Solani 369: Blue Label

A rich cherry aromatic with some peach and vanilla, all of which sublimate the tobaccos. There's a hint of nutty, earthy, woody burley somewhere around, but it's hard to find. The grassy, tart and tangy citrusy Virginias essentially escaped my notice, though the spice and raisins from the perique was pretty obvious. The sugary black cavendish is in the background. I found this is be a little syrupy and very moist, so it will require a little dry time, and leave a little moisture in the bowl. It will need some relights. The strength is a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium, while the taste just misses the medium mark. The nic-hit is a couple slots past the mild threshold. Burns cool and slightly slow with a very consistent flavor from start to finish. Won't bite or get harsh. Has a very sweet after taste, and room note that lingers just a mite. Not quite an all day smoke.

-JimInks

I should have read the reviews before I bought this since I don't generally enjoy aromatics and there was no such indication on the tin. Although this one is nicely prepared as other Solani blends, it is too moist from the tin and I needed numerous relights. After some drying, it smoked without condensation and cool with no bite. I just dont' like the amount and taste of the casing and missed any hint of true tobacco taste. However, if you enjoy aromatics, this may be a good one.

A tobacco trading partner threw this in with our last trade, asking if I'd ever smoked it. I hadn't and I didn't know why, since I enjoy a lot of Solani blends. After smoking as much of the tin as I could tolerate (not much), I think I must have read the reviews here and didn't recall. It also allows me to speculate as to why he was eager to trade this to me.

First of all, this tobacco merits just one star for my personal taste. It looks like black and brown confetti and smells in the tin like a fruit basket. Unfortunately, this fruitiness - predominantly cherry with some peach in the background - translates to the taste with the utmost fidelity. The very cool tin states only "virginia, burley, sweet-perique", none of which I can taste over the produce. A little honesty on the tin wouldn't hurt, as "cavendish" or "aromatic" or "cherry" do not appear. This reminded me of my very early forays into pipe tobacco where I wanted sweet tasting blends, and this one reminds me of one in particular that my first tobacco shop named Sweet Ebony. It was even more horrid than this one, though, as it smoked extremely wet. This one smokes fairly dry and if someone is looking for a cherry/fruit blend, they could do worse. Two stars as an aromatic, one star for me because I find its taste absolutely foul.

Atrocious chemical apple smell and taste. And that's pretty much it, very little tobacco taste. Reminds alot off heavily flavoured, low quality waterpipe tobacco that dumbass teenagers smoke to mask and overpower any natural tobacco flavour. The flavouring ghosts ALOT, hade to wash my clay pipe with a brush under running water to get rid off it. Since the flavouring tastes artificial apple with an unpleasant and aggressive sweetness with nothing pleasant to round it off with that is ONLY bad news.

Virginia and Burley components make for a unique presentation at the match as the blend also has a noticeable amount of Burley to build more strength that your average VaPer. Burns cool and there is an added casing of some sort that also gives the overall presentation a sweeter flavor than your usual VaPer. This one is still in production and could even make for your all day favorite.

I was duped. On the can, it says Virginia, burley and sweet Perique, so naturally I was thinking it was some iteration of a VaPer, and NOT an aromatic. I like very few aromatics. I like Nat Sherman's 314, Lane 1Q and Peretti's 432, which are probably all the same, as well as Nat Sherman's 509, and a few others, so I have given many a fair try, but have never found the same satisfaction as I do with say Solani's burley flake. I tend to stick with burley, Virginia and VaPer and various blended flakes. I also enjoy the English blends heavily dosed with Latakia. That said, at first, it's hard to discern the Virginia, the burley, and Perique mixed with all of Blue's cherry-vanilla-fruit flavoring, which hits you as soon as you crack the tin. It's seems more like a cavendish blend than anything else. But it nicely develops and is rather mild in flavor and finish, with the Virginia and burley being the most pronounced, sweetened with all that flavoring that isn't noted on the damn tin. The room note is quite pleasant. And I have to say, I did find this blend somewhat enjoyable. So, it was not a total disappointment because the quality is there and it does not bite and it's not cloying. If I knew it was an aromatic, I would not have purchased it, but it is one of the better aromatics I have tried.

It is not often that a mild blend can be complex in flavour and aroma. The Blue Label achieves that, and is a testimony to blender's care and attention to detail. Freshly opened tin has the usual high moisture of Solani but it is not too hard to get going after two charring lights. Short cut ribbon is easy to pack lightly which the moisture level requires. The tin aroma is slightly sweet and hints at honey, caramel, possibly cherry and some vanilla. The tin aroma is the same as the smoke. Yes it is sweet but with no excessive cloying. Perique is only just noticeable on top of reliable, honest cavendish with virginia also present and a burley only an occasional hint here and there. There is no bite, and no bitter end to the bowl either which is common with cheap aromatics. A well-structured, satisfactory and well-behaved blend, with enough complexity and character to please any aromatic tobacco lover.

When I'm in the mood to taste something really flavourful... fruity flavour that is, I will enjoy this tobacco. Smells excellent out of the tin. Reminds me of apricot, honey smoke. Hints of apricot appear when smoked and the nicotine hit is nice. A medium nicotine strength. Certainly can be described as a dessert smoke. Very Aromatic.

Here is a great aromatic with some strength and a decent taste finally! A perfect social smoke, my son said "you are smoking a marshmallow". Despite the fantastic room note, this tobacco is also quite good in taste, and as I said also gives some nicotine. It reminds me WO Larsen danish aromatics, but this is quite better under all aspects. Does not bite, it has no bitter taste, and in fact it is certainly similar to smoking a redberry, in terms of flavour and taste. An absolute must-try for aromatic people. Deserves a dedicated pipe for aromatics, of course.

I respect tobacco blends too much to pull any punches and I always tell it like it is, this is one unique tobacco. Most know that I can find good in almost any kind of tobacco and I smoke most types on a regullar basis and not any one type specifically. So I feel very qualified to review this blend. First it is very unique in that it is a perique blend using an aromatic as a base, and it does contain one heck of a lot of perique, the spiceyness of the Perique is present from start to finish. The base is a mix of virginia and burley and cavendish and a topping that seems to be a mix of different flavors with a berry like backdrop but with a room note smelling like apricots with a touch of spicyness almost like smelling ppeach cobbler cooking. It was an unusual combination yes, but not a bad one at all, just not what I expected it to be. I am smoking it out of a 100 gram rectangular tin that is very nice in it's presentation being mostly silv er with a little blue on it and the sealed foil pouch inside is a gold foil like bag holding the tobacco which is like a broken flake but more rubbed out. The tobacco is dark in color going from dark khaki to very dark brown almost black. My tin has eight years of age on it, and it is still very moist in the pouch. Almost too moist.

I feel that some drying would be nice but I hesitate to do that as I don't want to lose any of the very rich flavor of the tobacco itself. It is very full and bold and spicey and to lesson the strength would mske it just a run of the mill aromatic, which in this case it is not. Obviously you must like aromatics to appreciate it and also love perique as well. it smokes very nice and each puff is a burst of flavor. I have read though some are surprised by this bend, the tin art does say cavendish as well as burley and va which shoulld be an indication to some but they really should put on th tin, the labels says nothing about using a dark cavendish nor the fact that that it is v ery aromatic.

Uout of the pich it does smoke a little wet with numerous relights, but that is OK as it lights easily. It smokes down to the bottom of the pipe well but does leave a touch of residue on the bottom of the pipe which is why I am not giving it a four star rating. But this is a blend worth trying and I will hve no problem smoking what I have.