start to finish. The flavor was extremely light and I found that I needed to snork almost every puff as well as puff this one with more vigor than I usually do. Some tobaccos need to puffed rather than sipped, and this was one. Otherwise the flavor was too light for my tastes. Puffed with a bit of authority, this one was nicely sweet and mellow, with just a hint of spice. Old Black Magic will show you what can be done with black Cavendish by leaving it more natural and not flavoring it with all manner of fruit and ice cream flavors. Cavendish does not have to mean low quality! Not a rotation-maker, but a fine blend nonetheless. Worth a shot for those that like a sweet room note but want something with more flavor and a higher quality leaf than your basic aromatic.

This is one interesting tobacco. The pouch scent could easily fool the most frequent pipe smoker. It sure did fool me. OBM arrives in a beautifully shaped dark crumble cake. It offers the scent of an aromatic. Had I not known the component tobaccos I would have never guessed it to be anything but an aromatic. If there is any added flavoring, it is extremely light. The cake breaks with ease and for some folks it will be “pipe ready.” I prefer my tobacco pretty dry so I dried it for a few minutes. The perique IMO is the star of the show with the unflavored Cavendish adding body. The previous reviewer states that it is Nor' Easter without the latakia. That sounds like a good bet to me too. OBM offers plenty of smoke and is smooth from beginning to end. I do prefer OBM's cousin, Nor' Easter a tad bit more, but this is still a winner. Ernie at Watch City is one of those blenders that seems to fly under the radar, but he sure does put out some interesting blends. Recommended.

A pleasant and excellent surprise. According to WC, this blend is identical to N'oreaster, which I prefer, except OBM does not have latakia. I did not think I would enjoy this blend because it does not have latakia, but it really is well done. The cavendish gives it a smooth creamy taste. Nice medley of perique and the virginias. Give it a try!

"Other" is a good way to categorize Old Black Magic, it's not a VA/Per and it's not an aromatic by any means. The Cavendish is unflavored, but brings the sweetness and caramel kind of flavor in. The Perique is way in the background, I don't get much of a spice hit from it. The Viginias seem more earthy than sweet, but you get enough sweet from the Cavendish so that's fine. This is a nice blend, I like it. Not a regular in the rotation, but I'll buy again.

I was able to sample a generous portion of “Old Black Magic” and yes it does have me in its spell. This was given to me a few weeks ago and was still moist in the zip lock bag. This has a very natural sweet vanilla/caramel taste. For you perfectionists out there probably some drying time would not be a bad idea as it took me some time to get going. I really enjoyed it, it was smooth and sweet tasting, not goopy like your drug store aromatics and was a perfect blend to smoke out on the porch during the past few summer evenings. If you like premium aromatics, this one should definitely be on your list. Not much more to add, check out the other reviews if looking for more detailed dissection. Thanks PKT.

For some reason I was expecting (maybe hoping) this blend would be less aromatic than it was. I was hoping for more of a Dark Fragrant type of blend, but this is no doubt an aromatic. It is not a gooper though, so it does have that going for it.

The topping tastes of both vanilla and molasses to my tastes with the latter dominating. That molasses taste is one I find more fitting when it is paired with a burley blend rather than a virginia as it is with OBM. To me, it just doesn't taste right.

The blend otherwise performs nicely. It takes a light easily and the crumble kakes are always fun. It won't bite and although the topping was not to my favor, it is lightly applied so as not to overwhelm. Under all the accoutrements, there does lie some nice VaPer flavor. As an added note, I did not taste any latakia.

This is a tricky one to rate. I am between two and three stars. Two for falling below my expectations or a three because the blend stayed true to the description making my expectations unwarranted. I will go with three as it is a good aromatic as aromatics go.

Like so many more devoted to what I call real pipe tobacco, Ihave tried to find an aromatic I can live with. Old Black magic is one of those. Not goopy like 1-Q. Mild and tasty. Will never be a regular, but a good aromatic. Certainly dryer than most and does not burn hot like so many. Either this or Choctaw from Country Squire are tops on this short list.

Tantalizingly delicious blend. Not overly sweet, tart, etc. Very full and deep aromatic flavor to balance out my usual regimen of English/Balkans. Not a boring puff in the entire bowl.

Smells like an aro but smokes like great tobacco . virginia, cavendish and a very light Perique spice. Cool burning
AP