Packing & Lighting: Packs easily, the tobacco having a soft, fluffy feel. Lights easily, burns well, without producing much moisture.

Taste & Aroma: A nice, soft nougat, tasting slightly burnt at the end. Unfortunately, a lot of the casing is left in the packaging. No where near as strong as the tin aroma.

Nicotine: moderately strong buzz that lingers

Room Note: decent, similar to aroma

Overall: I smoked drugstore aromatics for 26 years, Captain Black, mostly Golden, almost exclusively, for 18 of those years. One of the better aromatic(cased, flavored) blends I've smoked. Oddly enough, this aromatic blend would make a good transition to non-aromatics, in that 509 is tinned, good quality, no dottle, and has significant nicotine. In the context of an aromatic, 3.7 stars.

I was going to add this to my pipe club's tobacco bar this month. After smoking a bowl I quickly determined that if I want to live a while longer, I'd better forget that thought in a hurry.

This was the first aromatic that I ever smoked and perhaps this is where my disgust originates. I opened the tin and the paper packaging was soaked in a dark brown syrup that seeped through. I immediately emptied the tin and found that the paper was stuck to the bottom.

After tearing it loose, I found that the can was oxidized clear through. I could smell the metal not from five inches away as the syrup had eaten away at the shiny finish. I immediately discarded the tin and stuck the tobacco in an old Nightcap tin.

It took a lengthy time lighting the thing and when I finally got it smoking all I could taste was the syrup. I even tried watering it down with some Haddo's Delight and after that some Early Morning Pipe, but it was a lost cause.

I wish I could throw this thing into the Grand Canyon. If future archaeologists found this tobacco as the sole artifact of our civilization, they would think we were a sorry bunch. Save the five bucks and buy yourself a yoyo or something.

The casing seems to have diminished considerably in the drying. What was left was a light and ultra-cool smoke. There was not even the slightest hint that this tobacco would ever bite. Sufficiently dried, it lit easily and burned to the bottom without a fuss. It burned so cool in a thin-walled meerschaum that the bowl (in an air conditioned room) barely even got warm. You could easily smoke this all day long, though I suspect it would become boring fairly quickly as it is quite monochromatic. The slightly unpleasant aftertaste I often get from Black Cavendish simply wasn?t there. The room note was quite pleasant and light.

509 smokes very cool and has a pleasant sweet taste to it. It is definitely a candy or dessert smoke rather than an all-day or any occassion smoke and while it is considerably stronger than many cased blends it is definitely not a high nicotine smoke.

This tobacco is very enjoyable for what it is, although it is certainly far too cased and simplistic to be my primary smoke I certainly enjoy it on some occassions and would purchase it again.

The description on the tin (see above) is right on. It is a very cool smoke--no tongue bite. It is indeed moist, but I was amazed how well it stayed lit for such a dark cavendish. I had previously tried some bulk dark cavendish, but had trouble keeping it lit; it was too syrupy. Now, straight out of the tin this isn't perfect; it doesn't stay lit as reliably as an uncased, or an English blend, but it holds its own. I let it dry out a bit, and that improved things greatly.

The flavor is warm, seductive nougat/vanilla-like marriage, though not overpowering. It is so unobtrusive that there is no ugly aftertaste after smoking it. The consistency is rich and smooth. The room aroma is sumptuous: sitting in another room, my wife and my buddy's pregnant wife both loved the aroma wafting its way from underneath the closed door of my buddy's library as we smoked away. That should be the mother of all room aroma endorsements.

I try to smoke it in the morning if I know I'm going to have a rough day because the after-smoke moustache aroma is as wonderful as the taste. The morning after smell is also pleasant, much like the aroma while its being smoked.

Great tin aroma, wonderful flavor and room aroma, including the day after, no tongue bite; this is a great tobacco.

High class captain black.