I smoked a fair amount of the original CB blend about 5 or 6 years ago but I hadn’t tried any for quite a while. Having moved on to other more “refined” blends I quickly felt right back at home when I went slumming. I elected to start with the familiar white pouch CB and was met with a pleasant aroma of vanilla and Cavendish. The room note with this tobacco is the same as your stereotypical aromatic that causes women in their 60s to wax nostalgic for their grandfather’s Dr. Grabow burning back in 1958. It puts off a scent as classic as a woodstove’s smoke rising out onto the sidewalk on an October morning. The first bowl can be a bit overly moist, but I find that leaving the pack open for a few hours helps with this problem. The tobacco stays lit fairly easily when the initial wetness is resolved, and I have yet to experience tongue bite from CB. The smoke is mildly sweet with strong nuances of vanilla on the retrohale. I really enjoyed the couple pipes of The Captain I smoked this week and look forward to trying the other blends in the line. It certainly scores high on my “bang-for-the-buck” meter.
If this blast from my smoking past is anything like what I can expect as I dive into some other drugstore blends I think I am in for a real treat. My only hang up is that smoking these iconic OTC blends gives me visions of myself on a hideous sofa watching Ed Sullivan on a b&w TV while waiting on my beagle to fetch my slippers.