Lane Limited Dark Red

The very rich black cherry topping has depth and is the dominant force of the blend. The vanilla and caramel are background players that underscore every puff. The Green River black cavendish is vanilla sweet. There are no chemical or artificial notes to be found, though I get a minor syrup hit in the last quarter of the bowl. The tobacco is very moist and needs a short dry time, but you dry it too much, you risk losing a little of the strength (but not depth) of the toppings. I found drying it a little improves the experience. Burns slow if you don’t dry it, which will require a number of relights, and you risk goop at the bottom of the bowl if you are a wet smoker smoking a wet blend as well as a slight bitterness. Even with some dry time, it burns at no more than a moderate pace, and leaves a bit of moisture in the bowl. It’s fairly smooth with a little tartness, which becomes more obvious as you go along. The strength and taste levels are mild to medium. The flavors never weaken, and it burns cool without bite. Has no dull or harsh spots. The nic-hit is very mild. Has a rather tart after taste that lingers a bit. The room note will please most people. Two and a half stars due to the moisture and the sour tartness near the end.

-JimInks

So far this weekend this is what I've smoked most because I like it. It's predominantly a cherry blend of course. But this blend does have character if enough time is spent with it. First off on upon opening the bag you smell a cherry topped Cavendish what is very sweet smelling. I can also smell sweet honey and vanilla. The tobacco is moist and wet enough that you know it will require some time to dry. If a pipe is packed immediately after opening the bag them your fingers will become sticky! Once dried to my liking, packing was as easy as any other blend. Smoked in a cob, briar and a meer, nothing changed on loading up a bowl. Same goes with lighting it. The char light was easy as it could be but you could hear some hissing at times dues to wet tobbaco. Once, like the pipe shined, the blend shined even brighter. Cherry was evident...and very dominant. I know I could smell cherry, vanilla and honey upon opening the bag, however, I could not taste the honey in the smoke. The vanilla is present but at a minimum. What I could also task was deep, dark currents. Like the dried currents that look like raisins. I also tasted a hint of deep raspberry, although this was very minimal. All together this was enjoyable for me taste wise. As for the tobacco flavor...it was all but completely gone.the blend is a mild I'd say, but it is very smooth. The burn was as it should be, conformed and entirely to the bottom. I did get dotted from this blend. But nothing a pipe cleaner didn't take care of quickly. And once the bowl was finished this blend was loaded up for another round!

Lane Limited - Dark Red.

As a rule, apart from a few vanilla's, I don't generally smoke aromatics. When I placed a recent order with Smokingpipes.com I never read the product description when selecting my freebie, so that's how I wound up with this. I can't believe how much I like it!

I'm slightly surprised that more reviewers don't rate the added flavour as much above medium, with it currently having a few mild's in the ratings. I find it easily higher than medium, not too sticky, but very flavoursome. It seems to me, that the cherry rules the roost. The vanilla and caramel aren't unnoticeable, they give noticeable character: the caramel sweetens the smoke quite a lot. The vanilla comes from both the topping and Black Cavendish, this doesn't taste alarming in any way for a B.C. blend: stereotypical. I notice the longer I smoke this the creamier the flavour becomes, as if the slightly bitter cherries are calming down. The smoke's incredibly cool, and is distributed from a good burn: it sustains itself well once it's lit.

Nicotine? On this topic I have an accord with a lot of other reviewers: mild, and the room-note's one of the high points here: lots of cherry, very pleasant.

This isn't my normal kind of thing, but it's a top notch blend:

Highly recommended.

If you enjoy Lane's BCA and their Cherry flavoring then this blend should be right up your alley. The Black Cavendish is as one would expect, very Cavendishy and made with the same high quality Burley from the Green River Valley in Kentucky that's been fire cured and is extremely mild yet flavorful. The topping is very similar to Lane's Captain Black Cherry but with a hint of that delicious Lane Vanilla a la 1Q and Dark Red mixes very well with BCA or 1Q to give a nice Cherry aroma to either of those blends but smokes just fine by itself. Not sticky or overly goopy and lighted / stayed lit easily. Again if you enjoy all Cavendish blends and do not require your Burley nutty or must have citrusy / grassy Virginia's in your Aromatics then Dark Red is a nice change of pace for the Aromatic smoker. Dark Red is also a good choice for newbies as well due to mildness and ease of lighting etc. and since you do not get the bite of say Lane Very Cherry and the potential inferno Paladin as the lack of Virginia's cut down on heat. Finally a bite free Cherry! Good job Lane!

