CAO Bella Vanilla

This is the one an only CAO product I have smoked and this knocked my socks off! Cant wait to try some others in their line. Never would have bought this on my own. Wife was travelling and went to an upscale baccy shop and this is what they recommended. Had she not got it for me as a gift, it would have taken me a long time, maybe never to get around to trying this. First off, the packaging looks like its some kind of foofy, loaded up perfumy stuff that only smells good in the tin and tastes like a car air freshener. What a nice surprise when I lit this up. It smokes as good as it smells in the tin, trust me. Nice plum and vanilla notes, but not overpowering. The key to this blend is that it is so understated. It does not smoke like a typical aromatic vanilla blend. The name is kind of misleading, which is the only thing I can find negative to say about Bella Vanilla! This stuff is awesome. Stays lit, perfect moisture content, no bit, tasty as hell and just a total surprise from what you think it would be. A nice "dessert" smoke. Not strong, just smooth and go ahead and smoke it hard, it wont bite! Gotta hand it to the wife on this one! Oh, and the room note is spectacular. If you need something to please the SO, this is it. Cheers!

Update 12-11-19 After aging, and after experimenting with several other aromatics, I am downgrading this one to a 3 star. I like it, just don't love it. The biggest thing it has going for it is a pleasant room note, which is not a bad thing. But for your own enjoyment, its just meh.

Jarred this up quite a while ago, smoked one bowl of it and never smoked another. It wasnt really anything special. Lately I have been wanting a few mild bowls in the evening after smoking VaPer's and English blends all day. At first light, again nothing special, but after 3/8ths of the bowl down, it really exploded with flavor. I could now taste the Virginia and Cavendish as well as the vanilla, though it is very subtle. It has no real tongue bite, but I dont get that much anyways and usually sip my pipes. Sipping this one I had more flavors come through than when I puffed it repeatably. Not a bad blend, just not something I would reach for much. If I am in the mood for a vanilla aromatic I probably and do reach for Lane 1-Q. Its what I am trying to find flavor wise in this, but cannot find it.

This is a decent offering from the CAO Flavours line. This is not my favorite set of offerings from CAO in general, and I have been disappointed with the quality and smoking characteristics of these blends. This one is better than average, however, and is a strong offering in the VA vanilla flake category, of which there are several. While my personal preference is the Mac Baren Vanilla flake, which has a little more sweetness and flavor, this presents a "drier" alternative.

In this tin this is a deep red broken VA flake with a rich vanilla scent. While already broken, I rubbed it out a little more when packing the pipe, and let it dry for about ten minutes. It dried out quickly and this is a very good sign of a tobacco which has not been soaked in humectants. It lights readily and burns evenly down to the bottom of the bowl with a few tamps and relights.

The smoking qualities of this flake are very nice. It burns cool for a Va flake, and does not bite so long as respect is shown. The flavor is very consistent, and consists of a nice light VA flavor with an overtone of vanilla. It is not a huge flavor and it is not multidimensional, but it produces a decent volume of smoke and a nice mild smoking experience.

When it comes to Vanilla blends this is actually one of my favorites, which is not saying much, not easy to do a vanilla blend.

If your looking for an in your face Vanilla, look somewhere else. This is tastefully done and still has a pretty decent pipe tobacco taste.

It was cool smoking. The pipe itself got a bit hot, but never bit my tongue. It was an easy to light, kind of coarse cut that gave an above average length of smoke.

In the end a solid three, it didn't totally wow me, but will keep me interested in CAO blends.

I purchased this 50g tin by CAO. It was made in denmark and contains imported madagascar vanilla. Originaly I wasnt planing on purchasing this but as i was walking through my local tobacco shop I noticed the brown and gold tin hiding on the top shelf. it cost me about $11.00 and is well worth it.

Out of Tin- Great smell. Not oversweetend and the tobacco smell realy does shine through. I almost get a whisky smell even though it doesn't contain the substance.

Out of Pipe- A smooth even burn. I only have to temp at around mid bowl. Consistant taste through the bowl. Great Flavor, and an amaizing Room note. Still fairly new to pipe smoking but as of now I recomend the blend to anyone who isnt a fan of aromatics due to the fact that it isn't over bearing.

i picked this up as my first pipe tobacco ever. the store i picked this up recommended this to me so i just went with it.

as soon as the tin opens, great aroma of vanilla gets your senses. i'm on my 4th tin of this and this doesn't get old.

now days, i usually smoke virginia flakes but when i feel like having a good aromatic once in awhile, i go back to Bella Vanilla

It's a fantastic Cigar, the only negative point is that i suppose CAO is have great problems in quality control as it should be a VANILLA flavored cigar, instead at least 1/3 of the cigars are flavored with COCO!!! It would be enough to well flush the flavoring line before to change flavor but evidently it does not happen. So now I will have to change my cigars that I'm smoking since 4 years because I'm allergic to coco!!!!! What a shame for a great product.

I'm a sucker for any pipe tobacco flavored with vanilla. I've tried 15 or 20 of them. My favorite so far is McClelland's CORPS Vanilla Ice. That's my idea of a great 4 Star Vanilla. CAO's entry is a good smooth smoke, but the alcohol is stronger than the vanilla. I would prefer no alcohol and a stronger vanilla flavor, such as in Vanilla Ice. I give this one a 3.

I believe this was actually one of the first Aromatics that i smoke. There is no bite and it burns evenly. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a aromatic vanilla blend.