Borkum Riff Black Cavendish

My introduction to pipe tobacco and a very pleasant one I must say. I really like the smell of it before smoking and the taste during is very pleasant a little sweet but nothing overwhelming. The room note is really what I love about it makes my mustache smell for quite a while afterward which is great. I think it made for a good starter tobacco, and I look forward to trying other Borkum Riff blends.

I like this stuff. Smokes nice, but has a little bit of a bite. Nonetheless, it's enjoyable.

Well, I have to say that, I'm not a big Borkum fan. they're usually really dry tobaccos and seem to be the same.

Black Cavendish is a good blend but it has nothing special. It burns quite hot, so you'd better smoke it at slow pace, this way I guess it's a better way to enjoy this blend.

There's tongue bite, dries your mouth after a few bowls but it's tolerable. I think it's a better smoke during cold weather.

I guess you should give it a try as long as tobaccos are something really personal in opinions.

However, I'd like to add that, the tobacco itself is a good quality tobacco but it misses something as a blend.

I last smoked this over 20 years ago, and I am assuming it was being blended by the original blender for the Borkum Riff line. What I remember was a dark brown to black, coarse cut tobacco that was very mild in taste but had a fantastic room note. After a while it became too boring to continue with as I went on to more tastier and satisfying blends. If I happen to come across the newer incarnation of this one, I'll try it again for sure, but I won't be going out of my way to find it.

I bought this for a change of pace from my english and regular burley blends. I found it a bit dry in the pouch, but it did smell very good. Upon packing it in a pipe, it was extremly difficult to light and keep going. The only way I found to keep it burning was to add a bit of prince albert with it. All in all it is a good change of pace, but I don't think I will buy anymore.

nutty,rich if you not find something else this can do,its not bad but not great can smoke sometimes.

I have made reference to this tobacco before. I have not yet tried the new Danish version. I did smoke it a number of times when blended and manufactured in Germany.

Since this is a Black Cavendish mainly prepared from Burley leaf (including the fire-cured Kentucky), and perhaps some Virginia, I think it is fair enough to compare it to other similar blends.

This is a heavily cased aromatic, with a rounded and deep bitter-sweet flavor, the aroma of which, in my experience, engulfs the senses and will permeate any briar.

As such, it is of a better quality and smoking characteristics than Danske Club's Black Luxury (less sweet and chemical in nature), and similar to Sail's Noir. Both are heavy tasting (somewhere in between truffles, nuts, berries, vanilla and dark chocolate), goopy, moist, and, again, in my experience, need continuous re-lighting. But both are much better than Black Luxury.

Now, to my palate BF's Black Cavendish (or Sail Noir) are not half as a good as Mac Baren's Black Ambrosia (i.e., a black cavendish blend). The difference, of course, is that Mac Baren's is made form Virginias rather than Burley, and so the flavor in Mac Barne's is more "tobaccoey", the sweetness less pungent and artificial, and the aroma far more refined and tempered.

On the other hand, if you want to try a better dark fired Kentucky, without the chemical sauces and flavorings, I strongly suggest you go for Orlik's Dark Strong Kentucky. Dark it is, strong it isn't. Yet it delivers a better punch and tobacco flavor--without losing that smokey bitterness from the Kentucky--than Borkum Riff's Black Cavendish.

All in all, BR's Black Cavendish is not a bad heavy-tasting and sweet black cavendish. If you like strong aromatic smokes, even if the smoke strength in itsefl is rather mild, this may be a good choice. Better than some, yes, but not as good as Mac Baren's or Orlik.

This tobacco is not a good one, but it is not terrible either.

I believe the one factor that removes most merit from it is the lack of nicotine and strength. I guess I have been fooled by the "Rich and powerfully masculine" in the tobacco description along with the inclusion of dark kentuckey in the mixture.

The pouch aroma is very nice, the tobacco cut is typical of the BF line. There is quite a lot of brown and golden leaf mixed with the Black Cavendish.

But it bareluy tastes anything....

For experienced smokers, this is not suitable. Unless you have been smoking extremely mild blends all along.

This might be suitable for the beginner.

Update 17/07/2009

For some unexplained reason, I hanged on to this blend without knowing it. I just left it in my Coleman cooler for several weeks, having - frankly - forgotten about it. And didn't get rid of the other two unopened pouches either, which is unusual.

I found the opened pouch tonight and went "Hum, well,well." I loaded up and, considering it is a drugstore blend, was rather pleasantly surprised this time around.

As this is a deeply cased tobacco, it needs to be opened up several weeks in advance before being smoked. Once the casing has reasonnably resorbed, this mixture actually becomes acceptable. It needs less religths and the truffle flavor comes up more without being sweet. The chocolate and walnut flavours are dominant but I still detect some tobacco taste in there. There is a bit of a chemical taste during the original lighting but it goes away after a couple minutes.

Actually, it's not bad. The mixture is more to the mid/medium side than mild as it was at my first trial. I might rebuy, I'm not sure yet. Because the truffle and walnut taste are nice, I will definitevily finish the 3 pouches I have. For a drugstore blend, it's not bad as long as you let it air out for a while.

If you like truffle and walnut taste in your pipe, I recommend it as long as you're aware it's a drugstore blend and that you open it 4-5 weeks in advance before smoking. Sail black and Amphora black (Sail black is still available in Europe) are alternatives to this one.

If you want better quality, then McBarens Honey & Chocolate will make you very happy.

Original review 07/04/2009

Somehow this blend is very mild and lacks taste for one containing dark Kentucky.

On the other hand, being a "drugstore" blend, someone cannot display unrealistic expectations. I think I was a bit disappointed because this mixture sort of appealed to me because of the look of the pouch.

Despite not being very dark for a Black Cavendish mixture, it requires multiple relights that almost makes the smoking experience frustrating. But I think that is because I should have waited for the tobacco to dry up a bit. Mea Culpa.

Drugstore blends wise, Black Sail and Amphora black provided better smoking satisfaction than this one.