Cigar Bum Drugstore Pipe Tobacco Reviews

[Tobias Lutz]

This is the place to post your reviews of any, and all, "drugstore" blends (aka- old codger blends, OTC tobacco, etc.)...

[MrMotoyoshi]

Prince Albert

A no nonsense old codger blend that is a monument in the pipe tobacco world.

The cut is very coarse, and I like that. It's semi-dry out of the pouch and packs and burns easily. You may even be able to get this to the bottom in one light with concious puffing and gentle tamping. It almost always burns to a fine white ash with little to no dottle.

No flavor surprise here, it's a burley. I find it to have a very earthy and mossy flavor profile with subtle hints of nuttiness and a slight cocoa flavor (not that any chocolate like has been added). I wouldn't be surprised if sugar or something like that was used to case this but I highly doubt there is any topping. Just a nice natural burley flavor throughout the smoke.

I will admit I was grazed by the N train sometimes. Didn't knock me on my hiney but you can feel it if you haven't eaten anything or are hydrated.

While I prefer the sweetness of Carter Hall over PA, it's still a great smoke, especially in a cob. This is a great tobacco used to break in a pipe as it doesn't ghost and will form a nice cake. For the OTC burleys I list them as 1. Carter Hall 2. SWR/PA 3. Half and Half. Still gotta get some granger one of these days...

[BryGuySC]

Tobacco: Borkum Riff Vanilla Cavendish
Age: 6/11/2013
Blend Contents: Burley, Cavendish, Kentucky, Virginia
Pipes: “The Pipe” full bent and a Missouri Meershaum
Tin Note: Vanilla
Prep: No drying time. I pinched some off the brick, and loaded the pipe using the Frank method.

Notes:
The aging time has melded the tobacco into a brick. It broke apart easily into a nice mix of multicolored strands of tobacco.
The pipe loaded well, and I headed outside to light it up!
I got the char light done and began to enjoy this gifted jewel of the grocery store!
Well… that’s about as far the enjoyment went.
My tongue went numb almost immediately. I couldn’t pick up a note of anything, save a little vanilla and a bit of chemical.
On the positive side, it did burn, and it did make smoke! The smoke was of a good consistency.
I can't, in good conscience, suggest this to anyone.

[Lostmason]

Carter Hall

Age:3/8/2013
Blend Contents:Ribbon cut Viginian and burley
Piper.Grabow non-filtered straight
Pouch Note:Slight aroma or apricots
Prep:None,loaded the pipe using the "Frank" method

Notes:
This is the first time I've tried CH,and will not be the last.The cut and
moisture content made loading fast and easy.The initial light came with
memories of grilling with peach wood.A sweet dry flavor with hints of
saltyness around the edges.I didn't have to relight,the CH burned well
and smooth clear to the bottom.A very cool smoke in the hand as well as
in the mouth.This OTC is welcome in my cellar any day.

Thank You for giving a noob a chance and a change.

[Branzig]

Tobacco: Troost Special Cavendish 2013

Pipe: MM Great Dane Spool

Tin Note: Out of the pouch I smell the familiar scent of a nutty Burley, Chocolate, and a little bit of sweet Virginia hints.

Cut/Burn: Special Cavendish comes in a loose/broken flake cut. The quality of this OTC tobacco vs. other OTC's I have smoked is quite a bit higher. Unlike the processed and chopped findings that appear in most OTC pouches, this blend actually looks, feels, and smells like a quality tobacco product. Definitely not a tobacco that you would expect to find inside of an OTC pouch! Being called Special Cavendish, I expected to see some wet, black matter in the pouch but was shocked to see nice brown with light yellow speckled bits of tobacco instead. The tobacco packs well enough and takes light easily. It did require a couple relights and minor maintenance, but overall a "worry free" kind of smoke.

Flavors: From the initial light you are hit with some nutty Burley and chocolate flavors. It almost immediately mellows out into a mild, easy burning Virginia/Burley blend moving forward with a slight sweetness on the aftertaste. As the bowl warms up and you move into the half way point, you begin to notice a bit of that distinctive "black licorice" taste. I believe that the special part of this particular Cavendish must be an anise topping of some kind, seeing as there is a certain spice to it and a black licorice like taste as well. This topping works well with the coaco flavor from the Burley and the sweet hints from the Virginia's. The tobacco retains these flavor characteristics all the way down to the bottom of the bowl

Conclusion: A very nice tobacco, especially for the OTC variety. Please note; however, that to truly enjoy the flavors of this tobacco, it is going to have to be sipped. Puffing on it like a freight train will only result in bland and boring Burley flavors and a burnt up tongue. This blend will bite. Take it slow though and you're in for a decent and mannered smoke. My only qualm is it is a little on the weak side for me, in both flavor complexity and N hit. The flavor profiles are all there, but they are not what I would consider to be a "full-bodied" flavor...if that makes sense. On the "OTC rating scale" I would put this just after CH and PA for quality and taste out of all the OTC tobaccos that I have smoked...I would probably have it tied for 3rd best with Half & Half.

