Peterson Sweet Killarney

After 20+ years a pipe smoker I have tried many tobaccos and pipes. I do not sell, or work in the tobacco industry. To provide this review a base-line: My favorite is Full English Tobacco loaded in a medium Meerschaum Pipe. My second choice is Nougat blended bulk. I enjoy the slight lingering effect of Nougat in the Meerschaum Pipe when smoking the next bowel of Full English. Also, I prefer a $70.00 Meerschaum over any $200.00 Briar in my collection.

Contrary to all the Peterson hating review posted here, SWEET KILLARNEY is a wonderful aromatic with a pleasantly sweet flavor. The nut-to-nougat-to-light-vanilla flavoring is ever lasting to the end of the smoke. Most aromatics tend to bite and must be lightly puffed. My vitamin N seeking habit is to draw hard. I can easily suffer a bite from cased aromatics. However, drunk or sober, SWEET KILLARNEY has never yet bit my tongue.

I must take a stand for truth in these reviews. In my opinion: a few people on this board truly hate Peterson and have reported overly negative on more than one blend. I have learned that If they post too much raving hate of a blend than, I should rush to try some. LOL…

IMHO, a true evaluation of SWEET KILLARNEY was given by Franklin-Ryan who said, “The taste is soft and creamy with just a hint of fruit with the Virginias coming through stronger but not overwhelmingly at the end for a clean finish. No tongue bite at all even when in a hotter pipe after several smokes and the taste is consistent throughout the whole bowl. The room-note is soft and creamy too. It burns quite clean with a medium light ash and fairly little waste. Quite simply an excellent all day blend. The cool burning burly is well complimented by the Virginia flake and just the right amount of Cavendish to get the casing taste without the usual gurgling tongue biting side effects!”

Franklin said it better. And, SWEET KILLARNEY is a favorite of mine.

UPDATE: After deeper thought, my remarks about truth may be too harsh. For that I apologize. In my first paragraph I attempt to provide a baseline description of my pallet. Clearly, I am not a fan of aromatic tobacco. What makes SWEET KILLARNEY special to me is that it is not overpowering. It is not candy and does not punch you with perfume. However, It can make the English lover miss the taste of tobacco. So, SWEET KILLARNEY is a pleasant treat in my rotation.

As for the bite reported by others, it's a mystery to me. Some filter pipes will cause bite and also make the chemical or soapy taste more evident in aromatics.

A SUGGESTION: Years ago I learned a trick that can sometimes prevent bite, chemical taste, or wet gurgle: Remove the filter (if any). Line the bottom of the pipe with small amount (½ pinch) of a very dry Bright Virginia, thick ribbon cut. Top and smoke your desired tobacco but dump the ash before burning into the Bright Virginia. Reload over the Bright Virginia until it becomes unpleasant. This trick helps me smoke those failed samples we all collect. YMMV…

POSITION: 20+ year smoker. I normally like Full English, Virginia, Latakia, some uncased cav blends. I smoke 3–6 pipes a day. No tobacco sales.

I first tried Sunset Breeze (the other aromatic in the Peterson aromatic series) and because it was way too sweet for me, I avoided trying Sweet Killarney for several months. I recently gave it a shot and was glad I did.

Unlike Breeze, Killarney is not as heavily cased and smoked more like tobacco. The tin says the blend has a caramel topping. I guess that flavor just appeals to me when I smoke it. I also received sort of a light chocolate/vanilla taste.

This blend is easy to load, smokes mostly dry and cool, and will leave you satisfied if you enjoy aromatics with a little more tobacco backbone.

Peterson - Sweet Killarney.

Contrary to popular opinion I actually quite enjoyed this. You can easily detect the caramel/cream in it which I found to be of a pleasant strength. On the negative side (as many state) if you draw hard it will bite quite strongly, so approach it with ease. If taken steadily I found it to be quite forgiving with tongue bite, though. The taste is very sweet which may be too much for many people but the sweetness can be easily identified as caramel/cream .

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: pleasant.

Three stars.

Having smoked several of the Peterson's Range before I was not expecting much from this blend. I find Petersons rather run-of-the mill and as others have said on this site overly strong on the Nicotine to make a really enjoyable smoke. I was however pleasantly surprised that this blend bucked the trend.

The tin note when opened is caramel and soft fruit with an apricot background. The mixed blend fills well and stays well lit even with a very slow draw which in my opinion is extremely important. The taste is soft and creamy with just a hint of fruit with the Virginias coming through stronger but not overwhelmingly at the end for a clean finish. No tongue bite at all even when in a hotter pipe after several smokes and the taste is consistent throughout the whole bowl. The room-note is soft and creamy too with a subtle smack of apricots or mandarins; I cannot be certain which fits better. It burns quite clean with a medium light ash and fairly little waste. Quite simply an excellent all day blend the cool burning burly well complimented by the Virginia flake and just the right amount of Cavendish to get the casing taste without the usual gurgling tongue biting side effects! I was very impressed by this tobacco and it will become a regular smoke for me.

This tobacco at first seemed a relatively good quality aromatic. The pouch aroma was inviting and not overwhelming and the broken flake presentation of the tobacco itself quite convincing.

After smoking it for some days however, I was not only let down by the mediocrity of the tobacco's body but also constantly left with a sickening aftertaste due to the chemical composition of the casing (too much glycerol maybe?). Never again. Tremendously bad experience.

After a pipeful or two, I must confess that I have felt very disappointed with this tobacco: in the tin, this aromatic has an incredibly great smell. However, I had no pleasure smoking it : the promising "crème caramel" flavouring seemed to have disappeared.

After a while, I opened the tin once again, and… Guess what? I could not stop from smoking it. Is it the (short) ageing, or a slight change in my palate? I cannot tell.

Nevertheless, these days, this is one of my favourite tobaccos after a heavy lunch or dinner. I smoke it with a coffee and it seems to me that I need no dessert!

Wow...this one is not so good for me. The tobbaco smells nice, but the smoke is basically tasteless with the exception of a chemical, burning tang. Dissapointing blend from Peterson.

Having tried Peterson's Irish Oak and Sherlock Holmes, and enjoying them, I thought I would try some other of Peterson's offerings. A big mistake on my part. Sweet Killarney is much too sweet for me. I smoke a lot of aromatics, but I can't handle this one. I smoked about a half a bowl before I said "Enough". The sweetness that came through was almost sickish, and my tongue felt like I had licked a burning hot coal. Peterson uses very good tobacco in their blends, but this one isn't for me.

I think the negative views of this tobacco is a bit unfair. I'm a fan of Petersen tobaccos with Irish Oak and Irish flake my favourites. I won't say Sweet Killarney is another favourite but, on the other hand, it's not really as bad as some of the reviews make it. I dry the tobacco spread open on a piece of paper. I "prime" my pipe after it's been charged with SK; light the tobacco until it's burning evenly. I then tamp it down a bit and leave the pipe for, say an hour. When I then relight, the peppery taste is amost gone completely and I enjoy the baccy. I like the sweetness, very nice room note, good nicotine kick and the fact that it burns down to dottle. No gurgle, no tongue bite. A good tobacco over all. I always have a tin in my rotation.

I have been smoking a pipe for over a decade and I would like to think my technique is down pat as I can smoke Virginia's with patience and control and do not get bitten anymore but boy this and Sunset Breeze bit the living hell out of me. Maybe they are like Macbaren's tobacco that is designed for Europeans to smoke through a filter... I don't know but I do not want to go through the bite again. Smelled good though....