Karl Erik Private Blend No.16

If you're looking for a cherry tobacco that actually tastes like tobacco rather than cherry cased cardboard, this is it.

Not goopy, smokes without a bite and has a pleasant cherry flavor combined with that of a high grade tobacco. A nice experience.

It's worth a try.

This tobacco was worth me doing my official first review on. I've been attempting to find a good aromatic and was almost giving up, when i came across this blend. First, I'll admit, it was the smell that made me want to try it. I almost wanted to grab a spoon and dig right in! Another something I noted was the cut and color. I'm used to seeing flavored aromatics to be mostly uniform in color, but this one is different. Lots of very dark pieces with a few light sprinkles thrown in to balance it out.

Upon lighting, tamp, and relighting, my room mate noticed the incredible aroma. It's like I was smoking berries in that pipe! I continued, and first mostly got the full flavor of the tobacco, but as the burn evened and cooled the flavor of the cherry came in. The cherry flavor didn't have that fake, chemical taste that so many other aromatics seem to have. Besides that, it was just strong enough to be a good flavoring (perfect for an after-dinner smoke), but it was most certainly not overpowering the expertly blended tobacco beneath.

The only problem I encountered with this smoke was the difficulty to keep it lit well. I assume if I were to let it dry out a bit before my next smoke, I'll be more satisfied, but this particular smoke I found myself having to re-light ferequently after about mid-bowl.

I'll give this one 3 1/2 stars. Glad I finally found a flavored aromatic that dosen't taste awful and/or burn my tongue.

To enjoy this blend, you must not only like aromatics but love cherries. The tin aroma reveals the 2x fermentation and sweet, cherry casing. The tobacco ranges from light to black coarse ribbons with acceptable moisture content that are easily packed, burn coolly and result in a relatively dry smoke for such an aromatic. During smoking, the fruity, cherry flavor is present but not so dominant to totally overshadow the sweet VAs. However, dedicate a pipe to this blend since the cherry extract infects it and effects subsequent smokes of different tobaccos even after a good cleaning. I didn't sense the Latakia indicated in the desciption above and none is shown on the tin label. The room aroma gets rave reviews from most non-smokers. Although I still prefer just great tobacco flavors as in my normal VA blends, this is one of the better aromatics that I've recently tried and surely is a giant step above Middleton's Cherry Blend or the drug store cherries. I'll try this again once the weather gets hot.

Pretty good stuff for a flavored tobacco. Tin aroma is a strong cherry scent. Moisture content was perfect right out of the tin but had trouble getting it to burn evenly in the bowl. Mostly dark cavendish & dark brown mixed flakes. Burns good to the bottom with no goop & plenty of cherry as well as tobacco taste. Sweet, cherry scented room note. I pushed it a little too hard toward the end and got bit a little. Overall, however, tongue/palate discomfort was minimal for such a strongly flavored aromatic. If you're in the market for a very cherry blend, give it a try...you could do worse. This is one of the few quality cherry blends on the market...certainly better than most. My rating is based only on a flavored, aromatic blend and therefore, IMHO, KE's Private Blend No. 16 merits three ***s.