Solani 369: Blue Label

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.

Potpourri anyone? I can't believe they waste such beautiful tins on this nastyness. Better off used as a bathroom or car freshener.

wow...misleading tin, misleading marketing...this is the same as these Caribbean Blue Pirates in Tights series mishaps, absolutely overwhelmingly chemical juicy fruit gummy bears, it will ghost a pipe into pieces never to use again. This is so bad. On a positive note: It does make a great potpourri in the rest room. It last's about 2 months as an air freshener.

This blend really put me off to Solani, and I'll have to let go of my prejudice and try other blends. The yellow plum casing smells remarkable, the first few puffs let off a shisha-like aroma that is sure to get you compliments from anyone within its vicinity. It quickly goes downhill from there. The casing burns off quicker than any aromatic I've tried, and the perique becomes dominant. It is jarring to get that spice without the plums after such succulent first puffs, and if the perique was of better quality it would be able to compensate with its own plumyness, but there are no fruit notes to be had as the bowl continues to burn.

Sadly, I have to give this a 1/4, the concept showed promise but the execution is poor.

As a fan of Solani 633, I was interested to try Solani Blue as part of my unceasing efforts to find a tasty aromatic to smoke around my wife. Solani Blue is not a bad tobacco--it is well-cut and -blended, and smokes dry and cool--but for me there was too much burley bitterness dodging around in the foreground shortcake taste. Like many aromatics, it also leaves a bad aftertaste. If you are an aromatic fancier, I can recommend Blue as a quality tobacco. If you're crossing over from Virginias and English blends, I don't think you'll find the taste you're looking for.