Lane Limited BCA

I like BCA. It certainly is not a tobacco that will get you super excited, or will make you stop and contemplate the intricacies of its being, but its nice

First this stuff is goopy. Really goopy. Like my fingers feel like I have maple syrup on them after packing a bowl of this goopy. Secondly this stuff is apologetically cased. I can only imagine the recipe, 1 part tobacco, to 15 parts sludgy stuff. In the end it has a welcoming taste, a comforting aroma, and a surprisingly easy burn. This tobacco is probably the base tobacco of 90% of all those small b&m "house blends". You know the ones, they are lined up in nice looking jars and smell like heaven, but are the equivalent to putting Elmers glue in your pipe.

Overall this stuff is not too bad, it is not too good either. Give it a shot, if nothing else it is a well known staple of the pipe smoking world.

This pleasant aromatic blend was one of my first forays into pipe tobacco. It's mild, burns nicely and has a mellow, brown sugar taste to it. Nothing exciting by any means, but I keep it around for the rare ocassions when my sweet tooth attacks, as its one of the few heavily-cased blends that I can stand.

This is an all black cavendish. While I can see this as a blending tool I generaly dont like it by itself. It does have some very good qualities though, it smokes very cool, it has a creamy texture and is very easy to get a hold of. The negative qualities are that it is goopy and too mundane for a regular smoke for me. I smoked this in a briar pipe and it started to get funky and goopy. I will say that it does color a meerschaum very well and I did not experience the same problems in a meerschaum.

This is my criterion aromatic. Smells wonderful, smokes cool and evenly, with a sweet fruity-nutty flavor. Smells nice in the room. Produces beautiful rich mouthfulls of smoke. The smoke feels almost chewable. Rarely do I go through a day without at least one bowl of BCA

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Second thoughts. Having sampled a number of other American style aromatics I'll plop down to McClelland's Captain Cool as the best so far. I've found several other aromatics that I like better than BCA in addition. So I won't turn down BCA; it's a pleasant smoke but it isn't in my regular rotation.

Smells like chocolate, maybe a little vanilla, to me. Tastes the same. Very sweet, very mild, very wet with a lot of residue, the tobacco seems to contribute very little to the taste. Not much more here than chocolate and vanilla, maybe some cream, but sometimes that's enough. If I dig too deep, there is a little weird aftertaste that I can't place, something acrid, metallic, but it's more than that. It is pretty far in the background. I think there are better options to fill this niche in my pantry, for example Missouri Meerschaum's Great Dane. Can't imagine choosing BCA over Great Dane.

It’s Lane Limited 1-Q’s older brother.

BCA is certainly more flavorful than 1-Q, but not overly so. On the rare occasion where I find myself reaching for this, it’s usually to mix with a codger like SWR.

On its own, BCA provides anise liqueur notes, vanilla, and a mild creaminess. I suppose this could be an all-day smoke due to how mild it is, but why would you pick it over anything else?

Bag note is mild vanilla. Cavendish is entirely solid black ribbons. Flavor is mildly vanilla. Moisture content is not too wet, about right. Room note is a hint of vanilla. Not bad but I'm not wild about aromatics, and if i were, it would be molto dolce. Two stars.

I enjoy using Lane BCA as a condiment tobacco for adding into some of my favorite blends, mainly Half and Half. I find that adding just a small amount can really smooth things out and add just a touch of extra creaminess and sweetness.

I do not enjoy using it as a stand alone blend...aroma is too cloyingly sweet for my senses and there is not much in the tobacco flavor or nicotine department.

Great for blending.

This famous blend from Lane is widely distributed. Right off the bat I detect grass notes and the vanilla. The chocolate seemed to be toned down and hardly noticed. I also tasted grass, and my nemesis licorice, which I do not care for. Slight amount of goop in the bottom of the bowl, but just a minor amount. Still, I don't like my pipe to be gooped up. The room note, however, is very pleasant.