Tobaccos Hearth & Home - Berry Nice (Signature Series)

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Hunter (54)	2014-04-19		Mild	Strong	Full	Very Pleasant

Very intense tin aroma. Almost candy-like. I usually don't go for fruity aromatics, but the description intrigued me. So with some trepidation, I filled a small meer to try it out at first.

Very black and clearly heavily topped, it is not sticky or overly wet for an aromatic. I can really taste the berry and black currant while smoking. Wife comments the room note is very hookah-like, but in a pleasant way. Rich, pleasant amounts of smoke and burns to a fine ash. Very mild with no bite, but also very little tobacco taste or aroma. Certainly one to smoke around others. Leaves a slick, somewhat floral aftertaste, the flavor and aroma stays with you throughout the bowl developing evenly to the bottom of the bowl. Finish is slightly tart with overtones of port wine.

Overall, this is a high-quality, mild, balanced and tame aromatic. A nice departure for me, and highly recommended for new aromatic smokers. I will likely keep this in occasional rotation.

Pipe Used: briar, meerschaum

Age When Smoked: Fresh tin

Purchased From: pipesandcigars.com

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2013-02-03		Mild	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant

After smoking a pipe for 3 years now I really have an understanding for what I prefer in terms of tobacco. This blend is probably one of the most unique aromatics I have tried. The strength is rather hard to describe.. almost like some really fine sweet wine. If you are a wine connoisseur or simply want a good blend that tastes like wine, it's definitely this one. To simplify that it is basically like smoking wine but in a good way. The flavor reminds me alot of Middleton's WineBerry but much more complex and rich. In my opinion I have to give it four stars. For all pipe smokers who read this, my message to you: please consider trying.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	manxman (82)	2021-01-31		Mild	Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

The tin note is pleasant, sweet. The cut is rather chunky. I had a hard time lighting, but once lit it behaved well. A pleasant taste of hard to define which berries. Reminds me of port wine flavored cigars that a friend brought from Quebec. Burns to a fine white ash, nice amounts of smoke. If you have been put off by sticky, or artificial tasting aromatics, you should try this before writing aros off. This blend should please bystanders. No tongue bite. Will probably buy more.

Pipe Used: Savinelli with balsa filter

Age When Smoked: 1 year

Purchased From: Pipes &Cigars

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2013-07-01		Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I like , I like and I like.

This should be a mandatory first aromatic smoke for all beginners as it has nothing in common with the Mac Burn and other commercial tobaccoes out there that in my opinion are ever so disappointing once lit up.

Aroma is indeed outstanding but kick back and relax once lit, as it is smooth and cool burning and without any afterbite.

One little problem is that the flakes are rather small and hard and thus dont compact well enough to prevent sometimes some of the smaller ones from ending up in your mouth.

quality wise it's extremely even burning (even in the low oxigen air of Bogota, which is an extreme test) and the taste profile is very pleasant and geared towards sweet wine/porto notes.

expect little evolution though thru the bowl as it is what it.

and what it is is berry, berry good.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BrSpiritus (18)	2011-03-11		Very Mild	Strong	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

When I first opened the bag I was greeted by a rather unpleasant perfume/cologne smell that overpowered the berry flavouring. First bowl confirmed this as the taste was 20x worse than any Lakeland soap I've ever tasted and hence the bowl was dumped out halfway through.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LannarkGent (145)	2016-12-18		Very Mild	Medium to Strong	Medium	Very Pleasant

The berry flavor was quite nice. The tobacco burned well. The taste while good, it not my cup of tea. This however is a very good blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Delta Bravo (5)	2016-06-28		Extremely Mild	Strong	Medium	Strong

Strong candy sweet tin aroma and the room note is fantastic. Not sticky or too wet. Perfect moisture content right out of the can without needing any drying. More smoke production than most other pipe tobaccos I've tried, and burns well leaving behind a nice white ash. Burns cool. Takes a person with a seriously fast puffing cadence to get this too hot, and if you know how to properly pack a bowl, this requires very few relights if any. Definitely one to put on your list if you're an aromatic smoker that isn't looking for a strong tobacco or nicotine hit.

P.S. Some have talked about a soapy aftertaste which i did identify, as well and may be off putting to some.

Pipe Used: Stanwell Silkebrun 232

Purchased From: http://www.pipesandcigars.com/

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	dixcreek (184)	2015-09-22		Mild	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Upon opening the tin I was met with a very pleasing berry aroma. My first thought was would this carry over into the taste. Yes indeed, the flavor and the room note were spot on with the tin note. smoking attributes wer good as well. Easy to light and keep lit. No problem with too much moisture or any gummy gunk afterward. Russ is one of my favorite blenders and I have never been let down by any blend he has put forward. One drawback for some but not me is that very small hint of Lakeland taste(which I am a huge fan of). This tobacco will ghost a pipe with the best of them, but if past experience is any indicator, a bowl of five brothers will chase it away. If you are looking to venture into a flavorful aromatic this would be a good entry blend.

