Hearth & Home Vermont Meat Candy

Hearth and Home has seldom disappointed me with their blends and Vermont Meat Candy is certainly not an exception. The maple and bacon flavors are present and enjoyable in this blend. Smokes cool and tasty with a dry white ash almost to the bottom of the bowl. The tobacco in this is high quality ribbon cut with no dressing or dust.. Then, like most aromatics, the dottle becomes wet and slightly bitter. Mid bowl it's at its best. I recommend this with a dram of Tennessee whiskey.

With the beginning of Autumn, I pulled back out a jar which I put away last September of VMC.

Mix of light and darker tobaccos. A little moist in the jar, but not too bad. Maple syrup smell in the jar.

Easy to pack in a meerschaum. Easy to light and smoke with minimal tending.

First half of the bowl was heavy on the maple. If pushed it does want to burn a little. Second half of the bowl gave more savory sensation from the KY.

Personally I think there could have been a little more of the KY to give it a little more of the smoky "bacon" taste. It was quite enjoyable when I got there in the 2nd half of the bowl.

Nice blend for fall and I'll be rotating with Sleepy Hollow as my fall AROs.

Mild enough to inhale, but there's no point. No nicotine in evidence. I was surprised to get slightly bit by this. No gurgle, smokes dry, especially in a cob. Burns right to the bottom and falls right out of the bowl. Has a pleasant "smoky" flavor. I will buy a few more ounces and revisit this review. This will please bystanders.

Good stuff. I love dark fired and I love maple. Put then together and we have a winner. I'm not gonna go over the top and rave about how much this stuff resembles bacon and pancakes. You just can't replicate that sort of heavenly food in smoke form. But hell, it comes close. Burley aromatics are always a favorite subspecies of mine. They may burn a little hotter, but if you treat them right (i.e. don't overfill the bowl or puff like a raging crackhead), you're rewarded with much more flavor than a simple cavendish based aro. If I had one suggestion for meat candy, it would be for a little more dark fired in there. I like to mix this with a half flake of Mac Barens Bold Kentucky from time to time. Anyway, it's a pleasant aromatic with no excessive toppings or PG that burns cleanly with volumes of smoke. Room note and beard note are spectacular. Non-aromatic guys and gals ought to give it a test drive. It works for me any time of the day, and sometimes breakfast for dinner is just what the doctor ordered.

This was an interesting smoke. I wasn’t sure what to expect with a name like “Meat Candy!” I was wandering through the bulk offerings at P&C and the name jumped out at me, so I tossed an ounce in the cart. I expected to hate this blend, but I was pleasantly surprised. It definitely had a sweetness to it, which was evident right from the start. It was not a cloying sweet; more smooth and subdued. Along with the sweetness, there was a certain saltiness or savory taste. Thankfully, not actual bacon flavor. I had to check to see what exactly it was. I assume it was the hickory-smoked burley. The smokey note from the hickory-smoked burley was very nice. I’ll have to look for this in other blends.

I quite enjoyed this blend, and will probably order some more to have on hand.

Very mild and enjoyable smoke. Smooth not rough, but rather lacking in the taste department. The tin note provides the essence of maple, and a slight meaty flavor (bacon maybe I've never smelled bacon like that but whatever). No bite, but does get hot if you puff puff like a steam engine. Give. A good amount of pleasant smelling smoke.

I'm not much of an aromatics smoker, usually focusing instead on naturals, VA/PER, flakes, and some English or American-English blends. But in honor of my dad and the pipes he left (probably from the 60s or 70s) I'm trying a few. My dad would have smoked drug store rum-maple and this stuff is nothing like that.

In a word, this is subtle. It's also beautifully integrated, the whole more than the sum of the parts. Moist to the touch but not sticky and needs no drying. The bag aroma is sweet, maple, but not Maple Street maple, a little tart, a very faint hint of vanilla, and a distant campfire. A very distant campfire. Packs nicely, lights easily and stays lit. I think I re-lit once or twice. The flavor is consistent from start to finish. Sweet maple, smoky notes and a little salt waft in and out. No tongue bite. Smokes to a clean white ash with no moisture left behind.

It doesn't so much TASTE like a lumberjack breakfast as feel like one: familiar and comforting. I just want more. I could smoke this all day, especially in cold weather.