I haven't smoked this in years, but with the reviews over the last few months I thougt I would try it again. Royal tastes sweet, and your bystanders may like the aroma. It is just over half the price of a tin of a good blend. But there's just not very much for me to enjoy, as it is light in taste and strength, and what taste there is is not satisfying. Royal is not awful, but it is not very good either.

I understand many people on this forum might not like it because it is an aromatic or that it is just a cheap easy blend to obtain. I give you all this challenge, age this tobacco. I am sitting on some that is 17 years old and is absolutely fantastic!

I bought a pouch of this back in 9/06 while on a bird hunting excursion in Northern Michigan. I was out of my go to aromatic Nording's Retriever, so I bought a pouch of this.

I was quite pleased with the vanilla room note and the appearance of quality tobacco. It is wet, and can burn wet, unless dried out a bit. Lighting was easy after the dry time.

For those who are just starting out and looking for an aromatic you can buy in a store locally, this one is a good choice.

The aroma is unmistakably vanilla and I have only ever gotten compliments about it. I work at a super market and though the designated area for smoking is plenty far from the door and the main flow of traffic, it is directly in front of the handicap parking and we get a lot of complaints from our older customers about the smell of all the people with ciggarets. I'm happy to say I get compliments with this blend (one customer even went to my manager to make a compliment about my choice, brownie points for me :-D), even with some customers stopping to enjoy the aroma for a minute. Older ladies (and some yonger one, if any of you single guys are wondering about the appeal of your pipe to the dating world) have often expressed there enjoyment of this tobacco.

So if you are looking for a good aromatic this is a good choice. Or if you like that nicotine fix. If you want something to sit back and enjoy for hours and relax with I would suggest something ealse. Its likability to other people is why I keep it for the most part. Not the greatest tobac but all in all its not bad.

This is the first tobacco I purchased (I had recived 2 .5 oz bags from a site, but they are not listed on this site).

I bought the 1.5 oz pouch. I was rushed for time, so I wasn't able to browse the entire selection.

As far as smell out of the pouch goes, It is amazing. For some reason I almost detect a faint scent of berries, chochlate, and vanillia. HOWEVER... The chchlate and vanillia are very mild.

As far as how it easy it is to keep lit, I would say pretty easy provided you pack it correctly. I tend to gravity fill, but compress it a bit, more so once it is almost fully filled.

I use a lighter the majority of the time, as it seems to taste better, but it will burn hottor for about 5-10 seconds.

After it is actually lit, it has almost no flavor, and the smoke seems very weak. About 1/4th of the way through it picks up a bit. 1/2 way through with me, it usualy goes out and need to be relit. The bottom 1/4th of the bowl gets stronger, and actually has some flavor. The only problem is most of the time the flavor is rather acrid.

All in all I would probably choose another blend. Possibly captain black -white and cut it with 25% pa to get some nutty burly flavor.

Ok for a first smoke, but do not expect anything spectacular. The best attribute would probably be roomnote.

I smoked this a lot during my first 3-4 years as a pipe smoker. It didn't taste like much, lacked nicotine, but people LOVED the room note.

It wouldn't smoke dry either...

Enough said.

Despite the name, I consider this a poor cousin to the famous White package. It has quite a lot of Black Cavendish by appearance, but it is less rich than the White. The vanilla flavour is much less predominant but the overall effect has less character. The cut is a little coarser, which makes it less susceptible to over-tamping (good). As a "drugstore" Cavendish, this is just fine by me, but it doesn't deserve the name "Royal". I would have no hesitation in buying another pouch at 11:00 PM if nothing else were available, and I would recommend it for beginning smokers, but.... What else can I say except "but..."?

I probably would have chosen a different brand for my first, but as I found my self in Central Asia at the time and "good" tobacco was somewhat scarce I found my self drawn to the ever available Captain Black. I picked the Royal blend solely by chance and after consuming about half of the packet I went back to purchase the CB White as well (review will be added under CB White).

CB Royal has a tremendous smell as one opens the package, somewhat subtle chocolate, it is intriguing if one enjoys aromatics. It did seem a bit on the wet side though. After crumbling the tobacco for a few seconds the most moist seemed to vanish and the easy to handle tobacco was ready for packing.

While packing CB Royal the sweet scent entices for lighting up this chocolate delight.

Smoking CB Royal is somewhat of a letdown. The initial few minutes are quite delightful, but after a while it seems to smoke rather hot if one does not stay within the speed limit (I smoke rather slow as it is but doesn't seem slow enough) and halfway through a bowl of this two faced tobacco the tongue bite kicks in and the fun and games are over. At this point the sweet taste also seems to perform a vanishing act and one is left with a tongue crying for something soothing, but a room note the rest of your party can enjoy.

After having tried several other tobaccos since first trying CB Royal I can see this easily available tobacco for what it is. A good first time tobacco (it kept me going and wanting more) that also will do in a pinch or for myself when I feel nostalgic, but not a saturday afternoon by the fire place tobacco.