Pipe Used: Grabow Belvedere

Age When Smoked: new tin

Purchased From: pipes and cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Fred T (67)	2015-05-30		Mild	Medium to Strong	Mild	Pleasant

This tobacco was a pleasant surprise for me. I generally like Cavendish blends flavored with some sort of goop, vanilla being a favorite, in blends such as McClelland's Vanilla Ice. I didn't know if I would enjoy a Berry/Cavendish mixture, but this one is excellent. A nice, smooth, berry flavored smoke. Nice for a change. As a chocolate ice cream lover, once in a while I enjoy some strawberry, especially in the summer. Same here. For me, a nice smoke, once in a while. It gets a 4.

Pipe Used: S. Bang

Age When Smoked: 3 months

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	colonel jpl (25)	2014-04-23		Mild	Very Strong	Mild	Pleasant

I gave this tobacco a try with great expectations but I came up somewhat disappointed. Heavy berry flavor which covers up the tobacco taste. It hits you when you open the tin strong berry note. It burns well and the room note is nice. The cavendish doesn't come through enough for me.

Pipe Used: briar

Age When Smoked: new

Purchased From: smoking pipes

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2012-06-28		Very Mild	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

A little harsh when you first open the tin, but levels out nicely after a few days, no bite, wet even after 3 weeks. A customer requested we use this blend to color his bent billiard meerschaum, it was nearly impossible to keep lit, left a gum in the pipe stem that required bristle pipe cleaners to remove and after 4 weeks of coloring (2 on and 2 off) it developed a blue/green (bread mold) color. pipe had to be discarded and a new one started...I wouldn't smoke it in a meerschaum regularly, but it might be ok in a cheap briar.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2012-06-21		Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Lovely berry, mushroom and port wine flavor, but gooped up every pipe I tried it in. A friend familiar with the blend also had the same problem with this tin and said it wasn't typical of the blend. The blender responded to my inquiry about the quality by politely suggesting I didn't know the chararistics of an aromatic.

Potentially a very nice blend but I question the quality control and consistancy.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2012-04-09		Very Mild	Extra Strong	Very Full	Very Pleasant

Let me arrive by mentioning that I'm taking pleasure in a bowl of this blend as I type. Perhaps THE most sumptuous blend I've ever indulged in; it won me over as soon as I busted the seal on the tin. I picked up a sample of this at a recent pipe show; delivered to me by the noble folks at pipesandcigars.com. The blend is perfect for anyone with a head full of sweet teeth; like myself; a SUPER aromatic, if you will. The aroma from the opened tin will perfume your living space almost instantly; BEFORE you set it on fire in a pipe. The taste that comes along with each draw... is like having a glass of tropical fruit juice; one has to try and remember that he/she is smoking. This blend is a cinch to pack for it trickles down into the pipe... like it's anxious to be cremated almost.

It's been granted my passage and... it has made it to the foremost of my personal favorites list; first class.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2012-03-04		Mild	Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

This is the first "hearth and home" blend from pipesandcigars.com that I have tried. When I first opened the tin I was overwhelmed by the fruity smell. The first few bowls didn't have much of a berry flavor to them, but sure did have a nice aroma. Earlier on in the tin I found the tobacco to be woody and even mushroom tasting, however after letting it sit for two weeks the mushroom flavor disappeared. At that point the berry flavor really began to come through. The tobacco itself is nice, dark, and chunky. The 1.5 oz tin is lasting me longer than expected. The tobacco stays lit nicely and doesn't leave any dottle or goo. It is a nice clean smoke that doesn't get too hot or bite the tongue. I am going to be sure to try more of this brand, but doubt I will rush out to buy this particular blend again.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2011-09-15		Very Mild	Medium	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

The only reason I braved this blend was that it's made by Russ Oulette, a man who has earned my faith time and again. Jet black cavendish cut into big chunks of leaf. Was pleasantly surprised to find that the tobacco was not sticky to the touch, as is so often the case with aromatics. On lighting, the berry flavor starts out clear, then settles into a general sweet flavor. The berry room note is clear and pleasant, to the point that my fiancee has insisted that I maintain a stock of this blend on hand at all times. There is a floral or soapy aftertaste, but its a very mild aftertaste as opposed to being front and center in Mixture 79. Happily, this blend burns clean, generating white ash and little/no dottle. As an aromatic it does tend towards hot, so slow and steady is the name of the game. I also noticed that the slower I smoked it, the more berry flavor I got.

Looking at previous reviews comparing it to Mixture 79, let me say that I am one of the Mixture 79 haters, and I liked this blend.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	chetking (54)	2011-07-29		Mild	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant

Any blend that the iconic Russ Ouellette concocts in his mixing parlors at the Habana tobac emporium in Albany, New York has to be taken seriously - this one further enhances his reputation. This is a sweet, almost sugary aro that captivates pipeful after pipeful. I am so tired of fellow scribes who try a bowl or maybe two of a sweet aromatic and their first reaction is: let's trash it! Berry Nice has a delightfully soapy but fragrant topping taste that resembles the much maligned standard (among my fellow reviewers) Mixture 79 - hope this blend like 79 is as resilient. Fact is this is unusually "good stuff" as the advertisement for Snapple says. Smoke it in a hand carved Rhamnus wood pipe you can still buy for cheap from the People's Republic of China on E-Bay. This rough hewn Rhamnus is dedicated strictly to Berry Nice and the flavour continues to flourish. The pipe and leaf combination are complimentary. A heavenly choice especially during summer heat wave weather or for that warm vacation spot. Happy hunting!

1 person found this review helpful.