Blend Type Aromatic by Craig Tarler Contents Cavendish, Virginia Flavoring Maple, Rum, Sugar, Vanilla, Whisky Cut Coarse Cut Packaging 2oz Tin, 8oz Tin, Bulk Overall Rating 4.5 out of 5

Forget everything you think you know about aromatic pipe tobacco. Stop reading this… Go buy a tin of Autumn Evening right now and bask in the amazing flavor this tobacco has to offer. Yes it’s that freaking good!

Very rarely do you come across a tobacco that tastes as good as it smells, even more rare is finding a tobacco that tastes almost exactly how it smells but Autumn Evening is one of those rare tobaccos. If you are looking for a pleasant aromatic blend for cool fall days your search is officially over with this C&D masterpiece.

First thing first… The biggest thing to remember here is that this is a aromatic blend to the EXTREME! if you don’t like sweet, aromatic, vanilla, maple flavor you probably won’t like this blend. If you don’t like pancakes (Which is what this reminds me of.) you won’t like this blend. If you are a hardcore English smoker… again… you probably won’t like this blend. As a side note, it blows my mind how many people write reviews for a tobacco like this and start out with a statement like… “I’m not a fan of (aromatics, maple, vanilla… etc…) and then go on to give it a bad review. Why do you even have this tobacco you idiot? I don’t like broccoli… I don’t eat food with broccoli in it and if I did I wouldn’t bother to give it a review because I already know I’m probably not going to like it. Most of the negative reviews I’ve read about this blend were written by people who don’t even like aromatic tobacco blends so that almost immediately disqualifies their opinions in my book.

With that said… The first thing you are going to notice when you open this tin is the smokey maple sweet smell that is instantly present. It isn’t subtle or just a hint, it is strong, in your face and you won’t even need to put the tin to your nose to detect it. On the plus side Autumn Evening passed the “wife test” almost immediately and her exact words were… “Oh wow that smells amazing!” The tobacco itself was a little bit moist right out of the tin but with the insane amount of flavoring added to this blend I’m not at all surprised by this. I pulled out enough to fill my pipe and let it sit for about 10 minutes before loading my bowl. The pipe I chose was a beat up old “no name” briar estate pipe that I cleaned up a few weeks ago. I picked it because I had yet to smoke anything out of it and thought it would give me the best flavor. I also liked the fact that it was a little rough looking and has some pretty serious chunks taken out of the rim and looked pretty rustic. For whatever reason this seemed to be the ideal “looking” pipe for this blend.

Upon lighting the tobacco I was instantly aware of the maple and vanilla. If there is rum or whiskey as stated in the official description it is very subtle and I didn’t pick it up. The taste is delicious right out of the gate and while it is somewhat strong for the first quarter of the bowl it quickly mellows out and becomes a smooth smoke.

Even with all the flavoring it burns pretty even and gives you a nice grey ash in the bowl when finished. I did notice that it was a bit sticky when I took the pipe tool to it after cooling down for a little while. I would imagine that smoking Autumn Evening in the same bowl for an extended amount of time would cause quite a bit of buildup in the stem, draught hole and the bowl itself even with routine cleaning with a pipe cleaner.

Overall I have to admit that I’m in love with Autumn Evening. It’s a unique and delightful smoke that by far exceeds the expectations I had when ordering it. The one and only reason I don’t give this a 5 out of 5 is that I can’t see myself smoking this on a day to day basis. Autumn Evening is one of those tobaccos that works so well because it is a treat and should be smoked that way. I would be afraid to smoke it every day for fear of getting burned out on it. Otherwise it is 100% perfect in every way and for those who love aromatic tobaccos you really need to give this one a try if you haven’t already.