Velvet Pipe Tobacco

 My wife bought me a pack of Velvet pipe tobacco for my birthday.  It is a Burley based tobacco with a little Virginia and a liqueur flavoring.  It is a smooth tobacco that has been around for over a hundred years.  According to Smoking Pipes I have now been recognized as a Silver Pipe Tobacco Meister having tried over 50 pipe tobacco blends in the past two and a half years.  I have tried enough pipe tobaccos to know what I like and don't like.  

I may have found a favorite old timer blend Aromatic in Captain Black Original, but Velvet pipe tobacco isn't very different.  In short the 3.38 star review it averages on Smoking Pipes might be a little low for this tobacco.  It's better than that.  One, a lot of pipe smokers don't care for Burley based tobaccos, but two, it's a less expensive old codger blend that has a very mild taste.  Burley by itself is not really flavorable, so it needs some Virginia and a little liqueur flavoring.   

I like Captain Black Original a little better as it adds a little mote Virginia that makes it a tad sweeter.  But as Velvet is less expensive than CBO, it just might be a better value.  The fact is if price is all that mattered Velvet is the better choice, because there isn't much difference between the two.  It might seem that having smoked some more than 50 blends I would settle on at a few blends I would be smoking regularly.  If one were to add what I have ordered all together, we can add about another 25 tobaccos to my list, just in the past two and a half years.

Then one can add those I have received as gifts and the list might be close to a hundred.  In fifty years of smoking a pipqe, I have had hundreds of pioe tobacco blends, if not a thousand. Some are memorable and most are not.  I have been looking at pricing and what I have enjoyed in comparison.  Velvet is not a four star tobacco, but neither is CBO.  But for an English, I may have found it in Revelation. I still like Autumn Evening and Tropical Export aa my favorite Aromatics, but it might be good to keep some CBO on hand.

So, I may have found my regulars, but Velvet won't be among them.  I am pleasantly surprised by Revelation.  After all this time and experimentation and even blending my own, I have settled on a few with others I will try again.  Some I am glad I tried.  A few I mixed as my own.  Good Stuff blended with some Sir Walter Raleigh Original was a good blend.   I mixed some Cavensish with some Good Stuff that was pretty good.  

However, I am not the kind of tobacconist who can blend his own.  Some like to experiment and know outcomes by blending tobaccos.  And amounts have to be blended just perfectly to get the right flavor.  There are so many blends to buy that I would try those than blend my own.  Some pipe smokers throw a bunch of unsmoked tobacco together and might get something they really enjoy, but once it's gone so is the formula.  

I hit on something blending my own, but couldn't duplicate it in a million years.  Keeping track of an exact formula is important.  Some have a little of this and mix it with some of that and might have something, but usually not.  It's just extra pipie tobacco thrown together.  I've done that a lot.  I once threw a bunch of pipe tobacco together and shared it with a fellow pipe smoker.  He liked it so much that he asked me for the recipe.  I had to tell him I had no idea what it was.  

I'll smoke the rest of my Velvet, but at least I can say I tried it.  And it's not too bad.  But there are others I like better.  I'll rate it between three and a half to four stars out of five.  I decided to smoke my Nording Angel pipe with some Super Value Ultra Cavendish this morning.  I'll write a review about this one in a few days.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave