Rattray Bagpiper's Dream

The various Virginias offer some citrus and grass to support the lightly more obvious woody earth, fermented dark stewed fruit, and a minor spice note. There’s a noticeable floralness to the Virginias as well. The black cavendish is an important second player with a deep vanilla that is continually present through the smoke, but never rises to dominate in any meaningful way. The cognac is sweetly fragrant with a little berry taste, and a mild dash of soap. I believe of some of the floral essence comes from a topping, and it reminds me of rose and maybe geranium, too. It doesn’t quite venture into Lakeland territory, but seems a little like a kissing cousin to that well known topping. The toppings do weaken a tad after the half way point, but are noticeable to the finish. Has a slightly more than mild nic-hit. Won't bite. A little moist out of the tin, though it doesn’t need any dry time. Burns cool and fairly smooth with a touch of creaminess at a reasonable pace. Requires a few relights. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but not enough to distract or goop. Will burn to ash with little effort. Has a lingering after taste and sweet, floral room note. An aromatic with a little complexity, it’s more for the experienced smoker, and isn't really an all day smoke, but repeatable during your waking hours.

-JimInks

Now as of late I have not been to enamored with aromatics, I have all but removed them from my rotation, but when Glynn sent me a sample of Bagpiper's Dream to try I said where's the harm.

On first inspection this tobacco is the perfect consistency for smoking, not too wet and not dry. It smells divine. The sweetness of cognac is unmistakable but it is far from overpowering, it's just right.

As I smoked trough the bowl, still possessing reservations about aromatics in general, I was blown away. Smoking this reminded me why I smoked aromatics in the first place. It filled all the criteria a top quality aromatic should. It smelled divine in the room (girlfriend approved; the highest accolade any tobacco can receive in the room note category), it TASTED like it smelled for the whole bowl! (a rarity) AND as if it hadn't already impressed me enough, it didn't need a single relight.

Top quality stuff, the cognac may not be for everyone but if it is you'll agree, it's a tough one to beat.

P.S. Please take into account that my 4 star rating is based on an aromatic scale alone. I never group aromatics and non-aromatics together as they are different smoking experiences.

Sample from the same friend that sent me the Directors Cut (thanks again!), this one runs the gamut of blonde-to-black with a bag aroma of the alcohol topping (cognac, apparently) atop a bed of really fine Virginias. This is an Euro-style aromatic rather than your typical U.S gooper, and the tobacco was nicely moist but not slathered in sauce.

In the pipe, this performed like a straight Virginia and smoked very dry. It tasted and smelled like an aromatic. In short, it took the best characteristics of both types and combined them into a very well-made blend. Clearly the constituent tobaccos were of high quality, unlike your basic heavily cased aro. The only problem was that I didn't care for the flavoring that was used. Bummer! And I like cognac. Then again I like cherries, too, but don't want them in my pipe. But I was disappointed because a high quality aromatic is as rare as hen's teeth. This is one but the flavor isn't exactly in my wheelhouse. I had the same feeling about SWRA as far as taste. But if you enjoy aromatics but hate the goop, and if you're looking for one that combines top quality tobacco, a spectacular room note and a sweet taste (although I found it on the sour-bitter side!), give this one a spin. I'm glad I tried it.

Bagpipers Dream is a different kind of aromatic than those often found here in the US. The tin note is sweet with the liquor scent coming through. The appearance is of high quality tobacco. There are even some curlies in the blend! The Virginias rather than the Cavendish run the show here. BD is not overly complex, but more so than most aromatics. It smokes on the dry side and the tobacco taste comes through the casing. The casing itself isn't a bell ringer for me as it's a little too floral for my tastes. Due to the quality of the tobacco, I think it's worth a try for any aromatic smoker. Rattray has definitely put some thought and into this blend. Recommended.

I tried a bowl of this at a nearby B&M at the suggestion of the salesman on staff. It was so tasty I bought some tins to enjoy in the future. Normally I would have waitied to review this until I had had some more but with so few people chiming in on this one I had to give it my 2 cents earlier.

