| After years of sticking with the same brands and blends, I am currently on a bit of an adventure trip, trying out blends I have never had before (and sometimes, never even heard of before). Despite Dan Tobacco being a local manufacturer (for me), this is the first time I have smoked one of their blends.
The tin looks somewhat old-fashioned, but then again, I'm not going to smoke the tin, only its contents. Which is a pretty wide, squarish cut; the three tobaccos used for the blend can be easily distinguished. The tin aroma is, as pipestud has noted, pleasant with brown cane sugar in it; the maple note I could not make out.
Given the rather wide cut, this is one for the large bowls; in a narrow bowl it will go out every few minutes. It's easy to pack too tightly; a light hand when filling is essential. If properly stuffed, it will light readily, burn somewhat hot, and the sweet taste is there from the beginning. The room note develops throughout the bowl, from a nice, VA-ish sweetness at the beginning to a wonderfully full, rich, sweet tobacco scent.
The taste, unfortunately, develops in the opposite direction; the first half of the bowl will fulfill the promise of the tin aroma; then it deteriorates noticeably, becoming tarry and bitey towards the end, particularly if smoked without a filter.
Not too hard to maintain in a large bowl, burning down to the very last crumbs. I'd say this blend is definitely one for the filter smokers. I tried this in a Falcon, too, but won't make that mistake again; the Falcon bowls are just too small for this blend: it burned hot and developed quite a bit of condensation.
Not an entirely bad tobacco, but there are plenty of other fish in the barrel.
UPDATE: After smoking all of my first tin, I seem to have acquired a taste for this blend. Sipping extra slowly is the ticket for me; that way this leaf doesn't turn tarry towards the end and gives a satisfying smoke throughout. Do use a filter, though. Up-rating by one star to "recommended."
Afterthought on the tin: it says "A sweet and gentle blend in the real American style" around the edge. Now, I may not be much of a judge of American blends, but so far most "American" aromatics I have tried were somewhere between horrible and garbage (especially the ones made in Europe...), so this one stands out by being definitely palatable.
FURTHER UPDATE. 09-05-23: Having tried this blend in a corn cob a few times, I find it behaves so well that I have to wonder whether the blenders had Missouri Meerschaum pipes in mind from the beginning. No bite, nice sweet smoke, not too hot, even burn... I can just about imagine myself sitting on a porch somewhere on the Bayou, smoking this blend in a cob while sipping Bourbon on the rocks...
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