Blender's Gold Rich Vanilla

I bought this on a lark, was in the store buying some antibiotics after having a root canal today, and having never bought a Blenders Gold Blend before, had a sweet tooth and thought "what the heck". It was just over $12.00 for a large bag and I really thought it would be a cloying aromatic and thought I would try it and if it was bad just throw it away. but I was reallt surprised! It was actually very good. It was a ribbon cut, mostly burley blend with a vanilla topping. but it was very mild with no bite and a rich vanilla flavor. What really surprised me the most was it was not too wet, burned very well and left no goop in the bottom of my pipe. It burned all the way down without relights and had a great room note and a very good taste. Sometimes we are surprised. I am normally not a vanilla smoker but this was one of the best I have had in this gender. A great blend when among non smokers and one I will keep around for when I get a sweet tooth. Try it, it will surprise you. At least it did me.

An uncomplicated, super-light aromatic, BG Rich Vanilla is a Sutliff product with a Cavendish base and vanilla topping. The strips vary in shape and color, so I'm trusting the maker's description on which tobaccos are in here. Package humidity is a bit higher than average but definitely not excessive. The vanilla is clearly there without being overpowering, much like LL 1-Q. I poured the blend into a clear container and let it sit out under the sun and a cold breeze for about four hours before lighting it up.

It's easy to pack into the bowl. The pre-draw is neutral with mild hints of vanilla and nothing else. It burns readily and well, requiring few relights. Umami is low. The room note is quite pleasant. I experienced no bite whatsoever. The vanilla flavor is fine but, absent a Virginia, the typical sweetness is missed. Retrohales bring the vanilla up a few notches. Hay notes come later in the bowl. No other flavors come to mind.

I actually enjoyed this inexpensive Sutliff blend. It's lighter and burns better than, say, a CB Original, and it's gentle enough as a readily-available daily blend.

Just now rediscovering the wonderful world of Blenders Gold pipe blends. This was due to my loyalty to Velvet and making room in my cellar, but I digress. BG Rich Vanilla is a mixture that I often pass over in favor of BG's Burley&Black. Found the flavors in this one to be subtle, nutty. Kind of monochromatic with a malty, peppery note. Hint of cherry (from the Burley perhaps?). Reminds one of Carter Hall or H&H's Country Lane. It took slightly longer to dry out. However, once these blends are aired out, broken down and gravity fed into your pipe you are in for a real treat. This brings out all the nuances and shows Blender's Gold to be on par with its more expensive kinfolk. The room note was cigar like but warm and inviting. Not a fan of vanilla tobacco overall, but this was a nice change of pace.

Update 12-28-21 Been playing around with this blend and gotta say it is quite versatile. However, by itself as I'm finding out, it can be sublime. As mentioned before, the leaf should be dried and crushed down before smoking. When I gave it a false light, smoked it for about a minute then came back to it later it had me awestruck. Smooth, creamy and graham cracker like. It went out just near the heel. Returned to it later and this is where the fun begins. It was akin to cracking open a nut. Hints of coffee, red wine, vanilla, perhaps chocolate hazelnut and floral. It seemed like the tobacco was playing a game with me, Requiring a firm tamper every now and then. compressing deeper into the heel. Once done, I came away with a new respect for this blend.

Definitely a good tobacco to smoke when accompanied by people who are not too fond of tobacco. The taste is mild but it's there, almost zero bite, a good morning and afternoon blend all in all. Also it would make a perfect begginer tobacco. There are definitely better tobaccos, but for the price it's a really good tobacco. May need a little drying the first few times.

Make no mistake: this is a cheap heavily-flavored aromatic tobacco, but it is surprisingly not a bad smoke like I expected it would be. It smells like you could eat it when you open up the pouch, very rich, sweet, and fruity. It has plenty of vanilla flavor when you smoke and the room note is not bad at all. It's tangy and fruity; the flavor reminds me a little bit of tart dried cranberries on top of mild tobacco, which was unexpected but not unwelcome at all.

