Lane Limited Paladin Black Cherry

For some reason, my dad loved this and it smelled "pipey" when I was a kid. Smoking it for myself was completely different.

I tried this in 1999 and it nearly turned me off of pipe-smoking completely. It was about the third or fourth blend I tried. Take some tobacco and dip it in a cherry Icee or Slush Puppy and you will get the same taste. I tried it again recently and it is more mild, but similar taste.

This tobacco is without equal. It is my baseline smoke for 0.0. Soggy, chemical tasting and, for my money, the worst tobacco I ever had the misfortune to smoke. But, like Mixture 79 and Captain Black, somebody must like it a lot. Just not me. Paladin rates a "minus" star rating.

Summary: your basic last-century aromatic, it has a topping that burns like napalm but is pleasant-tasting and smells really good.

Your average aromatic takes a simple formula: add white Burley and dark Burley together, throw in some Cavendish, and then spray it down with a sugar-alcohol mixture that contains basic food flavorings. These evaporate as the stuff burns and leave the room smelling good, which apparently fools enough people that they no longer perceive that smoke is present. Paladin burns like an orphanage on Christmas eve, but this is its strength. You light it, forget about it, and guess what -- it is still on fire! For distracted smokers who remember to take a slow gentle puff every thirty seconds, this is a perfect smoke. It tastes like warm Burley soaked in cherry pie filling, and leaves everyone around thinking what a nice old-timey pipe smell that is. You would have to smoke a dumpster worth to get nicotine sickness, and if you can get over the sticky smoke, it is not an unpleasant experience, even if it is not for me.

I try to never throw away tobacco but I made an exception with this blend. If this was the first tobacco I tried I would not be smoking a pipe today. No taste and burns hot. Picked it up a a local store because I ran out of tobacco while out. Should have waited till I got home. Smell of a cherry lifesaver.

Paladin Black Cherry is the poster child for goopy aromatics.

The stoved cavendish tobacco presumably is some sort of mixture between burley and Virginia, but there is no way of telling. There is no tobacco flavor to be found.

The taste is a strongly artificial cherry, quite similar to Robitussin cough medicine. That is a prescription only cough medicine because it contains codeine. It would be better if this stuff actually were flavored with Robitussin. A little narcotic would improve the smoking experience.

There may be some pipesters who enjoy a very strong cherry flavor who might find this to their liking, in spite of its artificiality, but even so they will find Paladin goes bitter and goopy half way down the smoke.

Yes, you can make this smokable. Cut it with at least 50% Prince Albert. But with that much of another tobacco it is a totally different mixture.

Do I have anything positive to say about Paladin? Yep. The room note is OK.

I bought some Paladin during my vacation trip in Vermont. We have the typical OTC cut that packs very easily and lights up without any issues. But the taste is chemical, confirming first impressions at pouch opening, and does not make it an interesting experience. I can understand it's very inexpensive - about three dollars for 1.5oz. I understand, also, that some people will smoke, on a regular basis, and sometimes only that, tobaccos like Paladin, Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Half and Half, etc, in a cob because they are inexpensive. My opinion, honestly, is that even if Paladin was the only tobacco available for a short period of time - a couple days - I would rather abstain than smoking this. My conclusion: life is short; enjoy it; smoke good tobaccos and stay away from Paladin and its counterparts. Don't do this to yourself.

Typical mass produced sticky tobacco. You'll see what I mean if you try it.

This is my first review of a tobacco, ostensibly because of the strong opinion I have of it. Unfortunately, it is a strong negative opinion. I do not wish to cast aspersions on those who actually enjoy smoking this tobacco. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and of course taste. I am only speaking on my impression of Paladin Black Cherry.

As another reviewer commented, Paladin Black Cherry smells like a cherry Lifesaver, one of those gigantic ones. It is truly overpowering. The tobacco tastes like cherry cough syrup; artificial and chemical. It also smokes incredibly hot regardless of the cadence of your puffing. I disliked Paladin Black Cherry so much that I would not even consider trying a second bowl. (Lord knows what it must have done to the pipe from just the first bowl.)

Like many pipe smokers, I detest the idea of wasting tobacco. I have a dozen or more mason jars filled with tobacco that I was not wild about waiting for the day I will be willing attempt a second trial. However, Paladin Black Cherry is not one of them. It already made its way to the trash can. I must say though, the trash does smell better than usual.

This has to have been the most God-awful tobacco I ever tried to smoke. I am not even sure that it is tobacco. I never believed, at least fully, any tobacco review. I have found some good things about even those bad boys, Borkhum Riff and Captain Black. At least they were smokeable. Paladin is not. You are hit with an overwhelming cough-syrupy, chemical smell as soon as you open the pouch (God forgive you if you were foolish enough to purchase a tin.) The taste matches the smell. It doesn't even taste like cherry. More like a cheap, OTC cough syrup with a definite chemical taste. There is absolutely no discernible taste of tobacco whatsoever. You might get some enjoyment from cherries soaked in polypropylene glycerol if you enjoy this monstrosity. If ever someone offers you a pouch of this awful stuff, run my friend, run fast and far. This person is not a friend but someone who is bent on your destruction. Certainly deserves a negative 5 (-5) or lower. Two puffs were enough for me before I chucked the entire pouch.