John Middleton, Inc Kentucky Club Mixture Aromatic

My two cents: When I smoke this stuff I get the feeling that this could have been really popular a couple of generations ago when guys walked to the corner store for their tobacco and smoked whatever that store could get. I got a great brownie pouch note albeit fairly mild. cut was a little finer than what I'm used to but loads, lights and burns well. you get a taste of subdued burleys and a little of the casing. Certainly no orientals or other exotic tobaccos. Nicotine is light but noticeable and room note isn't unpleasant. It's got a strong bite to it so no chain smoking this one. I'll burn a bowl of this every three to four weeks just for the pouch note but once it's gone that's it. No more KC for me. This is the age of the internet and I can get the best tobaccos in the world delivered to my door for a few dollars more than a pouch of KC so why bother? Not the worst class of tobacco so 2 stars.

I really wanted to love this as it is an old favorite of a good friend who swears its what Jesus would smoke if He was a piper. Pro - good nicotine hit. Con - extreme heat sans flavour. Really nothing more than that. The blow torch effect makes me think it would more likely be the preferred weed of the red guy with the pointy tail. If a ripping nickel buzz is your thing, give it a whirl and keep a fire extinguisher handy.

I've had a tub of this sitting around for about 5 years now. It has gotten better, but not a lot better. The initial light-up is quite tasty, but then it gets bitey, even if smoked gently. I've tried this in small, medium, and large bowled pipes. Doesn't make much difference. Still rears up to bite ya. Packed loosely, it becomes tolerable. Maybe another 5 years on the mantle will do the trick. Carter Hall is still better than this stuff. Anybody want to swap tubs?

Picked up a tub in trade and smoked from it over the course of a few months - about 5 oz or so. Middleton claims the cut is a combination of ribbon, shag, cube and flake which really means it's a coarse, choppy cut that resembles none of these. It looked like a cheap drugstore blend. Tub aroma is a bit on the fruity side and the tobacco came fairly dry. No idea how old this stuff was, and I doubt it matters much. $19.95 sticker on the tub, if that gives anyone an indication.

The claim is that there are several different tobaccos within this mix, but a sweetened burley is all I tasted. The flavor was decent, but the tongue sting mentioned by others was in evidence, which marred the proceedings. Ultimately, I had the best success with a mahogany calabash meerschaum pipe, which toned down the sting. I also tried rehydrating but all that did was cause the flavor to dumb down. This did produce a taste akin to cinnamon at times but sweetened burley was the main taste. Not nearly as hearty of a burley as KC Mild, which I smoke occasionally. Perhaps the aromatic component is causing the tongue sting. At any rate, this phenomenon hurt what otherwise would be at best a mediocre batch of leaf. I give this two stars but it's probably somewhere between 1 and 2. Hard to recommend but curious puffers may want to give it a go.

Update: I just bought another pouch at my local supermarket. This pouch is excellent. Flavor much better than previous packages. Not harsh, cool burning. Did the quality improve? Or did I just get a good pack? I won't upgrade a star unless subsequent packages are as good as this one.

Original review: I just finished a pouch of KC mixture, not having purchased this since my high school days. I can't really remember what it was like back then, but I felt cool, smoking what I thought was an expensive mixture.

I find the mixture today a nice smoke, readily available in my area However, there's nothing outstanding or notable about this tobacco. This is just an honest, decent, inexpensive pipe tobacco. Taste is mild, cannot say that it is an aromatic. Probably why I somewhat like it. Tongue bite stays at a minimum.

All in all, a decent change of pace smoke. I will buy it on occasion.

I guess this belongs to those aromas one associated with pipe smoking, well, 40 years ago? A nice room note, fruity and chocolaty, the type of smell one would expect from grandpa sitting in his chair, in front of a fire in a log cabin, with either a Basset or a Blood Hound at his feet, and a cup of hot coffee or cocoa in a side table.

I agree with the reviewer that purports this as basically a Burley blend. That it is, and in good measure. It's not that this is a bad blend. I guess that in more parochial settings blends like this one, or Prince Albert, Country Doctor or Vermont Maple, suffice. However, once you've been stung by Latakias, Turkish, straight matured Virginias or Virginia and Perique mixtures, well, Kentucky Club or Kentucky Club Aromatic just don't hit the spot.

Still, a nice baccy, in the same sense that Neil Sedaka is, well, Ok.

I really like the regular Kentucky Club but the aromatic doesn't do it for me. It did get much better as the packet aired out but still this is no big woof. For some reason the inexpensive tobaccos work better for me as very simple smokes. The odd sweet aroma reminded me of a coolant leek when smoking it in my car. I wasn't real fond of the very uneven cut either. On the plus side, did I mention how inexpensive this stuff is at less then $2.00 a box? If I am going to smoke something I don't love, cheaper is better. With Blue Note for example, I keep seeing images of dollars drifting away in the smoke. It also burned well once the packet had breathed for awhile, which is another plus. So in conclusion, this is smokeable, but not as good as the regular Kentucky Club.

This is a review of Aromatic Kentucky Club Mixture, in the red plaid box/pouch. That was just to clarify, as there seems to be some confusion as to the Kentucky Club line.

As I opened the foil pouch I smelled coffee, dark chocolate and something like ginger. The tobacco was very dry and quite loose. It lit very easy and smoked well. The tobacco tasted like a cigar, not an expensive $10.00 Dominican, but closer to a Dutch Masters. As I progressed down the bowl the flavor was consistently cigar, but turned sour about 3/4 way through, like most burley blends. I finished the bowl, but as I do not like cheap cigars, I will not be having another.

This was not a bad tobacco, just one I don't particularly care for. If you like the taste and smell of cheap cigars give this a try.

A friend passed me a pouch of this a few weeks back, more as a gag than anything I think. Guess what, I smoked the whole pouch and it was decent. This is burley, burley, burley, no matter what the foil pouch proclaims, but it is good burley, light and somewhat sweet. Flavor is akin to Country Doctor, but less potent. A passable fishing tobacco, if there is no Sail to be had.