Cobblestone Amaretto

This is another sample I got from a friend and fellow pipe club member the other day. I have heard of Amaretto but since I never was in my past life a liqueur guy haven’t given it much thought. To save those the trouble it is an Italian liqueur made originally from bitter almonds. Amaretto means ‘a little bitter’ in Italian or so the internet says. This is another aromatic that I have encountered that smells super sweet out of the bag but smokes incredible smooth with no bite and not as sweet as the tin note would suggest. Every once in a while, puffing I would hit a pocket of an almond like taste. Kind of a weird experience. All in all, I really liked it though. A nice change of pace. I would say definitely worth a try especially if you like the Amaretto taste.

The earthy, nutty, woody, lightly molasses sweet burley is the lead component. The brown sugary black cavendish is nearly equal to the burley in terms of effect. The rich amaretto liqueur topping fairly sublimates the tobaccos without drowning them out. The strength is a step past the center of mild to medium. The taste almost reaches the medium mark. The nic-hit is a slot below the strength threshold. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, and there’s barely a rough edge to be found. The tobacco may need a light dry time, though I did not do that. Burns cool, smooth and clean at a slightly slow pace with a very consistent sugary, almond and burley nuttiness with light bitter, syrupy notes from start to finish. Has a pleasant, short lived after taste, and room note. Leaves little moisture in the bowl. Requires a few more than an average number of relights. A smooth all day smoke. Three stars.

-JimInks

I simply love almonds. They have a wonderful flavour in confectionaries like marzipan, delicious! Needless to say, amaretto is one of my favourite cocktail mixers. This is the best amaretto blend I have encountered so far. The toasty nutty burleys are well balanced with the amaretto topping, and the black cavendish adds a balancing smidge of sweetness. The amaretto flavour is distinct and accurate, it lasts past the halfway mark and the fine quality burley carries this blend to satisfaction until the bottom of your bowl. This blend is not syrupy and burns clean without leaving goop at the bottom of your pipe. The nicotine hit is a notch above mild, which is very welcome as most aromatics are too mild for me. The room note is wonderfully sweet and will whisk away less favourable room notes. This is a well-crafted aromatic and I grant it a 4/4 until I encounter a better amaretto blend (which seems very unlikely).