Solani 369: Blue Label

I usually smoke Compton's Balkan and Macedonian Mixture along with Gramercy Park, Hobbit's Weed, Rich's Grandpa, and the odd piece of rope I find. I say this to let you know I am of no camp and I have out grown absolutely nothing. I enjoy smoking tobacco, any tobacco. The ones I like I tell you about.

369 was a total mistake. I ask the clerk at the shop for nice burley. He said try this. So when I lit up you could recognize my surprise. My wife looked at me and said,"What are you smoking? I replied saying I don't know, but I think I like it.

Wow! This was a blast. Vanilla. Cherry. Coconut. Yep. All of them.

This is a sweet social tobacco that is fun to smoke. Everybody should try it. I would definitely put this in rotation if I had one.

A big sweet ever lovin 4.

Absolutely F R E A K I N-Fantastic Tobacco! I've never smoked a Weed,that changes Personality..quite like 369Mix. Meer,Briar,Cob,Clay...Big or Small...Enjoy.!!

--update-- Who would have thought, I now smoke this blend more than any other! Seems that if it's dried out quite a bit, the extreme flavoring seems to disappear. More tobacco taste creeps trough and I quite like the spicy notes that float up the nose when puffing away. I am changing my rating to 4 stars! Great tobacco.

--original review--

Well well.... I bought this without first checking this website. That was a mistake. I needed a replacement for Aston Gold Rush (couldn't find it anywhere) and was in a hurry. I read the tin and saw "virginia tobacco, perique and NO FLAVORING". So much for believing in "Tin talk"....It is the complete opposite of what the tin says. It is flavored....really flavored.....saturated actually. I was pissed of to be exact because I had flavored tobacco all over the house but no pure tobacco anymore! I didn't like it at all and it went in the cupboard. I took it out when I was in a "sweet" mood and smoked it : Really nice tobacco actually! Sometimes a bit of perique seems to creep trough the casing and disappears again, nice easy good smoke.

It's just a shame that they lie on the tin, I first thought they put the wrong tobacco in the tin at the factory but on tobaccoreviews I see it's normal....whatever.

Just 1 complaint....it's WAY to wet in the tin to smoke. Let it dry out a bit.

Well, I can't see why Solani bothers to indicate perique, or burley, or virginia, or anything on this tobacco. You can't taste it, and anyone who buys this stuff hoping for a mixture of Red Va, Burley, and perique will probably be disgusted with the heaped on tropical fruit topping. Same exact topping as Peterson's Connoiseur's Choice (and Jacaranda, if I remember) but Connoiseur's is far better tasting because it actually contains a) a reasonable amount of topping and b) some tobaccos with flavour.

So, this is a light, somewhat floral summertime smoke (which is to say, I'm going to put the tin away for about 5 months and try it again then) which does not resemble pipe tobacco any too closely, and which I wouldn't recommend to anyone unless they want a totally aromatic blend with a lot of fruity notes.

EDIT: Worse with time, my wife hates the smell, I hate the taste. It burns.

The horror... the... horror...

Open the round tin, and a synthetic vaho of vanilla and coconut will immediately curl your eyelashes. If you are allergic to cheap artificial parfums, be forwarned! You could choke to death.

In the can the mix looks like-totally Danish aromatic: swaths of "wild" cut Virginia, greasy-looking black cavendish, and scatological-brown burley. I see and smell no Périque: it could be part of the casing. Yikes.

This is so artificially moist that I have trouble lighting it and keeping it lit. When it finally catches on, through my burnt tongue I can taste syrupy vanilla-coconut twinky plus the underlying bitterness of the chemicals. It gets more bitter and gurgly towards the end. It left a gorgeous Becker & Musicò Dublin, silver-mounted, full of gunky Scheiße.

I can't remember when I last despised a tobacco so much.

Like many of the earlier reviewers of this blend, I feel cheated. I was not familiar with Solani tobaccos except by reputation and when I saw the tin description of Virginias, Burley, and Perique I though that this might be something that I would enjoy. Nowhere on the tin does it say "aromatic" or hint that fruit syrups or other flavorings were involved with this blend in any way.

When you open the tin, it smells like a fruit basket. Other reviewers have described cherry, plum, apricot, peach, pineapple, vanilla, and even coconut aromas. These are all there in this tutti-fruity mixture if you look for them, and they are also present when the tobacco is smoked. If you examine the many other reviews I have submitted you will find no aromatic tobaccos among them. Not one. I do not like aromatics. I will not buy this one again.

That said, I probably will finish the tin. I will use a dedicated pipe for this because I don't relish the idea of tutti-fruity flavors with the burley blends I normally enjoy. The cut is wild and the tobacco seems overly moist when the tin is opened. Even so, it is easy to pack and it burned evenly through an entire pipeful for me. The aromatic flavors are "enhanced" if you keep it slow and sip the pipe without heating it up too much. I let the tin dry for an hour or so after the first bowlful and it continued to behave well. I don't prefer this type of tobacco, but for its type it seems to behave well and I am too stingy to throw away a tin I paid $20 for. There is no trace of a real tobacco taste anywhere here, though some of the fruitiness may be coming from Perique.

The main lesson I have learned from this is never again to buy a tobacco without checking good old tobaccoreviews.com first.

Three weeks later: Now that I have spent time with this, here is my revised review. The tobaccos behaves perfectly in a mechanical way. It packs easily and always burns to the bottom of the bowl in a white ash, leaving none of the disgusting soggy dottle that aromatic tobaccos are known for. It smokes cool with no tongue bite. This is where the good stuff ends. I said before that the smell of this stuff in the tin is like a fruit basket. I was wrong. What is really smells like is a big bag of Jolly Rancher candy. It's a strong smell and it is not natural. Having smoked a lot of this by now, I can confirm that there seems to be absolutely no nicotine in this stuff. Since I don't much like the taste of it and I am getting no nicotine, I have to ask myself why I am bothering to smoke this stuff. I have dropped the rating to One Star. Happy smoking, friends.

From the box, a sweet and pleasant aroma hits the nose, if a bit overwhelmed by the plummy perfumes.

Produces a light smoke, almost devoid of richness and body, with taste of sugar and cheap perfumes, however giving off a pleasant room note.

If still wanting the plummy taste and aroma, rather smoke John Patton’s Storm Front freshly from the tin.

Reminds me of a twisted 50/50 mix of Stanwell Melange and Dan's Blue Note.

Initial flavors of cherry Chapstick, but changes to a vanilla-cherry after a few minutes under a match. This blend was kind of hard to keep lit. If you puffed harder to keep it lit, it smoked a bit ashy. Not a lot of nicotine to be found, but it did leave an excellent room note, that is a crowd pleaser for sure.

how much nicotine is there in this - i did get quite the sweats after smoking it.

flavor came thru on every 10 draws but first time in this pipe. had tried their festival much stronger sharp flavor

sweet mystery sweet but also sweats - seems solani has some not so pleasant nicotine issues.