Sutliff Tobacco Company Christmas Spice

Sutliff Tobacco Company - Christmas Spice.

The contents of the pouch appear to be an even split between black and brown, and the cut's quite coarse. It's too damp to be smoked without any airing, and it needs quite a long one, at that! The nose from the pouch is pure Christmas, so on with the festivities:

Getting Christmas Spice lit, and burning well, requires some work; even after a good airing the heavy casing causes it to still be sticky. Once a burn's going the added flavouring tastes heavy: the cinnamon gives spice, the caramel gives lots of sweetness, and the vanilla gives a little cream. Sadly, although I like the casing, it can cause the smoke to be bitey.

The nicotine's mild, and the room-note's quite nice, even though it generates a fair quantity of smoke in the room.

I don't smoke heavy aromatics that often, but as Christmas is the time for indulgence this is a great choice!

Four stars.

I am not an aromatic smoker 99% of the time but I am sucker for Holiday Blends, McClellands now gone Holiday Spirit being the pinnacle and C&D ('days of yore and Autumn Evening) and Boswell's Christmas Cookie being my other go to's. I bought this around Christmas of 2019 and smoked if fresh (almost impossible) and November of 2020, smokes like a charm. Like most aromatics it needs a lot of drying time. That said even with all of the casings this is a nice mix of tobacco that stands up to the heavy flavoring. I have long ago given up on trying to tease out tobacco flavors buried under flavoring. It is like buying Wagyu beef, dumping a bottle of ketchup on it and then commenting on how the beef tastes. All I will say is that there is some tobacco goodness that comes through and I assume that is the addition of the VA and Burley in a distant second. I say that because Burley and Cavendish tend to soak up casing extremely well and are the norm for most aromatics. Whenever a VA is added it tastes more like tobacco to me, even when flavored. The best part of this smoke is the pouch and room note. In the pouch it smells like you could eat it. Vanilla and a hint of Rum is what I get in the pouch and in the room it is Vanilla/Caramel. The smoke is heavy with vanilla and a hint of rum. I get some cinnamon on the finish only. There is a nuttiness to the smoke as well that compliments the Christmas theme. Very nice smoke when it is time to get into the Christmas mood! As with any and all aromatics, I smoke in either a cob or a filtered Savinelli. Filters remove the bite for me and soak up the moisture that tends to kill aro's for me.

Sutliff Christmas Spice has very sweet jar note, caramel is out front with the vanilla trailing behind. It has a slight alcohol note to it but I do not pick up the cinnamon from sniffing the jar. The smoke offers a very sweet note that must be from the caramel that runs throughout the entire bowl. The creamy vanilla trails this throughout as well. In the first 1/3 of the bowl I do get some alcohol notes that must be what they used to get the toppings to stick but this burns away at that point. I also get notes of toasted marshmallow, at times this moves into a burnt marshmallow flavor for a puff of two but then disappears for a while. I really don't get any notes of cinnamon in the 1/3 but at that point I get hints of it at the end of the retrohale. At the 1/2 point the cinnamon does become more pronounced and comes in and out for the rest of the bowl. The last 1/3 did have a couple of spots that tasted a little sour but overall a very good smoking experience. The strength is mild the nic is not noticeable to me. The finish is fairly short and does not linger long. The room note is pleasant although the only comment I received was that it did not smell too bad, which is a winner in my book. It smoked fairly dry, especially for an aro. Worth a repeat during the Christmas season.

Ok this was a weird one. I'm a English and balkan fan. I've tried aromatics time and time again. They mostly burn hot and have chemical taste. This is an odd ball it's aromatic and it's got burley in it. Two things I don't care for. With Christmas coming and I thought a give a few Christmas tobacco's a try. Tried golden days of yore and it was very good, so I gave this one a try. This one is surprising it's got a pretty heavy casing. When I first lit it I tasted chocolate. After a few minutes it changed. I couldn't identify the flavor. So I had my wife take a few puffs, she nailed it eggnog. This burns cool which is shocking to me. I've never had much luck with aromatics. This one is a keeper

I'm surprised to find that I'm only the third reviewer, but we do have quite a few holiday blends out there to try. I'm looking forward tryinging out all I can get my hands on over the years to come.

I found it quite good. It's a very flavorful moist aromatic which usually burns pretty well, but which occasionally left some dottle and quite a lot of moisture in the pipe. It's one of those that seems impervious to drying. I smoked 4 ounces over several Christmases and would consider buying it again in the future. It did seem a little bitey on occasion, but nothing too terrible. Being a Sutliff, the price was right. I don't think it rates 4 stars, but I'll give it a solid 3.

