Seattle Pipe Club Gentleman’s Rum Vanilla

Be careful when you pop the lid on this one, if you take too big of a sniff your are gonna catch a buzz and a touch of a sugar rush!!! This one is true to its name for sure as you get a solid rum and vanilla scent that’s just sublime. For whatever reason the 30 days in a rum barrel really had an effect on this blend. I am sure some of it is the premium vanilla they used as it too can sometimes convey a liquor scent. Between the two of them it’s down right intoxicating to smell in the tin.

The tobaccos used all seem of the best quality and they are in a good balance to make this a very pleasant aromatic. There is a very sweet nature to this blend, not that sickly sweet from toppings, but a nice nuanced sweetness from the tobaccos used. A good chunk of the sweet comes from some fine domestic and Brazilian Virginia leaf. They add their subtle sweetness along with a touch of grass and lemon, sort of that lemon ? garnish in a cocktail, a touch of bread and lightness. Right there with it is some fine burley that adds its mild strength and depth to the smoke. It definitely adds to the mouth feel and quantity of smoke as well as its brown sugar as it cools the blend and basically makes it immune to bite. There is a dose of black cavendish that adds it sweetness and mellowing effects that helps give this blend a very gentle sweet vanilla rum flavor. It’s almost like the notes of vanilla you can get in some bourbons and with the rum it’s like a delicious rum vanilla trifle in the mouth.

It’s a nice moist but very smokable krumble cake that easily breaks up into pipe filling condition. It lights easily and may take an occasional relight but it burns clean and with very little residual moisture in the bowl. The taste is definitely in the middle to slightly above range as is the flavor. The strength is slightly less than mid level as far as nic hit. It retrohales beautifully and that just enhances the enjoyment of this one!!! The room note is pleasant and slightly lingering as is the taste in the mouth.

This is definitely one of the best vanilla aromatics I’ve ever smoked. It’s slightly different than my other two favorites Mac Baren Vanilla Roll Cake and Vanilla flake, I think it’s the rum barrel treatment and the black cavendish. It’s different enough to be more than worthwhile to smoke and joins the other two very nicely into my trio of premium vanilla aromatics. 4 out of 4 for me for sure and almost an all day smoke only because if you smoked it all day you wouldn’t get much else done because you would just be enjoying it!!!

Dave da Dragon

Domestic (and supposedly Brazilian) Virginia dominates with Burley not far behind in a Cavendish processing. The vanilla is faintly there, with rum on top, but is equally balanced from true tobacco flavor 50/50. As an aromatic superfan this is barely an aromatic in taste, though room note is quite inviting as it should be. This is not as good (to me) as Officer's Club by the East India Trade Company, but a more refined and subtle aromatic. Consider a cheeseburger of ground filet mignon with a drop of ketchup, whereas CAO Moontrance or Officer's Club is more a fast-food burger fisted and dunked in a fish-tank full of ketchup. This is a gentleman's aromatic, but I found the complexity intriguing, it wasn't what I was expecting; it's too "adult". A whisper of rum and vanilla (compared to their wallop bourbon-reserve Mississippi offering). Smells nice. Is nice. Tobacco blend complexities are well crafted. Flavor topping is subtle so it doesn't "ruin" the taste.

It is tobacco taste first, and of high quality and reasonable complexity.
The rum taste is light. The vanilla taste is perceivable.

This is NOT the best vanilla I've ever had. I can tell you I own several dozen types and love vanilla high-quality blends. If you want a true vanilla, Sutliff D40 Vanilla tastes like a melted bowl of ice cream to me and I adore it, second only to Mac Baren Vanilla Flake. Boswell's Vanilla Creme is also decent.