Just For Him Shortcut To Mushrooms

A fine blend. A shame to see it fall below a four star average.

Rather than write a completely new review, I am re-posting my comments about this tobacco from my blog (see my profile).

"I've now tried Ruins of Isengard and Shortcut to Mushrooms from Just For Him. Service was very fast. Both tobaccos were incredibly fresh, as if mixed the day I ordered them. My initial impressions -- easy to light, lots of smoke, but not much flavor. I'll try them again.

Update: I dried out Shortcut to Mushrooms for several hours, put it away for a few days and tried again. I sipped it slowly, trying to taste the delicate flavors which eluded me last time. Again, the tobacco put out a lot of heavy, beautiful smoke -- almost like a 'stage' tobacco. The flavor was just a light sweetness mixed with the non-flavor of propylene glycol. Shortcut to Mushrooms and Ruins of Isengard are the wettest tobaccos I have ever tried, probably due to the newness or freshness of the blend. A shiny wetness forms around the rim of my pipes when I smoke them, and my clear corncob stem shows drops of clear liquid inside. Just as I did with the first two bowls, I tamped this one out early. The extinguished bowl smelled faintly of Hunt's Snack Pack pudding. Shortcut to Mushrooms is to pipe tobacco what Johnson and Johnson's No More Tears is to shampoo."

Update2: I let this stuff sit awhile. I wanted to pose and smoke my churchwarden in public, so I took this with me. It gave off an impressive smoke from start to finish. The mild sweet taste came through and was enjoyable. The tobacco was a little harsh at the back of my throat, perhaps due to lower-grade leaf or additives. The smoke is a fine, showy, billowy mist. I still cannot recommend Shortcut to Mushrooms, but I can somewhat recommend it for someone who likes very mild sweet aromatics and wants to look like Gandalf in public.

Mushrooms....yup, that's what you get. The description was quite literally accurate. A decent tobacco. But probably one I won't keep or smoke regularly. I finished off my bag that I bought out of interest and enthusiasm for LOTR. It's not bad, just not one my favorites. However, I will give this tobacco a high rating because of the unique flavor and the accuracy of said flavor....Amazing!

Very easy to light, and burns down to a clean white ash. A very earthy aroma in the bag and, early in the bowl, in the smoke itself. But after the first third of the bowl, you can taste the fine base tobacco. Thereafter, all the flavors alternate with each other, like earth and fire, then fire and earth. It's impressive how it goes from the mushroom opening to the pure tobacco taste that emerges around mid bowl, while always retaining that creamy smoothness. It vaguely reminds me of some other "Engilshoid" blend, like Morley's Best, or Epiphany, but it's too distinctive to assign it anything resembling an identical twin.

I just can't stop smoking this stuff! It's probably the most satisfying tobacco I've ever smoked: period! What it is is Latakia based, mixed with Black Cav. and a vanilla flavoring. An unorthodox English with flavoring.

The smoke is ample and this is the kind of baccy you can blow smoke rings with. It's white and thick. The taste has a smoothness to it, yet the Latakia is definitely present, providing an interesting spiciness without dominating the blend.

It smokes down to a fine white ash and smokes dry and cool. The interplay of the tobaccos gives it a flare for flavor in the spiciness. Add to that mixture the vanilla (probably the source of the mushroomy taste) and you get a wonderful smoke.

Some may poo-poo this blend for not being a proper English blend, but regardless of the mixing components, this blend works. It provides complexity of flavor, yet has nothing that overpowers the palate. This is a wonderful creation and one that I could sit back all day and smoke. That's saying something for me. I give this blend my highest recommendation of any tobacco I've ever smoked. This is the best of the best of the best for sheer pleasantness and quality of smoke.

This has to be my favorite tobacco to date. As an avid LOTR fan, I had to order the Middle Earth sampler pack from JFH. I thought that I would for sure love the Longbottom Leaf or Old Toby brands the best by their description, but it was Shortcut that really was dominant. Being new to pipe smoking, I started off with cheap bargain brands, such as Smoker's pride whiskey and Walgreens brand black Cavendish and peach. However, after moving close to a pipe shop, I began to sample their tobaccos, especially house blend Englishes and a few aromatics. However, after ordering Shortcut, i don't think I'll go back. The aroma out of the bag is very earthy and conjures up images of Sam tending Frodo's garden at Bag End. It lit very easily in my Stanwell majestic pipe and burned to a clean white ash. It starts with a very earthy taste that moves towards a pure tobacco taste about ten minutes into the bowl. As the bowl burns down, the earthy and tobacco flavors resurface in turns, creating an exquisite experience. Overall, it is a very relaxing smoke that will take you to Bagshot row and place you on Bilbo's porch, enjoying the sun rising over the water and Sandyman's mill with a cup of tea in hand and second breakfast already in the oven!

This is one of my favorites in the LOTR sampler that i ordered. I will be ordering more. If you have any doubt i would recommend the sampler pack i think it give u like 6 types or so for like ten bucks so give it a try. This one is in my favorites for a reason.

This tobacco was very easy to light. The first thing I taste is the latakia. At first it is a very strong smokey flavor. A few minutes into the bowl the smokey flavor subsides and I taste a creamy earthy flavor. This blend makes a good amount of smoke and smokes cool and dry. The smokey flavor begins to return. I can taste why this is called Shortcut to Mushrooms, it definitely has a very earthy mushroom like flavor, which can be appreciated whether you like mushrooms or not. The smoke smells like a mixture of Dirt and campfire, which is actually very nice. About 10 minutes into the bowl and the flavor hasn't changed much, it is largely dominated by a strong Latakia flavor. I would highly recommend this to anybody who enjoys latakia. If you do not like Latakia, this blend is definitely not for you. I do not taste the sweetness described in the description. Other than that the description is perfectly accurate. This blend could be described in one word. Latakia. Out of all the Middle-Earth blends, I have tried Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby and Shortcut to Mushrooms. Personally this is my 2nd favorite, I prefer Old Toby because of the Perique. This blend gets 4 stars because of the lovely Latakia flavor and because it is a nice dry, cool smoke. Probably not an all-day smoke, I could see getting tired of just tasting latakia. I do not taste any other tobacco in this. If you are new to English blends you might want to start with something a little less potent in flavor. Have not noticed any nicotine effect.

This is one of the few blends that matches the description to a T. Not much else can be said, other than I will be buying more.