Was able to obtain a good sized sample of this at the Chicago Pipe Show from a lovely lady from Lane and boy was I lucky to try it. I am not a fan of cherry blends but this one really takes the cake. While the room note is undeniably cherry - the blend is much more complex. You get the taste of vanilla / caramel before the cherry really hits and it's only enough to complement the blend without overpowering it. No chemical taste and burns very smooth. This has now become one of my top 5 blends.

I am smoking this blend straight out of the bag. No dry time for me. I don't think this blend has to much moisture personally. It is a nice mild Black Cavendish with a beautiful aroma. The cherry is the most prominent flavor but the vanilla is not drowned out. I love this blend and highly recommend it to any aromatic smoker.

When I imagine the aroma of pipe tobacco I always come up with a black cavendish or cherry type smell. I think this is because, like me, a lot of us got our start with something cherry or vanilla because it smelled nice in the jar or pouch. This tobacco personifies what most people think pipe tobacco smells like and the same is true for me as well. When you open the bag, there is a wonderful aroma of black cavendish and sweetness. To me, the moisture level is about right. But I know some like to dry things out for days and then complain that the leaf burns too fast. I have always believed that aromatics should be a little more hydrated than Burleys or English blends. As stated above, the aroma is that of the standard aromatic pipe tobacco. This type of tobacco really needs to be packed in the three stage method. That is, the first little pinch is barely pressed down into the bowl, the second slightly larger pinch is pressed a little harder on top of the first pinch, and the final little pinch is pressed with a firm hand. With a light tamp and a charring light, followed by another tamp and full light , you are ready to go. There is a lot of thick smoke and more actual tobacco taste than you might first think. The cherry only adds a little more sweetness than is found in BCA. In fact, to me, if you simply called this fruit, I would not really argue for it being exclusively cherry. It is that subdued. I do get some vanilla at times, but it is few and far between. This stuff seems to do just as well in a cob as in a larger briar. Although, I can say that a larger briar helps me find more of the complex flavor and nuance of the tobacco. The smoke stays the same throughout the bowl until the last puff. Now, if you need to leave your pipe and come back to re-light it, the tobacco does not really do well for the first bit until it has burned a little while. But it does get back to business soon enough. The black cavendish is top quality and the room note is very pleasant. This is one that most ladies will enjoy and you will enjoy flavor.There is no tongue bite unless you forget that an aromatic is meant more for sipping rather than gulping. But even on that score it is forgiving. The ash is dark and clumpy like any self-respecting aromatic. And it will ghost your pipe. Overall, I love this tobacco because it brings to life the quintessential version of pipe tobacco that has been in my mind for over 30 years of smoking a pipe. The nicotine level is low so this would be a perfect blend for beginners. We often judge most pipe tobaccos against the first few we tried back in the day. I think we do this without really knowing it. I would hope that a beginner gets hold of this blend first and judges many more tobaccos by this wonderful offering.

This is one of the best black cavendish blends I have ever smoked. Smooth, bite free, and very very tasty. This is a great one to smoke after a heavy meal, think of it as dessert.

I chose to get a couple 1 oz. samples of Dark Red with a tobacco order. I was really interested in trying this tobacco after hearing all the initial comments on pipe forums. I have only tried a couple cherry aromatics, so I was intrigued.

The scent in the bag is not overpowering like some aromatics tend to be, it's seems more laid back. The tobacco is a small chunky cut of black cavendish unlike other cherry blends I've tried that were ribbon cut virginia. I was surprised that the tobacco I received was not as wet as other aromatics. My 1st bowl I tried straight out of the bag & it was a little wetter than it appeared, hard to keep lit at first. It did get a little bitey with me trying to keep it lit. I found letting it dry for 30 - 45 minutes proved to help a lot.

The taste was something I enjoyed, it reminded me of the small town soda shop we used to go to when I was a kid. I actually expected this to be a lot sweeter tobacco, I'm glad it was more mellow. It's like drinking a black cherry soda while eating vanilla ice cream topped with caramel. The flavorings mix & compliment each other well. It's a great tasting cherry flavored aromatic, but not something I could smoke all the time. It's more of something I have to be in the mood to smoke, a treat so to speak.

My only complaint is that I only ordered one ounce to try it out. This is a great black cavendish. The tobacco is similar to another one of my fav's - BCA. But Dark Red isn't as heavily cased as BCA and still has a fantastic taste and room note. Cherry and Vanilla together - a dream come true! Lites and burns well and it's a real wife-pleaser! Property tax is due this month, so I will have to make my one-ounce stretch until next month when I have tobacco money again!