Backwoods Blue

This is the cheapest tobacco I have ever purchased, coming in at a little over a dollar an ounce. Definitely a blind buy given that there were no prior reviews on this site, and the other Backwoods tobaccos seem to be universally poorly rated. So I wasn't expecting much.

The only bag note I got was generic tobacco and a faint hint of raisins. Is that fermentation? A wisp of a brandy topping? Green River Burley? It hardly matters: nothing of this translates into the actual smoke.

I once read one of our noted contemporary blenders, I can't recall which, say that nearly every pipe tobacco is touched up in some way by use of toppings, casings, fermentation, ageing, pressing; and that smoking tobacco that hasn't been massaged can be a fairly rough experience. Being an ordinary consumer this has been an experience denied me until now.

While I can't say this is an entirely 'naked' tobacco it is clear very little has been done to it. It's very much what you would expect an inexpensive tobacco described as a Va/Burley blend would be. It delivers warm smoke of no particular character or flavour.

To be clear, it is not offensive in any way. It's not rough, nor is it bitey. It comes fairly dry and will burn fast if you puff too hard, which might be easy to fall into searching for flavor. If what you are after is something to stuff in your pipe between those tobaccos that you genuinely enjoy, then this will do the trick. It would also serve as a blending or extending tobacco.

Here in Australia, pipe tobacco will often retail for more than $70 an ounce, so I am hardly going to fault this tobacco for being no more than what it is.