The smell is vanilla and maybe a bit of honey; it is creamy and smooth. The flavor is very much vanilla. Overall there is a creamy and sweet quality to it. The cinnamon is there, but lightly, and it's good that it serves as a condiment flavor rather than a main one. Enjoying around Christmas time enhances the experience I think, and I'm not sure it's as enjoyable during other times of the year.

You can view my video review of this blend here:

https://youtu.be/b9yCY5Jm1zs

Christmas Spice packages a delightfully inviting recipe of finely ribbon cut Virginias, coarse dark Burley, and meaty shreds of irregular Black Cavendish. The published listing calls out an assortment of additive flavorings including vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon. I do believe there is a splash of chocolate present, however, although not cited in the official marketing literature.

As mirthful notes afloat the pouch, casting lighthearted and sweetened images of festive joy one cannot help but feel the mood of the sweetest of seasons. A nestling ambience marked by sugary promenade of caramel, vanilla, marshmallows, fresh cinnamon, and a definite chocolaty swirl will have you wondering what savory candied treasures Santa has filled your stocking with this year. The flavorings are powerful as they cloak the trace essence of earthen Burley/Virginia native spice.

Setting to flame, Christmas Spice greets you with a nicely melded complex of heavy burnished cinnamon and rich buttery caramel that stand proud. Creamy drops of vanilla, soft chocolate, and toasty charred marshmallow set the colorful sweeter undertone. These flavors ride forward on the palate leaving a little pasty sensation on the lips and tip of the tongue. Truly yummy.

Principally blending the arrangement of tastes, the Black Cavendish enhances the density of the fragrantly sweet earthy smoke while imparting a simple subdued honey note. With the retro-haled registration, torchy Virginia grass and a distinct cocoa walnut flavor emerging from the accompanying Burley pop forward as it finishes with trailing zesty accent. By mid-bowl the strength of the toppings taper as Christmas Spice takes on a more balanced profile with the native tobacco nuances.

Joyfully the mixture burns beautifully even at a modest temperature. No tongue bite or roughness is to be experienced making this one a very pleasant and easy all-day smoke to fill your Christmas wishes. Although, I am struggling to put my thoughts to the direct association with something Christmas. What it does remind me of some very fine bread pudding that I had out in Portland, Oregon not too long ago. Whether you smoke this gratifying blend in December or August, it will tickle your fancy with its gala of sugary cheerful charm.

This Blend always reminds me of that time between Thanskgiving and Christmas. That time of year when the days are much shorter, the gray barren landscape begins to turn white, and the hustle and bustle as the Christmas holiday fast approaches. A time where you used to shop department stores or small boutiques trying to find your closest loved ones that perfect gift.

This blend ships heavily cased and somewhat sticky. The black and dark brown tobaccos are uniformly cut, aiding in even packing.

The tin note has a chocolate-minty aroma, reminds me of those brown and green Ande's Creme de Menthe chocolates. The cinnamon isnt discernible in in the tin. It isn't until you light up that the cinnamon comes forward.

This blend packs well, but takes a few lights, and more than average relights to keep it going. I never have the forethought to dry my bowls worth before I smoke, this is just one of those I keep forward in the cellar come fall.

This is a great blend for indoors smoking, and commutes in the car. The cinnamon and caramel really stand out in the room note. This blend is gentle on the tongue, never bites. It does make one think of egg nog!

As mentioned by others, this is a ribbon cut and you can see black and brown parts to the blend. This is burley, Va, and Cavendish. The listed spices are vanilla, cinnamon, caramel. Now, this also tastes similar to one of my own blends that uses rum. I don't know if they use rum, but this tastes like a British style Christmas pudding cake. So, I get plummy, pruny, raisiny notes, especially on the retro. I get this right through the bowl from beginning to end. I smoke it right from the bag and for me, it's not too wet so IDK what others are talking about there. It can dry out a bit but I have no problem keeping it lit and for me, it can burn hot so the pipe is too hot to hold, but it doesn't bite me. This is very festive smelling and tasting. It's a perfect Christmas seasonal blend. It's VERY similar to the Norman Rockwell Santa's Surprise blend. I use a dedicated aromatic briar for this and other aromatic blends. I bought a few unfinished 1970s French briar pipes from a place that sells them and one of them I use for the aromatics like this. I only smoke outside, but my wife actually has commented on the pleasant smell of this one.

I purchased this during a bulk sale trying to find something to replace Holiday Spirit in my Holiday's rotation.

This is a good one, it burns very dry for an aromatic. I wish they had put more cinnamon in it but the flavors work well and it's a blend my wife likes when I smoke it in the car on roadtrips (always a plus). I don't get much of the tobacco base with this one even in the last 3rd of the bowl.

I still prefer the mix in Holiday Spirit, but being available for bulk purchase will keep this one in the holiday rotation going forward.