Whitehall Black Tie, supposedly Sutliff

I have spent the better part of my day trying to get suspended on Twitter. Not being successful I thought I'd matriculate over here and talk about this blend.

"The Book", the "Head Honchos" the "Guys who grease the wheels of industry" all say this is Sutliff. It is listed under "To Be Determined" in my humble diary. 
It does not have the little Sutliff sticker like Heine's and EGR. None of the addresses or factories match.
If I might posit a semi-alternate reality (yeah, you knew this was coming), it may have originated at a Sutliff plant and repackaged or mixed at a distributor via a middle man, "The Man Who Gets the Vig", "The Guy Skimming from Capone", "The Guy Who Lets You in On the Deals", "The Guy Who Will be Pushing up Daisies when He's Caught."

There is distributor info on the tub, but that will get you nowhere. I got tired of perusing the Yellow Pages looking for it, so I threw it out. Realizing the Yellow Pages was on my PC I thought I'd better go get it so I could write this hokum and bunkum. You read it you bought it.

I have not had a ton of luck with Black Cavs. They can be worse than fresh VA in another way. If you puff wrong or light it a couple times it coats your mouth and ruins it for the day. Flavor comes and goes. Well, this tried and true blend and friend, Whitehall Black Tie, came to the rescue today. I have shy of three pound of it. It's available at two places, WV Smokeshop and Mars (not the Mars that holds the Reticulan World Series).

It took a couple lights at the top, only because I keep changing up my lighting routine. Here's where YMMV. I used the slowroll stack and it burned down to a mixture of white and some black ash. Yes, there was a tad of glop, but not much to worry about. Good 45 minute smoke. Sort of an aperitif to the Gabbagool and Moozadel Sandwich I made. I digress.

This is a mild tobacco. It stays mild all the way through, but it maintains its flavor all the way through, unique in the Cav World. The flavor runs from a mild vanilla to a mild chocolate... that drove me nuts until I realized that vanilla is used to make white chocolate, no choc in it.


The Skinny from the store descriptions: Best room note ever. Called the Lady Killer as the dames will swoon down to your wingtips. I think the tobacco has been around a while. Some people actually regurgitate this hooey. I won't, but it really is good.

Now the Skinny from the Muckety Mucks, the Guys with the Juice:
"I hate aros. This is the greatest aro I've ever had. 1 star."
"My wife never complains when I light this up." Yeah, Junior. She's used to you lighting up your farts.
"This just has no flavor. It is so bad."

The Truth. My dying words before being executed for slipping a loaded cigar in Castro's box. I swear to this on Mother O'Leary's Cow.

You will not find a tobacco with the same flavor as this. I am quite fond of Smoker's Pride BC, Sutliff ZBC, and maybe a few others. For some reason the ones that say Black Cavendish and not Vanilla Cavendish actually have more flavor. I digress again.
14 oz for 26 bucks is a tad over a Sutliff price, but lower than the H&H Midtown Series. So, it's pretty good there.

Except for some really exotic Black Cavs  would seldom go above 4 of 5 stars. Smoker's Pride BC is 4. This is 4.25. It's just that good and that smokable. You have to remember what I said, though. It is mild. Oh, and some call it a beginner tobacco. Sorry. Not me. It really came through with decent flavor and no fuss. Oh, and the 4.25. If I had rated last year after just picking up the pipe again it would have been 5. I am glad for the experience and all my guru friends who have helped.

Edit - You can buy it by the ounce at WV and the owner told me he had no plans to lose this tobacco