$11.99, 50g tin- Sample provided by Drew Estate rep
Background
When Drew Estate entered the world of pipe tobacco a few years back they started with eight blends they considered to be “on the traditional side of things.” Six of the blends were aromatics, including the Central Park Stroll, which is the first of the DE pipe blends I’ve had the opportunity to try.
The description goes something like this:
We really cherish the days when we’d stroll through Central Park on a lazy summer afternoon. The sweet aroma makes you feel like your standing outside a bakery; notes of chocolate, vanilla and caramel blend harmoniously with mellow tobaccos.
By all appearances, the foundation for this blend is a Cavendish tobacco, which is described by Wikipedia as “tobacco that has added flavoring, or which was possibly subjected to heavy pressure in order to produce a sweet taste with a moist texture.”
As with the other pipe tobaccos I’ve been trying lately, this was provided by my local Drew Estate rep.
Notes
The appearance of the leaf is pretty much the same as Black Cavendish I’ve seen, with it’s very dark brown…or almost black…coloration. The aroma of the unfired tobacco is mellow and sweet, with notes of chocolate and vanilla.
The mellowness of the leaf definitely came out on initial puffs. Cigar smokers are mostly used to darker leaf signaling a stronger tobacco, but to some extent that is reversed for pipe tobacco. There was definitely a good caramel note in the mix and a bit of vanilla, but the chocolate was more elusive.
I found the Central Park Stroll by Drew Estate to be a surprisingly flavorful aromatic, without being overly sweet. One thing I noticed long ago is that pipe tobacco never seems to smell or taste to the smoker like it smells to everyone around. This tobacco, though, did live up to the billing of “standing outside a bakery” with light notes of bread, caramel and vanilla, as well as some cocoa powder. My exposure to aromatics is pretty limited, but I would have to say this is my favorite to date.
