Stanwell Melange

I have to admit to liking this blend, which gets a bad rap from many reviewers and forum posters. It has the most exquisite tin note of apricots and cream. Divine. With the understanding that aromatics rarely taste like their tin note, I'll give this one points for room note and being an excellent choice when the occasion calls for an aromatic. Beware- it has a tendency to ghost a pipe. No worries as I have dedicated a Foreverstemmed cob. In-laws are therefore pleased when I select this blend around the holidays for indoor smoking. You can choose much worse. I just wish Stanwell would come out with some kind of candy that tasted as this tin smells. When smoked Very slowly, this is an excellent, flavorful aromatic. Puffed hard, this will bite.

Update 10/2013: This blend really benefits from being mixed 50/50 with a blend like Carter Hall or, even better, Mac Baren Burley London Blend. Smooths it out and increases the smokability while preserving the unique aroma.

Stanwell are well known for making high quality aromatics and, in my opinion, this is by far their best blend. Indeed, the apricot is there and, if you smoke this one slowly, the flavor will be almost perfect. Doesn't heat the pipe and doesn't bite the tongue, even if you smoke the pipe without a filter. The room note is fantastic, the most pleasant of all Stanwell tobaccos. Everyone around you will love it and will bring you only compliments. This is definitely something I will buy again. Highly recommended for aromatic lovers, and even latakia smokers might give this a try.

Stanwell - Melange.

I don't know why it's labelled Broken Flake, it's clearly a mid-size ribbon. The majority of the blend's light, and medium browns, with only a small amount of black. A sniff of the tin makes for no confusing what this has been flavoured with. Although it smells strongly aromatic the moisture's just right.

Onto the smoke: not bad, I'm a little surprised I like it! The apricot pushes the vanilla aside, easily, especially for the initial part of a bowl. It's not that the vanilla's absent, it's just nowhere near as heavy. To be fair, as a bowl's smoked it gains more recognition, seeming much surer of itself toward the end. The apricot keeps the tobacco flavours quite repressed, making for a smoke where it's difficult to decipher the constituents from one another. The burn from it's good, giving a bite-free smoke.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: pleasant.

I couldn't have this in the slot for my afternoon aromatic, but it's a good enough smoke for three stars:

Recommended.

I purchased this tin because a friend of mine who only smokes aros considered it his favorite. When I first opened the tin I was blasted by a pleasant tin note of Apricot, but when I smoked it, I found the topping to be too overwhelming for my tastes. I set this aside for about a year and came back to it.

While the topping was still quite strong, it seemed to have settled quite a bit and the smoke was much more pleasant this time around. As to what the underlying leaf is, it is pretty much irrelevant since you will not taste it. This one is all about the topping. Apricot is the obvious and dominating flavor. I also picked up peach and was pleased to see a few others have as well.

This topping is pretty pleasant to my tastes and it will hang through to the end of the bowl. This, IMO, is a mark of a great aromatic. How one will view this will depend on one's taste. If you like this topping as I did, you will love this blend.

I bought this because it sounded interesting. The tin smell is definately apricot but with the tobacco still coming through. I did have trouble with keeping it burning initially so I set it out to dry for a few hours. That seemed to fix that issue. It lights up easily with plenty of smoke. The apricot is subtle in the smoke but there. Gentler smoking makes the fruit more pronounced but I tend to puff too much for that. The bowl got quite hot so I had to force myself to slow down, which is against my nature.. I think. The flavor eventually goes away and leaves an uninteresting tobacco smoke that is not bad.

I have smoked 4 or 5 bowls of this over the last few weeks. I kinda forget about what it was like, fill up a pipe and then go "oh yeah". This is a good blend and I will probably keep a tin around so that I can keep going back to it. I think they hit the mark of what they were blending for. It just doesn't make 4 stars for me.

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Upon opening and first touch. moist. You'll need dry it out a bit before your first bowl. Upon lighting, the smell is on par with the taste. The taste gets slightly sweeter as you get nearer to the bowl.

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I have went to acquire this blend after reading all the reviews. I was able to finally understand the praise this tobacco was getting after smoking it numerous times. I would recommend it to any beginner as; it doesn't burn too hot , due the initial high moisture content per unit area of tobacco; taste amazing, you can really taste the apricot element of this blend ; and finally the price, it is priced at $5 in Malaysia.

This, my friends, is one fine tobacco! This is a perfect example of a high-end aromatic. The tin note is of sweet apricots, honey, and vanilla. For a second my brain was actually confused: was it tobacco or dessert? After packing a bowl straight from the tin and lighting it, I was greeted by a rush of apricots and vanilla. The smoke was cool all the way through the bowl, and I have yet to have this blend bite me. The room note is amazing as well, and lingers for some time afterward without being overpowering. It has a noticeable amount of nicotine in it, even though I have a huge tolerance to nicotine in general (cig smoker). It is everything that I have been searching for in an aromatic, and definitely one that I will always keep in my rotation. Do yourself a favor and grab a tin or two, and enjoy!

I was given a two bowl sample of Melange and Vanilla so this review is based on only a very small sample. The blend is quite sauced and lives up to its namesake. It burns dry and is sweet throughout. But, I simply didn't find it to my liking. It burned much hotter than other aromatics that I enjoy. It could be a body chemistry thing or the size of the sample as I generally want to know a blend more before reviewing it, but that would mean buying more and that won't happen. I also didn't like the aftertaste. A lot of folks like it, so you may as well, but it's not for me.

This came in a starter pipe gift pack that I gave to a friend who wants to give up cigarettes, so I loaded my pipe with it as I showed him how to load his. This is perhaps one of the best aromatics I have ever tried and my favorite in its genre by far. The tin note was of butterscotch with a hint of orange (they say apricot). It packed well and took to the match beautifully. It tasted as it smelled throughout the smoke and never became goopy, never smoked hot, nor was it harsh or bitter. It reminded me a bit of Troost Aromatic Cavendish, but better. The flavor doesn't really translate throughout the entire bowl with Troost, and there is a tendency toward bitterness at times. Not so with Melange. A pleasant smoke that retains its tobacco essence. Recommended to newbies and seasoned vets alike. The room note was fantastic! For a bit more body, I mix some with half a flake of Wessex Burley Slice or Aged Burley Flake for a truly delicious smoke.