**PRE ORDER** Captain Black Red Pipe Tobacco (50g Tin)

ALL ORDERS WILL BE HELD UNTIL DELIVERY OF THE CAPTAIN BLACK

• Cut: Ready Rubbed
• Blend: Virginia, Burley and Black Cavendish
• Strength: Mild
• Aromatic: Cherry & Vanilla notes
• Packaging: 50g tin

Captain Black Red Pipe Tobacco – 50g Tin

Cherry pipe tobacco has always been a curious business. Mention it to a room full of pipe smokers and you'll get everything from fond reminiscences to raised eyebrows. Some swear by a good cherry aromatic; others have clearly encountered one that tasted rather more like furniture polish than tobacco. Fortunately, there's a good deal of variety between the two extremes.

Captain Black Red belongs to the long-established American tradition of cherry-flavoured pipe tobaccos, and its return to British tobacconists is particularly welcome for those who remember the brand from years gone by.

Captain Black was once a familiar name in the UK, but disappeared from the British market many years ago. Across the Atlantic, however, the Captain continued sailing along quite happily, maintaining his reputation as one of America's best-known aromatic pipe tobacco brands. Now the range has made its comeback, bringing some familiar old mixtures back into circulation.

Red is the cherry member of the family. It combines Virginia, Burley and Cavendish tobaccos with a sweet cherry aromatic flavouring, producing a mild mixture in which the fruit character takes a prominent role.

The pouch aroma is naturally one of its defining features, with the familiar sweetness of cherry sitting over the tobacco. Once packed and lit, the blend is intended to deliver a mellow smoke with fruity sweetness, a little vanilla-like softness and the underlying character of the tobacco itself.

There's an art to making a fruit-flavoured aromatic. Too little flavouring and you wonder why the manufacturer bothered mentioning the fruit. Too much and you begin to suspect the blender has mistaken his tobacco mixing room for a jam factory. Finding a balance is what separates the memorable blends from the ones best left as experiments.

The tobacco is supplied in a ribbon cut, making it straightforward to handle and pack. Cherry aromatics, like other sweetly flavoured mixtures, generally reward a gentle smoking pace. Allowing the tobacco to settle between draws can help keep the flavour comfortable and the bowl temperature under control.

Captain Black became a household name among American pipe smokers during the twentieth century, particularly through its Original blend and its distinctive nautical packaging. Red developed its own following among those who enjoyed a more pronounced fruit aromatic.

For British smokers who remember Captain Black from its earlier days on the shelves, the return of Red offers a chance to revisit a familiar style of tobacco. For anyone exploring the range for the first time, it provides a distinctly different character from the Virginia-forward Gold or the classic Original.

Captain Black Red is supplied in a 50g tin, offering a convenient quantity for the tobacco cupboard. Once opened, an airtight jar is advisable if the contents are likely to be kept for an extended period.

It's good to see another old name return to the British tobacco trade. The Captain has been away a fair while, and he's come back carrying cherries. Not quite what you'd expect from a naval expedition, but stranger things have arrived at Scarborough harbour.