Peter Stokkebye - French Vanilla pipe tobacco reviews

Review

Please log in to add or edit a review. If you do not have an account yet, you can sign up for one here.

Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 22 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
FlatCapMatt	01/22/2013	Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
I'm smoking a bowl of this right now in my Peterson pipe. It just seems to be a truly average tobacco. There's nothing really notable about it. I can't really taste much vanilla in mine. I'm getting a bit of gurgle down past the halfway mark. I wouldn't choose this over "Nougat" or "Pistachio" for example. Room note is ok, pretty typical of aromatics. There's not much wrong with this blend, but it doesn't really do anything to stand out. In Australia where it costs me $10 for a 10g sample, that means it's doubtful I'd buy any more of it when I could get something I like better. If I lived in America, where tobacco is a lot cheaper, I might buy a bit of this every now and then for variety.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
BlacksmithTim	07/26/2012	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I have not had the troubles with this that others have mentioned. The first few bowls I didn't really taste the vanilla and don't sense much vanilla odor from the pouch. About bowl number three the vanilla finally came thought. Not overly strong, just a light pleasant taste of it. Personally I'd like something stronger. Smokes well. Nothing exciting in my book, however.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Big Blue Jazzman	03/09/2012	Mild	Medium	Medium	Pleasant
Burns very well, no gurgle, quality tobacco, and a pleasant taste and room aroma. A very nice aromatic!
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
rattdogg	03/22/2011	Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant
I'm sure I've smoked this blend in the past but I did not have any memory of it. I pick up a couple of ounces at a local shop to give it a try. I am not a huge fan of vanilla tobacco but at two bucks per oz. I wasn't risking much. Pleasant suprise! This stuff is not half bad. It has a very strong vanilla scent in the pouch but that does not carry over to the pipe. Once I had it fired up the vanilla moved to the back and decent tobacco flavor was front and center. It burned with no bite and no bitter ending. It did not leave any gooey crap in the bottem of the piper either. I don't know that I'll rush out and buy a pound any time real soon but I've certainly smoked worse blends. Overall, I rather like it.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
TK Pipe	12/27/2010	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
PS French Van… Sold as a bulk tobacco, in the form of a mostly rubbed out flake. Its aroma is a very pleasant vanilla, though somewhat strong. I also found it to be a bit fire retardant, so some drying time and a firm tamp was used, which helped, but still needed several relights. The pipe used for this review was a bent briar, a favorite for smoking aromatic blends. From what I can gather, from 6 or 7 bowls I had of this concoction, the tobacco taste came through nicely, whereas all that tin aroma shows up only faintly, as well it should. As for the tobacco’s flavor profile, it seems not too different from, good old Velvet, (OTC) only not as smooth or tasty. Overall a bit crude, at least from this OTC smoker’s point of view. Very reminisce of some of my past homebrew effords. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but that is my experience, and I realize your mileage could vary considerably, but that’s OK, If we all agreed on such things, there would be no need for this site, then what would you read? Bottom line, what’s left of the original 4 ounces I purchased, will probably get fairly old before it’s used up. For what it is. Somewhat recommended, 2 stars.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
strongirish	09/17/2010	Mild	Mild	Medium	Very Pleasant
I bought this one on a lark as i sometimes get in the mood for something sweet and out of the norm of my of late love affair with VA's, Vapers, and Virginia based aros such as MB Vanilla Flake. It did not expect much from it, but it was cheap and I like a lot of blends from PS. Bot was I surprised! This is a good blend that could easily be an all day blend. It comes in the pouch, mine was bulk, as a partially rubbed out flake, medium brown in color and the pouch aroma is soft and sweet with a little bit of a cross between vanilla and chocolate. It is a burley base but I think there is some VA in it as well. I rememinds me a lot of the old Amphora Green. It arrives in just the right moisture content so I did not have to dry it out any, and it was very easy to load in my pipe. It is very easy to light, rises a lot upon lighting so i had to tamp and relight and it stayed lit with no issues from that point on. The first puffs are a very creamy, lightly flavored vanilla burley. Very smooth and rich but not in your face with the vanilla. It is rich flavored on the tongue and the room note is just wonderful. Throughout the bowl it keeps it's manners and does not bite at all, yet it is not one of those mild aros that you feel you have to puff hard to taste. This one burns nice and slow and cool and satifies so it must have a pretty good "N" factor. It never becomes cloying in the bowl and remains constant througout, does not turn into a wet glob at the end but burns to a fine dar grey and black ash with very little dottle at the bottom. It does not leave your pipe soaking wet either. I literally could not find one thing I do not like about this blend so I have to say I highly recomment it. I don't give too many blends this rating but I am that impressed with it. A nice change of pace aro and the price is dirt cheap. Has to be one of the best vanilla blends on the market at any price.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
DK	12/26/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
WOW! Either PS has changed the blend since the last reviews or I just got lucky! I'll take it, whichever it is.... I found the pouch aroma nauseating. It smelled like synthetic something that was trying to be vanilla. I was not impressed, and I'm a little surprised that I even fired it up. But I'm quite glad I did. I could barely taste any vanilla - it was more of a hint. But it really smoothed out the burley "flakelets"... really little "spikes" of pretty well rubbed out flake, but not to a ribbon extent. The high quality tobacco taste came through, while emitting a very nice room aroma. No bite to this if smoked slowly, which is something I'm used to as a confirmed VaPer aficionado. The taste was consistent all the way down the bowl, and there's something in that phenomenon that always spells "quality" to me. If you're a committed aromatic smoker (and the name of this blend tells me that most who have tried it probably are), you most likely will not care for this. But treat it gently and you'll find a consistently creamy and tasty smoke that, while not destined for the Tobacco Hall of Fame, will certainly please the smoker and those around him. Kudos to Stokkebye for creating a truly high quality aromatic!
