Peter Stokkebye French Vanilla (No.9-F)

Peter Stokkebye - French Vanilla.

Even though the blend looks like a bag of twigs it's all smokeable! The moisture's very good and the aroma from the pouch is aromatic but not necessarily vanilla. Before I continue further I'll point out that I'm a bit of a sucker for a vanilla aromatic, and this hits the spot!

Mechanically this works well: lighting easily, burning cool, and issuing no bite. The vanilla can be easily identified in the smoke, but isn't anywhere near as strong as the description implies; I'd expected to get some gloop, but I only get flavour. As well as the vanilla there's a slight sweetness too, but it seems crisp not sticky. From the Cavendish I get a nutty sweetness, but nothing too noticeable.

The room-note's lovely and the nicotine's mild.

This is a very nice vanilla aromatic, not quite as good as my favourite: Mac B' Vanilla Cream Flake, but still worth highly recommending:

Four stars.

Wow this stuff is amazing. So full of flavors that capsure you from the first puff. It has a real flake texture to it that is slightly broken up. You have to rub it out first to smoke it. I like to roll the smoke through my nose to get all the flavor for it. I do this for all my smokes. It is mesmerizing. I very highly recommend this tobacco for anyone.

I bought some of this at a B&M in San Francisco while on vacation and really enjoyed smoking it. It had a nice balance of genuine tobacco tastes and smells coupled with just the right amount of vanilla flavoring.

When I got home I ordered some in bulk, looking forward to the same enjoyable experience. The bulk delivery I received isn't as good. The vanilla is much less obvious, and the tobacco doesn't smoke so easily. Whether I got a bad batch, or whether this is poor quality control by Stokkebye or the supplier I don't know. What I do know is that it isn't the same enjoyable and satisfying smoke that I remembered, and I won't be ordering any more.

So - if you are able to get a good batch, this is a great everyday smoke with genuine tobacco tastes and a hint of a pleasant vanilla flavoring. However you might be unlucky and get a bad batch in which case the smoking experience isn't so good.

Peter Stokkebye - PS-9F French Vanilla

Star Rating = 3

Rating Scores - 10 is the Best and 0 is the Worst

Pouch Note = 8

Room Note = 8

Flavor = 7

Bite = 7

Burn = 8

After Taste = 8

Raw Score = 46

Rated Percentage = 77%

Comment = Smooth, a bit of a Bite, no vanilla Flavor, PS-6 is a much better vanilla blend.

PS French Van… Sold as a bulk tobacco, in the form of a mostly rubbed out flake. Its aroma is a very pleasant vanilla, though somewhat strong. I also found it to be a bit fire retardant, so some drying time and a firm tamp was used, which helped, but still needed several relights. The pipe used for this review was a bent briar, a favorite for smoking aromatic blends. From what I can gather, from 6 or 7 bowls I had of this concoction, the tobacco taste came through nicely, whereas all that tin aroma shows up only faintly, as well it should. As for the tobacco's flavor profile, it seems not too different from, good old Velvet, (OTC) only not as smooth or tasty. Overall a bit crude, at least from this OTC smoker's point of view. Very reminisce of some of my past homebrew effords. I don't mean to sound harsh, but that is my experience, and I realize your mileage could vary considerably, but that's OK, If we all agreed on such things, there would be no need for this site, then what would you read? Bottom line, what's left of the original 4 ounces I purchased, will probably get fairly old before it's used up. For what it is. Somewhat recommended, 2 stars.

This was the first tobacco I ever tried and was not really impressed and was disillusioned at first with pipe smoking. I gave it a few shots and it became better.Not great...not good, but ok. It was flat and tasted like ash flavored vanilla. It is only for room note when it is important.

Another vanilla I would recommend only over drug store vanillas. it is a fairly decent aromatic of reasonable price.

Like other reviewers have noted, not the best of the Stokkebye line. This looks fantastic in the pouch- a mix of broken flake and yellowish ribbon. I also thought the pouch aroma was wonderful and definately vanilla. Same goes for the room aroma.

But, it bites like crazy. I mean just awful. 2 puffs and you're feeling it already. No matter what size bowl or what you do with the rubbing out, etc. it never changes. The bowl will get super hot in a heartbeat, also. I'd be interested in trying the toned down version of this blend, but then again, I won't go out of my way looking for it either.