Boswell Pipes & Tobacco Northwoods

I am simply blown away by this blend. When it comes to Latakia blends, it's hard to please me. This is a very cool burning, sweet tasting, smoky, a little tangy, and delicious blend. Latakia in this blend isn't overpowering. A sweet sugar type of topping goes along very well with the Latakia. Lots of flavor, and yet very gentle to your palate. Cool and easy burning. No chance of tongue bite even when pushed. Nicotine level is mild to medium. Quite unique blend. I believe this blend has the potential to please the latakia haters as well. 4 out of 4 stars for me.

Tangy, smoky, sweet wood and earth upon lighting. Mid-bowl, the marriage of the flavors has a spicy vinegar character. I definitely understand why this blend has so many fans. Smoke is rich and flavorful and builds in flavor and strength as the bowl burns down. ☆☆☆1/2. I think this may eventually get to 4 stars.

-Spiral Out

An absolute must for anyone that loved Frog Morton. This blend is deep, smoky, pruney and everything a late day full smoke should be, without a harsh nic kick. This is an absolute favorite of mine.

Very pleasant smoke. Smooth, no harshness. Lights well and stays lit doesn’t overheat. Very pleasant campfire aroma and taste. I think the cavendish is why some people think this has a topping but I don’t believe that it does. I tend to prefer darker blends and this didn’t disappoint.

Bag note sweet cavendish, slight Latakia, topping could be vanilla vary faint. I would call it more of a coarse ribbon cut not fine. My bag was a bit dry I stored it in a sealed mason jar for 2 months. Extremely mild blend. I was not impressed with the first half of the bowl, all I tasted was the BC and The Latakia . At the halfway point it became much better as the flavors began coming out and blending . Sweet very lite blend some vanilla. I would defiantly consider this a lite English blend. Very lite nic hit. Required a few relights. This could be an all day smoke but I find it to be more on the lite side. The Latakia is very lite. It is a very simple lite blend not many flavors but extremely smooth. Great for people that are just moving from aromatics to English.

It’s sweet, spicy, woody, musty, and slightly aromatic. The balance between the Cavendish and Latakia is nice. The Virginia's are very faint. I love the first half, but then it gets kinda sour tasting. Four star beginning, but a two and a half star end.

As a newer pipe smoker, I am mainly exploring the different blends (I favor aromatic blends, although I am dipping my toes into the non-aromatic blends now) to find what I like.

Opening the bag, what I smelled was mostly the Lakita. It was not strong, but was really the only thing I was able to smell.

The flavor I tasted was again Lakita, it was very one-dimensional but strangly it was not a strong Lakita taste as the strength to me was mild/medium but I could not taste anything else. It was not a bad smoke at all, and one that could be great for someone just starting out their Lakita journey but lacked any other depth of flavors for me. Other reviewers mentioned sweetness and I can see that, but I didn't get this flavor for myself.

This came semi-dry, so no additional prep was needed. I did not have any tounge-bite with this blend.

Summary: a crossover English aromatic which keeps its toppings mild enough to let the Latakia emerge at just the right amount.

Crossover English blends got huge with "Frog Morton," but have been with us for some time, since they both spice up the aromatic genre and rein in the Latakia from being a flavor shillelagh that clobbers everything else in the blend. "Northwoods" comes to us from the Scottish tradition, since it has Cavendish mixed in, but also has a topping of something like rum, maple, and cherry. I detected zero "urinal cake" scent, but in my experience, anything fruity plus alcohol generates a little bit of tin note that might resemble one of those ubiquitous pink pucks. This tames the Latakia, which is here in generous but not excessive proportions, but also dominates the Virginias, which really shine in the second portion of the bowl. It feels like small amounts of Burley might be present as well. The topping takes the role of the Orientals, and instead drops in a fruity sweetness, onto which the Latakia rolls like fog over a cold morning lake. This brings out the woody and incense-like flavors of the wood and herbs used to fire cure the Latakia, but keeps them in proportion, making for a mild and satisfying English smoke. This might be too flavor-intense for an all-day mixture, but it is perfect for an early night reading session, which is how I prefer it.

Closest thing to a Frog Morton's Cellar match. Obviously not the same, but this hits all the boxes that FMC did. A great English-Aromatic. A great gateway blend for anyone wanting to make the jump into English blends. 10/10.