After enjoying some fine buffalo wings as a favored restaurant the other day, I stopped by a B&M to browse their pipe tobacco selection (the place was the Bethesda, MD branch of W. Curtis Draper). They had a small selection of Sutliff Private Stock tobaccos, including one I've wanted to try, Bacchanalia. My interest stemmed from the tobacco's tantalizing description:
-Tin Note-
This tobacco is an aromatic and whew! It smelled very strongly of candied cherries and chocolate. It about hit me in the face when I took the first whiff, to the point that I expected the tobacco to be obscuring a layer of Bon-Bons underneath. The cherry smell is very sweet, almost cloying and the chocolate smells like it was shaved right off a candy bar. Yes, its tobacco that smells like choclate-cherry candy.
-Tastes & Smells-
I've only had about three bowls of Bacchanalia so far, but let me tell you - it does not taste as over the top as it smells. It has two main tastes, grapes - like a fresh red grape pulled right from the bunch, not grape juicy at all - and Cocoa - freshly ground cocoa, without sugar, more savory and roasted. Cherry is absent once this tobacco is lit, and the flavors are not at all like the tin-note. Instead, they are well balanced and lack any hit of cloying sweetness. As the bowl smokes down, the sweetness that is there disappears and some deeper, toaster flavors of chocolate come out. I want to say that the Burley and the Va tend to find a nice symmetry late in the bowl.
Bacchanalia burns to a fine white ash, and I've found, that you need to dump it about half way through or it begins to muddy the flavors and leave an ashy taste.
It smells much as it tastes to the smoker (well the two are irrevocably interrelated) and leaves a subtle imprint on clothing. In fact, the shirt I was wearing doesn't smell as if I smoked tobacco at all. The room note got a passing vote from my wife, who described it as "sweet, but not overpowering, with a background note of burning fruit wood."
-Parting Thoughts-
I've rather enjoyed my first few bowls and look forward to seeing how it lasts through the tin. I don't know if I would call this anything other than a nice change of pace smoke at the moment, but was certainly perfect for the cool spring day we had. And, its certainly different than any other tobacco I've ever experienced. It might become a nice "dessert" smoke for me.
So, seeing that the place had two tins in stock, I purchased one (along with some Dunhill DLNR).
-Tin Note-
This tobacco is an aromatic and whew! It smelled very strongly of candied cherries and chocolate. It about hit me in the face when I took the first whiff, to the point that I expected the tobacco to be obscuring a layer of Bon-Bons underneath. The cherry smell is very sweet, almost cloying and the chocolate smells like it was shaved right off a candy bar. Yes, its tobacco that smells like choclate-cherry candy.
-Tastes & Smells-
I've only had about three bowls of Bacchanalia so far, but let me tell you - it does not taste as over the top as it smells. It has two main tastes, grapes - like a fresh red grape pulled right from the bunch, not grape juicy at all - and Cocoa - freshly ground cocoa, without sugar, more savory and roasted. Cherry is absent once this tobacco is lit, and the flavors are not at all like the tin-note. Instead, they are well balanced and lack any hit of cloying sweetness. As the bowl smokes down, the sweetness that is there disappears and some deeper, toaster flavors of chocolate come out. I want to say that the Burley and the Va tend to find a nice symmetry late in the bowl.
Bacchanalia burns to a fine white ash, and I've found, that you need to dump it about half way through or it begins to muddy the flavors and leave an ashy taste.
It smells much as it tastes to the smoker (well the two are irrevocably interrelated) and leaves a subtle imprint on clothing. In fact, the shirt I was wearing doesn't smell as if I smoked tobacco at all. The room note got a passing vote from my wife, who described it as "sweet, but not overpowering, with a background note of burning fruit wood."
-Parting Thoughts-
I've rather enjoyed my first few bowls and look forward to seeing how it lasts through the tin. I don't know if I would call this anything other than a nice change of pace smoke at the moment, but was certainly perfect for the cool spring day we had. And, its certainly different than any other tobacco I've ever experienced. It might become a nice "dessert" smoke for me.
