Vauen Auenland Evening Mixture

Vauen - Aueland Evening Mixture (Hobbit).

This is one of those blends where the aromatic tin-note hits you without even having to put your nose deliberately above it; there isn't great detail to the smell, it's mainly pineapple.

The mix includes quite a fair quotient of each of the tobaccos, but sadly the tin's held too much moisture inside, I have to let the blend air for some time prior to smoking any of it:

The smoke really isn't 'my thing'. Albeit, it's quite classy but it's not the kind of tobacco I enjoy; just like in the tin-note, the pineapple is the main character, and it's also strong, too strong for me. The walnuts are very delicately added, personally it's hard to differentiate between nuts from the Burley and nuts from any aromatic addition.

After about a quarter of a bowl the smoke takes on a kind of jelly bean/fondant sweetness; most incongruous, increasing the 'falseness' prodigiously.

I'd opened this with some trepidation, I never for one minute thought I'd enjoy a pineapple blend. As it turns out I was right; I hope the bin likes pineapple!

Even though I don't like it, it's a well made blend; for that, I'll still somewhat recommend it.

Two stars.

Sorry Vauen, but this is the worst tobacco I ever smoke. When you open a tin you can see beautiful leaves and quality tobacco. You can fully smell Pineapple. When you smoke it, you can taste only Pineapple with other aromas, there is no tobacco. After 1/3 bowl I cleaned my pipe with alchohol and salt and there is still Pineapple smell in the pipe after 24h of treatment. After this I smoked two bowls of Latakia and you can still taste Pineapple. Good thing is that I did not smoke it in expensive pipe. Only solution was to get rid of it.....

Ok.. I wanted to like this one. I can't. It tastes when smoked of a urinal cake in my opinion... and will ghost your pipe the same way. I nearly ruined an almost new Vauen Deluxe by smoking some of this in it. It still almost has the ghost in it and I've smoked all kinds of other tobaccos through it. I gave this tin to my wife as she like cherry/fruity blends which I despise. If you like fruity or cherry tobacco, you may like this.. but I just can't stand it. If you do decide to try it.. don't try it in a nice pipe or your favorite until you know you like it!

I wanted to continue with the Auenland series, and sadly this was a little different from others. The aroma is there, with nice smells in the room, and some creamy flavors at the mouth but there are softer and not really expressed like in other tobaccos from the Auenland series. Just for taste is fine, but not for a periodical smoke.

I was a bit hesitant to buy a tin because of the pineapple note but being a fan of "The Shire" blend I gave it a go. I must say I love this. It's heady without being overpowering. I love the fresh, open and luscious exotic flavours rounded out with a walnut nuance. It's very moist out of the tin and needs to be dried a bit before smoking. It offers a cool, slow burning smoke with no bite. The room note is out of this world.

As far as fruity aromatics go, this might be the strongest of them all. That being said, I like it! Pineapple greets you as you open a nicely stylized tin. There are other flavors at play here but they're somewhat subdued.

Black Cavendish, Burley & Virginia make up the tobacco end of things but the topping dominates to the point where you will struggle to experience any of them.

On the plus side, it burns slow, cool & down to the bottom of the bowl. Due to the heavy topping it will ghost any pipe. I detected no bite.

I will recommend this tobacco on the basic fact that like all Vauen blends it's of high quality. It did require some drying time.

If fruity aro's aren't your thing then I suggest you pass on this one.

CDM Jr.