pipesandcigars.com The Cavendish in the Woods

I am an exclusive aromatic smoker. The quality of tobacco was very good, it burned well and did not bite. The room note was pleasant. However, I found the taste to be somewhat unremarkable, not bad, but it just doesn't stand out as well as some of the other "Russ Blends" I have tried. No reason to add this to my rotation.

I was given a decent sized sample of this and found it to be a good enough aromatic. I wasn't crazy about the topping, particularly early on, but it did get better to my tastes as the smoke progressed. I am not sure on the room note, but the side stream coming off the smoke was great, so I imagine the room note was pretty decent.

I typically smoke in my garage, but decided I needed to take the blend in the woods with me hunting to see if Russ captured the smell of woods. Well, two things happened. One, no deer seemed to be attracted to it, which is no different than most tobaccos. And two, It tasted the same. lol

As to the taste, I can't pinpoint a particular flavor but it is pretty sweet. I do get dried fruits, slight anise and some liquer that I can't put my finger on. It is a non offensive aromatic that may ring your bell if the topping is to your fancy. It wasn't really to mine, so I am leaving it to two stars.

While stocking up for the end of days (Corona Virus this time), I picked some of this up, since it was on sale... and who doesn't love a deal. It certainly was a bag of deep, dark, Cavendish, as scary as that may be; bursting with all manner of sprayed on flavor.

Did it give off chocolate, vanilla, honey, and the other advertised flavors? Maybe. I was just getting a lot of sweet stuff. Packed a bit densely, but lit well. I would say the smoke tasted pretty good throughout with a mild, biteless, nicotine easy, one note Aromatic (again general sweet) flavor that never let anything natural through. Not to say it had a artificial chemical taste, just nothing to latch on to.

I tend to think of these sun-eclipsed dark Cavendish blends as mixers that ought to be added to other blends. Kind of like having chocolate milk without the milk base, the syrup alone doesn't convey the whole story.

I originally got this in a dark tobacco sampler pack. I liked it better than Lane BCA which had been my go to black Cavendish. I ordered more and my BCA has been sitting in the jar. It's not a bad yardwork smoke because it doesn't bite when I am puttering around with my pipe clenched in my teeth. It has replaced BCA in my rotation but I don't know if it will remain. It is still a work in progress at this time. Oh, an afterthought, it gets better tasting towards the bottom of the bowl.

Some blends grow on you while some become less interesting over time. This one fell in the latter category. Perhaps because I wanted to like it more than I actually do based on the description. The aroma was nice with a heavy berry presence to me. Relights were normal for a Cavendish, giving this some air time prior like I do all Cavendish blends. Even with some heavy puffing this didn't bite, largely thanks to the Burley which remains noticable through the smoke. It is a little sweet with vanilla and berry standing out to me. Overall worth trying but won't be a regular for me.