Butera Sweet Cavendish

I think this is a very nice aromatic. I feel its strongest point is the fact that it does not have a certain flavor tied to its name. When a tobacco is named cherry this, or chocolate that, you spend the entire time looking for the cherry and or chocolate flavors. This detracts from the experience, as sometimes they are nice tobaccos but we aren't impressed because it wasn't exactly a cherry taste.

The ambiguity of the name of this blend allows me to enjoy it without searching for some flavor I cant find. It is sweet, but has a really nice tobacco flavor. It smells great in the tin and even better in the pipe.

This is a typical aromatic in that it is sticky and will leave your pipe goopy at the bottom. This did burn remarkably well considering how moist it was. This is really nice with a decent tobacco taste underneath the casing. Would recommend to anyone, and think most people with an aromatic aversion should give this a try.

This is a good tobac to have on hand for those times you just need a little sweet in your bowl. This is one of the very few and far between aromatics I'll allow to touch my pipes and I enjoy it for a change of pace from my standard VA, VA/Perique and Balkan blends.

If I'm going out for an evening and am intending on enjoying a pipe in a public situation, I'll make sure to take a small pouch of Sweet Cavendish along with my everyday smoke... this comes in very handy when one needs to disarm the most anti of the anti-smoking folks. There's nothing quite like seeing one who ordinarily sneers when someone 50 feet away lights up a cigarette begin to gush and snuffle at the air like a pig locating a truffle when I fire up a bowl of this blend. Recommended... but only if it suits your taste buds.

As a relatively novice pipe tobacco enthusiast, I found this aromatic to be quite a pleasure. Maybe I am not a "purist" or a connoiseur yet, but this is my honest opinion. Recognizing that this tobacco has been blended to be a pure cavendish, I judged it based on the purported characteristics of sweetness, room note and novelty. It burns well with a caramel-chocolate nut flavour, a little smokey due to the heavy casing, but with the strong aroma of sweetness that will appeal to co-inhabitants in the room. The smoke is very light and moves quickly in the rooms-not dense or thick, without tongue-bite. Sometimes, the pleasure of a pipe is being able to enjoy gentle draws of the briar bowl with the hearty acceptance of the fairer sex and colleagues in the same room. This tobacco may be crossing the line of excessive sweetness for those purists who insist on a tobacco flavour foundation, but if judged on intent of this blend, I give it a top rating as cavendish.

As opposed to many others, I've got to say that this blend is good. If you don't like aromatics, you'll hate this. If you like aromatics, this will be fairly decent.

SO, on to the review.

Tin - It smelled good on opening, but definitely cased in something that had vanilla and some sort of fruitiness. Looks really attractive.

Packing - packed well, but I needed to light twice after the charring light in order to get it tight enough. Once lit it stayed until the last 3rd of the bowl.

Room note : chocolate/nutty

Taste : First third was fairly unremarkable. The second third a definite sweetness was apparent. The final third developed a harshness, normal to most aromatics, but not as harsh as the local cherry blends.

Aftertaste : mild, not as bad as most aromatics.

So, enjoy.

I love the aroma this one leaves in my living room. This tobacco is very sweet, and cool. A pleasing, non offensive aroma ensures this to be the perfect blend to smoke after coming home from a nice dinner with the wife, or when having over a lady of interest. If you love aromatics, do try!

This tobacco seems to be mostly cavendish and dark virginias help it burn through the heavy casing. This blend is remarkably oily (almost soggy) in the tin, and doesn't dry out much. In a briar it tastes excessively sweet and a bit musty.

Butera (who's a real meerschaum freak) designed this blend for coloring Meers, and as oily as it is it really does need the absorbency of a meerschaum. I recently bought a Bekler meershaum, and have discovered that in this pipe it is really a nice smoke. It's quite strong, but the sogginess is gone which lets the tobacco tastes come through nicely. I have seen some meerschaum pipes colored with it, and must say the results are impressive. (Edit 2010 - I should mention that within about 6 months of frequent bowls of Sweet Cavendish, this meerschaum - a Bekler egg/claw - had colored to a rich deep chocolatey purple. I haven't smoked it in years now, but the speed with which it colored was amazing, and the depth and richness of the color are something to behold. Too bad I can't post a photo of it here).

Highly recommended for meerschaum, not recommended for briars.

I came across some tins at a local BM and picked it up knowing that it was produced by McClellan.

Tin was dated 2017. Tobacco is 2/3 black and about a third lighter. Tin note is sweet to me a Carmel note. Tobacco is slightly sticky from the casing.

Easy to pack. Takes the flame and seems to burn well in a variety of shapes. When lit I got a little of the traditional McC vinegar in the background. Topnote is sweet and reminds me of Holiday Spirit. It remains through the bowl.

The room note like Holiday Spirit is a crowd pleaser. I actually get compliments from the wife and non smokers at work.

Could be an all day smoke. Alas now out of production and hard to find.

Ya know if u r trying to wean yourself away from the heavy flavoring and casings of Captain Black-land, this tobacco is a positive step. Its mild and very nice......I wouldnt smoke it all the time, but when I want something somewhat sweet and aromatic..I'd grab this again