I bought a tin of C&Ds Bourbon Bleu about a month ago, and it arrived 3 days ago. It's one of the few C&D blends available to me from the Mohawk Reserve store in Ontario, and they can ship to BC. Yes, I still have to pay $50 bucks a tin, but that's half of what I can get it for in Vancouver, and the US is out now unless I want to pay Vancouver prices once the duty is levered, it is what it is. So I bought a tin on my last order. I've also not seen Bourbon Bleu mentioned in the forum so far. Not that it hasn't been, but I haven't seen it.
I tried a variety of pipes with BB, and was unhappy with one thing - it is the fastest burning tobacco I've experienced. I was getting about 2/3 the length in smoking time in every pipe I tried with this blend.
That was the only downside. For me, it's a keeper and I'll buy the occasional tin for sure. I'll tell you what I like about it.
It's very similar to Mad Fiddler in overview. There is the initial, and fairly heavy, perique blast that dominates for the first 10-15% of the smoking time, then it diminishes as the Virginas come to the fore, mixing pleasantly with the Bourbon cure. And then there is a decrescendo as the taste get's fainter to the dottle stage, which is heavy but not unpleasant in this tobacco. I will note, though, that if you are a fan of "mild" tobaccos, this will probably not be your cup of tea.
Mad Fiddler proceeds in the same manner, but the diminishing perique, which is stronger in MF, decrescendos into an indescribable subtle sweetness, a product of the Kasturi leaf, which gives MF an oriental quality that BB doesn't have. The Kasturi leaf dominates at about the 1/3 point in the smoke, but the perique remains, but very subtly. The smoke then does the decrescendo to the dottle stage, which I find in MF to be not unpleasant at all.
The overall personality of BB is brighter and more lively than MF, which has a more ominous (not exactly the right word, but is as close as I can come to as I write this - it'll do) overtone. MF also burns quite a bit longer, more "normal" in this regard. I'll also say that if you are a fan of milder tobaccos, Mad Fiddler will be even less appealling to you than BB. I find it interesting how the folks at C&D come up with almost the perfect names for their blends.
After coming to the conclusions of my overview of the tobacco, I needed to find a pipe to smoke it in that would negate Bourbon Blue's race to the white ash stage. I tried every pipe that I thought might work, and the two longest smokes I got by far (with a measured amount of tobacco) were with the two pictured pipes. The McQueen Barrel Rider has a tiny capacity but a lot of wood (it's a briar pipe), both above and below the central draft hole. Even plugging this with a small meer chip, this pipe gave me 23 minutes of smoking time, in comparison with 2 other McQ miniatures with the same capacity that gave me about 12. That's a big difference. I'm pretty sure that the massive amount of wood on this pipe in comparison with it's tiny bowl content, distributes the core temperature over much more wood area.
The other pipe is also a McQueen, with a small bowl capacity, about 30% bigger than the Barrel Rider. They call this one "The Peasant" and it is made of Cherry wood. It burns about the same temperature as briar, but due to it's long curved stem, smokes in an almost vertical position, which means that the heat doesn't travel straight down to the draft hole vertically, but horizontally. This seems to distribute the heat well throughout the wood of the bowl. This pipe doesn't develop hot spots like most other pipes I have. It is, however, a pain to light.
With only a bit more tobacco than the Barrel Rider, I got a full 35 minute smoke. There are some times when that duration is exactly what I want. Again, all other pipes I tried used much more fodder for the same amount of time. So up to this point, when I smoke Bourbon Bleu, I'll reach for one of these two smokers.
So in conclusion to my scattered "review" of Bourbon Bleu, for me it's a keeper and I'll always have a tin on hand. Oh yes . . . I used about 1/4 of the tin for trials. With our bizarre tobacco situation and taxation above the 49th Parallel, I've learned how to economize effectively. No addition of dried parsley yet!
Thanks for stopping in and checking my thoughts out.
I tried a variety of pipes with BB, and was unhappy with one thing - it is the fastest burning tobacco I've experienced. I was getting about 2/3 the length in smoking time in every pipe I tried with this blend.
That was the only downside. For me, it's a keeper and I'll buy the occasional tin for sure. I'll tell you what I like about it.
It's very similar to Mad Fiddler in overview. There is the initial, and fairly heavy, perique blast that dominates for the first 10-15% of the smoking time, then it diminishes as the Virginas come to the fore, mixing pleasantly with the Bourbon cure. And then there is a decrescendo as the taste get's fainter to the dottle stage, which is heavy but not unpleasant in this tobacco. I will note, though, that if you are a fan of "mild" tobaccos, this will probably not be your cup of tea.
Mad Fiddler proceeds in the same manner, but the diminishing perique, which is stronger in MF, decrescendos into an indescribable subtle sweetness, a product of the Kasturi leaf, which gives MF an oriental quality that BB doesn't have. The Kasturi leaf dominates at about the 1/3 point in the smoke, but the perique remains, but very subtly. The smoke then does the decrescendo to the dottle stage, which I find in MF to be not unpleasant at all.
The overall personality of BB is brighter and more lively than MF, which has a more ominous (not exactly the right word, but is as close as I can come to as I write this - it'll do) overtone. MF also burns quite a bit longer, more "normal" in this regard. I'll also say that if you are a fan of milder tobaccos, Mad Fiddler will be even less appealling to you than BB. I find it interesting how the folks at C&D come up with almost the perfect names for their blends.
After coming to the conclusions of my overview of the tobacco, I needed to find a pipe to smoke it in that would negate Bourbon Blue's race to the white ash stage. I tried every pipe that I thought might work, and the two longest smokes I got by far (with a measured amount of tobacco) were with the two pictured pipes. The McQueen Barrel Rider has a tiny capacity but a lot of wood (it's a briar pipe), both above and below the central draft hole. Even plugging this with a small meer chip, this pipe gave me 23 minutes of smoking time, in comparison with 2 other McQ miniatures with the same capacity that gave me about 12. That's a big difference. I'm pretty sure that the massive amount of wood on this pipe in comparison with it's tiny bowl content, distributes the core temperature over much more wood area.
The other pipe is also a McQueen, with a small bowl capacity, about 30% bigger than the Barrel Rider. They call this one "The Peasant" and it is made of Cherry wood. It burns about the same temperature as briar, but due to it's long curved stem, smokes in an almost vertical position, which means that the heat doesn't travel straight down to the draft hole vertically, but horizontally. This seems to distribute the heat well throughout the wood of the bowl. This pipe doesn't develop hot spots like most other pipes I have. It is, however, a pain to light.
With only a bit more tobacco than the Barrel Rider, I got a full 35 minute smoke. There are some times when that duration is exactly what I want. Again, all other pipes I tried used much more fodder for the same amount of time. So up to this point, when I smoke Bourbon Bleu, I'll reach for one of these two smokers.
So in conclusion to my scattered "review" of Bourbon Bleu, for me it's a keeper and I'll always have a tin on hand. Oh yes . . . I used about 1/4 of the tin for trials. With our bizarre tobacco situation and taxation above the 49th Parallel, I've learned how to economize effectively. No addition of dried parsley yet!
Thanks for stopping in and checking my thoughts out.
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