Peterson Aran

This blend was gifted to me by my friend Haris.once you break the seal a floral vanilla aroma comes out wich doesn't smell so natural.the blend moisture is ok.packs and lights ok.a few relights are needed.while smoking the flavours differ from the aroma.the vanilla flavour is tonned down and the floral flavour is more obvious.the flavours do not combine well each other and the tobacco flavours are really in the backround.i got some nut flavours and rarelly some citruses and dark fruits.the nicotine level is low .burns fast and hot.tongue bite is rare but present.the room note is not pleasant ,smells like chemical room aromatics.leaves a lot moisture and dumbness at the end of the bowl.can be an all day blend.if you like floral essenses i advise you to try S. HOLMES by peterson.not recommended.

I can’t understand why anyone would rate this tobacco as any good. It’s flat tasteless and bites from the first puff. All I get is a sweetness from the Virginia nothing else. I’ll keep this for blending as it’s a totally unsatisfactory smoke on its own. Shame on you Peterson

I don't historically associate pouches with quality, though there have been a few exceptions (Amphora for one), so finding a Peterson one had me intrigued with what was-to-be.

The advertised Floral/Vanilla topping was what drew me in, the bag opening however, lead my nose astray. There was a tangy Floral note complimenting the Virginia, but the Cavendish and Vanilla were swallowed up. Ultimately it reminded me more of a funky Virginia with a light topping splash, than the Aromatic I had come for. The roughly cut ribbons were nicely chunky without excess moisture, and made packing a pleasure.

The product burned well, but I wasn't sold on the taste. It was sharp, somewhat chemical leaning, and without any flavor I was yearning (certainly not any marque Vanilla).

My guess is their intent was to craft a subtle Aromatic, but the execution was off and felt cheap.

Classic light vanilla Black Cavendish aromatic. Similar to 100 others like it. I bought this for my dad (who smokes aromatics) on a whim. I don't smoke aromatics often, but on that one day a year I do, its usally a vanilla or custard. It was ok. Pretty standard stuff. As a guy who loves latakia, I am the inverse room-note reviewer. I get sick at the smell of stuff like C&D's Autumn Evening (which is straight maple) or even worse... cherry. But vanilla I find very pleasant, and this at least has that going for it.

The pouch was labeled "May 2021," so I got my hands on some pretty fresh tobacco. Appearance: a mixture of fairly neat ribbon-cut light Virginia (I discerned lemon and orange), a little of red virginia, plus some dark cavendish. The moisture content of the blend in the sachet is perfect, which is not surprising given its freshness.

Flavor: A rather bright vanilla note mixed with a note reminiscent of rum-soaked prunes. If you sniff the mixture a little longer, in the background there is a slight flavor of hay, but the feeling is that the manufacturer has done everything so that the natural tobacco notes in the flavor disappeared.

Taste: initially harsh, can bite your tongue when provoked. This is more than likely, as the strength of the tobacco is almost minimal. Nevertheless, if you smoke it slowly, it smokes quite cool and quite dry. As for the taste, the vanilla not only overpowers the herbal and bread notes of Virginia, but also overpowers the flavored Cavendish, the wine-plum notes of which only play to support the flavor, making it even more pronounced. As I smoked, the tobacco became a bit softer, and the vanilla weathered a little - but just a little. Its flavor remained fairly persistent until the very end, and the pipe after tobacco left in the air smelled like vanilla for several days. The tobacco burned into a fairly nearly white ash with significant flecks of dark gray, indicating the heterogeneity of the blend.

A sweetish, almost weightless, vanilla smoke with a slight hint of smoldering grass is all that is left of the tobacco in the room. Unlike the smell in the pipe, it dissipates easily.

What's the bottom line? "A classic light vanilla flavor from Virginia with dark cavendish" - it's hard to add anything to this definition, but I can say that in terms of softness, lightness and balance of flavor towards vanilla, the blend loses to the same Mac Baren Vanilla Flake. However, taking into account the fact that it is half the price, Peterson Aran plays in a completely different league, although even here it has enough competitors from the budget series of the same Scandinavian Tobacco Group - Borkum Riff and Alsbo, and from Mac Baren side the 7 Seas and Amphora are pushing. And one more question that occurred to me: why did I have to work so hard on this mix mixing several nice Virginia varieties with Cavendish to later pour a lot of flavoring on it? A couple of varieties of Virginia, chopped up with a knife would have been enough. Some people do that...

I guess it was only a matter of time before I was truly let down by a Peterson Aromatic. With Aran, that time has arrived. I found this blend to be too light for my tastes. And by light I mean light on all fronts: body, nicotine and even the topping is too light.

I would say it is this lightness that leads to the severe biting that some reviewers experienced with this. Blends this light tend to cause me to overpuff when I am not paying much attention to my cadence, and this will certainly tear the tongue up if this goes on too long.

I usually love Peterson aros, but all the others I have tried have a decent amount of burley and perhaps stronger virginias as a base for the topping. These stronger leaves help temper my cadence by giving me a fuller smoke. It is against that kind of backdrop that a lightly applied topping really shines. Aran, by contrast, consists of a light Virginia paired with a cavendish (likely made from a light Virginia) that has had the life sucked out of it, what's left is a nearly insipid base. the light topping just leaves it flat and boring to my tastes.

With the other Peterson aros I have tried I have liked them even if the particular toppings were not to my liking. Aran is advertised as a vanilla/floral type topping. You can definitely tell there is vanilla in it, but the floral topping (which is far from overpowering) kind of takes Vanilla in a direction that it should not go IMO. Fortunately, it is so lightly applied you barely notice the topping at all. lol

I can't imagine that someone who enjoys a lighter virginia or aromatic could actually prefer this to the many other offerings out there that could scratch that itch. To me, this is a failure. I would never recommend this blend.