Peterson Connemara Black

A friend of mine had the kindness to donate me a bowl of this blend.when you break the seal a stong smell of cherry and nuts comes out.the moisture level is proper,packs ok,lights with a little effort and several relights are needed.while burning the chery topping dominates the flavours.though strong the topping disappears after the half bowl.i also detected nuts and very rare some citruses.the virginia flavours are really subtlimated by the topping.tongue bite is present even if you go slow.burns fast and hot creating lots of moisture and dumbness in the bowl.the nicotine level is low.the room note is almost pleasing because the smell is very strong .in conclusion this low nicotine and very strong aroma blend can be smoked all day but not from me!!!

Peterson - Connemara Black.

Okay, at first I disagreed with my fellow reviewers, I felt this was a good cherry aromatic; that lasted all but a minute!

I'll highlight firstly that this is a very false tasting blend. The cherry flavouring has been added in a stupidly large quantity. If you like something gloopy in your pipe you've found the blend for you right here! As well as this cherry addition I can identify a sort of vanilla cream touch, that probably comes from the Black Cavendish though as it's not that strong as to suggest that alongside the cherry another topping has been used.

As well as me finding the cherry stupid, my point of view on the heat is the same. It burns horribly hot. This makes the pipe uncomfortable to hold and the smoke's a menace on the tongue.

Nicotine? From my point of view it's no more than mild. Although you may find, like my fellow reviewers, that your opinion differs to mine.

The only good point is the room note. It has a great cherry quality that lasts a little longer than the smokes duration. Is that enough of a redemption though?...No, I'll summarise with one word: AVOID.

Not rated.

A disclaimer in advance. I am primarily a smoker of English mixtures though I occasionally dabble in aromatics and vapers depending on my mood and company. I was pleasantly surprised not to experience the tongue bite other reviewers have mentioned but then I tend to sip aromatics rather slowly. This is clearly an advantage over certain other aromatics such as McBaren Cherry Choice. The cherry flavouring was mild, in comparison to Captain Black Cherry. The sweetness of the Virginias was definitely present but it lacked that freshly mown hay quality and was somewhat bland. The nicotine hit was mild, hardly noticeable. At first the room note was pleasant but quickly turned to the odour of stale cigarettes and left a similar aftertaste in my mouth. I dislike cigarettes. If I wished for cigarettes, I would smoke them instead. Having said that, this is not a bad tobacco, it is merely not a good one and, unlike other tobaccos by Peterson, will definitely not be added to my regular rotation of aromatics. I would not recommend it as there are definitely better aromatics on the market but it would probably be o.k. for someone transitioning from cigarettes to pipe tobacco.

I am relatively new to pipe smoking (two years) -- and it's hard for me to find a tobacco that I really do not like, but . . .

How could Peterson ever let this stuff go to market?

I started out as (I presume many new pipe smokers did) choofing on aromatics. I noticed that there were a lot of cherry blends on the market -- many that were smoked by what I believed to be seasoned smokers -- so I thought I couldn't go wrong with Connemara Black. Boy, was I wrong.

There are a half-dozen Peterson pipes in my rotation, as well as several of their tobaccos (Connoisseur's Choice, Special Reserve, Irish Flake). This cherry spasm is just terrible stuff. No real character, nothing to "wow" me or write home about -- something I would never fill a second bowl with.

I read the description: "Soft, superb black Cavendish is blended with mature, ripe Virginias and accented with a singularly sweet and zesty cherry note. Cool enough to enjoy all day, Connemara Black has an outstanding room note that everyone will love." I found none of that to be true.

I hate to hate on tobacco from reputable suppliers, but, this one just flops.

I agree with the other reviews, wasn't impressed. This was a disappointment from Peterson, but I didn't want to just throw it out. What I did to save it as a smoke able tobacco. I mixed it with some bulk black cavendish, and it mellowed out and is now pretty decent, not amazing but a decent smoke. Peterson adjust this and you could have an excellent cherry tobacco.

Three strikes… I have never tried a Peterson tobacco, and this one intrigued me. It is hard to find a good cherry that doesn't bite and I guess I will keep looking. Upon lighting this up for the first time, I got the taste of cherry lifesaver, not something I was looking for in a tobacco. Sadly, that was the high point of the smoking experience. In five minutes, any trace of cherry was gone and the tobacco became bitter and started biting. I gave it three shots in three different pipes, and got the same result. Into the trash...

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.)

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.