Planta Danish Black Vanilla

This was my very first pipe tobacco when I started smoking several years ago. It was recommended to me by my tobacconist, and I guess for a lot of people it was a "starter drug".

The tobacco consists mostly of Black Cavendish with just a few tan Burley leafs mixed into the ribbon cut. The tin note is overwhelmingly sweet, its vanilla scent superposing any genuine tobacco smell. Even though the tin discription states that real vanilla beans from Madagascar have been used to flavor the tobacco, the odor appears artificial to me like custard powder.

Filling and lighting your pipe is easy. It burns evenly and rather fast.

The taste of sweet vanilla is mind-blowing, and without any tobacco flavors at all. Like in many tobaccos manufactured by Planta, there's a certain mustiness, especially towards the end of the bowl. Danish Black Vanilla will give you a very mild smoke, even if it gets a little too hot, and without any tongue bite. This makes it in fact suitable for beginners. However, I don't like it any more.

The room note is very pleasant, sweet and aromatic, a crowd pleaser.

I got this as part of an assortment of tobaccos I was going to give as a present to my brother along with is first pipe for Xmas this year. I decided to hang onto this one and give it a try bc I'm trying to find some more house friendly blends.

Opening the tin blasts you with a wave of very pleasant vanilla. Sort of smells like a black and mild cigar from Middleton. Oddly, it's in a plastic Baggie inside. Loosely packed into the tin, I figured it would be damp, but it's not. Easier than normal to work out a bit of this from the tin for the pipe. Nice uniform ribbon cut, medium browns and yellows. Was expecting some jet black cavendish in here, but I don't see any. It packs and lights up easily enough.

On the charring light it's pretty sweet. Yet again, think black and mild cigars. Settles in to a pretty mellow smoke. Soft flavor of vanilla is persistent, yet diminishing slightly towards halfway mark on this pipe. Burns pretty quickly, and not the coolest. No tongue bite as yet, don't expect there will be. Not much nicotine present in my opinion. Flavor shifted towards the last quarter of the bowl. Has become kind of acrid. Still smoking dry and even though. Burned down to white ashes in the end, odd for an aro.

Having smoked a few bowls of this now, I would say it's not for me. It's not bad altogether, just not good. There's definitely better aromatic mixtures out there. I may have liked this more when I was 15 or 16 yrs old. The GF doesn't mind the smell in the house, which is nice for me. It just doesn't have the depth and character I have come to enjoy from stronger, purer tobaccos. Maybe my palate has been spoiled on full English blends too long. Can't say I recommend this, even for a beginner. Yet again it's not bad, just not good either. Maybe I can blend something else into this and beef it up some. I noticed someone else here said it leaves a funny feeling to your tongue, kid of gritty. I concur, oddly never experienced that from a tobacco before.

I got this blend as a birthday gift from a friend, who bought it after some tobacconist reccomendation. As a matter of fact, this blend seems to be quite popular among novice pipe smokers like me. Anyways, I found it to be extremely artificial. The topping is very strong, and the taste is overwhelming. At some point during the smoke i found it to taste like soap or something like that. I certainly do not recommend this one.

Enough of the tin. A nice gimmick, but without it, I doubt it would sell much. That said, I wanted this to be one of my favorites; this is not a bad smoke, but it's just another vanilla cased tobacco with all the usual positives and negatives that come with these aromatics.

The tin aroma is a pleasant vanilla, and as would be expected, the room aroma is inviting. There is a pleasant, mild vanilla taste, that is once your taste buds recover from the bite, if ever. That's my biggest problem. I don't see the point of smoking something that everyone else likes the smell of, all at the sacrifice of your taste buds.

If it's a mild pleasant taste you want to enjoy, without offending the non-smokers around you, I'd try a mild cavendish, which won't sting your tongue like this does.

The room not of this blend is simply delishious and like the scent of heaven! Thats everything good i can say about thus mixture. The first puffs are like cigarette smoke, at midbowl it turns to burning rubber tires or shoe soles. And my mouth turnes paper dry in an instant. I also missed out any vanilla flavour at all. Not recomended at all! (and i say this as an aromatic smoker)

You know Mr whippy ice-cream? That stuff which is so artificial it simply does not melt? That is what this is like. I felt I was smoking a block of butter drenched in cheap vanilla essence. And it bit.

I almost apologised to my pipe.

I received a tin of this as a gift from someone who doesn't know what a pipe tobacco is. I knew what was awaiting for me but just to be a gentleman I had to light this gift and let my friend enjoying the pleasant room note of it. I couldn't be a gentleman for a long time and had to stop this torture at the half of the bowl. I hate to throw away tobaccos but I couldn't make something better with this tobacco.

Vanilla lovers and some beginners would love this blend. Altough I would like to recommend them to find a much more decent aromatic tobacco. From my point of view it does not worth even one star!

OK, so it has a good room note. I don't smoke for the room note. I really like the Black Vanilla Flake, but this is not the same tobacco: Not even close. I can't even detect the vanilla. It has a strong aromatic scent and taste, but I'll be damned if I can define it.

I have pretty much totally weened myself from aromatics except for a vanilla blend now and then. There are much better ones than this still on the market such as Dunhill A21000 and Dan's Vanilla Honeydew.

This was like smoking a bar of vanilla soap. There was no tobacco flavour to be found. I don't believe aromatics should try to completely mask the tobacco. For instance, the Mac Baren 7 Seas Blends are rich with flavour, but still offer the presence of the tobacco. I must rate this low, because of my stance on the issue. There might be some who like this, but it is not for me. The vanilla tastes natural at the very least. I finished the tin because my girlfriend appreciated the room note.