4noggins Tewksbury Hobbit's Weed Match

This is my first review and I must confess that I will be reviewing based on my personal preference. I bought 8oz. of this with the intention of smoking a bit and sending a lot to people, as I am Canadian and for some reason Hobbit's Weed is regarded here. I like aromatics. I don't like cherry. I work in a candy factory and this tobacco smells like work, and work reminds me of cheap kiddie carnival vomit. The vanilla is pleasant but the cherry just reminds me too much of cherry flavoured hard candy drops usually given out during Halloween. To try and be fair, it is by no means an offensively bad tobacco overall, it is just offensive to my personal palate. I sent some samples out as well as a few others in my cellar to random people in the tobacco community and did a contest on a Facebook forum to give away the rest, as there is no way I will be smoking this. Personal rating is a 1/5/ More professional rating, for lack of a better term, would be 3/5. It, like everything, is certainly worth trying but for me, it is worth trying once.

I knew going in that this had cherry flavoring, but I guess I was hoping for a more subtle application than what we get here. Somebody also mentioned banana nut bread, which I like, so that was another reason I wanted to try this. My first evaluation over a year ago noted a sweet confectionary aroma and a flavor that reminded me of a Luden's cherry lozenge. No banana nut bread for me. At least it burned cool, was not as sickly sweet as Ole Shenandoah Appalachian Berry, and left no goopy residue.

To reduce the overt cherry flavor I tried blending half n' half with some Lane White Burley, then some Orlik Golden Virginia, then some Edgeworth cube cut Burley, and no matter what I paired it with the candy taste dominated (plus I wasted a lot of good tobaccos in the attempt).

Now, a year later, after being untouched in a mason jar, I gave it one last chance at redemption. The jar note was of overly ripe (almost rotting) black cherries, while the flavor had now taken on an unctuous combination of fruit cocktail syrup and cream soda. It must have had a good dose of humectant because it was still moist enough to require some drying out - though that did not help diminish the unctuous flavor.

I'd say I've done my due diligence with this one. The remainder of my supply goes into the compost bin!

Taste the way a cheap cherry candle smells. Chemical and fake. No self respecting Hobbit would allow this in his house, let alone smoke it in his favorite pipe. Try Paladin instead, its a superior tobacco.