Consolidated B-24: Black Natural

I would agree that this is best as a blending tobacco, but not that bad to smoke on its own. It is extremely mild and smooth, with a kind of liquorice essence, that smells wonderful when smoked, but does not entirely transfer as such into the taste.

A heavily steamed black burley with a peculiar bitter flavour, it has a slight anise undertone, but definitely nothing sweet about it. The steam process makes this tobacco completely bite free. No matter how hard you puff (and puff you must, in order to get some flavour out of it), it will simply refuse to bite. It is not an exciting smoke, but rather a one-dimensional easy to fill-easy to light affair, with no real body or structure. It is also a very cool smoke, though it tends to burn out pretty fast, producing lots of steam in the pipe and heavy clouds of smoke.

A friend of my dad used to smoke this one, mixed with Black Cavendish. Since the latter is a similar tobacco in preparation, but extremely sweet (in a toffee-caramel sort of way), the combination was alluring and delightful. In the palate the bitterness of black natural tempered the heavily sweetened black Cavendish, producing a flavour akin to crème Brule: burnt caramelised sugar. Not entirely sweet, not entirely bitter, but somewhere in between, and very tasty. The room note was a knock out, and particularly well suited to attract women.

On its own, I would rate it two stars. Blended in equal proportions with Black Cavendish I give it three stars

This is a typical blend you will find in shopping mall tobacco shops. It is heavily cased, and quite moist. It smells very nice in the pouch, and tastes pretty good. Maybe coffee, and something I can't quite figure out are the flavors. It burns surprisingly well, considering how moist it is. Packing it fairly loose seems to help reduce end of the bowl moisture. I usually smoke this sort of thing in a cob, or clay. The aftertaste I get with this blend isn't particularly pleasant, so I will try to avoid it in the future.