Hearth & Home Vermont Meat Candy

The rich maple flavored cavendish is the star, and also has a couple grass notes. The fire cured dark burley adds a little earth, wood and nuts, plus a hint of salt and spice to its smoky character. I don’t quite get a bacon meat flavor per se’, but the other qualities are mildly present due to the hickory smoke curing of the burley. You’ll barely notice the tobacco taste by design. The strength is in the middle of mild to medium, while the taste level is a step or two closer to medium. The nic-hit is very mild. Won’t bite or get harsh. The tobacco is a little moist, but I saw no need to dry it. Burns cool and clean at a slightly slow pace (if not dried, which I don’t recommend doing) with a very sweet and lightly savory, fairly smooth, deep, consistent flavor all the way through. Leaves just a little moisture in the bowl, and needs a few relights. Has a very pleasant, lingering after taste and room note. Can be an all day smoke. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

This blend (to me) is the same base as H&H's Latham Circle but with a touch of dark fired Kentuck to bring out that bacony taste.

The DFK brings an interesting component to the blend, a dry heat if you will, not at all unlike Buffalo Wild Wings Desert Heat dry rub or similar smokey/sweet rubs you would use while grilling.

All that said this blend is super tasty! This was one of my first aromatics that I actually understood and could identify the individual tastes, a true compliment to the blender!

Do not try and search for any kind of buttery sweetness, it's simply not there. This blend hops on the maple/bacon bandwagon and takes over the reigns! What you will get is the smoky goodness of hickory cured bacon and the aroma of maple from thick creamy smoke billowing from your pipe.

This is a great blend that provides an amazing mustache note and will leave you craving your next bowl full.

VMC is a pleasant change of pace smoke. The Cavendish is excellent and no too overly sweet. The burly adds a nutty component and the Ky adds the smoky essence of, well a smoke house in the early winter. The maple topping is tasty and plays well with the tobaccos. Bacon, well the hickory smoke of it but not the porky saltiness. Behaves well in the pipe and burns dry with little or no goopy moisture. Produces copious amounts of fragrant smoke. All in all a winner for me.

Here we have a pretty decent aromatic from Russ Outlette even if it doesn't really live up to its description. According to Oulette's marketing material, this blend "combines two great flavors - maple and bacon. We start with a Cavendish that's been given a deep, sweet maple flavor and then we added dark Burley that's been fire-cured with hickory wood, which delivers the flavor and aroma of hardwood-smoked bacon." Well…if Russ says so, I guess. I don't detect any kind of smoky/salty/"hickory" flavors in this blend at all. What I do detect is a pretty good dollop of maple. That's not a bad thing, mind you -- I've always tried to keep a decent maple aromatic around, but most of them are hot, biting, nasty products that I wouldn't smoke with someone else's tongue. Not so with Vermont Meat Candy. This is a quality product made of quality tobaccos that delivers a very sweet, natural-tasting maple flavor and aroma that's sure to hit the spot (if you're into this kind of thing at all, at least). I can't really find any major faults with this blend, and I don't hesitate to recommend it. So why don't I give it three stars? Because it's not Autumn Evening, which I feel is a full star better than this.

I'm not sure why I added this to an order, but it was interesting to try. I have to say, I detected none of the 'meat' (i.e. hickory) in this. The maple was certainly detectable however, but it was not overwhelming or really all that sweet. In that respect, a nicely balanced blend. The cavendish burned a bit too hot for my preferences, but not too much so. Overall, a decent aromatic for this non-aro smoker. I still wouldn't rebuy it, however.

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.

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.

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.