Borkum Riff Black Cavendish

When you see Black Cavendish you probably think of Smoker's Pride, BCA, Super Value, or something like that. This is NOT anything like those blends. A better name would have been Dark Cavendish. The pouch aroma is darak and has a wood type smell. There is also a small amount of vanilla and nuts. The tobacco is a bit dry for my taste, but it is ready to smoke and it packs nicely in a medium pipe. Smaller pipes seem to crowd it and you might have problems keeping it lit. There is lots of smoke and the taste is of true dark tobacco. I do not have a lot of experience with Dark Kentucky Leaf, but I can tell that the nicotine level is a lot higher with such a leaf in the blend. The room note is nice, but it won't win any friends who enjoy the smell of Smoker's Pride or BCA. By the way, the vanilla that was in the pouch aroma is in the smoke too, but not in the taste of the tobacco as far as I can tell. However, the nuts are in both taste and smell, albeit very light. Images when smoked are that of leather and sweetness in a wooden bowl. This goes well with coffee. There is no tongue bite. There is spiciness at the back of the throat. The smoke is dry and the flavor stays the same all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Again, if you are not used to higher nicotine levels, this one will surprise you, but not blow you away. The ash is fine, but a little dark. At the end the ash jumps out of the bowl with a good knock. After the first bowl, this shot up into my all-time top 5! If this ever comes out in a large tin, I am ready to stock up. At around $5.00 a pouch online, one might think this a little pricy for a "drugstore" blend, but one smoke and you will know that it is worth every penny.

Good quality Burley with Kentuck Tobacco and some Dark, Black Cavendish. Sweet and strong.

In the Pouch, small flavour, but when burn, very good flavour and taste. Therefore, the claimed Nut-Nougat flavour taste seems to me, more proximal to Cocoa-Chocolate.

Seems to me , too strong for the begginner. Only some defective issues: It is very hard to light, and when done, s other Borkum Riffs, this burns easy and so hot and can be smoked slownly, or may burn the tongue and destroy the pipe.

Observation: In the past, all the Borkum Riffs were made in Sweden, by Swedish Match, but nowdays, then are manufactured in Demmark

Liquorish on the tounge with plenty of tounge bite. This is an extraordinarily "light" flavoured tobacco. Zero nicotine hit & it's hard to see past the liquorice flavour on the tip of my tounge. I mixed it 50/50 with a stronger blend that helped a little but not a lottle.

This may be the perfect smoke for some that enjoy liquorish and a light as a feather smoke. It smokes quick and came quite dry in the pouch. If it's your cuppa tea it may be a 3 star but personally I give it 2. I shan't give it one because it's not intolerable & I'll save my 1 star reviews for scathing reviews of the most hatfilled tobaccos.

I had previously blended vanilla cavendish with non aromatics 30/70 with great results and was keen to try black cavendish.

It may have it's place to lighten something like rope however it's not an "album" i will be purchasing again.

Edit ----- After multiple days of tounge bite post smoking this mild monstrosity I'm changing my review to 1 star.

I see bad review from Pipestuds and Jimlink but I want be fair and no be prejudice this tobaccos. I want keep open my tongue to her. The good reviewer need does that.

She start surprise good. She give truffle, vanilla, cherry, bourbon, wood note. I like she start good.

But I push her a little and she become aggressivity. So I need removes star from her. Then she bite this tongues. I needs to take out other star from her for this. Then she give strong bitter note. Bad bitter no good bitter. So I needs take out star out from her. Bitter note stay in this tongue after I smoking her.

She give good nic hit job so I give her half star.

One and half star round to one.

I'd say it does bring the taste of truffle, sweet nougat and woodland nuts, as it claims and it smokes well, it's a fine aromatic tobacco which you can fully enjoy.

Many have troubles with aromatics, forgetting they simply have to be smoked in a slightly different way than dry latakia or orientals. Simply dry well the tobacco, pack it lightly, draw easily... Aromatics take some skills, but bring the reward 😉

Really wanted to like this as it was my brand back in the 70's but it just comes up short on flavor and has a bite that I don't remember it having back then. So many better smokes out there today. Tried rum as well as original and all left me unhappy.

Too strong for my taste and it bites… Recommended if you are not fanatic for sweet aromatics.

The first puff of the first bowl tasted ever so slightly of nougat with a slight nuttiness. I have now been through two pouches but ever since the first puff from the first bowl I have been unable to taste anything but extremely poor quality slightly bitter prison scrag.

(Prison scrag is the tobacco New Zealand prisoners used to get years ago which consisted of the dust swept off the cigarette factory floor).

Like most of the Borkum line, it probably would have been ok for drug store tobacco if Borkum actually put some flavor in it - putting an unopened bottle of flavoring in the same room as the tobacco does not count.

Also, like other Borkum blends, it has a lot of sticks in it.

If like me you have a limited choice of pipe tobacco other than Borkum, get the Vanilla cavendish or the Cherry cavendish.

I decided I'll be the smart one. It cannot be that bad as all reviewers say, everyone must get this tobacco wrong. I tried the slow way, the fast way, 4 different pipes, with and without filter. Still always the same results: It's very hard to get lit. If you smoke it slow, even some taste is noticeable, but needs permanent relight. By permanent I mean you need to have a match or lighter burning at all times on top to make it stay alive. It acts angry on relights, giving a burning rubber sandal aroma. If you smoke it any faster the taste turns to bite and bad smoke, sandals creeping up your mouth too. It does not burn evenly even in case of extra care. I also tried to mix it 50-50% with some very nice other brand hoping to help it stay alive, but no luck, this little bastard still need relights, and kills the good one completely.

As you might guess I don't recommend this under any circumstances, maybe under war conditions only. It just doesn't worth money, spend it on a stick of gum and you'll do a better business.