Planta Danish Black Vanilla

Shock! Horror! An aromatic to plague my pipes! Well, of all the aromatic casings for a pipe tobacco, vanilla seems at least to be one of the best (or of the least bad, depending on your point of view). I let myself be tempted by the nice tin (the lid can be used as a pipe holder) and by the fact that I had never tried a vanilla blend... for once, I found some pleasant surprises. The tobacco wasn't too humid or sticky, and packed well, taking flame perfectly: the first puffs are overwhelmingly strong in aroma, almost unpleasant and alcoholic. Then it settles into a nice balence between the strenght and fullness of the very dark brown and doubly fermented cavendish, and the sweetness (always present to the end of the bowl) of the vanilla. As a whole, a pleasant morning smoke, which is always very tolerated by my colleagues at work. It is a rather fast smoke: this stuff burns rather quick, but never too hot (it does, but doesn't scorch your hand). Quite welcome, after all, because it is out before you grow tired of it... Incredibly, it doesn't leave too many goopy remains in the pipe, leaving a rather plain ash instead! Which doesn't mean that the vanilla aroma won't be noticeable if you smoke some English mixture after it... I was wise enough to smoke it in my least precious pipe, the one I dedicate to this kind of "experiments"! I only have two huge complaints on this tobacco: one is that the vanilla taste always leaves me suspecting of some chemical rather than of true vanilla (some puffs have an almost "plastic-like" aroma...). The second, is that I grow quickly tired of aromatics: one bowl each 1/2 days are pleasant, but no more. But among all the few aromatics I have tried so far, this one is the most tolerable, a nice change of pace when I don't want a stronger tobacco-tasting tobacco.

Lured as others by the eye-catching tin, this turned out to be a terribly disappointing tobacco experience. Guess I?m like most Americans: put something in a shiny box and I?ll buy it.

The vanilla flavoring is harsh and overpowering, even in the tin. Most aromatics generally at least smell sweet and mellow in the tin, even if they turn out to be harsh on the palate; Planta?s Black Vanilla doesn?t even achieve that. I enjoy a smooth, light aromatic now and again, but this one drives me to employ the overused yet totally apt descriptor: cloying. The sweetness here is over the top to the point of being harsh. And tongue bite seems inescapable with this blend. Ended up dumping over half the tin.

Oh, well, at least I got a cool tin out of it.

As vanilla is one of my favourite flavours, I had thoroughly looked forward to trying this blend and was a bit disappointed. The mixture is rather wet and tends to burn hot, resulting in pipe gurgle and tongue bite. Furthermore, the vanilla casing seemed to override the natural flavour of the virginia, leaving a vanilla-flavoured burley blend. Pros: Nice tin and pleasant room note.

I wanted Peter Stokkebye's Black Vanilla, and I got this instead. Is it the same thing?

Planta used to have a small Black Vanilla zigarillo [¡!] which those who like Henry Winterman-type cigars might enjoy. I feel that the Dutch and Brazilians do that sort of thing?and this sort of thing?so much better! Nat Sherman?s Liberty Golden Virginia 580 or Dan?s Sweet Vanilla Honeydew are much better realizations of what this name suggests, even if they are not ?black? cavs?Like anybody cares.

This ostensibly vanilla-flavoured cav is just plain boring.

As an avid pipe smoker who craves the his fix of a sweet Vanilla Cavedish and a friend asked me to try this blend.

The tin that it came in was unique within itself, which at first I thought was a gimmick to influence the smoker of pipes to buy their product for the tin itself.

Once I removed the lid I was really expecting an aroma of overwhelming Vanilla. After the disappointment of the Vanilla aroma, I decided to fill up a bowl of this tobacco anticipating the superb flavour through the addition of genuine Madagascar Vanilla, again the disappointment had set in as this to me was a very bland tobacco. It was an even burning tobacco and I thought it deserved another chance, unortunately the results were the same.

This would most likely be for a pipe smoker first starting out and wanted an aromatic, but for myself, I prefer an aromatic simular to that of Peter Stokkebye's Sweet Vanilla.

UPDATE June 17, 2003

I really wanted this tobacco to be on my list of Vanilla aromatics to smoke and I have to give it one more try.

This time it was my first bowl of the day, and the taste was very mild to mild, the flavor was very mild, strength was mild, and room was wife friendly.

I decided to remove the tobacco from might try it again to smoke this tobacco to smoke this on ocassion as it did present itself to be rather nice tobacco for me first thing in the norning.

I hate to give up on a Vanilla aromatic with such an enticing name as this one, so I added another tobacco jar with Plata Danish Black Vanilla to my morning tobaccos.

I also bought it because of the lid pipe rest, made to fit my favorite canadian pipes. I'd thought of refiling it. I must say I was surprised, for this is not a chemical kit (unlike many I've tried...), it is a virginia rich, brown cavendish. The vanilla topping is not at all commonplace potpuri, but something adding slight sweetness to taste and much to sociability. Mostly a danish - you can take it everywhere and smoke it slowly, in a large bowl, tasting the sweet fermented tobacco.

This blend is packed in a rather unusual tin with a pipe rest molded into the top. However, the tobacco is what really counts. A very moist blend of high quality browns + 50% black cavendish with a fantastic, intense vanilla tin and room aroma but a less evident taste results in a wetter smoke than I prefer for ~ the last 1/3 of the bowl. Drying the tobacco resulted in a very hot smoke. I'm not normally an aromatic smoker and am biased towards straight VAs, but these vanilla blends keep enticing me with their great PR and aromas. I just wish the tastes were as enjoyable. If you prefer a heavily cased vanilla blend, this might be the one for you. At this point, I would select Dan's 'Sweet Vanilla Honeydew' over this blend for a hot weather smoke or change of pace.

Oh Lord, I'm not touching that tin ever again. Almost made me hate all my other aromatics by proxy: feels like I'm smoking one of those pot-pourri room fresheners. This blend sadly reminded of a vanilla extract (which to be fair, was real vanilla and not a synthetic flavouring) used in some quality vaping liquids.

Mind you, it's not entirely unpleasant and I'm sure some people will like it, but when I smoke tobacco I need to taste and feel the tobacco itself. Taste is too mild here and completely drowned in vanilla.