Can anyone recommend a good aromatic?

McClelland has some wonderful aromatics that have a light taste as well and don't give you that "burning trash" taste that some of the bulk aromatics can give you.  I like Mellow Mack myself.  You actually can taste the sweetness as the bowl wears on and the room note is mild and sweet.

I think aromatics are a fast way to kill off potential pipe smokers. Every time I think I've found one that's good, three bowls later I swear I'll never try another one again. My latest aborted attempt was with Blue Note. Smells great, tastes like...not chicken!

A light burley is a lot better deal. Try Prince Albert or Walnut or Carter Hall.

Good call on the burleys.  I blew it on that one.  Also, some straight Va's smell great, but a bit musty compared to a burley.  Peterson Univ. Flake has a mild rasberry topping that gives it a fruity roomnote, but it still taste like burley.

I know it's a matter of personal taste, but I've had good luck with MacB Vanila Cream.  Doesn't bite, actually tastes like something. It's one of the few aromotics I will still consider.

I've tried lots of 'em hoping I'd find one that I could enjoy.  Never really found one that actually tasted like tobacco, but I can recommend some that weren't THAT BAD ... take it for what its worth:

Lane BCA (Black Cavendish Aromatic) - vanilla topping for sure.

Captain Black (Believe it or not) - vanilla also but a bit bitey if you puff too fast.

MacBaren Mixture (smells wonderful, tastes almost ok, zero nicotine)

Nat Sherman 307 (golden cavendish topped with something I've coined as "mysterium" (a mysterious topping that no on really understands))

Unfortunately "aromatic" almost always means Cavendish ... and I hate cavendish hence this ongoing hatred for aromatics.  The few VA or Burley based aros out there are just horrid unfortunately.

ok, I'm done.

bring along some McClelland 5100!  Its not "purty smellin", but its as sweet as an aromatic and pure VA bliss.  Its also a good starter if anyone asks for a taste!

put the berry in thier Black Raspberry blend.  I have tried several aromatics and the flavor never lives up to the taste.  For some reason, perhaps because I love black raspberry, this one has a taste very comparable to the smell.  While it is a smoke people love to be around I don't think of it as a starter tobacco, it is more like a niche tobacco, something to dump in a cob for a change of pace at an odd moment when the current rotation of opens fails to produce a go-to.

Aside from that and as a suggestion for starters; I would tend too pimp some of my favorites.  Even though they are non-smokers I think that what attracts me to a tobacco they could also relate to.  In my mind, the freezing cold of an ice hut is enough in itself to spark a warm relationship with the briar and leaf.

Now on to just as important concerns, what are you going for? Pike would be my choice as apparently you have a rather fixed diet.

For the most part, avoiding aromatics myself, I do like to endulge once in awhile. The recent purchase I made was a Dan Tobacco, Sweet Vanilla Honeydew. It was not goopy or sludgy in the bottom of the bowl as I expected. Burned clean right out of the tin, and taste and smells great.

Happy Smokin & Happy Holidays !!

Guess it would help if I read the posts more carefully... SOILED !!!

Anyway, yes, the MacB Vanilla Creme is another great choice. No bite, and by the time ice fishing season is over, you may have a few more smokers among you.

One other suggestion, Rattrays Terry Red. Now if you go to Tobaccoreviews.com, Im sure you will not want to try this blend, but apart from the few great reviewers over there, I tend to want to trust my taste. This stuff was enjoyable. Not to strong, no bite, and it has that spicey flavor to it due to the ginger I assume. Also, the comments on the overpowering cherry taste..... never even noticed it in my bowls.

Happy Smokin & Happy Holidays !!

Hand down my favorite aromatic to date is MacBaren's Uncle Louie's Whiskey. It's my favorite because, well, it has flavor! Keep some around almost all the time for the same reason.

A good aromatic, eh? A few come to mind. I find them all enjoyable in a pinch.

Mac Baren Scottish Mixture (I don't consider it an aro, but it's still hella good)
Mac Baren Vanilla Cream
Caledonian Highland Cream Melange No. 10

I have found that a straight VA has the same (pleasant) effect on people, so with that in mind I would also recommend:

Orlik Golden Sliced (saw that one coming huh?)
Capstan Yellow
Capstan Blue
Mac Baren Virginia Flake

If you're feeling adventurous, these will also work and rarely, if ever, offend anyone:

Mac Baren Navy Flake
Orlik Bull's Eye Flake

Hi Caydel,

If your brothers-in-law are cigar smokers, they may feel right at home with your Nightcap.  At least a couple of my cigar-smoking buddies really enjoyed it.

For aromatics that still have tobacco taste, I'd recommend:

Pipeworks&Wilke's 191

McClelland's Honeydew

Gawith & Hoggarth's Rum Flake

Gawith & hoggarth's Broken Flake No.7 unscented

Gawith & Hoggarth's Conniston Cut Plug

G&H's Bosun's Cut Plug

Cornel & Diehl's Autumn Evening

Dan Tobacco's Sweet Vanilla Honeydew and Blue Note

MacBaren's Plumcake

Hope this helps a bit.  Cheers,

TC 

Oh,

considering latakia blends, you might get away with some Esoterica Pembroke and C&D's Pasha's Dream. 

TC 

Another Sweet Vanilla Honeydew recomendation, here here Tom. Picked up a tin last week, one of my favorite aro's to date. Really does have great flavor, not goopy, and can taste the VA's come right through. One of those rare occasions with an aro where they use the base tobacco's natural sweetness to compliment the top flavor. Well done.

