Drew Estate 7th Avenue Blonde

I love Vanilla's, as a general rule, but this one I'm not crazy about. A good blend, but not a great blend. My favorite Vaniilas are cavendish based, soaked in vanilla. In this one the Vanilla doesn't come through enough for me. I give it a 2.

I occasionally smoke aromatics and really enjoy a few. 7th Avenue is not one of them. A strongly cased black cavensidh dominates the flavor, with an overwhelming vanilla flavor reminiscent of Mac Baren Vanilla blends. Too sweet and lacking much natural tobacco flavor for my taste. Smoked OK a little wet. I doubt I will ever finish the tin I have.

When I learned Drew Estate was coming to the world of pipe tobacco, I had to grab a tin ASAP. While I love English blends as much as the next guy, I figured I would make my first foray into this new line with an aromatic. Thus, we have 7th Avenue Blonde.

Upon cracking the tin, you get vanilla. It is an interesting, smooth, and earthy vanilla. In fact, it's unlike any other vanilla aromatic I've tried. It has the character of a good French vanilla, in reality. Not your typical super-sweet, synthetic vanilla extract-laden blend. More so the scent and flavor of the vanilla bean, itself.

The moisture level out of the tin was just about perfect, and ready to smoke. The crumble cake broke up easily with a gentle rub. It translated into a consistent, easy burning smoke. After the charring light, with proper tamping and aeration, a relight was never necessary.

7th Ave. is a cool burner for sure. I smoked this fairly fast. One would have to puff their brains out to get tongue bite here. Even at the bottom of the bowl, I did not have to dump the ash, and there was little to almost no ash flavor coming through at all. The tobacco stayed front-and-center all the while.

This is a well made blend, with quality constituents. You get the sweet character of the Virginia and Cavendish, along with the subtleties of the Burley. I do detect Oriental poking through. It all comes together in a sweet, light blend. Retrohale is pleasing, while the room note is also pleasant, and wife-friendly.

All-in-all this is a good all day smoke. Very mild, medium-strength blend. It is missing the true tobacco-punch, and seems to be geared more towards fans of scent and sweet. I am glad I tried it, the quality is impressive, but I wouldn't add this to my aromatics rotation any time soon. So many amazing blends out there still to try. If you are a avid fan of either vanilla, Drew Estate, or both, give it a shot.

Not too long ago I was gifted quite a number of tins from a nice lady whose uncle unfortunately passed away. Among those were two tins of this so I decided to try one. From the internet: “7th avenue park slope is a name-brand Brooklyn neighborhood known for its organic food markets and picturesque, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks. Prospect Park, charming cafes, and plenty of public amenities contribute to the neighborhood's small-town vibe.” Now that is out of the way, here are my thoughts. Upon opening the tin I was hit with a very strong very sweet tin note. Upon lighting, my first thought was of Apricots though this says Vanilla. I have smoked this in my Chacom Volcano and in a Ukrainian Pipe made of Pear wood. I must admit I do not smoke the Aros like I use to, but this one tasted super sweet, almost too sweet for my tastebuds. It tasted like what a super scented air freshener smells like. Nothing wrong with the blend but I guess by not doing aromatics very often it sometimes takes me by surprise when I get hit with an aro bomb. It did tone down a little bit toward the end of the bowl. There is no bite whatsoever. It will probably do some time before I finish them both if ever. If I had not moved, I could have just brought them into our San Diego Pipe Club and passed them around but I am out of state. Maybe I will mail it too a friend of mine and he can take them to a meeting. Speaking of friends, we lost a great gentleman last week and I miss his texts already and really enjoyed his company at the club while I was there. He lived his life enjoying the heck out of his cigars, pipes and tobacco. He will be sorely missed.