Cult Blood Red Moon

I used to smoke Cherry tobaccos years ago. So I thought I'd give Cult a try. There's not too much goo and it burned well. It is very Cherry and I guess that's good for those that are looking for that. The flavor is so strong I have begun blending it in other offerings to make a more acceptable room note for my wife. Probably won't be smoking it much on it's own, though it's not bad at all. Just not my cup of tea.

If you are a pipe smoker in America, the ghost of cherry aromatic tobacco haunts every aspect of the hobby. You cannot escape cherry flavored aromatics. You probably smoked one shortly after you took up smoking a pipe. A cherry aromatic may well have been the first tobacco you ever smoked. I know almost no regular pipe smokers who kept smoking a cherry tobacco after that first encounter, but we've all smoked one at least once.

I cannot say why there is this link in the mind of tobacco companies between pipe tobacco and cherries. It almost never works. Still, though, blenders keep trying. They put out a cherry blend. We all laugh. We smoke one bowl or, at most, one tin. We complain about our pipes being ghosted and our tongues being burned. We say "never again," and then we wait until the next weird cherry blend comes out.

Cult Blood Red Moon decided that it was going to be the ultimate cherry aromatic. It was supposed to be the cherry aromatic that nobody wanted but that, contradictory as it seems, everybody was looking for.

Don't look for tobacco. This doesn't even want to be tobacco. In the tin, Blood Red Moon consists of little shreds of sticky sweetness. It smells as gooey as it feels. Close your eyes and sniff and you won't know if you're smelling bonbons, cough drops, or tobacco, but you will know you're smelling something cherry.

Once you load the pipe it might take three to four lights to finally get it burning. Puff as fast as you like because it will not become hot or harsh. For just a moment, with each puff, you will get a short, sharp blast of synthetic cherry/chocolate that instantly evaporates and leaves you tasting and feeling nothing. The only other thing I have ever tasted that was like unto Blood Red Moon was a red Tootsie Pop. Fake cherry candy shell. Fake chocolate center.

There is what might as well be zero nicotine strength. Any actual tobacco had been cooked and sauced right out of this oh so postmodern, gutless, homogenized aromatic. It's so inoffensive its's almost offensive. I was perversely impressed by how much this didn't taste like tobacco. Whatever tobacco is there has been hidden very, very well. Don't worry, though. It's as forgettable as it is inoffensive. The only thing that might help you remember it after you smoke it is the syrupy smelling ghost that will linger for a week or so in the bowl of every pipe you smoked it in.

Go ahead. Smoke it if you think you want to feel like a kid for a while, but there's a reason you can't go home again.

Cherry explosion! From the char light to the last sip there is cherry flavor. Chocolate is muted until toward the end of the bowl where it slowly creeps up on you. Other than the cherry / chocolate, I got nothing, no tobacco flavors.

It is a good tobacco very smooth and Mild with a hint of cherry which is a natural Cherry not an artificial cherry flavor. The black Cavendish shows up with just a little bit of earthy Virginian. I would wish that the Cherry was a little stronger in flavor in my mouth however when you smell the smoke with your nose you can detect the Cherry.

I gave it is a low star rating because I wished the Cherry was stronger and more pronounced in my mouth. If left me wanting more and not in a good way. It left me wanting more cherry for those of you that like the taste of tobacco more so than an aromatic Cherry this is a good smoke that being said I would prefer the cherry flavor to be the hero of this and it was not the black Cavendish was the hero that stood out.

I might be in the minority on this site when it comes to my tastes, but I am an aromatic smoker and I prefer and enjoy the taste of a flavored tobacco when you can truly detect the flavoring of the tobacco.

Let me begin by saying the idea of cherry flavoring horrifies me, as the flavor takes me back to when I was a kid and my mom mixed my medicine with Kool-Aid to cover the taste. The result was a distaste of all fruit flavored candy as an adult. Since cherry is a common pipe aromatic, I figured I better try at it at least once.

Upon opening the tin, I could actually see the flavor vapors rising up. The cherry sledge hammer was so strong, I just assumed I bit into a nasty fruit filled chocolate from a candy box. It is no stretch of the truth when I tell you this was the strongest topping I have yet encountered on an aromatic.

The cut is very thin, moist, and spongy. It burns quickly and lights up worry free. As expected the cherry flavor lasts the whole way through, though an added caramel sweetness develops to dial back the fruit flavor when smoked. It is strong, but not artificial candy strong. While still not my thing, I was a bit surprised I didn't hate it. Unlike the flavor, the nicotine is very light. Also, it has an amazing room note I'm told.

** Use a non-sentimental pipe with this stuff, as it will surely ghost the pipe.

This was a very aromatic blend, the cherry was kind of "candyish", and it seemed to burn pretty good. The taste was somewhat mild, and the room note was outstanding. This is something that I would probably purchase again, but not something I would want to smoke daily.

The tin note is overwhelmingly powerful and quite interesting: sweet cherry cough drops or hard candy. The room note is wonderful and will be a crowd-pleaser for sure. The smoke is very gentle and mild, and won't bite harshly like some other aromatics. Unfortunately, I don't get a great deal of flavor or pleasure from smoking it--this is one of those tins of tobacco I'm having to force myself to finish. It's just kind of "meh" for me, and I find myself passing it over for almost anything else in my current stock. I think this is worth trying for sure, and if you need something with a pleasant room note when company is over it might be okay to have around. But I don't see myself buying another tin.

Having heard so much good word of mouth about this blend I tried a tin. I really want to like a cherry aromatic and Tinder Box's Anniversary has been the best I've tried thus far. Blood Red Moon was very tasty for the first 1/4 of the bowl, I actually tasted a little bit of tobacco flavor and I tasted the cherry topping. Then...I didn't; the cherry just disappeared and I was left with some very decent tobacco, but not one I will revisit. I tried to smoke this in several different meers, both large and small but the flavor pulled its vanishing act at about 1/4 of the way down no matter what. In conclusion, it's a very decent base tobacco, but once again, the topping just doesn't stick around.

I will admit that I'm very leary of aromatics. Most in my opinion have the " I just licked a car battery post" taste and don't really live up to the hype. A lesson learned quickly in my 10 years of pipe smoking. But once again a blend pops up that gets a lot of buzz, and once again I find myself hoping to find an aromatic that stands apart. So when I bought a tin in Dec 2014 it was my intent to let it sit(six months) and age. To my surprise Cult is very very smooth and doesn't have a "heavy taste" associated with most aros. Burns cool and no swamp mouth the next morning are a plus. It's a mild social smoke with a wonderful room note, plain and simple. Good, but not great. I'll keep looking.