Thank you Tobias for sending me something that I have never smoked before! This was fun!

[izkeh]

Tobacco: Middleton's Cherry Blend from 2013 (pouch)

Pipe Used: MM Legend Cob

Tin Note: Not a real in-your-face cherry blast. It's much more subdued. However, you do smell cherry. I can imagine the cherry smell would be more intense in a fresh pouch.

I smoked three bowls of this in this order:
1. Fresh out of the pouch with about 2 minutes of drying time
2. About an hour of drying time
3. About 8 hours of drying time

I will refer to each by their number.

Sample 1: The tobacco was a little moist out of the pouch. I filled my cob and charred it. It charred alright and I got some cherry notes from the smoke off the char. As I smoked this down I kept waiting for a more pronounced cherry flavor. it never arrived. What did arrive however (from the get-go) was an acrid, bitey tobacco taste. I could taste burley in it but it was more of the cigarettey burley. Not the nice, nutty burley you'd want. I got hints of cherry on the retrohale from time to time but it was very, very faint. I got a PG film from the smoke. This is something that I can be fairly certain would be much more pronounced in a fresh pouch/tin/tub. I had about 6 or 7 relights on this one

The room note was more cherry than the taste but even that was subdued. I finished the bowl and it did burn down fairly cleanly without a lot of goop (probably because it was 2 years old - I can't imagine what it would leave if it were fresh).

Overall Impression of Sample #1: A 1.5 out of 5. The acrid nature of the smoke was just so very off-putting I couldn't wait to finish the bowl. The best thing I can equate it to is a very, very young cigar.

Sample 2: This one smoked almost the same as Sample #1. The only difference was I didn't need as many re-lights (maybe 3 or 4). Again, a very acrid-tasting, almost no cherry taste. Same as #1, I couldn't wait to finish this bowl to be done with it.

Sample 3: This one was a little different. After that long of drying the tobacco had almost no cherry aroma. What is did have was a more maple aroma. Weird, I know. I filled the pipe and went about smoking. It charred and lit just fine (it ought to). The taste was less acrid and more....you know what it reminded me of was Captain Black White. It was a very mild smoke with hints of sugar or maple with a very light tobacco taste. It wasn't nearly as offensive as samples 1 or 2. I caught some burley notes that were more nutty this time.

The room note wasn't cherry anymore. It was more like a straight tobacco smell. It wasn't unpleasant, it just wasn't cherry. I only had 1 or 2 relights (the tobacco was almost crunchy when I loaded my pipe).

Overall Impression of #3:I'd give this a 2 out of 5. The acrid nature of the smoke was lessened but there just wasn't much flavor to hold my interest (note: I'm not a Cap'n Black White fan)

Overall Thoughts: I wouldn't buy this, personally. Fresh, the room note and possibly the smoke would be more cherryish. However, it would likely be a goopy mess with the PG that's present in it (at least I believe it's PG). The 2 year old samples I tried mitigated the likely stickiness and probably helped the smokability of the tobacco. It didn't, however, help the flavor any. It was still a bitter, borderline harsh, smoke that didn't really provide any cherry flavor and only with substantial drying time did it change the characteristics enough to make it tolerable through an entire bowl. Overall I would rate this a 1.5 out of 5.

Much thanks to Tobias for supplying this tobacco for the review. I enjoyed doing this.

[spyder]

Tobacco blend: Borkum Riff Mixture with Cherry Cavendish
Age: 2/19/2013
Blend Contents: 50% black cavendish from Africa and the Philippines mixed with 50% Virginia from Brazil, Argentina and India
Pipe used: MM Cob
Aroma in the tin/pouch: Maraschino cherry overload
Prep: Open the seal on the pouch and load 'er up

Loading + smoking Notes: Shag cut, mostly dark to medium brown with a few strands of blonde. The moisture level feels right, doesn't clump together with pressure. After the initial lights and tamps to get things moving, my first impression of flavor is a very thin artificial sweetness with a bit of a tingle on the front of my tongue. The tingle fades quickly but the flavor stays this way till about 20 min later when I start to get a bit of pine / menthol flavor on the retrohale. I think I get a tiny hint of cherry now and again. Sort of like when you eat a sweet cherry pie for dessert; then a few hours later a scrap of cherry skin dislodges from between your back molars, hits your tongue and causes you to quickly think "What the heck was that flavor?" Then it's gone before you can figure out what it was. This blend really demands a slower smoking pace, otherwise your pipe will soon be glowing like a cherry. It's very mild in body and strength. Hell my 91 yr old MIL could kick this tobacco's butt without breaking a sweat. The room note was pleasant.

