Admiral's Choice Vanilla Cavendish

About four years ago, I picked up a bag of ACVC, pretty much on a whim, and smoked nearly half of it, before I decided that there must be better blends out there. Because the packaging is around 10mil thick, I just left it in the bag. The pouch note was OK, not overpowering, but that's about where it ended. The taste was just a little astringent to my mouth, seemed to burn much too hot, and was somewhat "bitey" to me. Had I been a member of this forum back then, I would have given it only 1 star.

I don't throw tobacco away. It just went on the "emergency smoke" shelf, with a few other "also rans", until today. On the strength of the reviews here, I decided to see if there was something I was missing in the Admiral, and fired up a bowl full. The bag still has a rather nice note to it, but the smoke is just as bland. No tobacco taste, and very little vanilla....still awfully warm, and still some bite.

Mixed with some BCA, the bite subsided, and a little more nutty vanilla appeared, but not enough to match my fave mix of 1Q & BCA. But, at least I know it won't eventually have to be binned, unless BCA happens to fall down some FDA rathole. It was still not good enough to my tastes, however, to smoke the entire bowl. I proceeded to my 1Q/BCA jar, and fired up what I think is a much better smoke, for me, anyway.

I still give it 1 star, if smoked alone. There are better choices. 2 stars if mixed with a black Cav, like BCA. However, that's about as far as I can stretch in saluting the Admiral.