Peter Stokkebye Heather Raspberry

This kind of tobacco is really not my kind of thing. That being the case however, it really isn't too bad. It is certainly the first fruit flavored tobacco that I could appreciate. Unlike other fruity aromatics, I only tasted tobacco and rasberries- no chemicals whatsoever! This is a good thing. The flavoring is never over the top and the smoking characteristics are great. In the end though, the lack of complexity that goes along with these kinds of blends is simply too boring to smoke much more than once in a blue moon. If you like a good aromatic however, this may be just the ticket.

I was not expecting this tobacco to be this good! My favorite tobaccos are non-aromatics but this tobacco has earned my respect. A little 7 gram foil packet of this Heather Raspberry came to me as a gift earlier this year and I chose it to smoke this afternoon. Visual inspection of the tobacco indicated quality preparation, no stems or or tough leaf veins/midribs. Moisture level was just right upon opening the foil pouch, so I smoked it immediately. The smoking characteristics were very good; it smoked cool and fairly dry in both pipes I used (Savinelli Capri stacked billiard and an Orlik Captain Black billiard). In both cases, I only had to use one pipe cleaner to clear moisture. The flavor was very good; both the natural tobacco flavor and the raspberry flavor were in good measure. The raspberry flavor was not overbearing and tasted very good, not artificial tasting. This tobacco was easy to keep lit.

Heather Raspberry.

When it come's to aromatic's,I'm very hard to please. I enjoy Virginia's,V-Perique,Balkan's and English tobacco's. H/R is good,it's easy to light with a very nice flavour that is not thick or sickly. The taste is very nice throughout the bowl and leave's a nice clean grey white ash,at the end. Great for new smoker's or as a change of pace,or as an all day smoke. People around,also love it. Highly recommended,for an aromatic. 10 out of 10

Heather Raspberry is one of my staples in my aromatic collection. It is just mild enough for me to be considered an every day favorite but with enough flavor and room note to be unmistakable to every one that I smoke around. The top half of the bowl has a wonderful raspberry zing to it that you can feel on your tongue that diminishes as you progress through the bowl. It smokes fairly cool in a straight medium sized bowl but tends to heat up in my small tapering bowls. There is no noticeable bite at all and I you really have to smoke it HOT to make it gurgle. Over all a pleasant middle of the road aromatic that is fruity but not so over powering.

Heather Raspberry has a fraternal twin in the Peter Stokkebye family: Heather Honey. They differ in complexion- whereas Heather Honey has a more burley/brown cavendish base Heather Raspberry is based on a black cavendish, as noted in the tin description. The black component of HR is 50+% while in HH it is more like 15-20%

This is not a good tradeoff IMO. Both have a quite floral pouch aroma which carries over into the taste of the smoke. (it is interestingly akin to the soapiness of Lakeland/Kendal-style flakes). On top of this floral note is the secondary flavoring, honey or raspberry. The combination of the honey and the burley goes together better than the black cav/raspberry combination. I am beginning to find that black cavendish has a bland/flat taste that, while mild, can give an "off" taste to aromatics, if used in too great a proportion. I think PS overdoes the black cav in Heather Raspberry a bit.

It should be noted that neither blend is cloyingly sweet, if one is to find either of them objectionable, it is more likely to be due to the soapy/floral topping.

All that being said, I still enjoy HR, but will likely run out of HH much sooner. (HH is a real winner in my book.)