Taste: Chemical factory. I didn't get any hint of the vanilla and the fruit notes came across as very artificial and chemical tasting. I understand that many aromatics have a tendancy to taste artificial. This particular blend is just a chemical taste to me. I didn't like it at all.

Room note: Pleasant. It smells nice enough, although I was a little disapointed here as well. The bargain bag of Smokers Pride Whiskey smells much better.

Final thoughts: I suppose they can't all be winners. The biggest turn off I had with this blend is the bite. It bites really hard. I truely expected this to be better. Maybe I got a bad tin? I suppose that is possible, but I'm not buying a second tin on the chance that may be true.

Moontrance is another animal however, for a couple of reasons. First, it is a more well -balanced and less cavendish heavy blend. I like cavendish, and some of my favorite blends use it as the primary condiment leaf. The CAO cavendish, however, strikes me as similar to the goopy drugstore variety, and that I do not care for at all. This, however, has less of that effect (although it is still there, alas), and has evident virginias which are absent in the two aforementioned blends. This smells nice from the tin, but it is a lot less fruity than the description might lead you to believe, and less so than other fruit-topped or cased aromatics. With that said, the tin aroma is very pleasant with a nice sweet heaviness to it, some fruit overtones, and even a little lakeland type floral odor. The room note while smoking has even less fruit, but is a rich sweet mixtures of tobacco and honey. I really do not detect the bourbon, but for me this flavor rarely stands out, so perhaps that is just how my palate works.

Second, the burning characteristics are pleasant, and that is what pushed this into 3 star category. It is not overly damp in the tin and dries nicely. That is always a good sign, as it means that they have not used a heavy hand with the humectants. I personally try to avoid smoking those types of additives, and stay away from blends which have clearly been coated in the stuff. it takes a char nicely, and with one or two relights burns readily, and not too hot if you do not puff wildly. While it never reaches any serious level of flavor, strength, or complexity, I agree with some of the other reviewers who have noted that it improves and becomes richer (not rich, but richer than where it started from) throughout the bowl. It burns with a nice clean ash and does not seem to funk the pipe. Tongue bite is minimal to nonexistent with proper pacing.

This is nice aromatic. I do not think that it rises to the level of the truly great aros (if you are looking for this type of aromatic, Boswell does it better, and I personally like the English style aromatics which are usually less casing-forward, and offer a richer tobacco experience), but it is a tasty change of pace. It seems that a little age will do it good. This would be a good blend for smoking if you are planning on a multiple bowl day, as it is easy on the tongue and palate.

Tobacco taste comes through, and a slight sweetness of the vanilla and fruits. Flavoring is done with a light hand, and is not one bit cloying. Burns very clean and dry, which is is a hard trait to find in aromatics. I've been smoking Va flakes almost exclusively the last few months, it was nice to take a break with Moontrance.

Update: I now alternate this with other aro's and enjoy the rotation very much. SWMBO is a fan. So, win-win.

Complex indeed and very sweet but I would shine brightly if it were not for the chemical flavor that dominates everything.

This would be a great tobacco were it not for that. I can't even identify it specifically. Its just got this lakeland perfume chemical thing going on in front of the good stuff. I gave this to a friend who actually got sick from it.

This stuff is pricey enough, so don't waste your money honey on chemical perfumes in the toby.