Dan Tobacco Milonga

I don't think Dan Tobacco makes this one anymore. My tin was from 2005 and I bought it because I enjoy aromatics with Caramel flavoring. Milonga does present that enhancement at the match but the aromatic flavor fades as the bowl is consumed and by the time I hit bottom all I was tasting was the Virginia and a hint of Vanilla. This was a quality tobacco that burned mostly cool and dry but did not have near enough strength for me. I did appreciate the fact that it presented itself while smoldering as tobacco.

Tin aroma upon opening is wonderful smelling of caramel, with vanilla undertones. Had to resist the urge to eat some, it smelt that good.

Moisture content was good, really did not need any drying out prior to packing and smoking. Lit easily and only required a few relights. Room note was sweet and pleasant (or so I was told , years in the lab have dulled my sense of smell)

A sweet smoke, though not really heavy on the caramel flavor, no goop left at the bottom.

The bad, it bites like a rabid pitbull. It scorches the tongue so bad it makes smoking it an excercise in self flagellation. Let it dry out completly did not really help. Put it aside for several months came back to it still painful to smoke. Different pipe types did not help, tried cob, briar and meer.

If it wasn't for the extreme bitiness, I would have given it 3 stars.

Dan Tobacco makes some good blends. Mellow Mallard for one. And some of their virginias and balkan blends. But their aromatics are excessively sweet and really over the top. If you like sweet aromatics, i guess this fine. But it will burn hot if you arent careful. Good room note though.

Very mild and pleasant smoke. One of the few ocassions where the smell from the tin is almost exactly like te taste and roomnote. Tast lasts throughout the bowl until the end. Caramel flavour with strong hint of coconut. Very kind to bystanders, may attract people and lead to unwanted attention:-)

As far as full-blown aromatics go, Milonga is as good as it gets. The tin aroma is exactly as advertised: vanilla and mostly caramel dominate. The flavor and room note are best described, I believe, as black licorice, marshmallow, vanilla, and caramel, all combined.

The smoke is thick and full and the taste of the Virginia tobacco is definitely there and reminded me of Solani Silver Flake, my favorite straight Virgina blend.

I copped a decent nico buzz about halfway through the bowl and was surprised by how cool this stuff smokes for a slightly damp aromatic, even towards the bottom of the bowl. Cool but not too cool - just right. It lit easily, burned beautifully, and had a consistent flavor profile which is very unusual. The bottom of the bowl tasted and smelled the same as the top. And I couldn't detect any chemical or artificial tastes, and I couldn't make it gurgle no matter how hard I puffed, which bodes well for a natural product.

I would describe the casing as quite dominant - in the realm of medium to strong. Nevertheless, I could still appreciate a good amount of natural tobacco flavor which made for an exceptionally good smoking experience. Oddly unuf, a couple of hours after smoking the bowl, the smell was still all over me like a cloud that wouldn't dissipate. More-so than with similar aros such as Blue Note. It really hangs with you.

I can't find anything to criticize. This is an expertly crafted, extremely well-executed creation. This is a great occasional smoke for those who enjoy caramel flavoring. However, it is not mild enough for the average aromatic smoker. People who rate this as 'mild' should try something like Peterson Connoisseur's Choice to find out what 'mild' is all about.

This is one of my favorite aromatics. While highly aromatic and heavily cased, it is not "goopy" like so many cheap bulk aromatics, and will not funkdify your pipe.

The tin aroma is wonderful, and you can detect both the caramel and vanilla. I would say that the vanilla is in the background. It is a nice loose ribbon cut, and really does not require much fiddling other than a little drying out before smoking. Use any method you want accomplish this, but do not just dig into the tin and drop it into your pipe. You will suffer a mighty sting, it will burn wet, and you will have a tough time getting it lit. With a little drying, though, and a loose pack, it lights very easily, and burns steadily and coolly.

The room note when smoking is very pleasant, as you would expect, and the flavor is cool and mild, as long as you do not puff too hard or fast. Like most aromatics, this blend will bite you if you get too excited with the puffing, but that is more a general characteristic of this type of aromatic (wetter, more heavily topped german/danish style, as opposed to the drier, more natural English aromatics).

The taste to me seems relatively natural, with a strong sweetness from the casing. There is a flavor, and it might be caramel, but it blends nicely with the tobacco flavor. This does not have any appreciable vanilla flavor to my palate at all.

Overall, this is an excellent, high quality non-berry flavored aromatic. If you are used to smoking various funky food or fruit flavored tobaccos (why, oh why?) then I highly recommend this as a way to transition to something that tastes and smokes like real tobacco, but still has a nice room odor, and sweet flavor.

Update:

I have downgraded this to two stars. The reality is that this tobacco bites, at all humidity levels. I have tried drying it for several hours, and while it does show some improvement, it is still too harsh on the tongue to warrant a higher rating. I accept that many blends can bite when smoked too fast, or with too much moisture, but this one just does not calm down enough, even after significant drying, to make it a comfortable smoke. More significantly, there are other blends of a similar nature which are easier on the tongue.

Opening the tin is a pleasant surprise. The notes of caramel are present but so are bright tangy citrusy aromas from the choice of Virginias. Lighting up a bowl is initially very pleasant as well. The caramel flavour is prominent and lasts for the majority of the bowl.

There is one glaring problem, this blend is VICIOUS on the tongue. I am a seasoned pipe smoker, who smokes full Virginia blends, so this shouldn't be as painful as it is. This is very unfortunate, because it is a delicious smoke. I have resorted to mixing it into other aromatics to add a caramel note, but the bite still appears though to a lesser degree. Airing the tobacco out does help a little, but doesn't alleviate the problem.

I'll tough it out, because it genuinely tastes great and complements MM's Great Dane very well. 2/4 - would be lower if it didn't taste so damn good. I really hope Dan Tobacco improves this blend in the future.

The tin aroma is superb. The taste is decent. The room note is excellent. The tongue bite will make you feel like you tried to make out with a blow torch. There is no toning it down for this one. All moisture levels, age, smoking pace, ect. This one bites with fangs. I will most likely discard the rest of what I have and never purchase again. There are many great aros to smoke, dont bother with this. A real disappointment for me from Dan, they are usually very solid.

This is very special aromatic tobacco. I smoke many years and I did't find sweet aromatic chocolate caramel tobacco ... Room note of this tobacco is very good

The first half of this tin is magic! The flavoring and taste are right, not to overwhelming or subtle. But the second half, after a re-humidification lost most of its taste and became boring to smoke. For aromatic is better a 50gram tin then a 100gram.