Ashton Guilty Pleasure

Mango and citrus are not things I find should be in tobacco. The nutty flavor is great if you can get past the syrup of flavoring infused into this tobacco. I personally enjoy smoking bowls to ash but this leaves a nice gooey clump in your pipe that is a bit difficult to ash. I was told by a fellow at my local tobacco shop that this was comparable to W.O. Larsen Signature, and Dan's Davinci. Well it wasn't. It was more flavor than I wanted in an aromatic.

27MAY07 Update: The more I smoked this tobacco, the more I disliked it. Toward the end, it was like smoking cotton candy. Sickeningly sweet, hot and harsh. When the tin finally started to get down to the last couple of bowls, I poured the remaining dregs into my "All Sorts" container. Thankfully, that cut the overwhelming nastiness of this sticky smoking material.

10FEB07:Creme brulee -- that is what this blend tastes like. A delicious roasted vanilla flavor settles on the tongue, while thick, fragrant smoke fills the room. The topping is strong, but tasty nonetheless. Like a cigar, the bowl burns hotter and harsher as you go along, forcing you to smoke more slowly. Puffs late in the bowl are dense and blue. Not an every day tobacco, but a luxurious treat to enjoy with slippers on and snifter full.

While smoking this blend, I imagine I've retreated to my private den. It is winter, the room is dark, and the heat blows profusely through the register directly behind my leather wing back chair. My Golden Retriever is curled up at my feet, and my eyes glaze over as the room becomes smoky and mysterious.

This is exactly as advertised...an interesting blend of vaniall and exotic fruit. In and of itself, the taste isn't that bad...however, there are a number of drawbacks.

After about half a bowl, the taste becomes sickenly sugary and its difficult to get through to the (I'd say this is to the mouth what too much birthday cake is to the stomach).

By the end of the bowl, the flavorings/casings seem to have all but burned away, leaving a very flat taste of bland tobacco. What's worse, is that by this point, things have probably become quite hot and moist so you're proabably facing a significant case of tongue bite.

As I said though, the taste by itself is quite pleasant, and the room note (while strong) is also very sweet and pleasant. In fairness, I smoked this from a rather large bowl. I would say that this might never be a "regular smoke" for a lot of people, but for those who love aromatics (particularly of the very sweet variety), its worth a try.

One recommendation though: I'd pack this into a smaller bowled pipe to avoid flavor burnoff and tongue bite...also, be sure to pay close attention to smoking this one quite slow.

E'gads...... This is an awful aromatic reminicent of the vilest tined mixture of all time Dan Tobacco's "Blue Note". Don't throw your money away on this travisty unless your tastes lean towards sickeningly fruity and over sugared tobaccos....

Truly one of the worst tobaccos I've ever tried...

Yuck I say, preppy

Have you ever eaten a well-ripened mango? It's sweet, delicious, and velvety—a delicacy. It's a fruit that leaves your palate silky and smooth. Now, how does this tobacco compare? In every aspect mentioned. I prefer eating the fruit, of course. However, this tobacco might be the best aromatic representation of that fruit. The flavor isn't overwhelming; it's gentle, persistent, and doesn't feel like smoking sugar at all. Quite the opposite—it closely resembles a natural mango. Therefore, it doesn't get tiring. I don't notice the vanilla, although I do perceive a second aroma similar to piña colada. It burns slowly, doesn't sting, and produces little smoke; there's no need to insist on large puffs. The richness and aroma linger until the end.

My 1st one. First time was verry sweet. But make me to love to pipe! So it’s a good taste at the end, I’m happy for the

I think some people have a tendency to rate things, whether the things are tobacco, beer, wine, etc., according to personal taste only without considering how it stacks up against things in the same style category. For example, someone rating Nightcap might say, "I hate latakia, so I'm giving this blend one star." In my opinion, this is not fair to the item being reviewed.

I don't smoke aromatics very often, and I favor English blends. I'm rating Guilty Pleasure compared to other aros, not to pipe tobaccos in general.

First, the tin aroma is great, with mango dominating. The moisture content was perfect, not overly sticky like a lot of other aros. Caveat: my tin was 1.25 years old when purchased (apparently this stuff doesn't fly off the shelves), so the age might have helped. The ribbon cut is what you'd expect.

This blend lights easily and stays lit until the end, as long as you don't ignore it for too long. I end up relighting it once or twice.

Unlike the tin aroma, no single component dominates the flavor, which is well-balanced. While it is on the mild side, the VA and burley flavors are definitely present along with the mango and citrus, with the latter being a little stronger towards the bottom of the bowl. I only get a trace of vanilla, which I think blends in with the other sweet flavors. I wouldn't notice it if I wasn't looking for it.

This blend smoked fairly cool, but got a little hot at the end after a relight. I got a slight hint of tongue bite at the end, but the pipe I'm using as I review this is a little longer than a nose warmer which might exacerbate this.

The room note is mango and citrus, with mild tobacco aroma coming in last. It's very pleasant.

I got a slight nicotine buzz after smoking the bowl down to ash, but I hadn't eaten recently. There were a couple drops of moisture left behind.

Overall, I think this is an excellent, underrated aromatic. Kudos to the blender who came up with the mango/citrus/vanilla combo, which really hits the spot for me. Its tropical notes and fairly mild character will make this an enjoyable summer blend. I would recommend Guilty Pleasure to VA/bur fans who want something on the light/sweet side for a change, or new pipe smokers who smoke aromatics but would like to move up to something with more character.

If you've smoked Peterson's aromatics you'll recognize the style (and may experience Déjà vu).

This is very similar to Connoisseur's Choice (or Nutty Cut, or Gold Blend, or...). That's an observation not a criticism.

Sweet, lovely room note, tastes quite nice, but can get a little tedious towards the end of the tin.

In a tie break between this and Connoisseur's Choice; it'd be so close that I'd have to decide it by saying that Guilty Pleasure has slightly better tin art.

Out of the tin... yummy, yummy yummy... I would surely suggest one pack this blend, if they end up taking a, "guilty pleasure" in it, in a pipe with a thick wall because it burns 200 hundred degrees hot... at least it seems. The flavoring of citrus-y fruit and vanilla and mango peeked it's boring head out about mid-smoke; mid-smoke was also the moment when I began my rash of chronic relights, for this blend gets difficult to keep on fire... I don't like this blend, I'll never even nightmare of ever buying it again and... I could easily give this leaf a thumb rating... EVEN IF I HAD NO HANDS. It does leave a sweet residual fragrance though.