It also coats my briars too, not in a soupy/gunky way but similar to my palate seemingly shuts down other blends even after resting the briar for four or five days. If you want to dedicate and pipe specifically to this blend then have at it.

Due to the casing agents and humectants I cannot recommend this blend.

i'd recommend it. only complaint is the packaging, which i thought was kind of goofy. i couldnt get the tin to close properly. maybe i'm missing something.

anyway, i enjoyed the tobacco itself.

This is strongly cased/topped tobacco that is latakia based. A good sniff into a newly opened tin will burn your nose. It smells good enough that you'll probably go back in for a second however lighter sniff. The first time I smoked it was a year or so ago and it was fresh out of the tin. I was intrigued but it was too much chemical. Overwhelming casing and oily mouth flavour that hung around all day. I let this one air out for a while in sorta sealed can for a few months. It mellowed out nicely.

I'm really impressed. It has a really nice aromatic type flavour with strong underlying natural nutty tobacco flavours. It's strong enough to taste good at the end of the day when other tobaccos might taste like hot air. I smoke it slow and dried to the point that a pinch just barely holds a clump, just before it gets crispy, and it behaves perfectly in the pipe.

I'm normally one to have a distaste for aromatic type blends. Heavy flavourings are usually there to mask the crappy tobacco underneath in my opinion. And why bother with tongue bite. This has none of those attributes and is smooth and comforting to me. It should be a must try for anyone. I'd recommend opening the tin and letting it get some air for a few weeks somehow for the best experience.

Soli Deo gloria!

To Sillem’s credit, Black seems to be made from quality tobacco and I am sure this will appeal to some. On the other hand, I always worry when a manufacturer doesn't seal their foil bags or tins. To me this tends to speak to the use of a high amount of humectants in processing.

Overall, I am okay with the flavor of this blend which is slightly sweet with a bit of a zesty zing (latakia or chemical burn I am unsure). However, the aroma both smoked and unsmoked is cloying and headache inducing, a "flowery hammer" if you will.

No further purchases required.

However, as aromatics go this has a lot of flavor to it, a strong full bodied creaminess courtesy of the Latakia and a natural sweetness from the Cavendish, a truly bizarre medley but it seems to work here somehow.

The tin smell is still that ghastly waft you get from aromatics that reminds me of an air freshener in a public restroom, but it calms down and becomes pleasant and well mannered when you actually light it up.

It doesn't seem to burn as hot and definitely bites far less than its other fragrant cousins, and has a good tobacco flavoring. But most importantly, whatever was added to sweeten this manages to incorporate itself well and doesn't just sit on top like a candy crust.

This is still not something I will smoke often or am likely to purchase again, but it is excellent for what is and perhaps something for me to enjoy when I want something different.

This tobacco is different enough to justify trying once for any pipe smoker and a must try, I would imagine, for someone who enjoys Latakias and aromatics.

I've never really smoked anything like it. Grand Slam!!!!

The Burley in the background can lend a slightly toasty flavor to those looking for it, but I don't detect the Virginia except to say that it is subtly sweet, which I suspect is what they intended.

For all it's nuance and complexity, it is still an aromatic, but a good one.

It smokes cool for me and never bites. No chemical taste like others have reported.

I smoke it in my Sillem's black onyx gentleman's pipe, so maybe I'm biased, but this is a great blend.

I have to disagree with the few reviewers who described this as having an artificial or chemical component. I, like them, can only speculate, but this does not behave like a tobacco which has been treated in that fashion. For one, it is not goopy, and dries very quickly when out of the tin. Second, it does not bite like many cheap aromatics do which have been loaded with sugar and flavors to make them taste like something other than lawn clippings.

It is a cool smoke, and takes a little effort to get it going. Once lit, it burns evenly, with few relights as long as you pay attention. The smoke is rich and voluminous. There is latakia up front, but also the cavendish and VA providing backbone, and that lovely casing which is there in the taste as well as the aroma. It really does not "taste" fruity to me, but that might just be due to the transformative aspects of fire on the blend.

Overall this is very unique, has fine burn qualities, and a wonderful rich flavor.

Example: In 1931, a chemist named Arthur Fox was pouring some powdered PTC into a bottle. When some of the powder accidentally blew into the air, a colleague standing nearby complained that the dust tasted bitter. Fox tasted nothing at all. Curious how they could be tasting the chemical differently, they tasted it again. The results were the same. Fox had his friends and family try the chemical then describe how it tasted. Some people tasted nothing. Some found it intensely bitter, and still others thought it tasted only slightly bitter.