Comoy’s Cask No. 5 Tobacco Review

It is apparent that some people read too much into pipe tobacco names. In fact, they actually expect and demand to taste a specific flavor based on the name printed on the tin or bag.

It is also apparent that sometimes people who name a pipe tobacco often sit down and start drinking until they either pass out or a name comes to them in a drunken stupor. (Sort of like naming an excellent tobacco after one of the dirtiest and nastiest smell places in a city in the northwest United States.)

Comoy’s Cask No. 5 – Bullet Rye Select is one of those blends. To be honest, if they would have just stopped at Comoy’s Cask No. 5, the name wouldn’t cause the confusion some smokers seem to have with this blend. Even the label is confused – the name says Bullet Rye but the description says Tennessee Bourbon. These are two different whiskeys! Bourbon is made using corn. Rye Whiskey using rye grain.  They smell and taste differently. In any case, neither presents a strong presence in a newly opened tin.

Anyway, I bought a 100g tin of Cask No. 5 with the intention of letting it sit while I finished off some other open tobacco. Good intentions can sometime be as fleeting as the smoke curling up from a lit pipe on a cool afternoon. In other words, I opened my tin after a day or two and cut open the foil liner. Upon deeply inhaling the aroma of the tobacco I get a nice, clean tobacco aroma that makes me sit back and ask, “What is this?”

I swear it reminds me of pipe tobacco I smoked before and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I have fond memories of some of the pipe tobacco I smoked during the mid to late 70s even if they were mostly OTCs available in the ship’s store while floating in the ice halfway between Alaska and Russia. Even if it were OTCs that are alive in name only today (I’m talking about you Borkum Riff and Capt. Black – neither of which is as good now as they were back then.)

From the open tin of No. 5, I get the burley right up front I also get the Black Cavendish and I can even smell the Virginias sneaking around in the background. I am intimately familiar with good Bourbon, Tennessee Sour Mash and with Rye Whiskey and I don’t get a sensory hit of either type of whiskey. If it’s there it is so low key as to be undetectable. Sort of like the way a friend of mine likes the vermouth in his martinis. (He sets the unopened bottle next to the glass while he pours the Vodka.) In other words, non-existent.

I have now smoked No. 5 in a clay, meerschaum, cob and briar and found it to be a smooth, satisfying smoke that is bite free. It has a nice mild flavor to my taste buds with just a hint of grassiness from the Virginia. I just couldn’t shake the notion that I have smoked this before as a different label. Maybe it’s a little like Prince Albert. Maybe it’s a little like one of the old Amphora blends? I just don’t know.

What I do know is that I found Comoy’s Cask No. 5 to be a good smoke even if I can’t find the Rye or Bourbon in it. I found it to be a good, uncomplicated pipe tobacco and can be smoked anytime you just want a good, clean smoke.

Available from: smokingpipes.com or pipesandcigars.com

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