Country – Denmark
Curing – Air Cured
Contents – Burley,Cavendish, Virginia, Turkish
Flavour – Vanilla
Cut – Ribbon
50 Gram Tin – $6.15
Type – Aromatic
Strength – mild
Flavour – mild
Taste – mild-medium
A subtle mix of Danish Cavendish, Burley, and Virginias enriched with mature Samsun from Turkey. Vanilla flavours create the soft sweeteness and fruity character of the blend.
This tobacco is for lovers of aromatic blends and in particular with this blend, Vanilla.
There is no stortage of vanilla taste in this blend. To me, it’s a cased tobacco. Casing requires that the tobacco be soaked, literally, in a “sauce” that may contain sugar, molasses, liquorice, alcohols like rum or whiskey, and various flavourings, natural or otherwise, depending on the manufacturer. The vanilla taste in this tobacco is quite sweet.
All aromatics smell quite yummy to me when the tin is cracked and the vacuum seal is released. Half of them, you want to eat!
My nose was greeted with sweetness and a distict smell of Vanilla from this Stanwell tin. the tobacco is pretty moist and I recommend letting it air dry foar a good hour before loading your pipe. What I normally do with aromatics when drying out my pipe tobacco is check it every 20 minutes or so. I let it dry until the moisture content goes away and it doesn’t feel sticky anymore.
I loaded up my Peterson 307 Standard System pipe for this review.
As soon as you charr this tobacco you are greeted immediately with a sweet vanilla flavour. I settled in for my smoke. During my sitting, I could taste a tangy frutiy characteristic. The virginia leaf is the cause of this flavour and I was glad to taste it, rather than just pure vanilla. I found the harder you pushed the tobacco through puffing, the more the virginia taste would pop through the mix. If you sip this blend gently, the vanilla taste becomes dominate. I would push it a bit, sip it a bit and go back and forth with it. There was no goopiness to be found in my pipe like alot of other aromatics like to leave behind. I smoked it to the end and all that remained was some ash and a little dottle.
My Thoughts:
I like aromatics very much in general. Some I like more than others and some although tastey, burn my gum linings, so I tend not to smoke them very much no matter how good they taste. I have seldom if ever been disappointed on any tin I have opened. They all smell so good! Some I can hardly wait to fill my pipe and start puffin’. This tin was no different. The vanilla aroma that comes from this tin is quite inticing. However, once I got into this tin for a good half dozen pipe loads, I began to tire of this blend. I like Vanilla, but I can’t say I love it. For others, this can be the exact opposite. It’s a mixed bag for me.
This is a dessert smoke and will satisfy your sweet tooth as it were. This is a good smoke to enjoy in the evening. It’s a good nightcap to have after a good meal. This tobacco needs to be sipped to be truely enjoyed. push it too hard ,too fast and it will deliver you some tounge bite. The vanilla flavour never leaves the pipe from the first charr to the dottle and the bottom of your pipe.
When I ordered in this Stanwell blend, I also ordered in a tin of Stanwell Melange. Melange is just a fancy word meaning “mixture”. This melange blend consisted of a mixture of Black Cavendish, toasted Burley, Orientals and Bright Virginia along with some Apricot. Since this review, I decided to blend both of these tobaccos into one. The reason for that was I liked each blend by themselves 50/50. This is not a go to smoke for me, nor is it one of my favorites. I prefer a more subtle aromatic tobacco which is lightly cased. The Vanilla in this blend is a bit too more over the top for my liking. I am ok with the sweet flavours and tastes offered from each blend, but I didn’t like either enough to smoke separately. So I mixed them. Vanilla still dominates this new blend I have conjured up. As a combination, I like it better than I did separately.
I don’t think I will ever buy a Stanwell blend again personally, but it’s not to say this is a bad smoke. If you like Vanilla and if you like your tobacco sweet, this is the blend for you. I still smoke my Stanwell blend from time to time when I am in the mood for a dessert tobacco in the evening after a good meal. And I do enjoy the tastes it offers very much.
Tim's Humidor and Pipe 