John Aylesbury Edition 2018

I had the pleasure of trying this out yesterday at my local pipe club meeting. It is a powerful fragrant tobacco right out of the tin. It had a nice strong peach, fig, date, berry smell. The tobacco was black Cavendish with light brown Virginia ribbon cut. This is one of the more natural tasting aromatics I have tried in some time. The taste stayed throughout the bowl. Billows of creamy white smoke with a pleasant room note. I may have to buy a tin myself.

I wish I had found John Aylesbury’s Edition 2018 when I started smoking a pipe. It rather reminds me of a fragrant version of the John Player’s Navy Cut cigarettes I enjoyed occasionally around that time, and it is worlds better than the OTC aro-crap I tried back then. Oh, well. These days I want more taste from my own tobacco, but I can (and do) recommend this to anyone looking for a truly mild aro at this time. E2018 is a “Luxury” aromatic that comes in a folded but un-sealed plastic bag in a nice, un-sealed, hinged metal box. The tobacco is moist, cut to short ribbons, mostly very dark brown, also medium and golden brown. Aroma is savory, earthy and grassy, toasty VAs, and nutty and floral, toasty Burleys. The Cavendish is very sweet with the fruity topping that smells of apples, peaches, a breath of maple and vanilla. The riff at the top of this page says E2018 is actually topped with apple and Mirabelle plums. OK, that makes sense. I’ve tried it straight from the tin and more or less dried. For reasons of taste I recommend resting it for a couple of weeks and then smoking it right out of the tin, loaded loosely into a # 4 pipe. It lights with patience, then it burns OK with regular, light tamping. IMO it’s better to keep it going without re-lights, especially down the bowl. Also, I toss out the last of the un-burnt tobacco as soon as it tastes even slightly ashen. This is a high quality blend, and it smells and tastes very good, albeit it is so well balanced that it’s almost monolithic, and it’s mild from beginning to end. Clouds of white smoke are produced, smelling like a toasty version of the tin notes, only more floral. Tastes parallel the aroma, including flue cured, earthy brown and lightly stoved red VAs, nutty, buttery Burley, and rich, aromatic Cavendish shoulder to shoulder with the delightful toppings, which actually smell better burning than they do in the tin. Again, the tobaccos smell and taste “toasted” to me, FWIW. Also note: there’s enough Burley here that some mild bitterness builds over the course of a bowl. Strength is mild. Tastes are just over mild. Room note is very pleasant, indeed. With care, the aftertaste is a re-cap of the best of the smoke.

I guess timing is everything, and in my case this means, too little, too late. However, this is far from a pan on E2018, which is a first quality lite aro that might be a 4 for someone who fancies it.

My new favorite aromatic smoke. This is perfect as an all day blend. The flavor remains constant throughout the bowl and what a fabulous flavor it is! All of the fruits listed in the description are evident and combine to make 2018 one of the most pleasant tobaccos I've ever had. No bite or bitterness here! Very highly recommended.