The smell is deep and sweet, molasses like. It smells pretty good, but it was quite moist as well. I was Surprised how mild it was after how deep it smelled. it was like smoking nothing at all, what's the point?

I love dark, deep, smooth cigars, but I could hardly notice any real flavor at all. Just enough to know that I would like to find a Cavendish of much higher quality, in that i guess it served it's purpose. This tobacco needs to be dried out, as it took a lot of matches to keep it lit, which takes the relaxation out of it constantly relighting and just trying to keep it going.

I may blend this with the Altadis Fox and Hound I got from the local store as well, just to see how that goes.

This blend was simply too bland and simple for me. I'm not a black Cavendish fanatic but i definitely thought this blend was lacking in character. It's worth a shot but i wouldn't recommend it over casual conversation.

It still took a whole match to light. As I puffed away getting it going, there was no taste at all. I inhaled a puff just to see if there was any taste there, but there wasn't. I could tell I had inhaled smoke (sacrelidge to some, a norm for others) but upon blowing it out, there was an almost imperceptible flavor of nuttiness. On occasion I had to remove the stem of the pipe and blow out the condensation. Perhaps I could have let the tobacco dry a bit more. I hate a gurgling pipe, and blow out my stems quite often while smoking. Since I do most of my smoking outdoors, it's not an issue.

I noticed almost no tongue bite once the bowl was burning well (no surprise there). I smoked slowly and deliberately, enjoying the mellow taste and aroma. Halfway through, I stopped for a full 5 minutes, letting the bowl cool down and waiting for the fire to go out. As an outdoorsman, I frequently get engaged in some side activity and have to put down my pipe for a minute or two. I find that some tobaccos get worse when they sit, and some do not.

After tamping, the bowl lit right up with about half a match to spare. The taste had not changed. I smoked for a while longer, and then did the inhalation test again.

I was pleasantly surprised. The nuttiness had grown stronger and sweeter. The flavor was excellent. It seemed that the closer I got to the bottom of the bowl, the richer the flavor. If they could steep this brand in it's own juices for just a bit longer during the fermentation, I believe it could be the best single cavendish around.

The taste will be dissapointing to some connoissuers, but for beginners, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Being a black cavendish fan, Midnight Smoke is an easy pick (the fact that the pouch looks very similar to Blue Note probably influenced my decision as well). Once in the car, I can't resist opening it and taking a whiff (I didn't have a pipe with me), and the smell coming from the bag is IN-CRED-I-BLE...like a black cherry and vanilla brandy. I think I actually may have started salivating a bit.

Once home, I go to fill a bowl, and notice this stuff is so moist, it's amost wet...and even a bit sticky. I leave some out to dry for an hour or so, then fill my pipe with it and attempt to light. And attempt again. And again.

This tobacco doesn't want to start, and maybe I should have let it guide me because, once it's stoked, a horrible perfume flavor begins coating my tongue. I'm not talking about the normal propylene glycol chemical flavor, I mean full-on perfume...like I just licked a sample card from a women's magazine. Nasty. And then, there's the gurgle. Now, I'm fairly new to pipes, having only smoked about 100-120 bowls of some 40-ish different blends, but I've never experienced gurgle like this. Not only that, but nothing will abate it..not packing, not changing my draw, nothing. I even smoked the same bowl three times over a 24 hour period (figuring the heat would let the tobacco dry out a bit) and it still gurgled just as badly the third time as it did the first.

And I don't think I even need to go into the residue, do I?

So sad. Why do all the great smelling aromatics smoke the worst? I'll let this dry out until next winter, and then I'll give it another go, first on its own, and then mixed with some burley. I really want to like it, but fresh out of the pouch it's completely unsmokable.

Update, Saturday 5:01am. Well I finished a bowl of this, and I still wonder where the tobacco went? I noted that when I cleaned out the last bit of dottle, it was rather wet looking, so I would imagine that I will have to clean out my pipe after every single smoke of this stuff. Still overall, for a free sample it wasn't that bad. I have smoked worse. Borkum Riff Jamaican Rum comes to mind.

Sunday 7:06am. I decided to try another bowl of this stuff. I can't make up my mind about this tobacco. I think one must either like it or hate it. I happen to like many cavendish blends, so I'm gonna give this one a few more trys, and then I'll come back and give it my final verdict.

Saturday 12/29/07 I have discovered a good use for this Midnight Smoke. Use it as a mix for tobacco's with a bad bite, or a bad taste. I had some older Borkum Riff which had been laying around for quite some time, so I decided to mix up two parts of Borkum Riff to one part Midnight Smoke. Turned some rather unsmokable crapola into something not too bad.

Not recommended at all.

If you want a crowd pleaser, this is a good one to fire up, but otherwise, I'd steer clear of it.

So, here goes:

1. This might be the most tasteless tobacco I've ever smoked.

2. It has had the bite totally removed by some serious stewing.

3. It is easy to pack but is quite moist and will not dry out.

4. If you are alergic to nicotine, then this is your manna from heaven.

5. If you require nicotine, Midnight Smoke will cause severe withdrawl symptoms.

It smokes very cool, and won't bite.