Vauen Zeppelin

This one was quite a surprise to me. After I liked Latakia a lot in the beginning of my piper career, I somehow had some sort of "Overkill" and couldn't even liked to smell the scent of it anymore.

As I was granted 50g of this, and dipped my nose several times into the jar over the past few weeks, as it's pleasantly sweet, with only hints of Latakia, I decided to give a pinch of it a try in my Meerschaum.

And I got really surprised by Zeppelin! It has a smooth Latakia undertone, by times you don't even recognize the Latakia as such, as it harmonizes so excellently with the Kentucky. Latakia and Kentucky form a spicy melange of dry wood, earth, and smokyness along with good, peppery spice. By times a cherry flavour comes through, but only rarely, which I find pleasant as a contrast by times to the very spicy, yet smooth(!) taste. Licorice-ish notes also come out here and there.The spice isn't overwhelming, nor is the strenght, but it's pleasing enough for me (I usually prefer Kentuckys and Perique).

I'd guess the flavoring to be Vanilla and Cherry, maybe anise/licorice, but it's only very mildly applied and never in the front row.

Also I find worth mentioning, that the smell from the cold tobacco is rather honey-sweetish, with only hints of Latakia smokiness. You woulnd't guessed it's that rich and has a lot to offer, but it has. Varying flavour throughout the smoke, as this consists out of Old Belt VAs, Kentucky, B. Cavendish, Carolina Bright and light handed Latakia.

The Latakia really takes a back-seat and even me, who don't like Latakia can enjoy it. I'd consider this a good start for anyone interested in exploring Latakia blends.

3/4 star for surprisingly good and tasteful blend! I'll delightfuly smoke the rest of my 50gs! 😉

Liked the look of tobacco and aroma when I opened the can. Burning is good I did not need to let it dry, you can use straight from the can into the pipe. As for taste, I felt notes of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds that appear underneath the vanilla flavor base. A woody tone good for winter or even better in the fall. You can smoke enough that will not bite your tongue, even if you pull like hell, believe me. Thanks for reading this review and good puffs.

I bought this tin of tobacco because I am a huge Led Zeppelin fan and I liked the label. I also do like some of the Vauen blends I have tried.

I smoked this blend without reading any reviews and the label on my tin does not say what's in it but just says "Smooth and Cool". Puffed very slow you might say this is true, but puffed with any aggressiveness and it can be a little hot smoking. I detected the cherry vanilla based flavoring right off but I also detected another flavor that took me the better part of the tin before I figured it out. It has latakia in it. It is a very interesting blend and I did go through the tin rather fast. I enjoyed it but not enough to buy it again.

It comes at a nice moisture content, can smoke it right out of the tin. I liked it better after a day left open though. The tin note is very sweet and pleasant with the cherry vanilla coming right through. The latakia does not as it is in the background. It loads in the pipe very easy and it lights up after the rise of the first attempt. It does however need to be relit several times while smoking it. It burns right down to a light gray ash leaving some dottle in the bottom of the pipe but little moisture. You get the taste of the cherry and vanilla right off with just a hint of the latakia coming through. The room note is too die for, my wife thought it smelled a little like blueberry's. The smoke get's richer as it burns down, ending up quite strong but not cloying. My only real issue with it is my check got heavy while smoking it. The smoke from this is very heavy. I did enjoy this and it is an interesting aromatic. It is worth a try for aromatic smokers but I can't give it my top rating because of the heaviness of the smoke and the fact it does burn a little hot.

Ah, Vauen's Zeppelin. One of the first pipe tobaccoes i ever smoked, and it still has a firmly secure place on my tobacco shelf.

It comes out of the tin at the perfect moisture for smoking, and produces a wonderful, if somewhat difficult to identify tin note. It's sweet, cinnamon-y, with an almost alcoholic note to it.

Once you're smoking it, you'll find that "difficult to identify" is a theme with this blend. I can read the back of the tin and see what's in it, but i find that the flavours in this blend mingle so very well that it's very difficult to single out one type of leaf. The only thing that's definite to my senses is the velvety smooth sweetness of the cavendish, and the contrasting, but relatively subtle smokiness of the latakia.

And then there's the topping. It's relatively mild, but definitely a main component of this blend. Tasting much like the tin note, the flavouring makes me think of cinnamon, maybe even gingerbread. There's also a hint of plum or dried fruit in there, i believe. It actually reminds me of a more mellow version of the topping used in Peterson's University flake.

As you go through the bowl, it does trade in some of it's flavour for a little more strength, but it never becomes flavourless or even unpleasant.

The tobacco burns very cleanly all the way down the bowl.

My one issue with this tobacco is that you have to be seriously careful with your pace. Smoke it very, very slow, and you get wonderful flavour out of it. Get carried away even slightly and the flavour is lost quite quickly. It'll also bite if you're not careful. As a result of the mandatory slow pace, you may also find this blend needing a few relights.

Overall, this is a lovely, neat, velvety smooth aromatic, as long as you smoke it carefully. Or on a cold winter's day.