Davidoff Year of the Rat

First off, a friend who works at a tobacco shop told me about this blend and that many customers said it was really good.

The price in Austria is 45€! That's very expensive, even for davidoff.

I opened the air tight bag inside the tin and stuck my nose in. The smell was very artificial like walking into a soap shop. It was a little creamy, but most of all artificial fruit like cherry subduing the rose smell. I didn't like it. It reminded me a lot of those red Tico Pop cherry lollipops with a chewing gum core that I loved when I was a kid.

The cut is interesting. Pretty coarse black Cavendish mixed with colorful rose petals, very bride Virginia pieces - which look very interesting but I still had too tear'em into smaller pieces. And dark fired Kentucky I did not find but it's supposedly in there.

I found the burn not too reliable even though the tobacco comes pretty much dry enough to pack straight out of the tin. A couple minutes drying helps and packing a bit lightly worked better for me.

After the first 2 pipes I hated it, so artificial and sweet. It was just not my cup of tea and I felt ripped off. After that it was sitting in the jar for 3 weeks, before I tried it again. The smell had become mellower still quite unnatural though.

The smoke had become quite enjoyable. Very creamy and very fruity but in a pretty good way. The casing is dominant in the beginning, nothing but that sweet cream and mildly sour fruits. Rose taste is in the background. Tobacco taste is merely hinted. The taste of the black Cavendish is fused with the casings pretty nicely. After a while the Virginia and Kentucky bring some tobacco taste but it keeps pretty mild and the casing abides until the end of the bowl and at least the two following ones. It should probably be smoked in a dedicated pipe.

People who love fruit teas will like this tobacco. I don't like fruit teas but the tobacco is pretty good. It's a special quality product and very expensive and in my opinion needs a few weeks in a jar to calm down.

I would give it 4 stars but for that price 3 is enough.

EDIT: I want to correct myself by saying that 3 stars is the rating i give Year of the Rat, regardless of the price. Actually 45€ is a very reasonable price considering all the work it took to produce this blend. I think other blends are just outrageously cheap.