Nat Sherman 307 Mild Cavendish

Alas, while rummaging through the wares of a tobacco shop, I ventured upon a rather rusty 2oz tin of Sherman's 307. The shopkeeper was only too glad to get rid of the old rusty tin from his shelf. A little horse trading, and it's a deal. Once home, I opened the tin and a distict hiss of an air seal broken, caught my ear,and my attention. The paper was juice stained heavily, and a nice aroma of cavendish, almost raisin-like. The tobacco was in absolute perfect condition and ready to be smoked, as is. The flavor is of Burley, and Black Cavendish, as stated on the label of the tin. Lit with almost no effort and remained lighted to the heel. Very nice. Did not taste any casings or toppings, but the blending, fermenting, and aging, did in fact cause a wonderful raisin-like flavor. Room note sweet and mellow. Strength, mild/really mild. Definitely recommended. Then.., things got a "little" crazy... I had a bit of Mixing Latakia sitting around and it was calling out to me.., so, the next bowl of 307 was spiced with Syrian Latakia. Oh, baby! Alone and quiet in the house, watching a misty fog roll in from the Atlantic Ocean, and this beautiful pipe mixture massaging my brain and tastebuds. Relaxation beyond anything. To everyone at Nat Sherman's, a quote from the late and great Jackie Gleason, says it best: "Whoa! That's good stuff!"

Made a special trip to Melbourne recently and came across a little tobacco shop where I bought this satisfying mixture. Upon opening the tin the sweet aroma of quality tobacco with a whiff of brandy fruit cake and a hint of cinnamon hit me in a way that good tobacco should. Other friends detected floral smell but I was not on board there! It is a very moist blend, in fact the big cupcake holder that holds the bakky in the tin was moisture stained. Maybe not a bad thing but I would recommend some airing prior to smoking to get the most from it (bit of a suck it and see method for how long). Having said that, no sooner had I opened the tin and I had my Savinelli loaded and on my way. Probably the sweetest aromatic mix I've had thus far but not sickly sweet. After the first couple of tokes I thought you could smoke this all day long as strength is suited to do so. The flavor is amazing and the comments on the room note were favorable too, very wife friendly. Although moist it smoked all the way the bottom of the bowl without a re-light or any moisture residue. Very impressive tobacco which will play a part in my regular aromatic rotation. Love the art deco tin. Update: Feb 7 2011 with further aging this tobacco seems to be taking on a lovely taste of hazelnut, reminds me of Frangelico liquor. nice!

I picked up a tin of 307 on a whim while I was perusing the tins at my local B&M. Being from North Jersey originally, I get nostalgic seeing the beautiful tins with the Manhatten skyline on them. Having been to the Nat Sherman store in NY I can say it really is the pinnacle of tobacconists! 307 is a black Cavendish with Burley and very high quality. The paper that contains the tobacco was stained with topping and the tobac was sticky but the fact that it does dry out and has nice flavors leads me to believe they left out the PG and used high quality tobacco. This makes a marvelous blender but smokes like a dream by itself also... Vanilla Black Cavendish blends are a dime a dozen but when done well like Nat Sherman does, it really becomes a treat!

I've rewritten my review of this marvelous aromatic. My first tin was good and my initial review reflected that.

I ordered 9 more tins from Pipes and Cigars and was pleasantly surprised. The blend was about 50% drier out of the tin than the first and needed no drying time. There was a lot less black cavendish, which meant that the casing was cut back by a third to about 20%. I can taste the wonderful burley with the vanilla-rum casing in the background.

I would rate this a Hall of Famer and the best aromatic out there.

Update: I'm lowering my rating to three stars as the amount of effort in drying out this blend diminishes my enjoyment.

Update 2: I've found that adding 3-4% of perique adds a lot of flavor and improves the burning qualities.

Although I normally smoke VA or VA/Perique flakes, this is one of the better aromatics that I've recently tried. The dark brown to jet black wide ribbons were too moist from the tin and smoked wet. They stained the white tin liner dark brown in many areas. They smelled very sweet ~ vanilla from the tin but this decreased with several days of drying and resulted in a better smoke with much less condensation. With the drying the smoking, lighting and packing properties also improved to the point that I could recommend your trial. The nutty Burley is nicely balanced with the cased Balck Cavendish. However, this blend is very mild and I would only choose it more for the benefit of the room aroma on the few occasions that I can smoke socially. 307 is a giant step in quality above the drug store aromatics.

The tin, well sealed, had a 2008 excise tax without any indication of the year of manufacture. The tobacco inside was very moist, even though the mixture had been in the tin for over 10 years, and the paper liner was stained brown. The tobacco itself is a smooth milk chocolate color with a dark brown cavendish mixed in. Ribbon cutting. The tobacco should be a little dry before smoking, which I did.

Smell: The base is the nutty note of a good portion of burley, to which the woody smell of cedar, vanilla, prune and rum. Which of these is the flavoring and which relates to the cavendish, it's hard to know - the blend is very harmonious. Filling a large pipe, I was pleased to smoke it.

The tobacco flavor is a bit of sweet dark plum, vanilla, walnut, and rum. Despite the slight flavoring, the flavor is dense, as a burley should be, and only slightly sweet. Closer to the end of the pipe, there's mostly a nutty burley note with a slight sweetness, and the flavoring fades away. The tobacco does not bite, does not burn the tongue, smokes cool and slow enough. The strength is below average, nicotine strike is not threatened even when smoking large quantities.

The ash is loose, dark gray in color, there is relatively a lot of it. The smoke from tobacco smells like nuts, vanilla and wood - the smell is fairly unobtrusive and does not irritate those around you, but it stays in the room for a long time

Bottom line: I don't like burley blends, but this is a very good tobacco, quite in the spirit of the American flavoring tradition. It tastes very mild, burns slowly and coolly, creating a soft and pleasant room flavor. The only downside is the aftertaste in the pipe, which lasts a few days - and the fact the tobbaco doesn't produce anymore.