BCA is appealing to smell, both in the pouch and when being smoked. It burns fairly cool, but is too wet/gurgling for my tastes. I like more of a natural tobacco flavour and little of that somes through in this, as with nearly all aromatics. Taste is more of a wet chemical steam-which while not unpleasent isn't fulfilling either.

This is better than many of the aromatics I have smoked, however, so I will give it 2 stars based on that. Prince Albert (which I have also rated at 2) is a far superior tobacco, but my tastes lean toward a non-aromatic, so I am biased.

One thing worth mentioning is that this tobacco makes a great blender. For a tobacco whose room note is not overly appealing, you can use this (sparingly) to spice things up without interfering too heavily with taste. It goes best with Burleys and I've recently blended a 12 oz tub of Prince Albert with a 2 oz bag of this. I will provide an update on how this smokes once I've allowed the flavours to sit together for a while.

*Update* This makes an okay blender, but smoked alone, ick!

I've smoked several other sweet black cavendish tobaccos and none hold a candle to this, the original. I smoke about 4 oz of this a year and it's very good at what it does. Nice room aroma, light pleasant taste and easy to smoke. Definitely something for any smoker to try.

Typically when this is purchased in bulk, it's usually quite wet and sticky. I find it works best for me if I put it in a roll-up tobacco pouch and let it sit around for a few weeks. Coming from cigars, I always operated under the assumption that drying a tobacco out was a cardinal sin. I came across some BCA that I had in a Tupperware container from some months ago, and that heavy stickiness had faded. What an eye-opening experience! That ?curing time? helped to reduce any heavy dampness and goop left at the bottom of my pipe at the end of the smoke. While I tolerate this blend fresh, it's a favorite of mine after the pouch treatment. I've found dedicating a pipe to this blend (or a pipe to heavier aromatics) works best.

Update!! I tryed a blend of 5oz BCA with 3oz 1Q, it results in an incredibly smooth, mild, sweet smoke. No bite, no burn! The 1Q adds a tad of stregnth and coconut flavor. BCA has changed a bit, it's flavor is not primarily vanilla anymore. I could taste vanilla, clove, and even cinnamon! In combo with the 1Q, it's a real treat! The tobacco is drier too. No gunk left on the bottom!

Tobacco is a bit wet to start with but what can you expect from a Cavendish blend like this? I don't normally dry out to tobacco so i didn't this one either. Upon lighting I get a good, full sweet taste of tobacco. I wish i could pinpoint the actual taste imitators, but alas i could not. It just taste really good. Mainly the reason I like it is because it HAS a taste, to me at least. I've smoked several blends in a week or so and I can't help but feel like they all taste the same to an extent too much for me to ignore. Of course there are small nuances to pick up here and there, but to me BCA stood out the most as far as taste goes. Again, i wish i could describe to you the taste but again, it's just darn good stuff. Get some... now.

1/17/08 I have to reduce this down to 3 stars because I seem to be getting the aromatic gurgling more and more with this blend. Plus, my pipes are getting too much gunk in and on them. Still a good tobacco, but I'll definitely be trying something else. Experimenting can be a good thing.

I have tried many black cavs and I prefer BCA over the vast majority of other such tobaks. It burns cool, less goopy than I anticipated, and it stays lit quite well. It is a tasty vanilla and provides a solid base with which to begin your mixology.

This is really a pleasant blending tobacco, and I recommend it for that purpose.