Boswell Pipes & Tobacco Northwoods

Mild, sweet, and straightforward. A very middle-of-the-road blend that has more sweetness than your average English blend. The cavendish adds a slight brown sugar addition that reminds me of a sweet dry rub on BBQ. Just unique enough to be noteworthy. 7/10 for me.

On my first session with this blend I was ready to earn my "Contrarian" Badge and give this a 2-star rating. Opening the canister the Latakia is the most prominent aroma, so I was really taken aback when upon first flame I didn't taste any Latakia at all - but chocolate!

Yeah, yeah, it says no flavoring, but I've also read in interviews that there is a "secret ingredient," and that must be chocolate. Maybe it's only in the casing and not added as a flavoring, or maybe there's none at all, but that is my perception. I mention this just to warn any others who don't care for chocolate in their smoke. Given that Lane 1Q is the best-selling baccy in America (tastes like chocolate Ovaltine to me) I know I'm in the minority here.

Chocolate aside, it must be made clear that this is definitely an English-Aromatic in the tradition of Frog Morton, or Cult Embassy. After my initial shock, and knowing now what to expect, I have been able to derive some pleasure from this blend.

Letting this dry out for 90 minutes before loading the bowl helps diminish some of the chocolate which also allows some of the wonderful clove-like Turkish/Latakia spice to come through. In direct A-B back and forth comparison with Frog Morton I found this to have deeper flavors and better focus (FM has always seemed somewhat muddled on the palate to me).

Verdict: based on the quality of the components this deserves no less than three stars. For those who like the idea of a chocolate-infused English aromatic, this could very well be a 4-star winner.

Been smoking Northwoods for a dozen years. Delicious American-style English. If you want Nightcap, then smoke Nightcap. This is not a lat bomb. Northwoods is a wonderfully mellow combination of Latakia with slight sweetness.

One of the finest bulk English blends on the market! The Latakia shines through and the ever so slight sweetness makes this a nice tobacco to have daily. Not overpowering and has a wonderful roomnote to it! I guess that’s why I've cellared 2 pounds!

Been smoking cigarettes, cigars from exquisite habanas to horse manure like... the whole spectrum. This is not good, and I mean not at all. It has a chemical bad taste like you smoke a Givenchy perfume bottle. Nothing natural transpare through it. Went straight to the bin. Take this with a grain of tabacco as I'm relatively new to pipe. Nobite delight was better but still there seems to be too much of other things added to the leaf itself that completely hide it from the thick incense like syrup. No flavoring? Really?

I like this blend. My smoking tastes have become quite varied in these latter years. I've been mostly an Aro & Flakes guy but nowadays I'm developing a taste for the English & American-English blends. I would classify this one more as the latter ... well HECK if for no other reason it's blended in the good ole US of A! In my opinion, the Black Cavendish marries well with the Latakia to produce a cool, slightly sweet, woodsy & flavorable smoke that doesn't bite. Better yet, for me personally this blend doesn't dry out my throat & mouth as do some Englishes. IMO ... this could very well be an all day smoke. Additionally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Boswells is a fine establishment to patronize. Not many brick & mortar pipe tobacco shops around anymore ... I hope someday I'll get a chance to drop in while passing thru PA.

I'm by no means downing this blend because it is good, but I don't see how at all this would be a good substitute for Nightcap. The pungent aroma is not there, the nicotine is not there, and the full robust flavor of campfires, earth, mushrooms and overall complexity is not there.

The tobacco used to blend Northwoods is McClelland all the way. It has all the characteristics of almost every McClelland English blend, mild, sweet, creamy and a decent amount of smokiness. But is not complex. Just straight forward mild English.

For the price in my opinion, it's not worth it buying over McClelland blends. It's way too much like 5110, frog Morton or all the other blends.

If you want to try it then go ahead and experience it. You just may love it like a lot of people have. Hell people love it so much they buy it by the pound. But before I ever buy anymore, I'll just get McClelland.

Needs to be smoked in a tall chambered pipe as the Latakia is way more muted in a smaller pipe. Wider-chamber pipes will cause this blend to be more airy and will mute all the flavours.

It's a mild English in terms of flavour and I personally don't notice any nicotine.

Smooth smoke, and definitely smooth on the retro-hale. Best smoked with a retro-hale thrown in every once and a while for extra flavour pick-up.

It tastes a lot like frog Morton's cellar, though it's not tangy and, of course, the whiskey notes aren't there.

Northwoods has a pine needle and cedar sort of taste + sweetness. The latakia is in the background and gives it a woody flavour, which only compliments the pine/cedar sweetness.

Summary: northwoods is mild, smooth and unique English and definitely as good if not better than the Mclelland's FM series.

Hmmm.... I think this blend is almost better than Frog Morton. The Aroma is amazing. It may sound weired but i thought, i'm smoking a pine tree. Don't get me wrong, it's very intense but even more delicious. No tonguebite whatsoever, but hey it's a Boswell blend, what did you expect?!

Highly recommended.