Boswell Pipes & Tobacco Christmas Cookie

I have had to revise down my early impressions of this blend. The room note remains the best factor of Christmas Cookie. Yet most everything else about it just hasn't convinced me over time.

In the bag I certainly get a very holiday aroma. I would compare it to mulling spices with dried berries such as pomegranate. The cavendish blend is dark and adds a visual impression of a mulled wine with whole spices swimming throughout the mixture.

This was a very cool, dry smoke. As well as little to no bite but relighting is naggingly constant. It wasn't as heady a smoke as I would like either. It draws out in fairly weak plumes instead of rich, dense clouds of smoke. It also was a short smoke at only thirty minutes. My preferred time being at least forty minutes.

The taste wasn't bad. It is just very boring. A little sweet. No complexity or tobacco flavor. Ends up being the taste of ash with a bit of sweetness mixed in. The spice, berry, and vanilla notes I could make out in the bag don't transfer to the taste at all.

The room note was very nice on this blend. It was light and dissipated quickly but in the first few moments after puffing it smelled like a spiced nut loaf was just pulled out of a nearby oven. After only a short time it is almost undetectable except for a whisper of vanilla remaining in the air which lingers for a fair amount of time.

Christmas cookie, despite an excellent room note. Just doesn't deliver in most other important characteristics. Flat taste, weak smoking experience, endless relighting. It is one that I really wanted to like my first few times smoking it. Yet in the end I had to stick with reality.

I just finished a sample of this that I received nearly a year and a half ago along with several other Boswell aromatics. I was most looking forward to trying this one as it was the likely most famous of all the samples in that I had actually heard many other folks talk about this blend and not any of the others.

Ultimately, I was disappointed with this one as was I with just about all the rest of them. Ironically, the one I liked the most was the Cherry one that was sent. I say ironically, because I don't like cherry aromatics. One thing I did notice about the Christmas cookie is that the flavor did flash off a lot in the time I had the sample. The last few bowls were very dull. I would add that I felt the toppings were dull with all of them. What I did taste is what has been explained in every other review here. Strong vanilla presence and sugary baked goods. I didn't think it was anything different than any other vanilla I have tried nor was there anything that differentiated it other than the declining strength of the topping.

I wonder if this is a trait with the boswell aromatics in general. If so, this could explain my tasting results as I have no clue how my samples were stored before they got to me. For all I know they were left in a bag. After they got to me they went into a mason jar and the flashing still happened from that point forward. In any case, I don't think it weighs well for any blender of aromatics that the toppings would easily flash from the blend.

Even if this blend were a fantastic aro fresh, something I can't claim to know, I would not feel comfortable buying a large amount of it if I knew the quality would noticeably decline in a relatively short time period. There are too many blenders making aros that do not have this problem. It is with this that I put two stars on this one. Not terrible, but there are many better options for people with cellars. Insert Sutliff Mountain Pass. 🙂

This review requires a disclaimer: I am not an aromatic smoker and only smoked CC because it was included with a new Boswell pipe I purchased and I had read so many rave reviews of it. The fact that I made it through the ounce I received speaks well of it but I just don't get the notion of tobaccos that smell and taste like foods; I just like my tobacco to smell and taste like, well, tobacco, not cherry cobbler, peaches & cream or cookie dough. That being said, CC is something I could smoke on rare occasion.

Didn't live up to the hype for me. Tastes kind of plain actually. I will smoke what i have then move on.

While I enjoyed this, I liked Berry Cobbler better. I will say one thing though, Boswells has figured out how to make tasty aromatics without boiling your tongue! This had too much of a vanilla flavor for me but I expected that with the Christmas cookie thing going. I smells wonderful in the pouch though and has a good aroma but not cookie to me. It had another flavor that came and went like a maple or even a black cherry and was one that I had to smoke halfway down to really enjoy it. it did burn very well and left little goop in my pipe which was nice. I won't buy more of this but it makes me want to try more Boswell aromatics.

Smoking now:

Bag note smells like vanilla, honey, raisins. Fairly moist but smoked just fine.

Tastes like a typical wet aromatic. Very mild flavor. Has a sweet, cookie, bread like flavor. Not bad at all. For being a wet aromatic it handled very well. Smoked cool, little relights, no harshness. A pleasant aromatic pipe tobacco. Co workers said it is not as nice smelling or aromatic as Lane 1Q, but Christmas Cookie was very light and non offensive. The taste is much of the same. The most impressive part was how well and easy it was to smoke. Not bad. Too light for me.

Summary: a vanilla-caramel aromatic with light spices that you can smoke in a roomful of people without many complaints.

The Cavendish dominates this blend with its soft velour-like smoke and gentle sweetness, with a light Burley and some Virginia playing a backing role and mostly swallowed up by the topping, which mostly presents a caramel or sugar flavor with a smattering of spices, perhaps cinammon and nutmeg, behind a wall of what tastes like rum and vanilla. Since this is one of the better aromatics of my acquaintance, it accompanied me on a test run out in the "real world," where people commented that it smelled like a very gentle version of an old-type pipe. Boswell's deserves credit however for making an aromatic that burns cool and lacks the stinging tongue nip of most alcohol/sugar concoctions applied to tobacco, and I could see mixing this with some stout Burley to smoke throughout any family gathering or holiday.

It occured to me that the cookie jar at Christmas has several varieties, so which one am I smoking here? The bag gives off a heavy chocolate, burned sugar, boozy cloud that lingers in the air (this was the 5th Boswell Aromatic I've had, and they all reek from buckets of topping), so perhaps all the cookies were just microwaved together?

I felt bad for my pipe as I took a wad of the sticky stuff and packed it full. The lit product is mild without much nicotine. Releasing a sweet flavor that does a decent job of emulating sugar cookie dough. I think I'm becoming jaded, as I just can't get past the idea of it being a "toy" tobacco that will only appeal to a non discerning Aromatic smoker. If you twisted my arm, I would tell you Christmas Cookie and their No Bite Delight are the best of the 5 recently purchased Boswell blends, but honestly they were much the same in execution.

I will admit that Boswell Aromatics have some of the best room notes around, so while they may not be the best to smoke, your friends will certainly love you.

Best part of this blend is the room note. I get very little in the the taste department. If anything maybe a slight hint of vanilla.