Von Eicken Piccolo Honey and Rum

Like Tropical Mango, this blend delivers what it promises: a definite honey and rum taste, added to a fine tobacco. Unlike its brother, the final result is not as pleasant due to a bitter aftertaste. Not a bad offering, but it's not my cup of tea.

Another Piccolo plug from Von Eicken and the best of the 4 in my opinion. The "plug" note was definitely strong in honey, although I could not detect any rum. I did detect a fairly strong presence of lemon, however. After loading a pipe with a new tobacco, I like to suck on the stem before lighting. I usually can taste the casing/top dressing of a blend this way. The honey and lemon taste was just like what you would expect in a nice cup of hot tea with those same ingredients. Upon lighting, I was not disappointed. The honey/lemon taste continued throughout a cool burning smoke; no detectable rum, however. What I liked was that there was a nice harmony between the taste of good tobacco and the flavorings. No bite whatsoever. A medium gray ash was all that was left. No dottle and never a gurgle. This was the only plug out of the 4 offerings where I did not experience any harshness while smoking. The taste actually reminded me of Peter Stokkebye's Heather Honey, a blend I smoked on occasion long ago. The best of the 4, but still not something I need to always have on hand. 3 stars.

I was recently given 3 Von Eicken blends as a gift from my tobacconist, how nice of him. I was quite touched. The only places one is appreciated as a customer is the tobacconist and the gun shop. Both hobbies under severe threat due to politiians narrow minds.

Upon opening the package, i noticed a very attractive smell of honey coming from the tobacco. The closer i got to the tobacco, the deeper the smell became and at very close it reminded me of dark chocolate. The blend looks of very high quality and according to my limited knowledge, it looked like around 50% Virginia Ribbon to 50% cavendish.

Smoking it was rather pleasant. I have had some really nasty aromatics in my time and i must say that i found this quite good. It tasted like tobacco from time to time and the taste of honey wafted in and out too.

This tobbacco has a terrible room note and although my beloved wife allows me to smoke heavy blends indoors ( not Latakia laden ) i was chased out like a dog that made a stinky in the presence of guests.

Definately a change of pace blend for the seasoned piper or a great way to start for the newbie.

There was NO tongue bite from this blend even though it only had around an hour to dry out.

Mo, South Africa