Wilke Pipe Tobacco Rum and Maple

The flue cured Virginia provides grass, a little hay, and lightly tart and tangy citrusy with a touch of tangy dark fruit. It’s the lead component. The nutty, woody, earthy, toasty burley is a secondary player. The sugary black cavendish adds a little sweetness. In every rum and maple blend I have ever smoked, the rum is the dominant topping. Not so here, where the maple takes a little of the lead. The interplay of toppings sublimate the tobaccos without totally drowning them out. The strength is a step short of the center of mild to medium. The taste is a slot past that center. The nic-hit is mild. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. No rough spots either. Burns cool, clean and smooth with a fairly consistently deep sweetness from first puff to last. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. The short lived after taste and room notes are very pleasant. The room smell certainly passes the wife test. An easy going all day, comfortable smoke. Four stars out of four.

-JimInks

The tobacco is a mix of long and chopped medium ribbon. There are a few torn bits in the mix. It was a little on the moist side of ideal for me, and I smoked it as delivered. I was careful not to pack it too tightly. The first bowl of this was in a Grabow pot, and that worked so well, I did not try it in another pipe.

As a rule, blends such as this one have a great pouch note and disappoint in terms of flavor. This one actually tastes quite good, and the rum and maple are both there and do not disappear by mid bowl. The combo is good and well done. The toppings don't mask a mild burley-forward base, and this is a plus for me.

It burned well, and if anything seemed to have burned a little slow for me. I found that just as I was about to relight, tamping would bring it back to life. I have experienced this with a variety of blends, but there was more of a theme with this one. It was an enjoyable smoke overall.

If you are looking for a quality semi-aro that provides a great flavor that does not overpower the tobacco foundation, you should give this a try. It was good.

Chemical taste right off the bat, Goopy, wet, hot smoking. 😝 Not my cup of tea. This is over the top aromatic, nothing like a European aro. Heavy and wet. I can deal with the moistness, not the chemical taste. PG'ed to death.

Well, this one certainly has a lot of character, but there are a few issues which made me put the brakes on as far as giving a higher rating. Pie Eyed Piper recently gave a scathing 1-star review and I’m sympathetic to the points he makes. It seems we both received shipment from the same batch. This is heavy and goopy, really over the top in terms of added flavorings, and loaded with PG. So how the heck do I justify even giving two stars? I discovered that using a filter really cleans up a lot of this mess, and enough so that I get an almost three-star level of enjoyment from this blend. So my description below is based on using a filter, and based on the product that I received, not older batches that may have used less PG and taken more time to properly cure the tobacco. If you don’t use a filter, run the other way!

So, lots of flavor here even getting past a 6mm or 9mm charcoal filter. Drying on a paper plate for five hours did reduce the opulence to some degree, but the tobacco was still springy to the touch and easily clumped together –so watch for packing too densely. I get maple and scorched brown sugar, and the rum note is kind of weird and malty. Certainly not like my favored Barbancourt Estate 15 year rhum. An indulgent aromatic that with some drying and use of a filter rates about 2.5 stars. Without a filter, especially with drying and loss of flavor, I get weird tastes of wilted grass, chlorophyll, graphite, malt, rum, and even bitter Bay Leaf, the worst of these offenses mostly hidden by the maple sweetness. Without a filter: 1 star.