Chacom #4

Chacom - #4.

As is often the case, although the tin's round the paper insert for the tobacco to sit in is square! This holds two rows of well speckled flakes. The nose doesn't suggest lots of Perique, I identify a lot more of the archetypal hay you'd expect from Virginias. The moisture's good; a little damp but not too much as to need drying out.

The smoke marries up to the tin note perfectly. The bright Virginia takes centre stage; hay, bread, quite fresh. As a bowl burns down a fruitiness, plumminess, comes from the splash of Perique. But, even though the Perique is a definite addition, we're not in 'spice' territory; it seasons, but isn't too formidable a flavour. The burn from it's faultless, creating a mid-temperature smoke. I haven't had any bite, at all.

Nicotine: maybe medium. Room-note: nice.

#4? A smashing smoke for a warm summer day; like today! Bowl of this and a ginger beer. Or, a cold lager for the summer evening! Highly recommended:

Four stars.

The bright, orange, red and brown Virginias provides plenty of tart and tangy citrus, bread, grass, wood, earth, sugar, a fair amount of tangy ripe dark fruit, some vegetation, floralness, and a couple pinches of spice. They are the lead components. The perique offers a lot of sweet plums, earth, wood, some raisins, figs, and mild spice. It mostly plays a secondary support role rather than giving full support. There’s a very light apricot topping that accents the experience, though it loses a touch of its potency in the last third of the bowl. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium. The taste is a slot past that mark as it falls short of the medium threshold. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. Has a few very small rough edges. The flakes are mildly moist, easy to break apart, and doesn’t need any dry time. Burns cool, clean, and a tad slow with a mostly consistent fruity sweet, mildly floral, spicy flavor that extends to the lightly lingering, pleasant after taste. The room note is a rung stronger. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a couple more than an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke. Four stars.

-JimInks

best va/per i have ever had. lovely taste. great billows of smoke. no spittle. burns to an ash. 5 out of 4 stars.😎😎😎 not made by cornell & diehl. made by kohlhase & kopp

When I opened the tin, a strong dried apricot scent filled my nostrils. Later in the tin, that smell faded while still being detectable.

The presentation is perfect, K&K style. You can immediately recognize their style. Perfect rectangles stacked in the folded down paper.

The flakes are very easy to use. They can be rubbed out or broken as you like but I preferred to fold and stuff most of them. For this, I dried them a little, which made combustion pretty easy compared to other flakes.

The smoke itself is pretty medium in taste. By that, I mean the high notes many identify to citrus are subdued and the base only really come out at the bottom of the bowl. So you're here in the bread and hay territory. The perique is quite mild but you can definitely feel it, especially in the nose. The evolution of a bowl is very light. You mostly get the same bowl from start to finish, which would be a nice character for an all day smoker, I guess.

DGT works really well with this one. It gives a nice depth to the VA and some more strength to the perique. That's the way I enjoyed these flakes the most.

Otherwise, it burns pretty well with few relights or moisture if you dry and pack appropriately. Overall an easy flake.

I'm not giving this blend a high mark for several reasons. It is too simple for me. I'm not an all day smoker so when I do, I like more body and taste layers. It doesn't have anything very special to it. There are so many similar and better offerings, I don't know why one would chose to dive into this new comer.

This was very fresh so I expect cellaring this a little could be very beneficial to it. But a the price I can buy it here in France, it's just not worthy of that cellar status.

To finish, I'll say that I'm kind of disappointed of Chacom here. They're a great brand of pipes and they're only now trying to sell tobacco. To me, this seems very artificial as they're not making it themselves but merely slapping their name on it. It's not like they used to do it themselves and had to export the recipe. They could at least get a traditional french toasted burley made for them.

PS. Did j reeves really design this one? Source?

Very good tobacco with a pleasant and noticable taste, slightly evolving while smoking. As a newbie in pipe smoking world, I really recommand this tobacco for new pipe smokers.

Appearance: a very well-cut thin flake, consisting mostly of light and orange Virginia, with visible flecks of perique. Moisture and consistency are perfect.

Flavor: mixed herbs, bread and a little intrusive smell of topping (honey, lemon, caramel) dominate, in the second role - a clear plum and fig-wine note of perique. Simple enough, but very high quality. The topping is obviously of natural origin, no chemistry.

