Exclusiv Black Cherry

There’s little tobacco taste from the sugary black cavendish, and I suspect a little dark burley is present, because I get a light nuttiness, some earth, and a little wood. The rich black cherry topping has some sweetness and a tart note. It sublimates the tobaccos quite a bit. The strength is closer to medium than it is to mild, while the taste level is medium. The nic-hit is a hair past the mild mark. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has no rough moments. Needs a short dry time, but burns cool and clean, and slightly slow with very consistent flavor from top to bottom. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. The after taste pleasantly linger a mite as does the room note. Not really an day day smoke because the topping has some deplete and a little intensity.

-JimInks

I bought this as one of my first ever tobaccos, and in my inexperience, I packed too tight, and too wet (I didn't let it dry, and it arrived very damp indeed) It smoked ok for the first half of the bowl, there was definitely some cherry there, nice room note, pretty easy going after a small bite at the lighting stage. But after half way, it starts to get a bit rough, sour and unpleasant. Bit unsure about this one, when left to dry a little, and packed nice and loose, you might get a pleasant smoke out of it, but I myself, did not, no matter what I tried. Now I'm just using it to break new pipes in.

This is great stuff! A cool burning smoke with a wondeful taste (dark cherry), it also has a fair kick in the nicotine department and no harshness or tongue bite. The tobacco does have an 'artificial' look and aroma - but this does not come across in the actual smoking experience. The tobacco is a touch on the damp side, but I simply aired the pack for a couple of hours. 1 initial light and then 2 re-lights and away you go! It leaves your mouth with a very distinctive 'cherry' tase when finished.

First and foremost, I must apologise, as when I requested this blend to review I submitted 'cube cut' in error. I bought this tobacco loose and hence cannot quote the package notes; the cut is similar to a very thick flake fully rubbed out but the strands are fairly long. The cross section of the strands is almost perfectly square.

Tin Aroma: Wonderful. Very fruity in a dark way; it has genuine depth without the cheap 'tartiness' of a mere superficial casing. But the cherry is inmistakable; indeed my six year old daughter pronounced 'cherry!' without hesitation.

Room Note: Again, very pleasant. People tend to sit close to you in the pub! I'm told it smells of cherry but not in a sweet, sickly way: a relaxing, fruity aroma.

Packing: A little fiddly as the strands are quite long- you have to break them up a little. Moisture content is a bit on the moist side for my liking.

Lighting: As mentioned, this tobacco is a bit on the moist side and so takes a bit of perseverance to get the fire stoked. It takes me about three to four matches and tampers to get it going.

Appearance: To be honest, although this is obviously a good quality tobacco, it does look a bit arteficial. Imagine taking some long, square section shavings of wood, then spraying them with a satin/gloss black paint and you get the idea! The colour and texture is totally uniform: no browns, tans or yellows-just black. Every strand is the same shape and length apart from the odd bit that naturally breaks off.

Smoking: This tobacco was a pleasant suprise. Cherrys have a habit of being malevolant and representing hellfire in a pot. But this really is a 'cherry without malice' because it burns very slow and cool despite being an aromatic. Even with furious puffing it doesn't burn the tongue, palate ot throat. Apart from the initial lights it doesn't produce much smoke either and seems to pleasantly 'simmer' once underway. The flavour is a pleasnt black cherry but is not at all sweet and sickly. Despite it's moisture content it hardly gurgles but I am an exremely dry smoker so others may disagree. I couldn't detect the cheap 'woody' taste that I have detected in other Exclusiv blends. I have found in the past this tends to lurk in the background until the casing quickly evaporates leaving a very dry tobacco that represents burning wood chips. Not so with this particular blend that retains it's casing, keeps moist and doesen't seem to want to dry out. Despit moisure content it burns very evenly to a medium grey ash. The only thing I know about the content of this blend is that it'a a black cavendish. My taste tells me it's a burley/virginia mixture that errs on the side of burley because of the smokey cool taste. However, I could be wrong here! I have mixed this down with some straight burley and it seems a natural mate. All in all a very tasty black cherry tobacco that is ideal for a change of pace without roasting your mouth and tasting sickly. It doesn't seem to taint my pipes, either. Nicotine content is mild (although stronger than a lot of aromatics!), so avoid if you're looking for a head banger! Aftertaste is mild and pleasant.

Pros: A pleasant smelling and tasting aromatic that burns cool, slow and evenly with minimal maintenance-once you get it going!

Cons: A bit of a swine to light and a bit moist. Appearance is a tad naff.

Score: 4 out of 5. In my humble opinion, one of the best cherry aromatics out there. Well done, Exclusiv!

Literally the first aromatic I ever smoked, lovely deep black Cavendish and a strong smell of black cherries. In terms of smoking, it's a very strong cherry taste with an almost floral undertone and an aftertaste that lingers almost too long but isn't unpleasant. The room note is very pleasent and a few (non smoker) friends commented on the pleasent smell of cherry pie. The nic hit is good without being overtly strong. I'd reccomend this blend to anyone who appreciates a good aromatic.

I am a new pipe smoker, but i have smoked tobacco's for 25yrs and fine cigars for the last 5yrs. I have given up smoking cigarettes for the last 6 months and have been on NRT products, weird thing is i am addicted to them now, lol (nicorette nasal spray works). I have a liking for good wine, fine champagne's and XO brandy, single malt whisky and good vodka's (sound s like i am a total PI55 head).

Got to say i wanted to try pipe smoking for years but assumed i should be over 50 before i do as it was for me an old man's thing (how wrong i was to assume this) it is more of an art form and totally relaxing and so enjoyable.

Back to the review, i bought some loose exclusive Black Cherry from Adlards along with some Kendal No6 rough as well as a tin of Dunhill Early morning pipe and Dunhill 965, as i have got to try lots of tobacco's to see what i like.

Well like all other indulgences it boils down to your particular taste, so unless everyone rated it as 1 star try it, out of the 4 tobacco's i have it is my favorite followed by the Kendal No6.

It comes rather moist so dry it accordingly, i am smoking it through a Peterson system pipe for that reason (i have only 2 pipes at the moment) the packet smell is weird but nice, smells nothing like tobacco to me, more like tutti frutti boilies for fishing, but upon smoking it is mild and as long as it is dried correctly cool and flavoursome, leaves a pleasant aftertaste in the mouth and a satisfying aroma in the air.

I have no idea what my favorite tobacco's will be during my pipe smoking journey but this will always have fond memories for me and i will order some more for the future.

Try it and you may be surprised?