Super Value Black Cavendish

I bought a bag of this from a local liquor store because my mail order tobacco was delayed.

Out of the bag, it was pretty much unsmokable. It was hard to light. The first puff tasted of chemicals. It burned very wet and left a gummy doddle.

I salvaged it by toasting it in a regular oven for a few minutes at 225 F - hot enough to evaporate water, propylene glycol, and who-knows-what. I toasted it until it was quite dry. It lost a lot of weight of course. It is tolerable that way. The bad taste on lighting was still there, but not so much. It had lost sweetness. It got a little bitter after a relight.

The good qualities of the dried product are that it burns cool and produces a lot of smoke. Because of the copious smoke, I tried a mix of 2 parts Prince Albert to one part Super Value BC. That is okay, but I am still not going to smoke the stuff. It goes into the trash.

Though I have not tried this blend, I feel there is something that really needs to be pointed out. In his review, Kapnismologist says, "Furthermore, the very fact that the blend proclaims itself to be comprised of ‘All Natural Tobacco' (is there such a thing as ‘artificial' tobacco and if so from what is it made?)"

In short, yes there is such a thing as "artificial" tobacco!! It is made from long, wide sheets of cigarette paper which is sprayed with "juice" that is rendered from boiled down floor sweepings, scrap tobacco, molded tobacco, stale returned cigarettes, and added chemicals. The paper is then shredded to the same size as the shredded tobacco. It is primarily used in commercially produced cigarettes. And, some pipe tobacco producers include the "all natural tobacco" statement to let the smoker know that the tobacco does not contain any of this "artificial" tobacco.

I tried this blend on a wet, thunderstormy night.

Opening the pouch, which I received as a freebie with another order, I was met with a very fresh and enticing smell. I also noticed it was quite wet.

I let it sit out for about an hour beforehand.

I packed it into my Japanese-made pipe with the usual three-stage method. It was still very wet when I packed it.

Overall I had some trouble keeping it lit, but the first third of the bowl was a very pleasant smoke. Good taste if you like the casing used - lots of smoke - not too hot (yet) - very enjoyable this stage.

The second third of the bowl changed, and the flavoring was gone. It become somewhat boring, and I had trouble keeping it lit. Nonetheless I persevered!

The bottom third of the bowl was hot and wet. The moisture could be heard sizzling as I puffed away, and it became rather ashy - I ended up dumping out some ash and relighting.

All in all an ok smoke, certainly for the price. The first third was great - the middle and end not so much.

Dry it out, pack it well, enjoy it until the casing is gone and it gets ashy.

The vanilla flavoring in this one is slightly milder than their vanilla cavendish. Very sticky, use a cob. It's cheap and not too bad tasting for an aro. If you can dry it out enough to light it.

It does have a positive aspect. It tends to mix well, adding a bit of vanilla flavor to your blends. Just don't go overboard with it.

Like DK, I received a pouch of this tobacco for free when I ordered some other blends. After giving it a 3 bowl try, I have few good things to say about it.

On the positive side, the blend is true to the label's claim of being bite free, which is surprising for how much casing must be on the leaves. Further, I don't really get the chemical taste from it that others have mentioned, but there is a strong sour feel to the taste, which is itself quite mild. The blend smells great in the pouch, and the room note is fine, but if I weren't getting this for free, I'd never pack another bowl of it.

As things stand now, I'll probably smoke it until the sample pouch is gone and be done with it. 2 out of 4 stars.

**UPDATE** While I still think it's better than smoking dirt and oak leaves, this blend leaves just about everything to be desired. I'm lowering my rating down to 1 out of 4 stars.

I use this simply to blend. Mix 2 parts Black Cavendish to 1 part Golden Cavendish. After mix marrys, I mix 4 parts with 1 part Blenders Gold Rich Vanilla. Very pleasant smoke. Many comment on pleasant aroma.

I'm basing this review upon my experience with several black cavendish tobaccos. This blend is cheap, lightly cased low end burley at a discount. It packs and burns just fine but there is very little flavor. Not a bad smoke, just not a great one. If I were to point anyone to a black cavendish, I would point them towards Lane's BCA as it is a far better smoke for not much more money.

This blend smelled lovely in the pouch. However, I found it too difficult to light or keep lit. When I did manage to keep it lit for a short time, it did taste pretty nice.

I tried to dry it out and even placed desicator pouches in the bag, but it still remained quite sticky

My favorite type of tobacco is now burley, so I will probably not buy this again.

Being a brand new tobacco smoker I felt obligated to add this review as my first smoke, and to contribute something after learning quite a bit from everyone here. I am now anxiously awaiting a shipment of Rattrays and Esoterica, but wanted to first try smoking, and practice lighting/packing with a less expensive brand.

I found this packaged under the blend name of Vintage - perhaps "value" has been dropped? Out of all the locally available tobaccos this one was a blend that I dared (considering Borkum Riff, Whisky is normally what I find around here). I haven't tried any other "drug store" brand but am fairly sure I won't like the traditional Captain Black's and Riff's blends(too "candy" for my tastes).

I found this Black Cavendish above all to have a great aroma upon opening the bag. Very sweet and inviting but not cloying. Upon burning it I found that it also carries a very nice, airy note and doesn't keep the place smelling like a perfume shop. It has just enough flavor in the casing to give it a bit of sweetness but not so much that I feel like I'm smoking a bad chocolate bar. No bite, which was a pleasant surprise, even at the bottom of the bowl.

I did notice that even after drying/rubbing it did not burn very well. At first I thought this was my inexperience packing but after quite a few bowls (all in the name of progress of course) I am fairly convinced that it is the tobacco itself (or perhaps just my cheap pipe) that is preventing it from burning for more than a couple of minutes at a shot.

I am sure once I move on to the more organic and less "doctored" tobaccos I will develop a taste for them. But I will possibly keep a bag on hand for the occasional quick, cheap smoke or should any of my acquaintances wish to give the pipe a shot.

UPDATE: After 2 months of tobacco exploration this stuff got the axe. And so my rating of it dropped. So much for retaining my tobacco innocence. The remaining half of bag, last time I saw it, was still sticky wet to the touch and impossible to keep lit. Still not bad for the value and being drug store brand, but the chemicals became more predominant with age and the difficulty in smoking it made it only a suitable air freshener. The pipe with which I began smoking is now gone too. I couldn't purge the chemical scent from it no matter how many cleansers went through it.