Justin

some of the aromatics from www.boswellpipes.com. They have several I like, the two favorites being Pennsylvania Dutch Treat and No Bite Delite. Also Pipeworks and Wilke is a good recommendation, I've enjoyed their Vermont Maple Cavendish in the past. One caution if you try this one, don't buy a big supple to store, the maple topping gradually evaporates.

Smokey

Brian,

If you're looking for something that's cased to death w/honey/whisky/fruit or chocolate I can't recommend anything.If you want something that smells damn good to those around you ie(wife/girlfriend/mistress)yet still maintains an actual tobacco taste.I strongly urge you to try Old Tartan blended by pipesandcigars.com /"The Habana Premium Smoke Shop" of Albany,NY. It has a fair amount of "Deer Tongue" which tastes nice and also has a killer room note.It also has a touch of latakia which plays off the other ingredients quite nicely...If you actually call the the store to place an order ask for Scotty or Russ.Tell em' Dock sent ya and let em know about "My-Pipes" they'll take good care of ya...

TRY IT!!!!

Best,

Dock

I'd just smoke something I usually smoked. Just be yourself. If they start protesting - finish the bowl outdoors.

Trying to lure non-smokers (or non-pipe-smokers) into the wonderful world of pipe smoking with aromatics is an empty promise IMO. When they realize (usually in 30 seconds) that "hey, this stuff doesn't taste as good as it smells (vanilla/mango/caramel etc.)!"- they feel disappointed, and rightly so. Because it never does! Worst thing is to advice a cigarette smoker with a heavy vitamin-N habit wanting to cross, is to tell him to start with a mild aromatic. A mild aromatic!

Can you tell that I haven't yet found an aromatic that I liked? ;-)

Then again, I can tell that you are a considerate person.

I've been complimented for the room note of the following tobaccos:

G&H Rum flake
S&G Bracken flake
S&G FVF (!)
Esoterica's Pembroke
MacB Dark Twist
J.J. Fox's Campanile (an another "!")

BUT! These people may have been trying to please ME!

Hope you have a good time there, it seems we won't have much ice or snow in southern Finland this winter.....

--
Jari T in Helsinki

Trout Stream (pipesandcigars.com) and Edwards Sweet Vanilla and/or Honey/Bucc are all very good aromatics.  Very good smoking manners, not sickly sweet or goopy and surprisingly taste very similar to their respective smells.  HOWEVER, while I find my occassional aromatic jaunts a pleasant diversion, as others have said, vitamin N is virtually invisible in all of these blends.  A much more satisfactory compromise is a mild burley that is either heavily cased or has a slight cavendish content (i.e. C&D Pegasus, Crooner or Pennington Gap, Carter Hall, Kentucky Club Mild or Aromatic Mixture, SWR Aromatic, etc.).  The smell good in these blends is a bit less pronounced than the blends I first mentioned but they do smell good and won't leave you nicotine starved and wanting something to smoke for real.   I do occassionally enjoy the aromatics but if I smoke them all day, I feel like I'm smoking an empty pipe after a while and go into nicotine withdraw.  The other remedy (one which I myself have begun to employ) is nicotine while by myself and aromatic when around people.  Typically I'll have some real stout nicotine blend (i.e. OJK) on the ride to work, then once at work my morning smoke break and lunch time smoke will be the aromatics.  The afternoon smoke break is generally an aromatic but can be a bit milder burley.  And of course the ride home is time for max vitamin N intake.

I am a Va/per person, but I have tried some aromatics. IMHO, the best aromatics are hand-blended by Carole Burns at Pipeworks and Wilke, say PipeMakers' Choice for example.

hi caydel--> i have had great luck perusing a site where smokers review pipe tobaccos. it is www.tobaccoreviews.c....

i get a great kick out of us pipers always saying we don't do aromatics, but someone is... kinda like reading the Enquirer!

so, enjoyable finds for me include: Autumn Evening (maple by Cornell and Diehl), ZBC (fire and spice cured by Altadis), Black Spice (cinnamon and nutmeg by Altadis), Trout Stream (butterscotchy by Pipes and Cigars), and Original Danish Black Vanilla Flake. i get all of these from pipesandcigars.com. they also have samplers of all kinds of aromatics.

just don't think that something called strawberry cheese cake is gonna be strawberry cheese cake!

u will enjoy the tobacco review website a lot... hope this helps a little.

peace/out

doc boone

SWR Aromatic, not too strong, won't bite, Burns all the way down, wish I could smell the room note, won't break the bank,

Just got my fist Altadis Blue note, a little sweet, not too strong, wont' bit, burns well. Lane TK6 not bad very strong cherry flavor, burns all the eay down.

Peacful puffin',

Revelation in a Dr.G.
Curretnly seeing our fist snow mixd with rain, curretnly 39F.

Jayf

I am sitting here with a new corncob filled with Sweet Vanilla Honeydew from a can I bought this afternoon. Granted, the first whiff I took in the store made me think of fruit cocktail but that's all gone in the bowl. This is very, very good Virginia. I think I could throw my potpourri warmer away. The room note of this stuff just makes me grin. I don't know how anybody could complain about it.

"but I've had good luck with MacB Vanila Cream. Doesn't bite, actually tastes like something"

I would second this, but reccomend the loose cut and not the flake.

I didn't see anyone recommend this one, MacBaren's Cube is a great mild aromatic. Just my 2 cents, happy hunting

Chris

I've failed to mention Sir Walter Raliegh Aromatic.

There! I said it.

Tom

I've failed to mention Sir Walter Raliegh Aromatic.

There! I said it.

Tom

SWR Aromatic- See also semi-aromatic Codger Burley most revered for a slightly sweet taste and pretty good room note without sacrificing smoking manners, tobacco taste or vitamin N content. See also (Sugar Barrell, and/or Rum and Maple)

will do! cheers.