Holger Danske Black & Bourbon

An aromatic I certainly enjoy. An every-day blend, non-smokers will like the smell Black and Bourbon creates. This was my second tobacco I ever bought and I have been smoking it for about half a year, sampling other styles of tobaccos inbetween. However, I keep coming back to this aromatic. The Burley works in two ways: firstly, it complements the added flavour of whisky by giving it a slight nutty taste; secondly, the Burley allows the tobacco to burn down easily without having to relight more than twice. You can puff very hard on this but I have never had a tongue burn! The taste overall should be described as a sweet, slightly nutty, and slight alcoholic one. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend sipping your favourite whisky alongside this tobacco, since the whisky taste is not discernible to me (yet). All in all, if you like sweet, nutty and cool-burning aromatics, go for Black and Bourbon.

Edit (April 2017): I found that ageing this blend has neither improved nor impaired the taste of it. What I have noticed, however, is that it does tend to bite you if you either smoke outside while it's windy (April weather, I tell you) or when you're puffing too frequently. Other than that I still quite enjoy smoking this now and again.

Edit (October 2017): Despite it being cold outside, I decided to revisit this particular blend. Usually I favour Latakia heavy blends such as MacBaren's HH Vintage Syrian or SG's Commonwealth Mixture, but I had a craving for something sweet. As a little side note, I kept the remains of my first ever pouch (that I got over one and a half years ago -- how time flies!) in a jar. Having only previously discovered ball-point jars (thanks to Stuff and Things on Youtube, by the way), the tobacco had some opportunity to develop. This development was unfortunately not for the better. I had hoped that the sweetness of the Virginias/of the Black Cavendish would maybe intensify. The smell of the blend had changed drastically; instead of being greeted by a whiff of alcohol and super sweet Black Cavendish, the tobacco smells...off. Sure, it's got some of the sweetness in it but there's a hint of alcohol that's been sitting on the porch for a few days and has lost all of its kick and aroma. I can't rediscover the sweetness that the blend used to have. Sadly, B&B does not age well in any old jar. However, I have a new shipment coming in and I will not make the mistake of keeping it in a generic jar.

Exactly what one expect from a Holger Danske tobacco: - decent mild smoke - no tongue bite - fast burning tobacco - tobacco smell and room note present the flavour - not the best quality of tobacco in market but good enough - very low price: around $ 3 for 50gm. Pouch - the last part of bowl should be discarded (fine with me) - low in vitamin N Over all I think it is a good tobacco for its price and can fit in any one's rotation if in favour of American aromatic tobacco.

Black fore sure (at least in part), Bourbon I don't know. I haven't been able to detect any whisky aroma so far. However, it is a pleasant blend of black Cavendish, Virginia and Burley, with a sweet aroma of liquorice, fruit, coffee and chocolate, perhaps a little alcohol. A nice, cool burning aromatic at a very reasonable price (as yet). Recommended, even if you're not an aromatic habitué.

With this tobacco I found a new favorite. It's a great aromatic, extremely mild but with a great taste and room note. The price is not excessive, making it an excellent deal.

In the pouch, you will find a very dark tobacco with an extremely pleasant and natural smell of bourbon. When lit, it has an adorably noisy burn with rather thin smoke and no bite. As said, it is extremely mild and low in nicotine, and it would be almost like smoking hot air, if it weren't for the great taste and room note.

I recommend this tobacco to those who enjoy the aromatic aspect of smoking the pipe, rather than the nicotine buzz. Everyone around will also love it.

mild , pleasant, more good on a large pipe . easy to smoke not required more relight. a good cavendish not too sweet, but pleasant . good value for money

As I learned from the reports of my dear forum members on the Pipabolt.hu community forum, I found out, and finally I could see with my own eyes, that this pipe is indeed carbon black. A couple of long, blond Burley also mingle in it, giving the whole tobacco a kind of melancholy hue; in a good way, of course. Needless to say, it speaks for itself, as does its color and texture. After the Borkum Riff Cherry Cavendish dried to crisp due to the long ventilation, this time I just took a stuffing out of the package, ahead of my next blunder. I carefully set the rest aside, both in a bag and a box, but before that I had a feel for how wet the sauce was. I stuffed the amount taken out for ventilation into my pipe after half an hour. Its ignition still left some objections due to the rapid ventilation, but apart from that it started to burn evenly as soon as it caught fire. The filling went well, I was able to smoke the tobacco at a calm pace, I didn’t have to force it. The smoke has pleasant, light aromatic properties, and unlike others, I could feel the bourbon on it, I didn’t have to drink any spirits for it. However, as I smoked in a new pipe, which had only just seen tobacco for the first time and needed further burning, and the stem was shorter than before, the smoke reached hot and pungent towards the end of the stuff, from which I decided to end the puffing. Overall, I was completely satisfied with all its qualities, and I think it will even intensify later on, I fell in love with this new bourbon flavor so much. I have a feeling that this pipe tobacco will run out sooner than the previous ones. 🙂

New name: HD B&B. For sweet black Cavendish tobacco lovers. A very nice Cavendish-based aromatic. Attractive dark brown and black color. Good pouch note, pleasant room note. The short-trimmed cut allows this tobacco to light and burn quite easily, perhaps too fast. It's a sweet, delicate and mellow aromatic. The aroma is enjoyable and consistent throughout the bowl. Classic tip-of-the-tongue Cavendish sweetness, the Bourbon aroma is barely detectable, somewhat hidden between other aromas. Perhaps this blend is also vanilla cased. In my opinion this feels more like a "true" processed Cavendish, and not one of those (small "c") cavendish "fakes", which are simply black tobaccos sprayed with cheap toppings. Among my "top-of-the-list" tobaccos at the moment.

2022 update: in more recent batches, a distinct alcoholic, "Bourbon-ish" note is clearly present, especially in the first half of the bowl. the aroma is much better now. Bravo!!

Good Aromatic. Just sip it like if it was Bourbon. The taste reminds me of a milky chocolate bar that has raisins and fruit. Can't find other notes from the tobaccos. I let it dry out a bit and was a cool and smooth smoke.

Packaging has changed. Black pouch with only the letters B&B on it

To be honest I wasn't expecting to like this too much. The casing/topping is certainly too sweet (to my taste) for the very mild tobacco flavour but the Burley seems to carry this well. It tastes more specifically of sweet vanilla than bourbon, although there is a certain crossover of flavours there. In the end, I can't deny that is is actually a very enjoyable smoke.

It burns well and dry leaving very little dottle but I found it does need a lot of puffing to keep going, but then that suits my style of smoking... The excessive cadence required does however mean that it smokes a bit hot but this did not translate to any level of bite. Room note is very heavy but pleasant.

All in all, I enjoyed it and if this is your type of thing it is hard to beat but I just can't imagine myself buying this in the future. But then again...