After last night's Sansepolcro tasting I woke up with a pretty dang sore throat and sinsues, so today I decided to take it easy on myself. I started the day with some Mac Baren HH Pure Virginia in my trusty old Dr. Grabow Lark, and now I'm trying a new blend I've never had before:
Captain Black Original in a Morgan Bones Milan
I'm surprised by how much I like it! Captain Black is a similar blend to Lane 1-Q, but with a bit more body and much more sweetness. The first 10 minutes or so of the bowl it left a sugary sweet taste with a little bit of vanilla on my tongue and lips like a Swisher Sweet cigar, which I don't think I've ever experienced from a pipe blend before. It was surprisingly pleasant and I liked the extra thickness and body of the smoke compared to 1-Q, and the nicotine content was a little better than I expected too. Captain Black is still a very mild blend, but I'd give it a 2 out of 5 on the strength scale since there was at least some small amount of nicotine present to scratch the itch.
It seemed to have a good balanced mild Burley and Virginia tobacco flavor as well, though that may have just been the ghosts of Sansepolcro and HH Pure Virginia Flake in my pipe enhancing the flavor. It left my pipe a bit wet afterwards, as is expected from an American aromatic, but less so than Sutliff blends and the cleanup afterwards was manageable. All in all I felt like Captain Black was a much more enjoyable and inoffensive blend than I expected, and I'll look forward to trying it again in a cob next time.