John Middleton, Inc Cherry Blend

Middletons Cherry Blend Pipe Tobacco I am 39 years old and I have been blending pipe tobacco for over ten years and even sold my blends to a couple tobaccoshops for awhile but now I'm carving pipes, I have smoked hundred's of pipe tobacco blends from Mac Baren to Dan's to my own and countless other's point being this is the very first time I have ever bought and smoked a Middleton product besides smoking a few Black n Milds when I was much younger (not that I'm a old fart) loland I'm smoking the stuff right now to be accurate on my description. First off I am not a cherry fan at all I didn't even go there with my blends because I blended what I liked, its like hating seafood but trying to cook it for someone, upon reading the reviews here and just being to dang curious I had to try it so I bought it from a small grocery store in Wallace Idaho and it was the only brand of pipe tobacco they even sold go figure. For the most part in partial to burley using it to keep my blends cool burning and slow but not a fan of straight cut burley blends except some of C & D stuff like Berry Good or BWOB is good by itself as well, I'm trying to just give you a all and all picture of where my head is at because this is a review right? Upon opening the pouch I was very shocked that I smelled tobacco, pleasant sweet tobacco with a hint of cherry and not moist at all. It is not bone dry but actually perfect in the between and I notice 91% burley to just about 9% Virginia in the all and all mix of it. I can taste that its cased in a old fashioned sugar solution that most older companies still use like Carter Hall for example to reduce to harshness of the burley in its natural leaf and that they top it with obviously there own cherry sauce which you can hardly even taste but rather I taste a spiciness to the blend that I can't put my finger on because I know they don't use any kind of fire cured Kentucky or Mediterranean tobaccos but on itself still has a zing to it but very pleasant amd like all the other fellows said if you do not smoke it like a freight train it will not bite and is quite smooth, even to inhail (which yes a good chunk of us do) which is one of the checklist marks I gauge a tobacco blend in smoothness. I'm smoking this in a MM Cob Pipe because I do not know if it will stink my briars out, I have read for the most part no but beware if your new to this as well cob it because of its spicy tones which could altar the flavor of your cake which I'm particular about as most pipe smokers. As far as room note not sure because I cannot smell it myself and never smelled it from another's pipe before, at the pipe club I use to have nobody smoked the stuff didn't even talk about it. This is one of those blends that sits way out of view kinda in the corner back part of the rack where Captain Black and Half n Half dominate. Most tobacco shops are not carrying this product anymore and not even walmart so you gotta really look around but can be found, places like Walgreens and bigger chain smoke shops but still the internet so that's a good thing, I can see this old school blend fading away very soon do to supply and demand and the shortage of pipe smokers and especially the younger generation smoking very different types of pipe tobacco these days, which is not a bad thing just a past memory sad thing the "good old days". I would recommend this pipe tobacco blend but because its not super sweet or very cherry it would be a acquired taste. The nicotine level is not strong but will satisfy and depending on what you like could or could not be a all day smoke for you. To sum this up in the all and all, its a good smoke for sure very surprised, its smooth with hints of a very light cherry flavor but with a spicy note to it, the burley can be tasted but it mildly nutty and I cannot taste the very small amount of Virginia it it at all, it is not a so called OTC chemical bath pipe tobacco blend its just a super old school sugar sauce recipe they have been using for years which is why I say use a corn cob or a cheaper briar because of its spiciness more so then its cherry flavor that may or may not ghost your pipe. It is not low grade tobacco as some have said its just a older fashion of pipe tobacco, consider how long they have been in business and if you saw with your own eyes the process you would inserstand but not crappy tobacco. It would do better with black leaf tea or coffee rather than alcohol because of that semi sweet spiciness but that's my opinion ALL of this is my opinion that is why I take the time to right all this out, to give you the best feel and idea I can about this blend before you go off and spend money on it. If you like sweet cherry blends amd your thinking this will be like those, its not because it truly stands by itself with its own unique taste that's for sure but that does not mean you won't like it and if your a snobby pipe smoker that automatically shuns a so called OTC blend because its a OTC you truly might miss out on a blend that would surprise you in taste, this is a decent blend for sure hands down and in my book it passes with flying colors as a good old American pipe tobacco blends that has some depth and weight to it on flavor. I know I enjoyed it, would not smoke it all dang day but I would smoke it on occasion I just need to pick a briar out and go at it that way as well. Thanks for reading my review and I hope it helps some of you that are curious or undecided I'm glad I picked a pouch of this up I'm not disappointed at all!!!