It's definitely too wet straight from the pouch. It left visible condensation in the stem of my MM cob pipe, and I was unfortunate enough to get some of that foul-tasting liquid in my mouth over the course of smoking it for the first few times.

I dried out the whole pouch at once on a cookie sheet, then transferred the tobacco to a small resealable plastic bag. Subsequent smokes have been a little bit milder in flavor, and the excess moisture in pipe has been significantly reduced.

You'll find the odd twig/stem in Blender's Gold tobacco, but I think that's pretty reasonable considering the price. I think I would buy this tobacco again, but not for a while since there are so many others I still want to try. I'd recommend this for a fan of vanilla/other aromatic blends on a budget.

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Not my top choice..but like all tobacco if dried proper and smoked smooth...it can be enjoyed. That being said the tin note is of pop corn and butter very stomach turning. Good mouth feel but very very bland flavor. Overall its not the best line in blenders gold.. I can only say its a good tobacco to buy all the tins to have around for emergancy or blend the flavors creating your own cocktail.

I bought this as my first pipe tobacco when I first started smoking pipes. Mainly because it was so cheap at around $13-16 for it. When I first tried this tobacco, it was extremely wet. At the time though, I didn't know much about pipe smoking and smoked it like that. Talk about major tongue bite! As well as it having a type of ammonia like quality to it when retro-haling. And I don't know if it's just me, but it doesn't really taste much of vanilla. It is sweet overall which I don't mind too much but still tasted like tobak. So, I started pipe smoking at around 18-19 and I'm 21 now. And I've still yet to actually finish it all haha. Mainly cause I don't smoke very often. It was somewhat smokable after allowing it to dry almost a year and now, almost 2 it's a lot better. I still have half a tea tin left of it but by now, it's not too bad to smoke and is somewhat enjoyable. I'd recommend buying something different though. I'm just too cheap to throw away tobacco.

Like they said. Right out of the bag, it is too wet and sticky to smoke. I expected that when I grabbed it at the Walgreens. I mean, come on. It costs barely over a dollar an ounce with tax, and it sells in drug stores. What did you expect?

It is ribbon cut. Not bad at all. I have found no stems. There was some powdered tobacco in the bag, but not excessive.

It does not look like it has been Cavendish processed, but I do detect a hint of Cavendish taste occasionally when I smoke it straight. (But I did toast it first. See below.) It is rather sweet, as one would expect. Does not bite.

The internet tells me that propylene glycol has a flash point of 232F. So... I spread it out on a cookie sheet and baked it at 275F for three minutes five times, after each time tossing it until it quit steaming. It is still a tad wet, but good enough. It will light and burn.

My intention was and remains not to smoke it straight, but to use it with other stuff to add just a little vanilla. A mixture of 4 parts Carter Hall, 1 part Blender's Gold Vanilla, 1 small part perique was not bad on first try.

Recommended with reservations.

This tobacco turned out to be considerably better than I had expected. It was too moist, as others have said, but a couple of days in an open coffee can (giving it a shake whenever I passed) took care of that. It also filled the room with a very nice vanilla aroma. The vanilla flavor is natural, not overwhelming as I had feared. Also, it's not particularly sweet, another factor in its favor. The taste of tobacco is predominant with the vanilla still present. And the tobacco does taste good, a pleasant burley.

Oddly I did note a bit of astringency at the top of the bowl, something I've noticed in my own home-cased blends. (Not sure where that comes from but in my own blends it tapers off when cellared for a while.) That bite goes away after the first few puffs however, and then I can settle in to a long enjoyable smoke. The vanilla flavor predominates early in the bowl, gradually fading to the taste of burley alone. After the first few puffs it doesn't bite, but I do taste the burley for a few hours afterward (not necessarily a bad thing). The pipe does need cleaning afterward, but it has not left a ghost.

If you don't like vanilla you won't like this. But then you won't like anything else vanilla either. If you do like vanilla and you also like burleys, then you may find this to your liking as well.