Dan Tobacco Milonga

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 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.

While the goods get packed in tight, I really dig the mini tin used here, but speaking of the goods, how are they? Well the ribbons are quite chunky and need a bit of rubbing. The tin aroma has an obvious sweetness with an almost sour fruit tang, which was pleasant.

The first puff finds the Caramel with a dry-sweet huff, almost berrylike, that hedged out the Vanilla. It worked, though it all felt dusty, if that makes any sense, which I suppose is better than a syrupy finish. It does leave a welcomed sweet finish in your saliva which stays with you, though it gets a bit samey by bowls end.

I had a hard time placing this one. While it didn't have the creamy finish I look for in a Caramel aromatic, it was still a well made candy Aromatic, but one that just never landed for me, especially for the price.

Dan Tobacco - Milonga.

The blend's on the cusp of being a ribbon, it could also be considered a broken flake. I'd expected a jet black mixture-maybe the tin's colour set the scene-but it has a higher proportion of brown Virginia. It smells delicious and has a decent amount of moisture.

In the smoke there's a lot more sweetness than vanilla. I also note a fragrant note that would emanate from honey. The vanilla's way behind the sweetness, if it's not searched for it'd be missed. A bowl burns well, producing a cool smoke but it can bite a bit.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: pleasant.

Milonga? An O.K. blend it but deserves no higher than two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

Milonga is an interesting aromatic pipe tobacco. When I first smoked it in a group 3 size Dunhill it bit like the dickens. I then tried it in a group 5 pot shaped pipe with a 9mm filter and things improved dramatically. I really wanted to like Milonga and will finish the 1lb I purchased, but I am not sure I would recomend this to someone unless they are a confirmed aromatic smoker. I would recomend Lane's 1Q without hesitation as, at least for me, it is bite free. That being said, in full disclosure, I tend toward natural blends and occasionally smoke aromatics. If you have some Milonia on hand & it is biting try it in a large pot (preferably with a 9mm charcoal filter).

This smells like super artificial caramel, real un-natural. The taste is pretty strong and the nicotine is right up there. I made the mistake of smoking 2 pipefulls back to back. Nic overload, had to dump the 2nd half of the last pipe, and couldn't sleep, sore guts, heart thumping. Would make a good dessert smoke in a small pipe. This stuff definatly has its place, but I won't be buying again. The quest for the ultimate black cav continues...

EDIT - After leaving the remainder in a jar for a few months, it has improved. The overly chemical taste is mostly gone, and there is a distinct coconut flavour in there now. I seem to enjoy it more than previously, but not enough for 3 stars.

I am lucky enough to live near several relly great tobacco shops, and I have no shortage of aromatics to try. This one I will rate as midrange in the many I have tried. Its' aromatic room notes seem to disappear really quick. For those who are into the aromatics you should give it a try. It is a nice blend that seems to be blended fairly well. Its a nice quality tobacco, but for me I have other aromatics I much more prefer over this one. I will however say it is one that if a man handed me the tin, and offered up a smoke I wouldn't turn it down. Its a decent blend well worth trying.

I recently ordered 3 different Dan aromatics. This is the only one I even remotely care for.

A sweet and delightful caramel/vanilla flavor and aroma. But alas, it smokes hot and bites.

Try Trout Stream instead.