It tastes great - sweet & aromatic for sure - but the Virginia taste comes through and it was not "goopy" or overly cased with sugar. Supposedly it's flavored with cognac and I can actually detect a hint of this alcohol in the taste. The room note will likely have non-smokers hanging out near you - its that good! Couldn't have this all the time, but it's a quality dessert smoke. The sample I had seemed to have dried a bit in the store and I suspect that is the preferred way to enjoy it as I had no bite - at least in my one encounter.

If you can enjoy heavy aromatics and like VA's give this try - it is quality smoke.

This is a surprisingly good aromatic mixture of the highest quality. I say “surprisingly good” because I don’t particularly care for the tin note. However, Bagpiper’s tin note doesn't quite foreshadow the intricacies of its flavor character once this blend is put to flame.

The taste is a delicate balance of sweet & tangy with a touch of spice. The smoke has a nice texture to it and the room note is pleasant. It's kind of a cloying, sweet-floral lily-like aroma, with hints of vanilla and holiday spices.

Once properly lit, the Virginias shine a bit more and provide a woody, toasty tobacco taste. The topping has good staying power and continues to add contrast throughout the bowl with its sweet mulled wine like flavor. Bagpiper’s performs wonderfully. There’s very little bite, no weird waxy chemical taste or strange off-flavors. As long as it's sipped, it doesn't burn too hot and it burns dry right to the bottom.

Altogether, this is a good aromatic tobacco and should not be missed by fans of the genre. Very enjoyable & recommended.

I'm an aromatic and non aromatic smoker myself but tend to smoke a few more aromatics than non for convenience. But Bagpipers Dream is by far my favorite aromatic I've ever smoked. It's sweet, mild, and a very delightful, relaxing smoke. When I bought my first tin I opened it next to my friend and he immediately noticed the smell and fell in love with it. The aroma this stuff gives off is incredible. I just want to shove it up my nose and smell it all day. It has a very distinguishable vanilla scent and the cognac gives it a nice alcohol or fermented smell, not in a bad way, but the best way possible. As soon as you open it put your nose real close and inhale deep and slowly and enjoy.

When smoked, this stuff is crazy smooth. Almost no tongue bite at all and the flavor comes through beautifully. You'll see that a lot of people say it tastes just like it smells and they are spot on. The taste is incredible, light, and you won't want it to end. It comes with the perfect amount of moisture and stays lit very well. I very rarely have to relight and when I set it down for several minutes and come back, it starts right back up. Very delicious, puts off a good amount of smoke, and people will love you for smoking this stuff around them (I've actually attracted people by the smell of the smoke, no joke).

If your an aromatic fan, this is the THE aromatic to smoke. If your not an aromatic fan, I still say give it a try and you might be surprised by it. I highly recommend to all pipe smokers, young and old, new and experienced.

Tin note is very inviting, with vanilla and caramel sweetness and a hint of woods and earth. Once lit, there is an explosion of plum and cassis on the nose. On the tongue, this tobacco has a very real sweetness that carries through the entire smoke. This might seem all over the top, and to be sure this is a very fragrant, very sweet aromatic, but there is a complexity and balance here that prevents it from being vulgar or cloying. The tobacco is perfectly presented for smoking, requires no drying, and burns cool and dry to the last. The virginias themselves are light and mild. A very gentle, friendly tobacco.

Rattray - Bagpipers Dream.

The unlit blend is an eclectic mix of shapes, sizes and colours, there being some large jet black Cavendish pieces, some light Virginia and some darker Virginia. Aroma is that of a predominantly Virginia blend with a topping of brandy, but it isn't too false smelling. Moisture level's decent.

The flavour of B.D's pleasant. The brandy gives a touch of grapy-sweetness without making the smoke taste of bitter alcohol. The black Cavendish rounds the flavour with a vanilla sweetness but the leading tobacco's the Virginia. It burns well for the duration of a bowl and remains bite-free.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: pleasant.

A good aromatic, three stars:

Recommended.

The truth is, the vast majority of us in the pipe world start our journeys completely bass akwards. We all seem to start our learning process with the most complicated tobaccos to master, aromatics.

Starting with aromatics is like trying to learn to fly an airplane in a stealth jet. The truth is, english blends are much more forgiving to beginner mistakes. They burn better than aromatics, they tend to come a little drier and require less work to reach an optimal moisture level, the speed at which you smoke has less impact on overall flavor, and most importantly, for the most part, they won't bite as harshly as aromatics.

That being said, most of us, as new pipers, grab the goopiest aromatic we can find, pack the bowl in a very unknowledgeable and inept way, spend our time doing our best impression of a hoover vacuum to keep said wet, poorly packed tobacco lit, and after a few skin grafts on our tongues decide......aromatics suck.

If you really know what you are doing (and this takes time and practice to learn) aromatics can be outstanding. And for me, one of the most outstanding ones of all is bagpipers dream.

Rattrays is one of my favorite blending houses. There is not a dud in their lineup as far as I am concerned, and bagpipers dream is a masterpiece.

The tin note is heavenly, if you can smell this and not want to smoke it, something has to be wrong with you. Inside we have a nice even mix of light, medium, and dark ribbon cut tobacco. The moisture content is damn near perfect for me, but it does benefit from a slight drying out.

It packs easy, lights easy, and smokes cool and fragrant. When done correctly, there is not a bite in the bowl.

The taste? Well, I have to be honest. I am not sure what I am tasting. Don't take that as a negative, I love the taste, I just can't really pinpoint down what I am picking up. Cognac is mentioned on the tin. Maybe I see that, but I am pretty sure if the tin didn't mention cognac, I would not have pinpointed that taste. It is mellow, kinda vanilla like, but oh so damn good.

While aromatics get a bad name in general, I will be the first to admit not all aromatic offerings are created equal. That being said this is one of the finest aromatics I have had the opportunity to smoke, and this will always have a place in my rotation.

Get you some.

An Aromatic from Rattray, the tin says it is composed of Dark VA flake, spun cuts, golden, red and dark VA and their exclusive black cavendish. The full spicy taste of the tobacco's is rounded off with, amongst others, cognac, all the rest is a secret (translated from the German description on the bottom of the tin). The tobacco smells very nice, fairly highly flavoured with a spicy background. Indeed the cut is loose cut with the mentioned rubbed out flakes and some spun cuts. The quality of the tobacco is excellent, smoothly palatable with no tongue bite. Behind the flavouring the spicyness creeps in and all the different cuts blend in harmoniously when smoking. Give this one a try if you are into high quality aromatics. Rob

When you open it a discreet sweet cognac aroma comes out.nice cut a bit moisty you might think it needs to be dryed but theres no need for it.packs well lights easy thougt it needs a few re lights.burns pretty good.it's an enjoyable blend well balanced fruity virginias and sweet cavendish.you get all the flavours promised.you can start your day with it.definitelly a good all day aromatic blend pleasant to others an excellent choise for a good aromatic smoking experience.

Until I get over the shock of the awesomeness of this blend , I'll say this

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WOW ! This stuff is incredible and I enjoyed it from the moment I lit it till the end of ash

This is one that I almost gave away after a couple of smokes. I'm glad I gave it another try after setting it aside a month or so. It's a lovely blend with a subtle sweetness and a nutty character from the Cognac, which is evident without being dominating. Soft, creamy smoke that requires little, if any, drying if packed lightly. Burns surprisingly slowly. Consistent flavor throughout the bowl, which is something I don't normally experience with aromatics. Very satisfying.

I only discriminately smoke aromatics, usually opting for a good VA or other natural tobacco over an aromatic so when I placed an order for a couple of Va's I bought Orlick Golden Sliced (my staple) and was going to get a tin of Hal o' the Wynd but decided I would try something different from Rattray. It was a gamble as I usually don't try 100g tins of something I've never tried before but I'm happy I did.

The smell is certainly of some distilled beverage. Cognac? Okay - I'll take their word for it. Whatever it is it's certainly delicious - a bit flowery to the nose from the tin but when smoking it the flavor comes through and perfectly blends with the tobacco giving a truly alcoholic tobbaco flavor which brings to mind pirate ships and rum - or cognac or whatever! It's very nice indeed!

I always liked the idea of 'whiskey' or other alcoholic tobacco but the one's I've tried have always smelled nice in the tin but have always come up short in the pipe. This one is an exception to that experience however and will probably become something I always keep on hand as it's tasty and pleasant enough for my own tastes and it seems to me to be a bridge builder tobacco that all pipe smokers would enjoy. I'll test that premise out at the next opportunity of my traditional Catholic parish's men's "poker night."

This tobacco is a little on the moist side and will benefit from a little air drying. The container's lid is a little loose and doesn't seal as well as I would like but I just emptied the whole container into a ziplock bag and re-stuffed the bag back into the container to make a zip-lockable sealed container - the original container is too attractive to just discard and stuff the tobacco in a mason jar!

Pleasantly surprised by the tin note after all the references to Cognac! It's much sweeter and creamier, and very pleasant! (Cognac is very low in sugar - less than 1 gram per ounce). Four cuts of Virginia translate into an attractive looking tobacco. Slightly moist out of the tin - some drying improves the burn. The taste is of Virginia, Cognac, cream and quite pronounced notes of fruit (raspberry and apricot) and flowers (rose). The raspberry and rose are evident in the pleasing room note too. Not overly mild in tobacco strength, which is a positive in my book. A bit hot and bitey when pushed but al in all a very good aromatic. As I am not particularly fond of either rose or raspberry I cannot give more than 3 stars. If you enjoy well done boozy, fruity and floral notes you will probably love this tobacco.

I must say after reading the reviews here I was really looking forward to smoking some of this blend. This review is completely a first impression, so take it with a grain of salt.

Bagpiper's Dream is reputed to be flavored with cognac. I've had a number of VSOPs in my day, but none that resembled the sweet, cloying slightly vomitous odor that popped out when I broke the seal on the can. The tobacco was rather moist so I let it dry out about an hour and loaded up.

It lit well and after a charring, stayed lit if I was attentive to the pipe. The sickly odor did not come through in the smoke. I thought it burned consistently, though on the hot side and I did get gurgle twice. I'm willing to put the blame for that on my Comoy Apple - it has never really behaved well. I will definitely give this another shot in two other pipes.

I set the pipe aside about ten minutes ago and while the taste in my mouth is not bad, it's nothing to make me say "Yum!" The room note right now is reminiscent of maybe sour apricot? Not pleasant.

There are aromatics I truly love: IRC Three Star Royal and Nording's Retriever for two. I think, however, you have to be an aromatic fanatic to love this one. Will update if further smokes change my opinion.

I bought a 100g tube of this stuff a couple of months back, and to be honest, I still haven't made my mind up as to whether or not I like it. Although I do have a tendancy to go for latakia blends, I do enjoy a good aromatic. When I read the reviews on here, I thought: this is it, an aromatic with a dose of nicotine! But when I tried it I was some-what disappointed, I don't want to piss on anyone's bonfire here as I can see from previous reviews that I'm in a minority, but I found this somewhat lacking. The smell from the tub was amazing, and the initial lighting gave me a wonderful myriad of flavours, including the tobacco tastes from the cavendish and virginia, as well as the casing. But as I smoked it down the bowl, it became more and more bitter and I became less enthusiastic about smoking it. I don't know, per-haps I haven't given up on it yet, but it's not as good as I was expecting, thats for sure!

A good aromatic. Strong Congnac flavoring that is actually quite pleasant. A bit one dimensional but a nice change of pace when a sweet aro is required. Another quality tobacco from Rattray.