Uhle's Marquette Blend

This is the only Uhle's aromatic I've tried. It won't be the last. This is the very rare aro that tastes like it smells! Wonderful! Beautiful creamy smoke. Even a little damp straight out of a sealed pack, it burns well. In my Peterson system pipe, there's no hint of bite. Same flavor throughout the bowl. Quality tobacco base enhanced by a quality topping. I'm regretting getting only 1.5 oz, but because of WI taxes, it's better to mail order when your from out of state, like me. I'm a FIB or FISH, as some Cheeseheads like to call us.

The only reason I added Marquette to the dozen or so blends I ordered from Uhle's a couple of years ago is because I was always a fan of the Marquette basketball team back in the 1970s when my local team (the Baylor Bears) couldn't beat a team made up of girls scouts... anyway, I digress. I like a rum flavored tobacco blend from time to time and never had one that also had vanilla added. The thought of drinking rum with vanilla flavor appealed to me... but not smoking it. This was quite bland and not nearly as entertaining as the old Marquette basketball team, although it was still more entertaining than watching the old Baylor Basketball team.

Pipestud

I don't always smoke aromatics. But when I do, it might just be Marquette Blend from now on!

I bought this blend on a whim and I hadn't read the previous reviews. But by and large I thought the positive reviews were spot on in their analysis.

Out of the packaging this blend smells like an aromatic. But it also smells like something else: real honest to goodness tobacco. And good tobacco at that. Unlike many aromatics, it doesn't smell sweet to the point that you're tempted to top it with whipped cream and eat it with a spoon. Just an overall pleasant smell but not cloying in any way.

The taste follows a similar pattern as the scent. What I get is a foundation of very good tobacco, with the flavoring accentuating the base tobaccos. Most aromatics seem to use sub-par tobacco with a load of goopy flavoring that simply dominates and overpowers the mediocre leaf.

To my surprise, for me this tobacco ended up being that sort of elusive blend that somehow encapsulates the best of everything I could hope in both an aro and non-aro. On the one hand I can taste a good deal of meaty, natural tobacco but I also taste a nice bit of sweetness and flavoring that enhances it. In that regard I think this is everything an aromatic should be but in reality almost always falls short of.

As someone who favors Latakia blends but also enjoys a nice aromatic, I can see how some diehard non-aromatic smokers might find this blend too sweet or too flavored. However, I think this has to be a tobacco that would truly appeal to a wide audience, and raise many eyebrows at the same time.

Uhle's tobaccos are blended locally in Milwaukee and to my knowledge they don't have wide distribution in B&M stores outside of Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is a shame because I think this blend is truly top notch. I only tried a couple other Uhle's blends, and I can't say I was jumping out of my seat from them. But I found something really special in this.

If you feel so inclined, jump onto Uhle's website and try this. I think you will be happy you did.

ChicagoPipe is right on: this IS what an aromatic should taste like.

For the last few weeks I've been smoking Uhle's blends exclusively. Day to day I love Blend 71, at night Golden Shag. But I wanted an aromatic for occasional use, something different, so I got a pouch of Marguette Blend.

Wow! Mine is dry and it smokes great that way. (Uhle's pamphlet warns against keeping their tobaccos too moist and advises their customers to allow the tobacco to stay on the dry side) No stickiness or goop ala 1Q. The quality of the leaf appears to be topnotch, it packs easily enough. The usual light-tamp-light sends you right off down the road. What raises this blend above the fray is the silky smooth mixture of flavoring (subtle) and tobacco intermixing during the smoke. While you'll definitely know you are smoking an aromatic, the tobacco seems to display a quieter approach to taste for the smoker, yest has a fantastic room note. Very cool, no bite. Smokes down to a very dry gray ash with not a hint of sizzle. I would think that this would appeal to different types of smokers: the regular aromatic smoker who wants excellent quality or the non-aromatic smoker who wants to avoid the typical goopy/wet/drama of many aromatics.

I have been smoking Uhle's blends on an off for about 30 years. I am glad to see the attention their blends are getting on these reviews. Uhle's is one of the last of it's kind tobacco shop, in business since 1938, and still blending their own blends. I think they have some of the best burley aromatics around!

I tried this blend with my last order, and as with their other blends, this is an excellent aromatic burley based blend. The flavors of rum and vanilla come through very subtlety with excellent flavor of the burleys and red VA. This is what a aromatic should taste like. No sticky sweet taste, no tounge bite and no hot smoke. Burns easily and smokes cool and dry. A great all day smoke!

Highly recommended

A beautiful and delicious dessert smoke for the aromatically inclined. The aroma is absolutely scrumptious. It burns surprisingly cool and dry for a blend this richly cased. The description includes rum and vanilla, but I get a little chocolate in the taste as well.

If you like Captain Black, this costs less in bulk, and is much better in my opinion. Very pleasant.

Another excellent aromatic from Uhle's and this from a devout non-aromatic smoker. The three Uhle aromatics I have tried are all uniformly excellent with Marquette and Old Shoe in the lead. I continue to be surprised at how well all of these blends burn...cool, dry and right down to the bottom with no sizzling buildup of goop. They also stay lit extremely well. Marquette is rum and vanilla flovored, but the rum is the dominant of the flavors, adding to the tobacco in a nice way. The room note is very pleasnt, so lots of compliments from the ladies, but there is real tobacco pleasure to be had, not just sweet flavorings. The tobacco itself seems wet, but is not sticky like most aromatics.

Uhle's is an old friend. I lived in Milwaukee in the early to mid-1980s, and though fortune, good and bad, has moved me many times since, I have never lost touch. The two reasons I keep coming back are old world courtesy and complete integrity.

Unlike so many shops that claim to do their own blending, Uhle's actually DOES; I've seen their blending operation many times. Likewise, their store-brand pipes are made right there on Wisconsin Aenue.

Now...to Marquette Blend. This is definitely a treat for the aromatic smoker. As with all Uhle's blends, the components are first-rate, and the aromatic agent does not mask the tobacco flavors. The room note is decidedly aromatic, though never cloying. If one is used to entirely neutered and homoginized aromatic blends, Marquette will be educational. If one is accustomed to a natural blend, Marquette will do...in a pinch.

For me, this is not a tinkering and puttering-around smoke, unless you are simply looking for something to put in your pipe. There is subtlty and complexity to be found here; it can, and does, call attention to itself. I would therefore not recommend this while using power tools. And if one picks up the tempo too much, this can be pushed into the hot zone.

For a completely satisfying and effortless smoke, regardlss of preference, I would strongly suggest Uhle's Blend 300 instead.

Two out four stars.

A marvelous mixture of tobaccos, which manage the difficult task of keeping pace with a fairly strong casing. It's a super all-purpose aromatic smoke for general puttering and tinkering. However, I do find that if I pay attention to the taste I can, pick out the flavours from the different tobaccos used. Try that with yer Cap't Black!

I find it to be a more enjoyable smoke than any aromatic that I can lay my hands on locally, and I don't believe that I've ever submitted an order to Uhle's without asking for this blend.