Hearth & Home Vermont Meat Candy

Now this is an interesting one! Mostly medium brown with slight specks of dark, and a tin nose that delivers on its promise of maple and something sorta like bacon - a smokiness that's not latakia. This feels overly moist in the bag but I did not need to dry it out. It smoked very dry, and I don't just mean the moisture in the pipe but also the taste was dry. Very different and enticing. Reminded me of Boswell's version of 1-Q in the "dry on the tongue" feeling.

The taste was typical American cavendish with a very noticeable hint of maple. Strong maple on the room note. The taste also had the unmistakeable hint of smokiness that one would get from bacon. Not an actual bacon taste but fairly close. I'll be durned if this didn't bring up the experience of eating pancakes and bacon and having the syrup collide with the pig! A hint of saltiness with the hint of smoke and the sweetness, just as Russ promises.

Ok, this isn't something I'll smoke a lot of, but it's an excellent take on the traditional American-style cavendish-driven aromatic. I believe I'll pick up a few oz from time to time and I thank the internet buddy that sent me this sample. Interesting stuff and fun to smoke.

Unbelievable blend! I thought the bacon thing in the descriptive was a little over the top - but it wasn't over the top, it was true!

A terrific morning smoke for those who like to start their day with sweet aromatic blends. I normally don't, but the combination sure worked for me as a change of pace.

Pipestud

The rich maple flavored cavendish is the star, and also has a couple grass notes. The fire cured dark burley adds a little earth, wood and nuts, plus a hint of salt and spice to its smoky character. I don’t quite get a bacon meat flavor per se’, but the other qualities are mildly present due to the hickory smoke curing of the burley. You’ll barely notice the tobacco taste by design. The strength is in the middle of mild to medium, while the taste level is a step or two closer to medium. The nic-hit is very mild. Won’t bite or get harsh. The tobacco is a little moist, but I saw no need to dry it. Burns cool and clean at a slightly slow pace (if not dried, which I don’t recommend doing) with a very sweet and lightly savory, fairly smooth, deep, consistent flavor all the way through. Leaves just a little moisture in the bowl, and needs a few relights. Has a very pleasant, lingering after taste and room note. Can be an all day smoke. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

This blend (to me) is the same base as H&H's Latham Circle but with a touch of dark fired Kentuck to bring out that bacony taste.

The DFK brings an interesting component to the blend, a dry heat if you will, not at all unlike Buffalo Wild Wings Desert Heat dry rub or similar smokey/sweet rubs you would use while grilling.

All that said this blend is super tasty! This was one of my first aromatics that I actually understood and could identify the individual tastes, a true compliment to the blender!

Do not try and search for any kind of buttery sweetness, it's simply not there. This blend hops on the maple/bacon bandwagon and takes over the reigns! What you will get is the smoky goodness of hickory cured bacon and the aroma of maple from thick creamy smoke billowing from your pipe.

This is a great blend that provides an amazing mustache note and will leave you craving your next bowl full.

Vermont Meat Candy was a let down for me. After all the hype about this blend I expected more. I did have a lot of flavor to it but more a chemical taste than anything. Tobacco burned far to hot, lead to tongue bite and fowled up my pipe with a chemical ghost. Overall, I was very disappointed with Vermont Meat Candy.

Once again disappointed. I was very excited for this blend to arrive. Out of the tin it smelt kind of weird. A bit like overly used casing. The strength was okay, and the room note was okay.

The taste however was there, but it was not good. They tried way to hard to make this blend pop, and made nothing but a tongue biting, foul tasting let down.

I may have gotten carried away, but it's all opinions, and I hope this helps somebody.

Noticed that this is currently back ordered (Memorial Day weekend 2014) at Pipes &Cigars. Disappointing, because I need more and am reduced to rationing what little I've left of it! The "Meat" in the name may be off-putting to some.... fear not! It's delish. A better name might have been "Smokehouse Maple"... but wouldn't perhaps be as catchy.... This blend captures for me the essence of a Mapley-Hickoryish glaze.... not too sweet, but not bitter.... one sec...... smoking some now...... wow. Yep... these flavors just dance together here! I don't perceive any of the "chemical" flavors some other reviewers write about... my sample is full, rich,and to me a great balance of sweet and savory.... Seems that perhaps as has been mentioned, some reviewers got a different off- batch??? I see myself reaching for this often, when not wanting candy tobacco, and not being able to face a heavy English.... could Hickory cured Burley be my new Latakia? ... perhaps!. (This is a maple aromatic, yet the hickory smoked flavors come from the fire cured. Rather a semi-aromatic to me along the lines of a mapley Frog Morton, with fire-cured standing in for Latakia) Try a sample of this... I think many will be sold... and I need more folks to order it to keep it always available! Top notch stuff, and an imaginative blend.

VMC is a pleasant change of pace smoke. The Cavendish is excellent and no too overly sweet. The burly adds a nutty component and the Ky adds the smoky essence of, well a smoke house in the early winter. The maple topping is tasty and plays well with the tobaccos. Bacon, well the hickory smoke of it but not the porky saltiness. Behaves well in the pipe and burns dry with little or no goopy moisture. Produces copious amounts of fragrant smoke. All in all a winner for me.

Well I just got back from lunch and had a club sandwich with bacon, so I can safely tell you I know what bacon tastes like and this was not it. I'll admit the smell of maple is in the bag, and I suppose you might convince me I'm smelling bacon. There is a grassy/wheaty smell that could be construed as a savory element.

Once lit though, everything was just dry and unpleasant, even though textually it was fairly moist. Burned well and hot with some smokey depth to it, yet it wasn't what I found tasty. Another mystery was how the ash kept poofing up and making a mess when I puffed on it.

By the end of the bag, I grew to enjoy it a bit more. Not sure if it was a newer pipe I used, but I also got the taste of a cedar box... that dry, seasoned wood scent you smell when first walking into a sauna.

I feel it is just another aromatic trap that advertises more than is possible in a flavored tobacco.

As a lover of bacon, I really hoped this tobacco would be special. I opened the pouch and disappointment set in. I can't really put my finger on it, but it smelled more of chemicals than a run-of-the-mill aromatic. Once lit, the chemicals came through in the taste. I did not pick up a bacon taste at all and to top it off, it burned hot. I handed it off to my son-in-law, a smoker of English blends and Maduro cigars who thought it was "ok." That was generous! The room note got a thumbs down from the Mrs.