Sutliff Tobacco Company Tobacco Galleria - Midnight Smoke

A good way to use this stuff is to put it in a tall jar & let some good cigars soak up the tasty rum essence. Otherwise, it's unsmokeable sweepings off the tobacco barn floor...

I don't smoke aromatics.

Back in October of 2018 I ordered two pounds of Matured Red Virginia 515 RC-1 from Smokingpipes.com, and I got two pounds of this black goo instead. (SmokingPipes sent me two fresh pounds of the RC-1 at no extra charge, and I did not have to return this stuff).

I just loaded a Dagner cob full of Midnight Smoke (didn't want to risk ruining any of my briars). Upon further inspection, ghosting a briar was never really a threat with Midnight Smoke: No taste, no flavor, no nicotine, no point. Cannot recommend (and they don't have a 0-star option here).

The Missus opens the lids on the four 1-quart jars to use as room freshener ("I love the smell" she says) . . .

Ok, so after having mixed luck with 3 different Altadis pouches sent to me as a sampler, I happily happened upon a local B&M (I didn't know it was even there!) that, unfortunately, carries only Borkum Riff and a whole row of Altadis (and for only $4 a pouch - in NY!! What is this stuf in PA, 50 cents??). I really liked Blue Note, so at that price, it's easy to grab a couple of new pouches to sample.

Being a black cavendish fan, Midnight Smoke is an easy pick (the fact that the pouch looks very similar to Blue Note probably influenced my decision as well). Once in the car, I can't resist opening it and taking a whiff (I didn't have a pipe with me), and the smell coming from the bag is IN-CRED-I-BLE...like a black cherry and vanilla brandy. I think I actually may have started salivating a bit.

Once home, I go to fill a bowl, and notice this stuff is so moist, it's amost wet...and even a bit sticky. I leave some out to dry for an hour or so, then fill my pipe with it and attempt to light. And attempt again. And again.

This tobacco doesn't want to start, and maybe I should have let it guide me because, once it's stoked, a horrible perfume flavor begins coating my tongue. I'm not talking about the normal propylene glycol chemical flavor, I mean full-on perfume...like I just licked a sample card from a women's magazine. Nasty. And then, there's the gurgle. Now, I'm fairly new to pipes, having only smoked about 100-120 bowls of some 40-ish different blends, but I've never experienced gurgle like this. Not only that, but nothing will abate it..not packing, not changing my draw, nothing. I even smoked the same bowl three times over a 24 hour period (figuring the heat would let the tobacco dry out a bit) and it still gurgled just as badly the third time as it did the first.

And I don't think I even need to go into the residue, do I?

So sad. Why do all the great smelling aromatics smoke the worst? I'll let this dry out until next winter, and then I'll give it another go, first on its own, and then mixed with some burley. I really want to like it, but fresh out of the pouch it's completely unsmokable.

Another tobacco in the free sample pack from Altadis I recieved a while back,I dont know what I was thinking at the time but I put this in a briar and fired 'er up.Smelled bland in the pouch and I didnt notice any real flavor while smoking,but after smoking a bowl of this crapendish I noticed a terrible smell in the briar.After 3 salt/alcohol treatments the 'flavor' which was absent during the initial smoke now wants to chime in on anything else smoked. A most horrible vanilla scent.Oh- well,live and learn,(if you live)

Just finally got around to smoking this selection from the Sampler. Very, very mild. No tobacco flavor of any sort, just vanilla. No need to even light up. Just draw the sweet air from the unlit pipe.

Not recommended at all.

The only thing good I can really say about this blend is that people love the smell. I couldn't really taste much of anything, really. You can puff as hard and fast as you can and you still won't get tongue bite.

If you want a crowd pleaser, this is a good one to fire up, but otherwise, I'd steer clear of it.

They say this is extra mild.... That's a bit of an ubderstatement. This black cav would benefit from a bit of topping. Doesn't even matter what the topping is, just give it something. (And I'm not an aromatic fan.)

It smokes very cool, and won't bite.