Drew Estate Central Park Stroll

This is good stuff. I buy off the internet and my favorite retailer sent me 3 tins instead of the 1 tin I ordered. I was going to fuss about the 2 extra tins that was sent by mistake (I paid paid for them) until I tried the smoke. FANTASTIC! This is a very dark black cavendish, very smooooooooth. Wife loves the room note, I like everything about it. It is not a complex smoke and stays pretty consistent thoroughout the bowl. I smoke it in a cob and in burns to a nice silver ash - no waste. This is a good everyday - all day smoke.

**UPDATE** I really liked this when I first posted this review, and I had stocked up on it. I'm happy I did since it's no longer in production and having cellared it, it only got better with time. The tobaccos and flavoring have married together and produced just a very fine, mellow, tasteful smoke.

Being a cigar guy (as well as pipe guy) who does like Drew Estate blends including the ACID line, I had no doubt they would come up with great tobacco blends for pipes. Central Park Stroll is "a grand walk" indeed. Very pleasant tobacco, no bite, and finishes very well on the palate. This is a early evening blend for me that fits the bill perfectly.

An Excellent tobacco. mild, great tasting, no bite, great smell. A good all day smoke. The taste comes through and it burns slow with no great amount of moisture in the bottom of the bowl.

OK, who spilled the chocolate liquor all over my Central Park Stroll. Because it will be taking some time to dry out (it really was almost damp). There is a fierce chocolate topping at work here, as well as a strong alcohol presence that needs some time to air out (my first whiff upon opening was almost that of Vick's vapor rub).

Understandably it took a minute to get lit, but in the end produced a nice warm cloud. No strong flavor anymore, just a pleasant, velvety, almost minty smoke. It was a good puffer, but not what I would recommend if you really want to taste the chocolate in an aromatic.

I have a suspicion that I want to rate this blend higher than I ought to, only because I am partial to Grand Central which they also produce. It may not be as memorable as I would like.

A solid aromatic. Its not overwhelmingly sweet, and smokes ok right out of the tin, although i do like to give it a little drying time, maybe 10-20 minutes in low humidity. i'd give it 2.5 stars

Ive taken to mixing it 50/50 with carter hall most of the time

This tobacco is a dark black chocolate color. The tin note is like fresh fudge so much so that I had the urge to taste it! It is packed in the tin beautifully and looks like Devils food cake. It is moist but it should be to enhance the effect of the superb casing drew estate has imbued to this cavendish blend. Packed loosely It lights nicely and the early part of the bowl is very mild. I felt myself pulling to get as much of the aromatic flavor as I could. As I smoked down I found a rhythm and savored the vanilla and chocolate notes of Central Park stroll. Although moist in the tin the blend smoked well. No bite whatsoever which was pleasant especially when considering the obvious heavy casing added to this blend. Smoked fine to the bottom of the bowl with no dottle. A pleasant aromatic blend without a lot of complexity that can be enjoyed like an old friend.

Got up this morning and opened my free tin from JR's. Tin has a very very very strong smell. It is wet and oily to the touch. I spread it out and let it dry for two hours. Seems to be be just a as bad. I want to try it anyway. I fill half a pipe and light it. It chars after three attempts. Tamp down and relight. You can smell the coco and get a strong chemical taste in it. It reminds me of the very cheap drug store blends Walgreens sold for years in the tube. Produces a very heavy smoke. Taste starts to drop off and by the end of the bowl it tastes like crap. Note the tin date is Aug 2015. I will jar it and try again later. I would not recommend at this point.

Good morning for the last day of 2017. I rummaged this morning in to my jars of please never smoke again and found Drews-CPS. I opened the jar and it holds a very mild smell. The oil is gone and so is its bounce. I pack it, light it and smoke it for an hour in a GBH. It still smoked heavy but tasted like half and half. Still was not that great of a mix. Resealed and will try one more time.

I've never been to Central Park, so that association is lost on me. But I have stood outside of a bakery before, and it never smelled like this. Like nearly all the aromatics I've tried, I don't try to detect the advertised scents in the taste and flavoring so much as the room note. I suppose there is a "sweet" or "syrupy" character to the smoke, but chocolate, vanilla and caramel? No, not really. The good things about this blend are its quality leaf and burning characteristics. Like all aromatics, it can bite the tongue a bit, but thankfully, it's not a chemical bite, merely a heat bite, so puff slowly. It's really not bad, but I will continue to look for an aromatic that has more flavor and is truer to its advertised "notes" or "hints" of flavor.

After a few smokes which I liked but didn't love, I jarred this and it sat for a year in my cabinet. Took it out yesterday and had a couple of bowls and then another this morning. A year of age hasn't helped. It's just as I remembered it. Has a boozy, bready smell in the jar. Neither translate very well into the smoke. Only very mildly. The main nuances of flavor are chocolate and cream. It's a nice flavor until toward the end when it gets a little bitter. It's a little goopy in the bottom with wet dottle. My biggest complaint is the moisture level. Very wet and doesn't want to dry. Needs numerous re-lights. Although I like the flavor, the other issues bring this down to 2 stars.

Mild in body. Mild to medium in flavor.