Wilke Pipe Tobacco Santa's Chocolate Covered Cherry Creme

The earthy, woody, very nutty burleys take the lead. The red and bright Virginias provide a little tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, light tart and tangy citrus, and a couple blades of grass. They are right behind the sugary black cavendish in terms of effect. The deep cherry topping has a small advantage over the chocolate and vanilla creme garnish. I also sense a very light cognac essence in the background. The toppings moderately sublimate the varietals as all elements synergistically form a cohesive, consistent, creamy sweet, lightly nutty, rich flavor The strength is in the center of mild to medium. The taste is a step past that center. Has a very mild nic-hit. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. No rough edges exist here. Burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace. Barely leaves any dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. It has a lightly lingering, pleasant after taste. An easy going all day smoke with a very attractive room note. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks

A good friend of mine and Vice President of the San Diego Pipe Club (SDPC) sent me and my wife a nice Christmas package. Enclosed were 4 samples of pipe tobacco that I have not tried. We moved out of state and of course one of the things I miss is attending the club. This sample was from Dec 2021. Over a couple of days, I smoked the sample which was about 4 to 5 bowls worth. When I opened the hermetically sealed zip lock bag, I was greeted with a strange tin note. Not strange in a bad way but different in the sense I could not tell exactly what it was. Nice though. Of course, from the name of the blend it tells you that it has Santa’s favorite toppings of Chocolate, Cherry, and Vanilla. I wish I had the sensory acuity of youth but that ship has sailed. I mostly detected Cocoa with maybe some other flavors drifting in the background but really hard to ascertain. Upon writing this review I decided to look this one up and check out the flavoring (Cherry, Cocoa / Chocolate, Cognac, Vanilla). Maybe the Cognac is what I detected in the tin note. I guess with the Cognac, Santa was being naughty this year. But as stated previously I mostly detected Cocoa. I packed my Claw Meerschaum with the black and dark red ribbon and found that it packed easily, fired up nicely and was all in all a nice smooth smoke. If you would like a more detailed review, check out JimInks’ review below. I would recommend it but not something for me that I would go out of my way to stock up. I usually smoke some aromatics around Christmas time and this was a nice “stocking stuffer”.