Nat Sherman 509 Blend (Manhattan Twilight)

Blend 509 Manhattan Twilight: this is straight Black Cavendish. Rich, fermented, toasted, flavored Black Cavendish. Too moist. It’s necessary to dry it. The flavoring is mainly Vanilla but I think there is also something else. Now the tobacco: this is a Virginia Black Cavendish. I mean that the main tobacco of this blend is Virginia. I think more than 90%. According to the manufacturer’s indications (Nat Sherman) there is also some Burley and a bit of Oriental tobacco because the base of this Black Cavendish is Zimbabwe (Virgina, Burley and Oriental) with mild Burley. Anyway what you can perceive (tongue, nose, mouth, palate) is above all Virginia. Now the taste. First of all I want to clarify that you can smoke this blend straight in your pipe but you can also use it as a blending tobacco (better). It is sweet and aromatic. If you are smoking a “boring” dull blend, this Black Cavendish is a really sweet seasoning. You can add a little bit of it to change the taste. But we have also to say that this B. Cavendish is strongly flavored and, in my opinion, the flavoring is above all with chemical additives and for this reason I advise people not to smoke it straight. If you want to taste it straight I advise to smoke it very slowly. If you are a nervous smoker this blend is not recommended at all (it leaves a bad taste and an unpleasant “drizzle” in the mouth). Finally in my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 6 and two stars.

UPDATE: 2018-12-23 Tried again. I really don't like this Black Cavendish. It is full of propylene glycol and chemical additives. On the whole I think tobacco's weight is less than 50%. My score is 3 and only one star.

This was the third Nat Sherman tin I purchased and the most bland out of all of them. A simple Black Cavendish that really soaked the paper inside the tin. Now Nat Sherman uses very high quality tobacco and very light PG (If any) but still managed to make a goopy / sticky BC mess with 509. Sure it smells amazing and tastes great when mixed but gee it could use about half the moisture it contains fresh. Vanilla Black Cav, the usual BCA / Captain Black Dark type blend, 2 stars just because it wasn't horrible but the worst of the Nat Sherman tins...

This is a classic, quality, vanilla aromatic. It is heavy cased/flavored blend. Very sweet. When I initially opened the tin it was close to goopy, but not quite goopy. The blend benefits form airing out as you repeatedly open the close the tin while smoking through it. However, it will always be wonderfully sticky when you pack a bowl. Much of the sweetness is from the black Cavendish itself which gives it the classic burnt-nutty undertone. Quality aromatic. Not exceptional from other standard, quality vanilla aromatics. I bought two tins, one is in my cellar. I usually smoke English/latakia and like a nice sweet aromatic like this, now and then, in the evenings. N.B. One of the new tins form South Carolina. I have a non-S.C. tin of 509 in my cellar from at least 2008. Saving that for my retirement.

My niece has brought me 2oz. Of this mixture from NY. He looks like to me a magnificent cavendish. The critiques as for the flavor, can be for the packaging in tin. Very advisable.

This is exactly what an aromatic Cavendish should be.

It packs and lights beautifully, produces a nice amount of smoke, smokes cool and doesn't bite.

I bought 2 oz of this when I was in Manhattan and should have bought a pound.

Our local B&M has an aromatic black cav, but it isn't nearly as good as the Nat Sherman.

Tin: Strong, distinct and pleasant nougat/vanilla aroma, so heavily soaked in casing that the paper packaging is permeated with a dark brown syrup and even wets the inside of the lid. This is in an old-style tin, so it is probably old, but the casing on the paper and lid is still moist. Oddly, the dark black tobacco, more of a wide irregular ribbon, is not sticky and will not stay rolled in a ball. It has to be the world's record for casing.

Packing & Lighting: Packs easily, the tobacco having a soft, fluffy feel. Lights easily, burns well, without producing much moisture.

Taste & Aroma: A nice, soft nougat, tasting slightly burnt at the end. Unfortunately, a lot of the casing is left in the packaging. No where near as strong as the tin aroma.

Nicotine: moderately strong buzz that lingers

Room Note: decent, similar to aroma

Overall: I smoked drugstore aromatics for 26 years, Captain Black, mostly Golden, almost exclusively, for 18 of those years. One of the better aromatic(cased, flavored) blends I've smoked. Oddly enough, this aromatic blend would make a good transition to non-aromatics, in that 509 is tinned, good quality, no dottle, and has significant nicotine. In the context of an aromatic, 3.7 stars.

A step up from Capt. Black-white. No bad traits. A bit moist as received but dries quickly. Three and one-half star Aromatic.

This offering from Nat Sherman is a pleasant smoke. I tried it in various sizes and types of pipes and found that it behaved the same in all of them. I found it to be far too moist for my taste at first. After a good drying-out, I loaded it up and fired it off.

The casing seems to have diminished considerably in the drying. What was left was a light and ultra-cool smoke. There was not even the slightest hint that this tobacco would ever bite. Sufficiently dried, it lit easily and burned to the bottom without a fuss. It burned so cool in a thin-walled meerschaum that the bowl (in an air conditioned room) barely even got warm. You could easily smoke this all day long, though I suspect it would become boring fairly quickly as it is quite monochromatic. The slightly unpleasant aftertaste I often get from Black Cavendish simply wasn?t there. The room note was quite pleasant and light.

Occasionally I will try aromatics. I thought I would give this a try out of curiosity. This is very heavily cased and is not what I enjoy for the rare times that I go to an aromatic. My friend smokes this to turn his meerschaums and he says that it turns them quicker than any other blend he has ever smoked. Not my kind of smoke though.