Sutliff Tobacco Company Frosty Mint 2008

Ok, I'm a big fan of mint. I always carry Altoids or some other strong peppermint and I enjoy not only it's flavor but that it's invigorating. I do love mint, but this stuff is ridiculous! Sutliff claims to have added chocolate to this and I may have detected some in the room note but the mint completely covers up all other flavors, including that of actual tobacco. The flavor here is mint and it's so powerful that for hours after smoking it, mint is all I could taste. I only smoked one bowl, so a truckload of salt might go well with this review, but one bowl is all it took for me to know to leave this one well alone.

There is some good news here, however. The mint flavor lasts through the entire bowl (yes, I smoked it down to ash) and doesn't diminish or get dirty. There is no bite. It doesn't burn wet and goopy. And it tastes like what it's supposed to - and then some! In fact, if truth in advertising means anything to you, add one star to my assessment. If you love the taste of mint to the exclusion of all else, add at least one more. And if you add mint flavoring to your steak, scotch or anything else that typically doesn't go with mint, add a 4th. They promise "mint" and they give it to you. If I graded on a pure objective level, this would merit at least 3 stars. But pipe smoking for me is mostly subjective, and they went well overboard on the mint if their object was to create a pipe tobacco rather than a mint blast. I thought about mixing this with something else but I didn't have any crappy blends on hand that I wouldn't mind destroying with this stuff. However, I intend to keep what I have left and try that sometime in the future. This might work ok as a mixer, as long as it's no more than 10-15% of the mix. On it's own, it's a total bust, IMHO.