Sutliff Tobacco Company Molto Dolce

It crackles as it burns if you don't dry it first. I prefer to dry it out just a little first, but not entirely because some of the flavor gets lost then. There's a pleasant vanilla, caramel, slightly buttery, molasses, honey taste that is deeply rich, and very consistent throughout the smoke. The vanilla flavor is the main player here, as is usually the case in this kind of blend. The strength is mild, and the taste level is in the center of mild to medium. Has very little nicotine or tobacco taste, except for light nuts, earth and wood from the burley. The black cavendish offers some sugar. The Virgina is mostly M.I.A. Burns slow and will leave some moisture in your bowl, and if you are a wet smoker, a little dottle. Won't bite or get harsh. Requires some relights. Has a very pleasant, lingering after taste and room note. The room note is a good way to get a lady's attention. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

This stuff is soooooooooo good it should be illegal.

There is absolutely no tongue bite, no matter how aggressively you smoke it and it tastes as good as it smells, rich, sweet caramel, but subtle.

Burns cool and leaves your pipe smelling nicely with a caramel afterglow.

The only thing I would want is more caramel topping......... I absolutely love this......... {I smoked a whole tin in 2 days and I normally only smoke a bowl a day}.....

PROLOGUE: What I have noticed from the many reviews and forums I have read is that your love for Molto Dolce greatly depends on what you expect when you pop a tin of fresh tobacco. If you have smoked for years and have expectations set in stone, this one is going to be very off-putting at the start. However, if you are new to the pipe and know little, you won't even notice a thing. BUT I emplore you to give it a fair shot. It is a fantastic aromatic. I get to this in my tin observation....

REVIEW:

In the tin: The smell of Molto Dolce is absolutely incredible when you pop the tin. The description is dead on: notes of honey, caramel and vanilla. It smells like a very elaborate dessert. In the background, there are some spices, but they are very subdued. But here's the kicker....It is oily and moist...and not just a little. It is VERY oily tobacco. But as I said, don't let that scare you off. If you give it a good charring light, it burns just fine. It pops and crackles, my guess is, due to the oily coating. That being said, I would definitely dedicate a pipe to it or count on ghosting any pipe you use.

Lighting and flavor: I have never had a problem getting it lit after a charring light. The smoke is billowy and thick and the room note is incredibly pleasant. Flavor is mild to medium, but the caramel and honey comes through and melds with the vanilla perfectly. It is very flavorful and enjoyable. It is an incredibly cool smoke, but if pushed, develops a burnt taste, probably due to the sugars burning at too hot of a temperature. If you take your time, you can find the spices that were first noticed in the tin. They are so subdued, I could not nail down exactly what they were. Not "hot" spicy....more of a spice in the vein of a mulled cider, but certainly not strong. There is not a ton of depth to this aromatic, but definitely more depth than your average aro. The actual tobacco flavor is subdued and is mild through the bowl. However, overall aromatic flavor is consistent from beginning to end...which is a rarity with aros.

Final thoughts: Some drying may help a bit, but I have smoked it right out of the tin with no issues. Once lit, it has probably the most pleasant room note and flavor of any tobacco I've tried thus far. That being said, it is definitely more of a dessert tobacco, although I would never mind smoking it all day. It is sweet, smooth, creamy and enjoyable from first light to ash dump.

The ultimate social smoke. If you catch women staring at you while youre smoking Dolce chances are shes wanting to wrap her lips around your pipe. This is strickly a sweet aromatic and designed as such. So, if that's what you are looking for read on. The tobacco taste is stripped away and juiced up so much the rich flavorings leaves an oily substance on your fingers. I don't dry mine out, I like it wet and havent met a tobacco that is stronger than a flame for goodness sake. Even wet its not so bad lighting and it stays lit. Smoke it in a sweet new cob for an orgasmic euphoria effect.

I have to admit that I am really excited about reviewing Sutliff’s Molto Dolce. Full disclosure here; MD is my 2nd favorite tobacco. A few years ago when I became a piper, I asked some people on a few forums which Aros I should try and Sutliff’s Molto Dolce kept showing up. “I have to check that out” said my inner self. I even like the name. I knew that Dolce was Spanish for Candy so I was not too surprised upon researching this unique name Motlo Dulce, that I found that Dolce could be used in a sentence to denote sweet, the good life. It even goes so far to be used as the word Cherished. And Molto means Very or Extremely. So I am thinking this tobacco has been named “Very Sweet Candy”. That right there will eliminate this tobacco from some of the purists reading this. But if you are an Aro lover, as I am, keep reading. Even some of you purists out there may be a little surprised at what I have to say about this.