I'll try this again in a meer and maybe a briar to give it a fair test, but I'm not expecting any vast improvement. Overall I'd give this 1 out of 4 stars. Thank you Tobais for providing this for review.

[Will46r]

Prince Albert
Yessss Prince Albert. Tobias sent me PA to review.��

Not sure of the date cept someone wrote 3-18-13 on it... I guess Mar 2013, so it has some age on it.

It seemed to be about perfect moisture, not soaking wet but not crumbly dry.

Smoked it it a MM bent stem cob, MM general cob and a small briar estate bulldog from Pugsley.

I pack my pipe by sprinkling baccy in then grabbing some tightly and pressing it into the bowl. It works for men but don't know if it has a fancy name. The PA packed nicely.

Opening the pack and snuffling up the aroma... Nice, hint of sweet but burley is present.

Baccy lit well and held fire nicely nonreligts except when I laid the like down for extended time.

Room note, seemed okay, wife preferred aros over the Prince Albert.

Flavor. First bowl after doing industrial maintenance, well it wasn't great, but I blamed the residue I was covered in. Second and third bowl I was like meh, burley and something. The last few bowls I began to understand why people smoke and recommend it. The burley is present, i detected some sweet notes and about halfway through a bowl a touch of woodiness.

I'm a noob piper with an unrefined pallete. This was an enjoyable smoke to relax with. I can see an experienced piper smoking it when they don't want to have to think about what they're puffing, just enjoy the motions of smoking a pipe.

Not much else to say, I'll buy some when I get this pouch further down.

Thanks to Tobias for the baccy, and Pugsley for the 2 pipes I smoked it in.

[Cool Breeze]

I got Paladin Black Cherry for the review. I enjoy cherry aromatics and was looking forward to trying it.
The tin note (or pouch note for this one ) was amazing. Very sweet cherry and you could smell the nutty burley as well.

The moisture was perfect. It was not at all goopy like some aromatics have the reputation of being. It was ideal.
I read on the pouch that it is made by Lane Limited, which explains the good quality. (Yes I'm a Lane fan) This makes me wonder how similar it is to the bulk Very Cherry blend.

I was surprised when I lit up and got it going that it wasn't as in your face as I was expecting. The cherry flavor is there, no doubt but it is not overpowering and the burley does come through well. By the time you're about halfway through a bowl, the burley actually comes to the forefront and the cherry takes a backseat. The sweetness that you would expect is there but not overly so.
I did not notice any of the chemical taste you hear about in some blends.

This isn't the cherry bomb I expected from smelling the tobacco but it isn't a bad smoke at all.
It was dated 2013 so the 2 years age could have mellowed the flavoring some. It may be more prevalent when new. This is neither good nor bad, as your preference would determine which way you preferred it.

Flavor and strength are both mild.
If you smoke it too fast it will bite you. Keep it nice and slow and it's fine.

I think this would be a good tobacco for someone just getting started with a pipe. It isn't too strong or overpowering in any way.

If I had to rate it on a 5 star scale, I'd give it a solid 3.5
It's certainly worth keeping around.

Thanks again to Tobias for heading this up. It's been fun reading everyone's reviews.

Happy smoking.

[pdq_wizzard]

I got Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey date on the pouch is 7-14

Open the pouch and it smells like Jack Daniels (back when I was in HS that would be a good thing) If I'm going to drink whiskey it will be Makers Mark now.

Pipe used was a MM Cob

Over 2 days smoked about 3 bowls, the first bowl was right out of the pouch using the scoop and then big pinch packing method. Taste was very mild on the char but then a very chemical taste then I got the bite (felt like I lite my tongue on fire). So I figured it was just too wet. (I don't think I was smoking to fast as it didn't stay lit)

Gave my self a rest and didn't smoke anything else.

Next day put some on a piece of paper and let it rest for ~30 min or so, using the same packing method lite another bowl in the same pipe. This time there was much less tongue bite but the chemical taste was still there (much more than the Super Value Whiskey Cavendish I have) the 3rd bowl was not much better.

I have not gotten a whisky taste from it even on the retorhal. it has been 2 days since my last bowl of this, I have been smoking other things, I will give it another try sometime this week and report back if there is a changes.

At this point this is something I will not be buying.


@Tobias Lutz thanks for the chance to give this a try.