Consolidated B-21: Black Spice

Colour me black and call me Cavendish.

I am a fan of this easy and tasty blend. It is undoubtedly very heavily cased, but if that is your thing, then nothing short of a fistful of stars will do here. It is a total change of pace from other bowlfuls and generally every bowl is gone really quickly.

Spicy and sweet. Room note is particularly enjoyable.

4 ounces arrived today. This offering is now blended by Sutliff, not Consolidated. I smoked this fresh out of the Zip-Lock. Fresh to touch but not drenched in casing, with a pleasant, albeit, mild aroma from the bag - not exactly nutmeg or cinnamon, but mildly spicy/sweet. It loaded easily and took to the match without effort. Very mild in flavor which causes one to puff hard for more. This causes it to burn hot but without bite. I put the pipe down while lit and upon returning to the room where I was smoking, there was an ashy smell to the room note - tolerable but not something I would welcome on a regular basis. Not a bad start for those just entering the hobby (I started with Mutiny on the Bounty from CB Perkins and Capt Spice from the Tinderbox), but not one for seasoned vets. I do enjoy a good aromatic - one where you can taste tobacco and the flavoring. I prefer Capt Black Dark over this one and even Plantas Black Vanilla was better in my opinion. Certainly not bad, but for me, only 2 stars and will smoke when the muse strikes me.

Steam-cased Burley, with the added flavor of nutmeg and probably a hint of cinnamon. Very mild, to the point of becoming somewhat boring in spite of the casing. The advantage with all these Consolidated blends is that, thanks to the steaming process, they won't bite no matter how hard you puff. In that respect they are pretty good for someone just picking up a pipe.

I smoked this many moons ago. A British tobacconist used to sell it as a "house blend" (something he later confessed) under the name Windsor Castle Supreme or something along those lines. There is a mild piquancy, a sweet-sour undertone and a rather homey denoument, very Christmasy. Nice, but nothing else.

I have only tried this tobacco by its self once, it is a nice blender, it is very spicy. The cinnamon is far more pronounced than the nutmeg, but the subtle flavor shines through nicely. I prefer this blend either mixed with burly or Lanes BCA and burly, the taste is far to much on its own for me. I will have to say you had better smoke it in private first, decide if you like it, then smoke it in front of your wife. The room note is outstanding, and in my opnion better than the taste in many respects. The tobacco does not burn exceptionally well and does leave some gunk in the bottom of of your pipe, but as an addition to your aromatic blend of choice it does change the pace nicely.

A great tobacco for the beginning Piper. An all day smoke for the rest of us, without any hint of bite. Along with Consolidated's Black Cavendish, I believe these are the best of the Cavendish blends. A solid 3 stars. hoo-boy

I have found this blend very pleasurable if it is smoked properly.

First, Choose a small to medium bowl pipe. This is important because you don't want the smoking to last too long. This blend reaches a peak and them can get very bitter if you try to milk the smoke for too long. This makes for a very good short smoke if you puff slowly and enjoy each and every mouthful.

I would not recommend it as a daily smoke but more of a once in a while treat.

This is an odd smoke about which I have mixed emotions. I've run through three bowls in three different types and had the same experience.

This tobacco starts out with an excellent taste, somewhat like Lane's BCA but, as the name implies, with an extra spiciness. Very enjoyable.

However, the bottom half of the bowl deteriorates into a very flat, tasteless, and somewhat acidic tasting smoke. I guess I will just have to smoke this in very small doses.

I'll give it two stars mostly because the top half is a three and the bottom half is a one.