Admiral's Choice Vanilla Cavendish

In my case I discovered this on Christmas day of last year. I was at the pharmacy which happened to be a CVS, looking for tobacco. Seeing it was the holidays no other stores were open. The price of this was no more than $10 dollars, and came in an interesting looking 8 ounce tin. In all reality I thought it would be a waste of money seeing that its a drug store aromatic. WRONG! Probably the best aromatic I have smoked since I started out 3 years ago.

When I got it home I immediately opened the tin. What I liked at first was the aroma of vanilla. Not a fake smelling vanilla but a real one. Then I proceeded to pack it in my vintage Medico V.F.Q bent bulldog briar. This pipe is filtered by the way. When performing the initial charring light "false light" it was very easy to tell it was going to burn well although it has a slight dampness to it. The flavor slowing gets stronger with every puff after I tamped it down. Wow! the flavor was very unique to me. Tastes almost creamy and buttery and very sweet. Throughout the smoking session which surprisingly lasted approximately a little over 40 minutes for being a smaller pipe, never did I have to relight.

I honestly don't see any cons about this tobacco. All the benefits are: even burning, cool, good room note, no tongue bite, and lasts a long time.

This is really my favorite tobacco to talk about, and I would personally have confidence in recommending it to everyone from a beginner to an old pro.

It's a typical no-frills vanilla cavendish with a consistent flavor. Not a lot of tobacco taste, though a hint of it will occasionally strike your taste buds. A decent outdoor smoke. Dry it a little first or you'll have a bit of moisture at the bottom. Smoked at a moderate pace, it performs well enough with a very consistent flavor from top to bottom. Burns a tad warm, but clean at a reasonable rate. Requires an average number of relights. The strength and taste levels are mild. Hardly has any nicotine. Won't bite. Made for the budget smoker who wants a simple all day sweet and smooth vanilla smoke. Has a pleasant after taste and room note. An all day smoke that can be used as a mixer, too.

-JimInks

One of the best OTC blends you can get. Used to be a CVS exclusive now it's a pipes and cigars exclusive. Weather you're doing hard yard/farm work or sailing, This is a nice smoke. Hints of vanilla here and there. The bag note is a really strong fresh vanilla extract.

As a fan of Vanilla flavored tobacco (well, as long as I can taste the tobacco, too), I looked forward to Vanilla Cavendish. It hit on all cylinders with me. Light and flavorful for those times when you want to smoke a flavor without thinking about it too much. Smoked a little wet, but hey, most aromatics do.

Pipestud

(Before I begin, bare in mind that we're talking about cheapo drug store tobacco, so the caveat that will be running through this review is that all my descriptive words are relative. It wouldn't be fair to compare this directly with expensive tobacconist brands...)

I've been relying on Captain Black White as my cheap everyday staple for a few months, now, and never thought I'd complain. The Captain was good to me - cheap and pleasant. What more could a starving college kid ask for?

Apparently, this.

The Captain is certainly outranked by the Admiral. This stuff is CHEAP at about $4.50 for an 8 oz. can at my drug store. On top of that, it's good. Extremely similar but a bit better, I dare say, than Captain Black White.

It starts out with a rich nutty flavor, sort of like a hazlenut cup of coffee, but the tobacco doesn't get lost in the mix. It smooths out into a straighter vanilla flavor, then returns to the hazlenut flavor with an increasingly intense tobacco flavor until you finish the bowl. At times it's sort of fruity.

If it's windy out this stuff will burn rather quickly, but it burns easily and evenly. The smoke is thinner than I'd like but still thicker than Captain Black.

In short, this is my new staple tobak. I'd like to experiment blending this with something a bit thicker to strengthen the experience, but for day-to-day use on a micro budget, I couldn't ask for more.

Excellent vanilla aromatic, decent tobacco flavor, lights and smokes well. I think the AC brand has come a long way in the last few years. This is good tobacco, not the best but just fine, and very smokeable. The vanilla topping was really well done. And I'm not an aro guy. Not so sold on other AC blends, but the Vanilla Cav is a winner. I did not have a dottle problem but if it smokes a bit wet, try it in a cob.

I buy it on sale, like 9.99 for a half pound. At that price, 4 stars.

This used to be the CVS otc house brand. Since CVS no longer sells any tobacco products this only available online now. This has been my go to aromatic for a long time, it's a great mild vanilla for around the house, garage, yard, ect. As far as otc aromatics go this is the best for the money.

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.

I found this a really pleasant, relaxing middle of the day smoke. It's on the moist side in the freshly opened bag, so a bit of drying probably won't hurt. I smoked a bowl immediately upon opening the P&C delivery box, and found this Vanilla Cavendish surprisingly smooth and pleasant without any drying. As a prior review noted, there's no bite. I find that many aromatics leave an unpleasant aftertaste, and therefore tend to favor non-aros and English blends. This however, was surprisingly comfortable. For a frequent smoker of English blends, this tobacco made of an enjoyable change of pace.

Interesting this Vanilla Cavendish as it is not goopy or vanilla laden, no its far from it. I was expecting a 1Q or RLP-6 type offering but this comes as a brown Cavendish very lightly topped with vanilla, very lightly. It comes moist but does dry out on a baking tray overnight. I was actually disappointed in that I was expecting to be blown away by topping and got the exact opposite which I guess would appeal to light aromatic smokers or non aromatic smokers looking for something to smoke in public. I mixed this 50/50 with Prince Albert and found that the Cavendish sweetened up the Burley and provided a nice room aroma. Two stars as its not horrible but I would rather buy Smokers Pride or any Lane blend and get blown away with aroma and sweetness....