Peterson Connemara Black

Peterson tobacco has never been one of my favorites, and Connemara Black is the clearest example of why. I will not write long. Everything that can be felt in it is artificial. Tin note resembles the cheapest chocolate box full of cherries in liqueur. Extremely intense, but unpleasant. The humidity is relatively high and the tobacco is almost sticky with the syrup. The taste ... kind of feel slightly Virginia, but it dominates and covers everything, the cherry liqueur known from tin note, which stays on throughout smoking. Leaves sticky mud in the bowl.

I definitely do not recommend it. And although good cherries are generally hard to come by, it is better to buy anything from MacBaren for this price.

Well, something possessed me to get a pouch of this - it was kind of beckoning to me every time I visited the tobacconist's and I thought what the hell, let's give it a try. Borkum Riff Ruby wasn't that bad and this is a Peterson's so hopefully a little bit better, though both are now STG brands (I was even suspecting they might actually be one and the same in a different pouch, but this turned out not to be so.)

Generally the two brands are so similar that I could almost repeat my review for BRR, but there is a marked difference too; where BRR still has some underlying substance in it - I guess this comes from the kentuckys and burleys - this, being tobacco-wise a simpler and milder blend, ends up tasting even more fake than BRR. Where BRR retains at least some resemblance of real cherry flavour, this is more like a cheap basic tobacco mix being liberally doused with cheap strong cherry liquor made with artificial flavourings.

I was tempted to give this a 2 as well because the difference while marked is not really that great, but in the end decided against it. Let's say that where BRR just makes the 2-star mark, this just fails to make it. In practice that means that for cherry lovers I recommend BRR and to stay away from this, unless you somehow find BRR being too strong for your taste and wish for an even milder alternative.

(There was little over a year between the two pouches so if the cherry urge hits me again this time next year, I'll go for BRR.)

Well, nothing original here... just another cherry aromatic that smells and tastes cherrylike. I could kind of enjoy the smoke and it behaved fine mechanically. Pricewise a cheap blend, but with swedish taxes it's kind of a moot point.

Two stars for not being bad.

Not so bad 🙂 But not terribly exciting either. I believe I've had better cherry mixtures, but this one will do. I'd been smoking English mixtures for a long time and I really wanted something aromatic, and, plus, I hadn't had cherry flavored tobacco in years. The first impression was that of a strong and rather artificial smell (but, remember, I'd been smoking Dunhill and Samuel Gawith mixtures for weeks). The pipe (a Peterson Bulldog with rather thick walls) got a little too hot in the process. But I felt absolutely no tongue bite and generally it was a good, pleasant smoke. The second fill tasted better than the first one. I'm looking forward to the next session.

Did I enjoy this tobacco? Yes. Would I buy it again? Probably not, if I had better cherry options. But if I don't, I might as well. It's satisfactory.

I've been reading tobaccoreviews for years, and I consult it regularly before I shop for pipe tobacco, but this is my first review, so don't judge it too harshly 😉

This blend has a very nice cherry flavor, at first, but is gone quick. It also burns hot. The upside? My teenage daughter liked the smell. Not enough reasons to smoke this. I'll stick with TX-6 for cherry.

Package note of sugar, cherries and sweet vegetation. Tobacco is a ribbon cut of brown, black and light brown. Moisture content is great. Burns moderately with few relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of Cherry. Cherry flavoring didn't last that long, dropped to the background during the first 1/4, where it remained. Taste is medium to full and moderately consistent, with notes of cherry, sugar, marshmallow, almost creamy, zesty spices, tangy dark fruit, hay, sweet bread, acidic, tart, mildly savory, spicy, citrus, wood, a semi-sweet vegetation background note, and a mostly smooth retro. Virginia is leading with flavoring and Cavendish supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is good.

The appearance of the tobacco is a mixture of light yellowish-brown Virginia and darker Cavendish, sliced quite finely and evenly. The blend is well mixed, but the individual varieties are easily distinguishable. That said, you can tell from the color of the tobaccos that at least two varieties of Virginia were used. The humidity from the pack is moderate, quite enough to smoke immediately. But of course, I do not recommend keeping tobacco in the pack, it dries out very quickly.

Flavor. Imagine having a big jar of cherry compote smashed on your head. You can sense the scent of cherries everywhere, moreover - you can't feel anything but cherries. At the same time, the scent is so bright that there is no doubt of its artificial origin. To be honest, smoking the last couple of years of Cornell & Diehl quality flavor blends and old Peterson limited editions, which have been sitting on the shelf for a while, I forgot that European aromatics can sometimes be so killer smelling. However, it is claimed that this is not a fatal case - Danish producers can produce something worse. If you let the tobacco rest for half an hour, the cherry storm passes somewhat, and you can catch a faint herbal smell of Virginia. But in half an hour, the tobacco has time to dry out quite a bit. So, after experimenting with the flavor, I stuffed the pipe with fresh tobacco and smoked it, and sent the rest back into the jar to rehydrate.

It would have been surprising if I hadn't tasted cherry in the tobacco. Of course, there was an abundance of it. But much more surprising was the fact that behind its abundance I could clearly feel the bread note of Virginia with a slight herbal and citrus flavor. The tobacco is a little harsh on the taste, a little tingling on the tongue, smokes hot and at times threatens to overheat the pipe. In the middle of the pipe the blend becomes a little softer, but nevertheless the heat does not go anywhere. This tobacco should be smoked with very light puffs, in which case both flavor and burning temperature will be acceptable. In the taste of the second half of the pipe you get a kind of flavor that is similar to anise, which makes the overall taste similar to fruit cough candy. The strength of the tobacco is close to minimum, so there is no nicotine hit to speak of. The tobacco leaves a distinct aftertaste in the mouth with a cherry-walnut note. The ash is fine, medium gray in color, and there is a minimum of moisture.

The smoke from the tobacco smells like... that's right, cherries! It is quite intrusive, but easily dispersed. Does it smell nice? Well, that's for everyone to decide, I will refrain from judging.

Bottom line: a fairly tough "European" aromatic with minimal strength. On the plus side we can include the price and the fact that the tobacco has a tobacco flavor, despite all the efforts of blenders. To top it all off, the pipe takes a long time to cool down after it and leaves a cherry flavor in it for at least a few days. If you are going to smoke it on a regular basis, the best thing to do would be to allocate a separate pipe for this blend. I will probably refrain from buying this tobacco for my collection, even though it is rumored that the new owner of the blend intends to stop producing it.

Very nice change of pace regarding a cherry tobacco. Cherry is barely there but enough to enjoy. Take it slow and sip slow. Great for mowing lawn or busy doing something as it’s one flavour all through

Nice scent from bag and good draw after packing it and before getting it lit. Yes, I do practice this technique on every tobacco I pack in search for initial taste. The first third burned easy and I detected the cherry. On the second third it burned a little hot, but that lasted about seven minutes after I set a slower smoking pace and that solved the issue. There were no gurgles and and flavor is not overwhelming. Neither I got tongue bite nor detected the ash taste. I will continue smoking this tobacco with other pipes.