When I finally got my hands on a tin, I was not disappointed. In fact, upon popping the cap, I was “Molto Affascinato” by the tin note. Very Captivated. I know, strong words but let me explain. This is the first tobacco that doesn’t smell like tobacco to me. It smells like something different. In fact, I have never smelled something quite like this. It pulls you in and beckons you to keep sniffing it again and again. The can says it is “rich and creamy texture of vanilla, caramel and honey” but I can’t quite pick out any of those in the tin note. I wish I had the vocabulary to describe this better. It’s amazing though.

When you sift your fingers through the tobacco in the can, it feels a bit damp but it also leaves a bit of invisible residue on your fingers. This tells me it’s heavily cased and therefore, I would expect it to burn hot.

I am smoking this in a gorgeous Boswell Straight that the fine folks at Boswell’s pipes made in 2012. I’d probably recommend letting it sit out for about 15 min before you light it up but I just can’t wait so here goes....

This is some dang good tobacco. The smoke is cool and refreshing. It’s amazing that there is zero tongue bite and does not burn hot like I’d expect. What’s really amazing about this tobacco is that somehow Sutliff manages to back down the Candy smell in the actual smoke to just the right level. It’s definitely not overly sweet but strikes the right balance. The Caramel and Honey are extremely subtle but my tongue doesn’t taste the Vanilla at all. The room note is pretty amazing and I rarely smoke this without someone commenting on how much they love this scent. Final grade is two thumbs up. I bet everyone here can guess what Molto Deliziosa means.

Monte Montemayor

The only really nice thing about this tobacco is it's room note and the delicious smell coming from the tin.

It was extremely wet. So wet, I imagine you could wring water from it. I normally do not judge a tobacco on it's moisture, as most comes wet. Drying it is part of the "ritual". This however after an hour setting on the table under a ceiling fan was still as wet as it was in the tin.

On lighting it stated popping like crazy, almost like it has oil in it or something.

Taste was nothing really like the tin smell, just more of a plastic taste. I don't know where that came from but it wasn't really pleasant.

Overall, I would not recommend this tobacco. It may be good if you are just graduating from captain black or something, but there is much better stuff out there.

Molto Dolce received so many favorable reviews here (I noted that a lot of them come from the mostly non-aromatic smokers) that I had to give it a whirl myself... and I am glad I did! Caramel and Vanilla are two of my favorite aromatic agents in a Cavendish, and I got the full burst of both with each puff. I only purchased one tin with a stack of other Sutliff tobaccos that I wanted to try, but will certainly go back for more at some point. Absolutely delicious!

Pipestud

This is a great aromatic that is very mild on the tobacco end of the spectrum. It has a distinctive pop and crackle when first lit, and the flavors are primarily vanilla/honey with some bread and caramel in the background. My wife said this smelled a lot sweeter than things I usually smoke. Aftertaste was pleasant. I smoked it straight from the tin with no drying.

The mouth feel is very soft, and there is no harshness here at all. As an aromatic, this is a 4 star blend. If you are a fan of the vanilla/honey black cavendish blends, buy some now. You will really like it.

I found this tobacco to have a distinctive artificial smell. Despite the advertised flavor, I don't smell caramel or any other food product. Instead, I detect a vague alcohol topping that I can't quite place.

I detected no flavor in the smoke, even after trying this blend in several dedicated aromatic pipes. I persevered through the entire tin, hoping to detect the wonderful flavors which have garnered this blend much praise, but could only detect sweet steam.

There are many aromatics I enjoy, but this is not one of them. Too wet, too chemical smelling in the tin, no real flavor. I tried to like this one, but it just wouldn't click with me.

I got a tin of this free from JR Cigar after purchasing some other pipe tobacco blends. Lovely tin note upon opening the lid, but a very wet tobacco offering. Literally drenched in casing. A predominantly dark leaf that was oily looking and stained my fingers with loading my pipe. While lighting, it sizzled as if I was lighting pure sugar. Surprisingly, it did not smoke hot. I could not actually taste any vanilla or caramel at first, but with slow smoking, both peaked through from time to time. There was a slight spiciness to the taste which I attributed to the honey - almost a combination of honey and sen sen, and mild at that. Not much in the way of tobacco flavor, and there was the ever present taste of PG. All in all, if you are looking for any tobacco taste whatsoever, look elsewhere. The room note may be appealing, but not enough of a draw to put this into regular rotation for me due to the lack of tobacco flavor and the PG presence. I can't recommend this one and most likely won't finish the tin. While I think about it, it reminded me of C&D's Pennington Gap which I did not care for.