Taste: initially light, sweetish herbs and wheat bread are the base of the taste. The amount of perique gives spice on the tongue and spiciness in the nose, but the nostrils are not overpowering - I suspect 6-8%, based on taste and appearance. There is also figs on the exhale, though initially almost imperceptible, nailed by a slightly protruding spiciness. Sweetish odor of topping does not manifest itself in the taste any way, the sugar in the tobacco is exactly equal of taste of Virginia mix. Very slight acidity at the root of the tongue. The woody notes come gradually into the background, a little increase in the process of smoking up to the first third, and remain at this level. The established flavor is soft, with no sharp edges or roughness. By the middle, the perique finally moves to the nose, becomes softer, and is slightly subdued in the clean taste. The woody notes do NOT intensify! At the end of the smoke there are light tannin notes, as from a weak black tea. The density of taste is lower than the CRF, due to the significantly lower amount of red Virginia, but for the bright blend - very dense, there is no empty taste. Strength is average or slightly lower, with the individual perception of perique - in very large pipes can cause nicotine hit. Smokes slowly, cool, burns into a light gray dust, does not leave moisture in the pipe. The aftertaste is woody, so imperceptible you could say there is no aftertaste.

The smoke from the tobacco has a fresh hay smell with a honey undertone, it doesn't linger in the room, it is quite pleasant.

The bottom line? An excellent tobacco for lovers of light vapers. Quite frankly a pleasure to smoke, though I like it a little sweeter and darker Virginias. Of the drawbacks, perhaps - only the smell of fresh topping. Lemon with caramel and honey is a little intrusive. I think in storage will dissipate.

PS. And yes - Jeremy Reeves did not make this blend, despite the upper description. It is mistake, indeed.

PPS. I found the information in Internet that #4 is nothing else but old good Caledonian #499 revival under the new label. Now I know why it was so familiar. #499 was one of my favourite blends in 90s.

For a few months, Chacom #4 was my go-to Va/per. It came on the US market suddenly, and then disappeared equally suddenly. Thankfully, I still have one tin left.

The description here says there is no flavoring, but this isn't true. There is a light fruit, probably apricot, flavor added.

Just like the other Chacom # blends, it's fairly mild, but expertly blended with high quality tobacco. It's not overly complex, just quality. The Virginias have a very fresh, hay-like scent with a lightly floral and citrusy sweetness; but it's also bready... probably due to both bright and dark Virginias. The Perique adds the typical spicy plum and fig flavor, leading to a slight sort of "fig newton" flavor. The apricot topping is stronger at first, but only slightly dies down as the bowl progresses. It's a very pleasant and natural flavor. This really is my favorite Va/per, and I hope it comes back to the US market soon.

Bottom line: An excellent sweet and fruity (but not overly so) Va/per that relies more on high quality blending and tobacco rather than any sort of excess flash.

Interesting blend. It comes in flakes that resemble sticks of gum. It's moist out of the tin. It took some time to figure out how to pack and smoke it. I dried it out for around 15-20 minutes, then rubbed it out AND also folded and packed it in.

The tin note is bread, fresh cut hay, bread mostly.

When properly packed and dried it lights easily and there is a very unique aroma which I cannot quite define, incense, grass, bread. It's pleasant and distinct.

The taste is full bodied but not overwhelmingly strong. It tastes a lot like a strong expresso. There are also notes of bread, buns, burnt toffee. It's sweet and sometimes bitter, like licorice sort of. But mostly I get strong dark expresso.

I enjoyed this blend and highly recommend it. It's very distinct, lots of flavour, great room note.

Ok ... here's the deal. If you're in Luxembourg, Belgium, or France, stop by a tobacconist ... do yourself a favor and pick this up ... pick up 2 tins .. maybe 3.. trust me, you'll thank me. This is a SOLID VaPer. That's it. If you like VaPers , you know what you'll get. The Virginia rainbow will give you everything from bread, citrus, dates, earth, sweet flowers, and baking spice. The Perique will give you some pepper, stewed plums, raisins, and allspice. The casing is detectable but doesn't impact the natural tobacco aromas. This tin is great value for money .. a really solid, no-nonsense tobacco. Flakes are presented well, and no dry time is needed. Smoke is sweet and spicy. Didn't burn too fast, didn't turn on me, and required a typical number of relights. The room note was okay as no one was giving me the stink eye.

Viene con el punto de humedad perfecto, aunque agradece 15 min de aireado. Son unos flakes muy cómodos de desmenuzar, cargar y fumar, totalmente beginner friendly. El olor en lata es muy dulce, de sirope de agave, frutas amarillas y salsa de tomate. Estoy bastante seguro de que hay algo de topping dulce. Prende y se comporta muy bien en pipa. El humo es muy suave y casi imperceptible en boca y en nariz. Lo que sí se nota es su sabor, de intensidad media, dulce, muy dulce, de frutas amarillas como níspero, piña, melocotón, albaricoque… muy agradable. También se nota un punto cítrico importante, como de naranja agria, tomate ácido, frutas inmaduras, etc. En segundo plano de perciben notas florales, de perejil, césped, jardín, huerto y heno. Toda la paleta de sabores y matices se encuentran en el espectro de los dulces y agridulces, con un matiz pajizo muy leve. Lo cual no es malo, pero aquí no están las notas de madera, barniz, leña, biblioteca, libro antiguo… como sí aprecio en el Capstan azul. En general, un tabaco dulce, rico y amistoso. 3 estrellas.