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
al1	04/08/2008	Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
If you use your pipe as an air freshener this might work for you. If you are like me and think tobacco should taste good to the smoker then you will most likely hate this as did I. Not anything positive to say for this blend other than it is cheap. I will leave it at that.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
rhapsodyofmetal	12/26/2007	Extremely Mild	Medium	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant
This was the first tobacco I ever tried and was not really impressed and was disillusioned at first with pipe smoking. I gave it a few shots and it became better.Not great...not good, but ok. It was flat and tasted like ash flavored vanilla. It is only for room note when it is important.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Slow Triathlete	12/16/2007	Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I purchased this blend because I'm trying to find a good vanilla tobacco blend that isn't all gooped up with PG and will actually dry out enough to enjoy. This so far has not dissapointed. It drys out very well if set out for a bit before your smoke. I dry mine out usually about an hour beforehand. I would rank this up there with the CAO/Dan Tobacco Treasures of Ireland - Galway but this Stokkebye blend is a lot cheaper in price. I love both but will keep this blend around as my everyday smoke. It has a pleasant vanilla room note. However, my tobacco does not have an overly-vanilla taste. I can still taste the flavor of tobacco in there. I recommend this blend.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
constantsmoker	09/27/2007	Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Perhaps the folks at Stokkebye have 'tweaked' this blend since the last review of the product (8/06, below). Although on the moist side, air drying helped immeasurably and, I think, brought out the vanilla flavor/sweetness and eliminated any goop build up in my pipe. It burns fairly cool; well, take your time and you will suffer no tongue bite. If you enjoy a hearty vanilla-cased aromatic, this is a good one.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Maimonides	08/26/2006	Mild	Medium to Strong	Mild	Pleasant
Another vanilla I would recommend only over drug store vanillas. it is a fairly decent aromatic of reasonable price.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
romaso	06/28/2006	Mild	Medium	Medium	Tolerable
Being an empiricist, I had to try this for myself, and while I didn't find it as awful as many others here, I would say there are many much better vanillas out there. If you're smoking this or are looking for a strong vanilla, I'd suggest you try Stokkebye Vanilla Gold or Nat Sherman 314, both of which have much better strong vanilla flavor than this one.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
ASW	08/26/2004	Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Daniel Morlan	08/07/2004	Very Mild	Very Strong	Medium	Very Pleasant
I bought this to please my wife. (So that I could actually smoke a pipe in the house.) And I regretted it. It smells so good in the bag, and the room note is really really nice, but it has a taste to it that is sort of overbearing, and extremely synthetic. I like "soapy" lakeland blends, but not with this kind of vanilla taste. I really burned my tongue seriously bad on this blend, and in an unexplainable fit of massochistic lust, I put a listerine strip on my tongue just minutes afterward. My wife loved the way it made the house smell, and while I love her so much, there's no way I'm smoking that blend again. It's not as bad as some I've had. This tobacco at least HAD a flavor that had a few tiny pieces of redeeming qualities. It's mostly the tongue bite that makes this a "not my cup of tea" blend. Again, I'll say this to all who love it: God bless. I do not like this tobacco at all. Daniel
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Hunter	07/01/2004	Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable
I picked up a few ounces of this by accident, looking for Sweet Vanilla. I am a big aromatics fan and especially fond of good vanilla blends. Nice taste of plastic, artifical vanilla flavor and little plastic souvenier Eiffel Towers or something like that. Did I mention the plastic taste? I think if you steeped shredded milk jugs in cheap artificial vanilla, you might come close to this. Considering PS is a generally decent line of inexpensive bulk tobacco, this was extremely disappointing.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Aldo	11/10/2003	Very Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Is that a dead Frenchman or a rotten vanilla bean which crawled into my bowl? Tastes like soap or formaldehyde. Somewhere between tasteless and yuck.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
omegapd	10/23/2003	Mild to Medium	Strong	Medium	Very Pleasant
Like other reviewers have noted, not the best of the Stokkebye line. This looks fantastic in the pouch- a mix of broken flake and yellowish ribbon. I also thought the pouch aroma was wonderful and definately vanilla. Same goes for the room aroma. But, it bites like crazy. I mean just awful. 2 puffs and you're feeling it already. No matter what size bowl or what you do with the rubbing out, etc. it never changes. The bowl will get super hot in a heartbeat, also. I'd be interested in trying the toned down version of this blend, but then again, I won't go out of my way looking for it either.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Pipestud	10/23/2003	Medium to Strong	Extra Strong	Mild to Medium	Very Strong
Frankly, I was not going to own up to the fact that I tried a bowl of this. I knew better. What Lustra said, and then some.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
DUPE.629	10/22/2003	Mild	Very Strong	Full	Pleasant
October-2003. Just like trying to smoke an extra strong Vanilla Thick Shake.And very difficult to keep lit.No applause here!
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 22 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >