Boswell Pipes & Tobacco Christmas Cookie

It's like a Christmas cookie. In your pipe. You really won't notice any tobacco, even if you look for it. If what you want in a pipe tobacco is a sweet dessert, this is for you.

As aromatics go, this seems of good quality, but I'm probably the wrong person to review this. Even the people around me thought it smelled too sweet.

This seems to be made from the same basic tobacco blend as Berry Cobbler. Frankly, all of the Boswell blends that I have look pretty much the same, even their "English" blends. This clearly has virginias, burley, and cavendish, and is overall a very mild smoke. As with just about everything, it benefits greatly from some drying out before smoking. The first bowl, which was smoked right out of the bag, was hot and gave up little flavor. This was clearly the fault of my own impatience, and not some defect with the blend. When allowed to dry so as to dispel excess moisture, the effect was a much cooler smoke, with a much more robust, varied flavor. With that said, this is a very mild blend, as Boswell states was their intention, so do not expect a flavor bomb here, and especially not any rich tobacco flavor. It is a very pleasant mild aromatic smoke, so in that regard it hits the target directly where it was aiming.

The aroma from the bag is strong, and indeed smells cookie-ish. As the tobacco synopsis indicates, there are a hodgepodge of flavors creating those cookie overtones. Vanilla and caramel seemed the most prevalent during the smoke. Like most Boswell blends, it is a cool smoke unless puffed without rest. One nice quality of this tobacco is that the room note is both very pleasant and non-tobacco like while smoking, and does not linger in an objectionable way (at least not while running a small air filter). This is very handy when you want to have a smoke, but do not want to leave traces of your activity.

While Boswell claims to not use humectants, I sat two or three bowls worth out overnight, and it was still not crunchy dry the next day. While it certainly is not goopy like some cheap aromatics, my guess (and it is only a guess) is that some type of humectant is used, perhaps by the supplier of the bulk mixing tobacco, before the folks at Boswell ever lay their hands on it. Regardless, if allowed to dry out a little it does not have any strange artificial smell or aroma while being smoked.

Overall this is a very nice, mild aromatic. It is a secret weapon for getting away with smoking around non-smokers, or in places where you do not want an odor to linger.

This blend has the most reviews and 4 stars all the way across and I just can't see why. The biggest thing I'm noticing with Boswell's blends in particular are some of the names aren't fitting to the blend. Call me crazy, but this is nothing like a Christmas cookie, except for the room note and pouch aroma. The taste is very flat, dull, very little sweetness and I can't detect any vanilla. It's a dry smoke, and I find it a little zesty with a bit more kick than other aromatics. I've ordered this 3 times now and smoked the entire oz each time trying to see what all the hype was about.

The pros: Smokes great, like many of Boswell's blends. No bite, burns cool, nice creamy smoke. Very intense sweet pouch aroma and exceptionally pleasant room note.

The cons: The flavor is too mild for the name and description. To me it seemed flat, dull and not a whole lot going on. If it was named something different it might not be bad at all, but I feel it falls way short of holding up to the name or it's description. Everyone's tastes are different, you will have to try it for yourself but I won't be getting it again.

So I decided to order a few samples from Boswell as i've heard they carry some of the best aros around. So i put out an order for 1oz of this, as well as Dutch Treat and No Bite DeLite.

The moisture level was perfect for me, as i tend to smoke my baccy a little on the moist side. Easy to light, and easy to keep lit.

The room note is fantastic! I really can't get enough of it and i'm sure others around me can't either. This is one of those blends that i'll smoke in the car to freshen it up!

The taste: I dunno, it really just didn't cut it for me. I was all about tasting cookies when I lit up this sucker, and i can't say I didn't. But at the same time, i was expecting a bit more of a full cookie flavor. Don't get me wrong and don't let the 2 stars fool you, this is a solid blend. It just didn't sweep me off my feet like I was expecting it to. I would still recommend it though!

Well,,, if you like sugar cookies.... This one is for you. Just not what I was looking for in a smoke. Wow--- super sweet !!! Back of my throat and tongue raw with the over dose of sweetness.

This is a tough tobacco to rate:

The room note is second to none. I mean that. It is far and away the nicest room note of any tobacco, ever. If you want to make a place smell nice, ditch the scented candles and smoke this tobacco. It's worth having at least for that.

Unfortunately, like most aromatics (not all--No Bite Delite from the same blender is an exception) the taste is nothing like the room note, and is in fact sort of unpleasant.

If it weren't for the "off" taste, this would be one heck of a tobacco. But room note cannot cover all sins.

Alas.

I will start with a query, which I will repeat for all Boswell tobaccos: Even though I have left them open for 2 months, they haven't dried out at all. This is something that scares me.

I got this tobacco in August and I left it open until Christmas 2010. It didn't dry out at all. It has too much moisture. Pure Cavendish, that does not cause any tongue bite. Nice whisky and vanilla aroma. I rubbed it with my hand, just to check how moist it is, and the scent remained on my fingers for almost 2 hours. I want to thank, a lot, my friend “Nektarios” for gifting me these 5 Boswell tobaccos in order to try them out.

Too sweet for me personally but it tasted good. It's like a desert tobacco or something. Not really a christmas smell per-se. Not really a cookie smell either. But good. And sweet. Very very sweet.

I, unfortunately do not understand all the hype. It is basically a NORSE GOLD blend. Nothing to write home about at all. Not bad, just nothing I would ever smoke again.