Iwan Ries China Black Fire Cured

What a delight!

I was expecting a PG goopy mess with some tooth staining sweetness, and what I got was easy to pack, light and smoke, with no bite, no goop, no fussing around, just a good stock aro with nothing spectacular but nothing wrong either.

Sweet is the main thing, not overly so, can taste a bit of the tobacco in the background, the smoke is a real crowd pleaser, but unlike some others of this kind, it doesn't smoke so hot that you suffer to please everyone around you.

For a solid smoke that will stay lit for an eternity and not need messing with, why not?

I purchase a fair quantity of this in pouches from Iwan Ries just about every year on our pre-Christmas trip with my wife to Chicago. So far, it is my favorite aromatic tobacco. I'll admit, I haven't tried that many aromatics, but am increasing my sampling of these as I am working closer to getting a pass to smoke in the house!

I have learned that I prefer a tangy, even sour, taste profile in my tobaccos and tend to lean toward Oriental and McClelland style Virginia's as these tend to provide the taste I am seeking. This tobacco purportedly contains Oriental tobaccos (although not shown in the list above) which may explain why it seems to achieve the sour tang I prefer.

Along with having an absolutely fantastic room aroma, this blend also seems to behave well in most pipes for me. It does cause a gurgle in some pipes, however, it leaves only a small amount of dottle. This tobacco generates some bowl heat for sure, but isn't too abusive to the tongue.

I also find that this is a great outdoor tobacco. Often, when filling a pipe to take along on a hike with the wife and boys and beagles, it recives lots of compliments from passers by.

If you are looking for a quality aromatic with a pronounced tatse characteristic involving a bit of sour/tang, then give China Black Fire Cured a spin.

Recommended.

Heck yes! I had forgotten about this blend until I stumbled across it on this site. Shame on me. The room note can go head-to-head with Three Star Ebony, which is saying a lot in my opinion. I haven't smoked this stuff since '05 or '06, but it definitely made my 2005 highlight reel--several times in fact.

I received this in the Altadis sampler & it is one of the better blends in the assortment. It gives a sweet yet somewhat spicy smoke & has a pleasant room note. I did find that it is better if left to dry out slightly. This is definitely ?that? kind of aromatic which makes English blend & Virginia smokers think of Log Cabin or Karo syrup & causes pseudo-intellectuals to wail, gnash their teeth & rant about the blue collar pipe smoker. China Black is good in a filter pipe or a cob. The cob eliminated the tendency to gurgle that I found in a briar if I packed the bottom of the bowl too tightly. My only compliant is that if I was careless & over packed the bowl the last part of the smoke would get wet & bitter. Start out w/ a light fill; pack slightly heavier near the top & you?ll get a nice aromatic smoke. I only found it to bite if I smoked it like a locomotive climbing a hill. I can find this in local drug-stores which is no mean feat in an area where drug-store blends are usually restricted to Captain Black Gold & maybe the White. I rate this as better than CB Gold or White. The typical tobacco shops bulk Black & Gold?s are probably better on the wetness scale but don?t have the spiciness of this blend. I?ll smoke it again.

If it were not for the heavy casing and the high moisture content, I could really get to like this stuff. I bought this from the downtown store in Chicago in a duel pouch combo. Not the tin. This stuff is very sticky to the touch which is more than I can tolerate. If it were packaged dryer, I could buy this and smoke it all the time. Hey, Iwan Ries management.....WAKE UP and smell the coffee. Oops, I mean the tobacco. You need to change this blend a bit. Start taking a few lessons from C&D !!

This is a rather good tobacco. It has a great taste for a virginia. Im not sure what i do differently, but i can puff as hard as i want and get almost no tongue bite. It burns to a fine black ash. I smoke it in a grabow lark bent. The pipe is a nice light color with a massive amount of figuring in the briar so maybe i got a high grade piece of briar somehow. Anyway i interchanged smoking this with the all black cavendish blend from tobacco galleria (half a pouch), maybe that flavored the pipe, but anyway everything aobut this is good. Sure it can bite if your rough with the packing, but otherwise just sit back and forget aobut it, and the smoking ocmes fine and naturally. Seems to have a creamy smoke to it.

i found this to be a up and down smoke,it started out dry and sweet,but half way down the sweetness disappeared and my pipe started the gurgle that heavily cased aromatics can be famous for.the sweetness came back just a little after half way,but didn't last and smoked to fast this will definately heat up the pipe.all in all i thik its good for a beginner,preferably smoked in a straight pipe,or a cobb .i liked the aroma,although it didn't seem to last long.

It won't bite you, but it won't excite you either.

This blend offers a nice, slightly nutty floral scent in the pouch, and it's comprised of very lovely-looking leaf but, unfortunately, when smoked, there's just no 'there' there.

Slightly synthetic sweetness, on occasion sort of ashy-tasting, and often bordering on bland; but I believe it still beats a considerable majority of the other drugstore offerings in quality and is probably the best of the three blends in this line.

This baby is sweet, like eating a spoonful of maple syrup. It's wet out of the pouch, though tends to burn evenly--including your tongue. Others have remarked that smoking this blend is like puffing on hot air. I find the opposite to be true. I'm not talking about a big tobacco taste, but there's enough to keep things interesting. Very much along the lines of Captain Black White. So watch out, and don't expect a miracle.