Just For Him Treebeard

These are my initial impressions, after three bowls of Treebeard.

This aromatic pushes the same question to my head as the others that I have tried:

"Is there an aromatic that exists which maintains a center?"

It seems to me that when tobacco is used for aromatics, it is almost completely unable to keep its original body and flavor. The tobacco merely becomes a vehicle to carry hints, whisps, flavor bombs, and goops. I would like to smoke an aromatic that holds its body / center as well as its unique topping.

You know Latakia eh? You know, "that one"? Has anyone ever questioned that they were smoking Latakia? I say not unless you lost your tongue in Nam. When you smoke Latakia, you say something like "yeah baby, LATAKIA!" You don't say, "What f-ing tobacco is this?"

So far, every "reputable" aromatic that I have smoked makes me go, "what F-ing tobacco is this?" I can taste the maple, the vanilla, the mystery casing, the sugar, but not the tobacco itself. The tobacco becomes a brown-grey tasting bog, with the Tollund Bog Man still buried inside of it. And you know what? If the Bog Man were to wake up inside of your aromatic, 3000 years after his death, the first thing he would say is:

"What f-ing tobacco is this?"

Here's a comparison:

I like Treebeard more than I like C&D's Autumn Evening, which is unfortunate, because I REALLY want to like Autumn Evening. But the truth is that they both have no center, and Treebeard wins because I can taste more of the goodies on top of the Bog Man.

As a huge fan of Tolkien, I wanted this blend to be as strong as Tolkien's legacy, and as strong as the character of Treebeard. As it is, it is nowhere near either. This blend should not be named Treebeard. It should be named after some inconsequential squib character that barely gets mentioned. The character should be one of those shady guys who lives in Bree and kisses Bill Ferny's a$s.

The name of this blend should be something like, "Mangar Turdburgle".

Not a huge aromatic fan, but this isn't bad. A mild vanilla that hangs around for most of the bowl, an easy, smooth burn, and a nice dry pipe at the finish. Had a faint cigarette flavour under the vanilla, not much else to say about the taste. I guess this could be a simple all day smoke if you dig vanilla. Also my friend's mother loved the room note, so that could be a plus for you married pipe smokers.

Never smoked it. But I just have to say that Miyanovich's review below is the BEST EVER on this review site, and has compelled me to look for some..

I'm off out to go find me some of 'Mangar Turdburgals' finest. If he still makes it.......himself.

X-D

I ordered a sample size of this with my recent order of Shortcut to Mushrooms. Upon opening the bag i got a sweet smell but it was hard to put a finger on it. Just sweetened tobacco. A good smell, don't get me wrong. I loaded it into a smallish meer, which i keep for sampling new tobaccos. I found it to be most but not too much so and it contained some "twigs." It took some effort to get Treebeard to lite. Very sweet flavor and casing is evident. Others have said "vanilla"& "chocolate" but I'm not getting that just artificially sweet. My wife is ok with the room note she says it is, wait for it, "sweet." Bottom line? I'll give Treebeard two stars. I would smoke it if i had nothing else but, I'm afraid, it will not be joining my regular rotation. If you like "sweet" though.... I shall try adding it a bit and drying it before smoking. I'll report back if there is any difference.

I honestly ordered this because I'm a fan of LOTR and the inherent connection between those books and pipeweed. Nothing spectacular here, there's a definite vanilla, sweet tin note when you open and the smoke is about what you'd expect from a vanilla aro. That's not a bad thing, if you looking for a full English punch, then this isn't the tobacco for you. I had let it age for about 11 months after my first smoke and that seems to have rounded the flavors out. There's a grassiness and nuttiness from the Virginia/Burley combination and it plays nicely with the vanilla top. Surprisingly the vanilla isn't that sticky sweet vanilla top, but a more almost savory vanilla taste. The pairings work well together and I enjoyed several bowls on concalls throughout my day. 2.5 stars for this one

Light casing, vanilla and walnut, maybe? A good smoke that there's really not much to. It does seem to burn hot and did give me some tongue bite when pulled hard. Stayed lit fairly well, not great.

I was left with a strong taste of almonds or walnuts on my roasted tongue after the bowl. Smoked down to a fine, grey ash with not goop and little moisture.

Not a bad tobacco, but pretty well forgettable. Not nearly as good as the other Middle Earth offerings from Just for Him, definitely my least favorite of the group so far.

As a newer pipe smoker, I am mainly exploring the different blends (I favor aromatic blends, although I am dipping my toes into the non-aromatic blends now) to find what I like.

Like many others, I am a huge fan for Tolkien! So naturally I wanted to try some of the available themed blends out there. So far as of 2021 the only easily obtained commercial versions are from The Country Squire and Just for Him. This review is for the "Treebeard" blend from the Just For Him series, there are 5 currently available blends.

Opening the bag, what I smelled was the hay from the Virginia with a bit of the earthy smell from the burley. Unlike the "Longbottom Leaf" blend from this series that said it had vanilla in it, I could actually smell the vanilla (although it was weak).

The flavor I tasted was the combination of the Virginia and burley, with a hint of vanilla (almost non-existent). I liked this blend more than the "Longbottom Leaf" blend from this series, but neither lived up to my expectation and I will not buy this again.

This came semi-moist, so no additional prep was needed. I did not have any tounge-bite with this blend as long as I smoked it slow.

I am really much more attracted to stronger blends of tobacco, so to be fair, the Middle Earth series really hasn't done it for me. However, I truly love the uniqueness of all of these tobaccos.

Treebeard is a nice relaxing blend. It lights easily, packs nicely and smokes without effort. What more could one ask, except for strength?

Some sort of bland vanilla aromatic. The best part is that it is not sweet, just a vanilla in the background and not a bad aftertaste. The room note is like burning leaves laced with vanilla, not unpleasant - not going to chase anybody away, but not remarkable either. Was gloppy in the bowl toward the end and experienced a bit more gurgle than I usually do. Overall not bad but not great either.