CAO Cherry Bomb

Well the tin note is nice. Right off the bat I was hopeful. It smelled strong of cherry as the name imparts. Very dark, moisture content was perfect. Charring light was nice, no relight needed. Smoke had a bite if you were not patient. But the flavor.

This is where it lost me. The flavor is bland. Its missing a lot. Even the cherry was not great. It just had......nothing. I was waiting through the bowl, and still nothing showed up. I was pretty disappointed. Will try to age a bit and see what happens.

CAO - Cherry Bomb.

This one perplexed me. With a name like Cherry Bomb I'd expected a one sided smoke of insuppressible cherries. That couldn't be further from the truth.

The ribbons are jet black and the first giveaway that this wasn't to be what the name implied was the aroma. It smells like a simple vanilla cavendish. It's a little damp, but nothing that impaired imminent smoking.

Now, I'm confused as to whether the weight of flavour varies tin to tin. Some reviews say it's strongly flavoured with cherry, yet others not so much. Well, my tin lacks any cherry flavour, but has a straightforward vanilla Cavendish one. So maybe Vanilla Bomb would be a more apt name! I like it but it's not what I asked for. The aromatic smoke I get is pleasant enough, albeit it's like any other sticky vanilla aromatic out there. The burn from it's quite slow, the temperature's cool, and it doesn't bite.

Nicotine: very mild. Room-note: pleasant; pleasant, but there's no cherries!

If this was called Vanilla Bomb I'd rate it well, but for the fact it's nothing like it's billed as being I'll give it two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

A friend of mine generosity gave me a sample of this a few months back. This is the first CAO blend that I’ve tried.

The name pretty deceiving. It’s not a cherry bomb at all. It’s way more vanilla forward, with some light cherry notes in the background. Its pretty tasteless, but I found drawing the smoke under my tongue, and the retrohale to help. The aftertaste isn’t very pleasant, but it’s not far off from other aromatics I’ve tried. It reminds me a little bit of wet musty paper towels. It smoked on the warm side, but didn’t get hot. Bite seemed to be an issue with some other reviewers, but I had no issues. I’d recommend this to someone looking for a cherry blend.

Initial smell reminds me of Cherry SKOL chew-tobacco, which is not a good thing. Burns a bit hot. Cherry taste is fairly mild but oddly synthetic. Apparently there's vanilla in there but it's distant. I'd recommend Blood Red Moon by Cult or Cherry BonBon by Sutliff.

I generally like CAO's products (especially Eileen's Dream), though I am not a big fan of cherry, so I guess that puts me on a neutral starting point here. Opening the tin, I was greeted with the expected sickly sour fruit smell doused over some very dark Cavendish. I guess there could be some of the advertised vanilla, but who can tell behind Captain cherry.

Packed and lit great, and burned fairly well (with an occasional relight and some bowl spittle). Fire reduced the cherries potency and turned the smoke into something sweeter (hmm... possibly vanilla?). It grew on me the more I smoked it, since it wasn't overly cherry the whole time, and I liked it more than my other cherry front runner Cult's Blood Red Moon for this reason.

By the end of tin there wasn't any excessive ghosting to the pipe I used, though I suspect that could change with even more use.

If you enjoy cherry aromatics, you ought to give this one a go, it will likely rank higher than a 2 star for your tasting palette.

Today I opened up a year old tin of cherry bomb. I am not a cherry fan. It was free. I always take it when it's free and try it. I had three tins. This is the third I have now smoked. I opened it at 7am. Smoked it at 1pm. Packed in light with half a pipe bowl. Lit it. Char was quick. Relight worked well. Flavor is heavily sprinkled in. Smoked it slow. Drank water and finished after 20 minutes. It had flavor of cherry. Very light. Smelled more than tasted. Folks next door came over to see what I was smoking. Loaded up two more bowls during the day. Put the rest in a jar to mix with something. Was ok. But had a strong chemical taste with it. . Smoked a little wet at the end. Same for all 3 tins. Might revisit in a month or two.

I thought it was a little ironic that a blend named cherry bomb would taste more vanilla than cherry. Smokes on the mild side, room note is nice, non-smokers commented that it smelled good even outside in the wind where I have to smoke. One of my first tobaccos and suitable for a beginner but not much cherry.

If you were a beginner and had not smoked a variety of tobaccos, you might pick this up and think that you had found something fantastic. It has a wonderful, rich tin aroma, and the room note is very nice. It looks pretty, and is not as funky (as in the existence of a chemical smell, and goopy use of humectants) as some other black cavendish blends. I find the vanilla is more noticeable in the tin aroma than the the taste or room note.

Where it falls apart is the smoking qualities, and this is where I think people are (or should) keep looking. It requires a lot of drying out, and this by itself is not a big deal. Even when pretty dry, however, this is still difficult to get going and keep burning without a lot of puffing, which of course heats things up. While the room note is rich and pleasant, the taste is pretty mild, and the cherry is nowhere near as noticeable on the tongue. It will bite with strong puffing, and sipping just does not keep this one going. This, and the need for regular fiddling and relights detracts from a relaxing and pleasant experience. If you are looking for a cherry aromatic, the Boswell cherry flavored mixtures offer much better smoking characteristics and richer, more well rounded flavors. If you really want to take the training wheels off and smoke a good berry aromatic that also tastes and smokes like a "man's" blend, then try Sillem's Red, a wonderful broken flake aromatic.

This tobacco reminded me of a typical american youth. Basically a good kid but behavior is a problem.

The biggest drawback for me was the poor burning qualities. The cherry flavor was nice and the aroma in the room was excellent but the tendency of the tobacco to go out and the difficulty in getting a good pack with this one turned me off.

Will I put it away and never smoke it again? No. I'll definitely be trying this one again. Is it likely to be a tobacco I buy regularly? Also no. I enjoy the better burning qualities of other cherry aromatics I have tried over this one.

2 stars.